Nigel Povah is the CEO and founder of Assessment & Development Consultants Ltd (A&DC), one of the UK's leading firms of Occupational Psychologists. He has a degree in Psychology from Leeds University and an MSc in Occupational Psychology from Birkbeck College. He is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Founder Member of the Association of Business Psychologists. Nigel has over 30 years experience in assessment and development centres and is the co-author of a book of the same name (Gower, 2004). He was a member of the BPS committee which created the guidelines for best practice in the design and implementation of assessment and development centres and he frequently presents papers at conferences. Over the years Nigel has worked with private and public sector clients, such as Compaq, DTI, DVLA, Ford, HMRC, Ordnance Survey, Parker Hannifin and Unilever. He is a former professional Chess player and has represented England and he holds the title of International Master. Dr George Thornton earned his Ph.D. in Industrial Psychology from Purdue University. He has over 40 years experience in the design, implementation, evaluation, and litigation of assessment centres, and is a recognized authority on the assessment centre method for selection, promotion, diagnosis, and development. He has consulted with private and public organizations and given workshops worldwide. An author of four books on assessment centre methods, George is Co-Chair of a task force that wrote Guidelines and Ethical Considerations for Assessment Center Operations, and winner of Outstanding Professional Contributions Award from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
'Destined to be a classic for both practitioners and researchers that will take the assessment centre method to new levels of efficiency and accuracy. Really new insights and research that answer questions about assessment center design, validity, arithmetic data integration, and new techniques and simulations based on research from 18 countries. Easy to read and to focus in on specific areas of interest.' William C. Byham, Ph.D.Chairman & CEO, Development Dimensions International, Inc. 'Povah and Thornton offer the definitive work on modern Assessment Centers. This comprehensive anthology integrates and extends theory, research, and practice; it shows how Assessment Centers may be used to build corporate strategies of globalization, innovation, and customer service; and it clearly demonstrates the global reach of Assessment Centers. They have purposefully collected insights from 48 thought leaders in 18 countries, and each of the 32 chapters stands alone, but they have gone further to discern and deliver observations across these chapters. This work will become an instant foundation review of the modern Assessment Center.' Dave Ulrich, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Partner, the RBL Group (www.rbl.net) 'This is an important book which combines theoretical models of best practice in Assessment and Development Centre design with practical guidance on implementation. The Authors have produced chapters that are accessible to interested stakeholders who are not necessarily Assessment Centre practitioners, yet they are sufficiently detailed and referenced such that those requiring more detail can easily delve deeper. The book asks some critical questions, challenging accepted wisdom regarding the implementation of Assessment Centres, considering such issues as the relative merits of consensus meetings compared to more pragmatically straightforward arithmetic scoring and off-the shelf versus bespoke exercise simulations. Issues rarely considered