The assessment centre: testing the fairness hypothesis

Abstract

Accumulated international research reveals that assessment centre technology appears to be reasonably 'fair' based on race, sex, and age. Similar research on the assessment centre in South Africa is mostly unknown and/or un-documented. The sample of this study consisted of 317 white and disadvantaged males assessed at the supervisory level. The assessment centre predicted job performance for both the advantaged group (whites) as well as the disadvantaged groups (blacks and 'coloureds'). Similarly, in terms of deary's (1968) model of 'fairness', we found no evidence of bias in the predictive validity of the assessment centre for the two groups. Opsomming Geakkumuleerde internasionale navorsing toon dat die takseersentrum redelik 'billik' is ten opsigte van ras, geslag en ouderdom. Soortgelyke navorsing met betrekking tot die takseersentrum in Suid-Afrika is egter grootliks onbekend en ongedokumenteer. Die steekproef in die huidige studie bestaan uit 317 wit en minder bevoorregte mans wat op toesighouer vlak geevalueer is. Die takseersentrum voorspel werkprestasie vir beide die bevoorregte groep (Wit) en die minder bevoorregte groep (Swart en 'Kleurlinge'). In terme van Cleary (1968) se model van 'billikheid' is daar geen bewys van sydigheid in die voorspellingsgeldigheid van die takseersentrum vir die twee groepe gevind nie.

Keywords

• Assessment centre
• fairness hypothesis