ABSTRACT

This chapter presents research results from two individual studies in the field of assessment center practices in three regions: South Africa, Western Europe, and North America. It describes assessment center practices with regard to the selected areas and to generate regional recommendations for action with the aim of improving assessment center practices. The AC program was introduced into a South African insurance company by Bill Byham in 1973. The South African culture and social conditions influence AC practices in many ways. Although many features in the AC program are carried out very carefully, in great detail and with a lot of methodological effort, there is still room for improvement in all three regions. In North American organizations, however, job description, interviews with job incumbents, and interviews with supervisors, and questionnaires completed by job incumbents are more common than other methods of job analysis.