Transcript Milda Pilvinyte

Exploring perceptions of assessment centres in light of
organisational justice, and how these perceptions are
related to perceived organisational ethical climate.
By: Milda Pilvinyte
Karen Milner
Prof Deon Meiring
Sofia Puente
Overview
• How this study came to be.
• The amazing individuals who got involved.
• Organisational Justice (OJ) and the
employment equity act.
• Perceptions of Organisational ethical climate.
• My research, methodology and sample.
• My research findings and Limitations.
• Future directions
MY HONOURS YEAR
• Honours = Research Report
• Goal = Acquaintance with the research
process.
• My Research Report topic = Supervisor
• Organisational Justice (OJ) and Assessment
Centres grabbed my attention.
• In my search for access to a sample I was
referred to the ACSG and of course Prof
Meiring.
• Prof Meiring = Deloitte
SA Employment Equity Act
• “Psychological testing and similar assessments are prohibited,
unless the test is scientifically valid and reliable, can be
applied fairly to all employees, and is not biased against any
employee or group.” (ch 2, sec 7)
• Organisations have the responsibility to ensure that this
requirement is met.
• Employees are able to “on their own discretion” decide
whether they have been treated fairly regarding the above
mentioned act.
• Job seekers/employees may make their decision based on a
Justice Judgement.
Conceptualising OJ
Distributive Rule
Adams (1965) Equity Theory
OJ
Greengerg (1987)
Interactional Justice &
Informational Justice
Investigating Procedural
Justice
Procedural Rule
•Court Procedings
•Justice Judgement Model
Leventhal (1976)
Why is OJ Important?
• Organisational Perspective: How will
employees behave and how will that affect
the organisation?
• Employee perspective: Understand and
rationalise on moral grounds.
• The employment equity act is important when
considering the employees perspective.
The OJ Questionnaire
• The OJ questionnaire was a combination of questions adapted from
– Colquit’s (2001) four dimensional model of OJ &
– Gilliland’s (1993) fairness perceptions model.
• 30 item Likert type scale.
• Cronbach’s Alphha: 0.928
• Sample:
– I believe that everyone, holding a management position, goes through
the same Assessment Centre activities.
– I believe the observations based on the Assessment Centre activities
were used to emphasize fair and objective needs for development.
– The panel communicated arrangements for the Assessment Centre
procedures sufficiently in advance of the assessment date.
Some open ended questions included
• What have you learned from the Assessment
Centre activities?
• Which exercises were the most useful for
assessing development opportunities?
Organisational Ethical Climate
• Guide perceptions of organisational moral
obligations.
• Judge experience in relation to perceptions of
organisational Ethical Climate.
The Organisational Ethical Climate
questionnaire.
• Schwepker’s (2001) Perceptions of
Organisational Ethical Climate was used. It
was a 7 item questionnaire. Cronbach’s 0.879
• Sample questions:
– Deloitte has a formal, written code of ethics.
– Deloitte has policies regarding ethical behaviour.
– Deloitte does not tolerate unethical behaviour.
Previous Research
• Lau and Wong (2009) OJ perceptions will be
favourable if perceptions of organisational Ethical
climate are favourable.
• OJ perceptions are more favourable when timely
and informative feedback is received (Gilliland,
1993).
• Van Vianen et al (2004) Activity relevance and job
relatedness.
• There is a morality aspect which links the two
constructs.
Organisational Justice and Ethical climate
Perception of
Organisational
Ethical Climate
Justice
Judgement
(OJ)
Experience
(AC)
The assessment centre
• Based on a Management Assessment Development
Centre(MADC) at Deloitte.
• (5-6) candidates per assessment centre.
No immediate decisions ie. No decisions made with regards
to promotions ect.
• Emphasis was placed on business advisory skills, planning of a
development program, business unit talent management, and
grooming candidates for future leadership roles.
• Assessors did not have a specific score sheet.
• Candidates assessed based on a list of criteria to be observed
for each activity. ie. Each activity was designed to bring out
desired behaviours and these were observed for assessment.
• Varied format – Leaderless group discussion, role plays,
interviews, report writing, group as well as individual
presentations.
Sample
• The sample consisted of managerial staff from
different business divisions within Deloitte (JHB)
• The sample was multi-racial with an age ranging
from 27-43.
• The candidates were selected by the heads of
their department and recommended for
participation in the MADC.
• Candidates were given the choice to either
participate or decline.
Methodology
• I decided to attempt a pre test post test design.
• The questionnaires were handed out to
candidates on the second day of the MADC and
then again on the last day (5th).
• In order to track the candidates, the
questionnaires were colour coded.
• The candidates received the questionnaire pack
in a large envelope which was to be sealed once
the questionnaires were completed and placed
back in the envelope.
• The MADC facilitator administered the
questionnaires and I picked up the pre and post
test questionnaires at the end of the week.
The Analysis
• In order to investigate the relationship
between OJ and Organisational Ethical Climate
a Spearman’s Correlation was used.
• Frequency distributions were conduct for each
of the OJ scale items in order to get a general
idea of OJ perceptions.
Findings
• Positive relationship between perceptions of
distributive, procedural, interactional justice and
perceptions of organisational ethical climate.
• High ratings for both organisational ethical
climate and OJ.
• Candidates observed some of the activities to be
relevant. Eg. Role plays, interviews, the ability to
meet the great minds of Deloitte and Touche.
• Feedback was perceived to be informative.
• The process was observed to be interesting and
useful by candidates.
Limitations
• The sample size.
• The candidates were part of an Assessment
Development Centre which had no immediate
outcome. Which could explain why the results
for Distributive justice were weaker.
• No directional or causal conclusions.
• I did not administer the questionnaires myself,
this could have affected the way the
questionnaires were answered.
My learning experience
• The JOYS of doing research.
• I met some amazing people.
• I was exposed to a whole new world, an
exciting one.
• Hard work pays off.
• My interest in my field of study as well as my
research keeps growing.
Future Research
• This year I will be investigating Restorative
Justice.
• I will look at how it is related to Organisational
Attractiveness.
• I will also look at how that relationship is
mediate/moderated by perceptions of
Affirmative Action.
• I will need a large sample.
• Assessment centre candidates or job seekers who
go through any selection procedures at an
organisation.