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Assessment centres are more accurate than supervisionary judgement in predicting the potentiality because the exercise used provides a niche for observing the behaviour needed at higher levels before a person is put on the job. The selection of a sales manager is a good example to prove the superiority of the assessment centre's method. A supervisor, asked to nominate a sales person for supervision, can judge his people only by their sales performance. Usually, the best sales person is nominated, however, because many other skills are needed in management, and if the person so nominated fails, the company loses both a manager and an excellent salesperson. If an assessment centre was used, the unique abilities needed for management would-have been determined, and their presence or absence observed through simulation before an individual is promoted.

Assessment centres are more accurate than personal tastes in predicting potential because they sample actual behaviours, not what the applicant says he would do or he has done. For years, managers have observed that the applicants could often tell a story better than they could perform. The assessment centre checks the actual performance.


The greater accuracy of assessment centres compared with management appraisals and tastes has been proved in a number of well-controlled studies in organizations such as the International Business Machines Corporation, American Telephone and Telegraph, General Electric, Sears, or Reebok and the US Internal Revenue Service. However, assessment centres are not intended to replace methods, rather to supplement them by enabling an organization to have a more unbiased look at its employees. The accuracy of assessment centres results from a number of factors:

1. Candidates are observed by line managers who have been specially trained to perform more tasks of observing behaviours. They give their full attention to the candidates' functions rather than trying to observe behaviour while subjected to other on-the-job pressures which often prevent them from observing accurately.
2. The managers usually come from above the level of the candidates' immediate supervisors and have a broader perspective of the skills and abilities needed than what an immediate supervisor does while nominating people for his own level.
3. Line management assessors bring to the task a thorough knowledge of the whole company, its mores and its idiosyncrasies. They know the skills needed in future currently and those that will be needed based on projected changes.
4. Group decisions about individuals are constantly being shown to be more accurate than individual decisions. Perceptions can be compared, biases can be challenged. The use of exercises exactly consistent for all candidates means that a comparative judgement can be made on large numbers of candidates working for different bases in vastly different circumstances. .