Do overall dimension ratings from assessment centres show external construct-related validity?

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Andreja Wirz
  • Klaus G. Melchers
  • Martin Kleinmann
  • Filip Lievens
  • Hubert Annen
  • Urs Blum
  • Ingold, Pia

There have been repeated calls for an external construct validation approach to advance our understanding of the construct-related validity of assessment centre dimension ratings beyond existing internal construct-related validity findings. Following an external construct validation approach, we examined whether linking assessment centre overall dimension ratings to ratings of the same dimensions that stem from sources external to the assessment centre provides evidence for construct-related validity of assessment centre ratings. We used data from one laboratory assessment centre sample and two field samples. External ratings of the same dimensions stemmed from assessees, assessees’ supervisors, and customers. Results converged across all three samples and showed that different dimension-same source correlations within the assessment centres were larger than same dimension-different source correlations. Moreover, confirmatory factor analyses revealed source factors but no dimension factors in the latent factor structure of overall dimension ratings from the assessment centre and from external sources. Hence, consistent results across the three samples provide no support that assessment centre overall dimension ratings and ratings of the same dimensions from other sources can be attributed to dimension factors. This questions arguments that assessment centre overall dimension ratings should have construct-related validity.

Original languageEnglish
JournalEuropean Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
Volume29
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)405-420
Number of pages16
ISSN1359-432X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 May 2020
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by two grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation (Schweizerischer Nationalfonds) [100014-117917,100014-130106/1] to Klaus G. Melchers and Martin Kleinmann. We thank Sabrina Engeli, Pascale Lutz, and Stefan Schultheiss for their help with data collection for Study 1.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis.

    Research areas

  • Assessment centre, construct-related validity, external construct validation, performance evaluation

ID: 291670286