ABSTRACT
This chapter draws several strands of theoretical and empirical material in order to provide some guidance as to the processes that may be taking place in consensus meetings which have a bearing on their effectiveness. The consensus meetings in this study took place in an assessment centre designed to select graduates. The observation of consensus meetings suggested that the use of assessor power and influence often took the form of differences in how much was said about a candidate and the force and confidence with which it was expressed. When assessment ratings are simply summed, the overall score obtained by a candidate is influenced only by the ratings that he or she is given by assessors in exercise. Process of integrating the information collected on candidates in assessment centres, and the process of making a final judgment about whether or not a candidate should be selected based on this integrated data.
