Kaizen is a Japanese management concept that means gradual, ongoing improvement involving everyone from top management to production workers. This concept is starting to appear in American companies, and it requires the personnel department to do a much more thorough assessment of job applicants, testing for leadership skills, interpersonal…

The author describes use of a personnel assessment center, a process that identifies managerial potential for purposes of selection, placement, promotion, development, or a combination of these factors. Elements of the process (determining skills to be assessed, evaluating skills, job skills exercises, interview exercises, written exercises) are…

This article addresses itself to the issue of accurate assessment techniques. The authors look at three assessment techniques--psychological tests, assessment centers and "biodata"--and compare them in terms of the information they provide, their accuracy, and ease of implementation. (Author/CT)

Describes the use of an assessment center in evaluating candidates during a search for a new superintendent. Includes a brief article that points out the problems in using assessment centers for hiring evaluations. (MD)

Describes the function of an assessment center, which consists of a standardized evaluation of behavior based on multiple inputs. Judgments are made in part by means of specially developed assessment simulations based on a thorough job analysis. Such judgments are used for management decision-making and career development. (JAC)

Describes one midwestern city's plan to encourage teachers with leadership potential to consider an administration career. Interested teachers participate in an Initial Skills Audit, a 2-day assessment center designed to provide individual feedback on each person's skill level. A self-assessment instrument provides performance rating estimates on…

Assessment center principles can be used not only to identify effective school administrators, but also to prepare potential administrators during graduate school programs. Five administrator preparation components could benefit from applying the assessment center method: curriculum, instruction, personnel, standards, and research. (MLH)

At the NASSP's Alaska Assessment Center for Principals, aspiring administrators and assistant principals consistently scored lowest in a key characteristic--the leader's strongly held values and ability to create a shared school vision. This article underlines the principal's role as author and choreographer of a shared school vision that must be…

The Management Profile, developed at the Texas A & M University Principals' Center, has considerable potential as a comprehensive strategy for evaluating and developing educational administrators. This article reviews progress in refining the profile's use, including identification of performance criteria, standardization of decision rules for…

Describes a plan to assess 27 administrator candidates, drawing on a partnership between the Southwest Virginia Regional Assessment Center Leadership Academy and Virginia Tech's principal preparation program. Participants completed a reduced-item inbasket exercise, participated in leaderless-group and fact-finding exercises, and submitted a…

Research has shown that adult learners prefer a problem-solving approach to learning, rather than a subject-centered approach. This book provides a non-traditional approach to teaching and learning the basics of human resource management through a series of 125 in-basket exercises and guided questions. These exercises focus on real-life problems…

This article sets out a detailed commentary on the neglected end of the assessment centre, namely, the candidate. It highlights the variety of ways in which assessment centres do not always live up to their claims and can act against rather than in the interests of the candidate. It shares with assessment, counselling and guidance professionals an…

The relationship between measurements of personality and leadership is described in this paper. Following an introduction and a statement of the problem, the first part discusses the principles of measurement, beginning with the basic issues and assumptions and going on to examine various aspects of validity, reliability, instrument construction,…

This publication is a comprehensive bibliography on the assessment center method and education administration. The bibliography reveals sources for research concerning the potential of assessment center methods for screening administrative candidates, as well as for prescribing individual pre- and in-service development programs. Resources are…

Affirms the evidence for predictive validity of assessment centers and concludes that assessment centers can work for a variety of purposes and in numerous contexts. Raises possible explainations for the predictive validity observed in assessment centers and raises implications for practice and guidance of future research. (Author/KS)