The Role of Gender in a Developmental Assessment Center

Abstract

Male (n = 119) and female (n = 90) professional employees in a large financial services organization participated in a one-day developmental assessment center, and were assessed in three dyadic role-playing exercises by male or female assessors. In each exercise, one assessor rated participants on specific behaviors which were subsequently averaged by a computer program to produce final exercise dimension ratings. Results showed no significant differences in ratings for male and female assessees on any dimensions in any of the exercises. Women assessors rated candidates of both sexes higher on some dimensions than did male assessors in an employee counseling exercise, but there were no assessor gender differences in the sales call and problem analysis exercises. Further, there were no significant interactions between assessee and assessor gender for any of the exercises. The present findings attest to the inherent fairness of the assessment center method for human resource selection and development.

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