The Measurement of Assessment Center Situations: Bem's Template Matching Technique for Examining Exercise Similarity

The present study was concerned with investigating the nature of assessment center exercises. Bem and Funder's (1978) technique of classifying and comparing situations in behavioral terms was applied to the measurement of exercises in an assessment center with ratings reflecting exercise factors. Six assessors created templates for each of the four exercises. Intercorrelations between the mean template ratings suggested that the exercises were not viewed as similar situations. Moreover, some relationship was found between exercise similarity and performance consistency. It is proposed that these differences in exercise content may be responsible for the inability to find cross‐situational consistencies in candidate behavior in a typical assessment center. Practical implications and extensions of this study are discussed.