Much research has been conducted on the topic of the construct-related validity of assessment centers, however a definitive conclusion has yet to be drawn. The central question of this debate is whether assessment centers are measuring the dimensions they are designed to measure. The present study attempted to provide more evidence toward the improvement of construct-related validity. The first hypothesis involved determining whether opportunity to observe and opportunity to behave influenced discriminant and convergent validity. The second hypothesis addressed the debate over evaluation method and examined which method, within-exercise or within-dimension, yielded more favorable internal construct-related validity evidence. The third hypothesis explored the call for exercise scoring in assessment centers and compared the criterion-related validity of exercise versus dimension scores within the same assessment center. Finally, the fourth objective looked at the relationship of the stability of the dimensions with internal construct-related validity, specifically convergent validity evidence. A developmental assessment center used in two applied settings supplied the data. Two administrations of the assessment center were conducted for low to mid-level managers in a state agency (N = 31). Five administrations were conducted in a professional graduate school of public administration that prepares students for leadership and managerial positions in government and public service (N = 108). The seven administrations yielded a total sample size of 139 participants. Analysis of multi-trait-multi-method (MTMM) matrices revealed that, as hypothesized, a lack of opportunity to behave within exercises, operationalized using behavior counts, yielded poor discriminant validity. Assessor ratings of opportunity to observe and behave did not produce hypothesized results. Consistent with the second hypothesis, secondary assessors, who represented the within-dimension evaluation method, provided ratings that demonstrated better construct-related validity evidence than the ratings provided by primary assessors, who represented the within-exercise method. Correlation and regression analyses of the dimension/performance relationships and the exercise/performance relationships revealed neither dimensions nor exercises to be the better predictor of supervisor ratings of performance. Using MTMM, partial support was found for the fourth objective: those dimensions that were more stable across exercises yielded better convergent validity evidence versus those dimensions that were more situationally specific. However the differences were not statistically significant or large. Overall results of this study suggest that there are some areas of design and implementation that can affect the construct-related validity of assessment centers, and researchers should continue to search for ways to improve assessment center construct-related validity, but should also look for ways other than MTMM to assess validity.

Much research has been conducted on the topic of the construct-related validity of assessment centers, however a definitive conclusion has yet to be drawn. The central question of this debate is whether assessment centers are measuring the dimensions they are designed to measure. The present study attempted to provide more evidence toward the improvement of construct-related validity. The first hypothesis involved determining whether opportunity to observe and opportunity to behave influenced discriminant and convergent validity. The second hypothesis addressed the debate over evaluation method and examined which method, within-exercise or within-dimension, yielded more favorable internal construct-related validity evidence. The third hypothesis explored the call for exercise scoring in assessment centers and compared the criterion-related validity of exercise versus dimension scores within the same assessment center. Finally, the fourth objective looked at the relationship of the stability of the dimensions with internal construct-related validity, specifically convergent validity evidence. A developmental assessment center used in two applied settings supplied the data. Two administrations of the assessment center were conducted for low to mid-level managers in a state agency (N = 31). Five administrations were conducted in a professional graduate school of public administration that prepares students for leadership and managerial positions in government and public service (N = 108). The seven administrations yielded a total sample size of 139 participants. Analysis of multi-trait-multi-method (MTMM) matrices revealed that, as hypothesized, a lack of opportunity to behave within exercises, operationalized using behavior counts, yielded poor discriminant validity. Assessor ratings of opportunity to observe and behave did not produce hypothesized results. Consistent with the second hypothesis, secondary assessors, who represented the within-dimension evaluation method, provided ratings that demonstrated better construct-related validity evidence than the ratings provided by primary assessors, who represented the within-exercise method. Correlation and regression analyses of the dimension/performance relationships and the exercise/performance relationships revealed neither dimensions nor exercises to be the better predictor of supervisor ratings of performance. Using MTMM, partial support was found for the fourth objective: those dimensions that were more stable across exercises yielded better convergent validity evidence versus those dimensions that were more situationally specific. However the differences were not statistically significant or large. Overall results of this study suggest that there are some areas of design and implementation that can affect the construct-related validity of assessment centers, and researchers should continue to search for ways to improve assessment center construct-related validity, but should also look for ways other than MTMM to assess validity.

Submitted by Suelen Reis (suziy.ellen@gmail.com) on 2013-05-24T14:33:36Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Joao Quadro Neto.pdf: 961182 bytes, checksum: a6dd4ffb334336aa87127ac126c5c2db (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-05-24T14:33:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Joao Quadro Neto.pdf: 961182 bytes, checksum: a6dd4ffb334336aa87127ac126c5c2db (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Este estudo se propôs a investigar, dentre as suas questões norteadoras, aquelas ligadas ao espaço que as redes sociais de comunicação informal – RSCIs - ocupam dentro das organizações industriais. Assume como hipótese que as RSCIs ajudam os seus integrantes a melhor entenderem o ambiente organizacional, promovem a interação social e, por conseqüência, estimulam o sentimento de pertença dos indivíduos, facilitando, dessa forma, o processo de comprometimento deles com a organização. Pertença é entendida no estudo como um sentimento em que o indivíduo assume que este lugar lhe pertence, de tal forma, que acredita ser possível participar dele e que vale à pena interferir na sua rotina e nos seus destinos. O estudo admitiu como premissa que as “sombras organizacionais” e a “disfuncionalidade comportamental” do seu corpo gerencial são variáveis que não somente contribuem para as “incongruências” entre o discurso e a prática nas organizações, mas também, influenciam na formação de traços patológicos na personalidade de uma organização. Dentro da premissa o estudo assume também que estes traços patológicos e as revoluções porque passam as organizações influenciam no grau de intensidade das RSCIs nesses ambientes. Para a confirmação da hipótese o autor se valeu do método fenomenológico, colocando em suspensão os valores declarados por duas empresas industriais com diferentes estilos gerenciais, os valores percebidos pelos seus empregados e a configuração da comunicação informal naquelas empresas, de modo a poder mapear as possíveis “incongruências” existentes e suas conseqüências sobre o desempenho das redes sociais de comunicação informal. Como apoio ao estudo utilizou-se de pesquisas quantitativas estratificadas com empregados e gerentes das referidas empresas, cujos resultados foram analisados num formato de estudo de caso. Esta metodologia revelou a coerência da premissa e a confirmação da hipótese. Como resultado desta investigação, o estudo propõe um modelo para construção de uma comunicação interna mais integrada, que possa manter um convívio mais harmônico entre a comunicação formal e a informal dentro das organizações industriais. / Salvador

In this thesis the researcher has investigated which of the two concepts: believing before belonging or belonging before believing, is a more accountable perspective in regards to ministry in post-Christendom society. With the final stages of the modern period the power of hegemonic ideologies is coming to an end as people identify less with grand ideologies and more with subcultures related to technology and social and economic networks of different kinds. The post-Christendom phase has begun and is radically challenging Christendom notions of ministry. We have to assume that among post-Christians the familiarity with Christian concepts will fade as the decline of Christendom has meant that Christianity has been losing its status as a lingua franca, only to be understood in the long run, by those who are professing Christians. It is therefore important that the church will anticipate longer journeys towards faith and not move on to disciple new converts too quickly. Post- Christendom evangelization will consequently take longer, start further back and move more slowly. In the context of post-Christendom, knowledge of Christianity is rather limited and people need to come to an understanding of what Christianity entails. For those seekers, exploratory participation at first is safer than making a definite commitment. Postmodern society is also suspicious of institutions and eager to find whether Christian beliefs also work in practice and not only in theory. Therefore is belonging before believing very much necessary for seekers to test whether Christians live out in their communities what they claim to be true? / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

In this thesis the researcher has investigated which of the two concepts: believing before belonging or belonging before believing, is a more accountable perspective in regards to ministry in post-Christendom society. With the final stages of the modern period the power of hegemonic ideologies is coming to an end as people identify less with grand ideologies and more with subcultures related to technology and social and economic networks of different kinds. The post-Christendom phase has begun and is radically challenging Christendom notions of ministry. We have to assume that among post-Christians the familiarity with Christian concepts will fade as the decline of Christendom has meant that Christianity has been losing its status as a lingua franca, only to be understood in the long run, by those who are professing Christians. It is therefore important that the church will anticipate longer journeys towards faith and not move on to disciple new converts too quickly. Post- Christendom evangelization will consequently take longer, start further back and move more slowly. In the context of post-Christendom, knowledge of Christianity is rather limited and people need to come to an understanding of what Christianity entails. For those seekers, exploratory participation at first is safer than making a definite commitment. Postmodern society is also suspicious of institutions and eager to find whether Christian beliefs also work in practice and not only in theory. Therefore is belonging before believing very much necessary for seekers to test whether Christians live out in their communities what they claim to be true? / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

Den Anlass der Dissertation lieferte das nach 1990 festgestellte Mobilitätsverhalten von Industriearbeitern eines Braunkohlenveredelungsbetriebes, die obwohl "Produkt" der modernen, also mobilen Gesellschaft und trotz der offensichtlich bestehenden Perspektivlosigkeit der Situation in der Wirtschaft bzw. in der Region insgesamt nur in geringem Maße zu räumlichen und beruflichen Veränderungen bereit waren. Dieses Phänomen des "Verharrens" stellte den Ausgangspunkt für die Arbeit dar. Die Frage nach den strukturellen Gründen und individuellen Motiven der Besonderheiten im Mobilitätsverhalten der Kohlearbeiter, mündete in der Frage nach dessen Ursprüngen. Das Ziel der Arbeit bestand darin, die räumliche und soziale Immobilität der Bevölkerung nach 1990 zu erklären. Die Arbeit geht von der These aus, dass die in der Region bestehende Struktur der Bevölkerung und der Erwerbstätigen das Resultat umfangreicher Wanderungsprozesse und damit einhergehender sozialer Umschichtungen sind, wobei das gesellschaftliche Ereignis "Industrialisierung" die Mobilitätsprozesse auf besondere Weise prägte. Das spezifische Verhaltens der Industriearbeiter wird in die Darstellung der Entstehung und Entwicklung des Wirtschaftsraumes eingebettet, denn es ist auf das vergangene Wirtschaftsmuster und insbesondere, auf die dort wirkenden Anreizstrukturen und Verhaltensmuster zurückzuführen. Die Arbeit befasst sich, indem sie die Frage der regionalen (Massen)Mobilität selbst, ihre Gründe und Auswirkungen problematisiert, mit einem Defizit bisheriger Untersuchungen zur Mobilität in Industriegesellschaften, denn die sozialen (Spät-)Folgen der hohen Bevölkerungsmobilität während der fordistischen Industrialisierungsphase hat die Forschung bisher kaum wahrgenommen. In diesem Kontext betrachtet, wurde die Wanderung einzelner sozialer Gruppen, obwohl sie zu dieser Zeit bestehende Probleme löste (Ausgleichsfunktion), zu einem neue Probleme schaffendem, sozialem Phänomen. / The occasion for this thesis gave the behave of mobility of coal-workers after the social changes in 1990. Although the workers have been a "product" of the modern society, which is a mobile one, and in spite of the obvious existing lack of perspectives in economy respectively in this region, only some of them were willing to local and professional changes. This phenomenon, I called it "behaviour of waiting", was the starting point of the thesis. The question for the structural reasons and individual motives for the special mobility behaviour of coal-workers lead to the question for its origins. The aim of the thesis is to explain the local and social immobility of people after 1990 ?? The thesis bases on the theory that the structure of population and employed persons in this region is the result of extensive processes of mobility and shifts in social structure connected with it. The social event "industrialization" influenced the mobility processes in a special way. The specific behaviour of industrial workers is embedded in the description of the development of the economic area, because it leads back to the former economic pattern and especially to the stimulating structures and behavioural patterns working there. Discussing the question of regional mobility, its reasons and consequences the thesis deals with a deficit of previous studies concerning mobility and industrial societies. Up to now social (late)consequences of the strong population mobility during the industrialization process weren't hardly realized in the field of research. Considering this context the mobility of individual social groups became a social phenomenon which caused new problems, although it solved problems existing at this time.