THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE MEASURE OF COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION AS AN EXERCISE IN ASSESSMENT CENTER EVALUATION

Communication apprehension, defined as one's fear of communicating with another individual in a face-to-face situation, was measured in assessment centers in order to determine its utility as an assessment center exercise. A total of six organizations of the public and private sectors participated in this research. Both candidates and raters were surveyed in a field setting. A total of 187 candidates and 24 raters participated in the study. The data were collected between February and July of 1980.;Bivariate and multivariate methods of analyses were employed for candidate data analysis. Nonparametric analyses were applied to the rater data.;Two hypotheses received support: communication apprehension scores were negatively correlated with interactive exercise scores and interactive exercises were ranked higher by raters than were noninteractive exercises as important for the hired/qualified decision.;The hypotheses failing to find support were: (1) in terms of predictive ability for the hired/qualified categories, candidates' scores on interactive exercises will be a more important predictor than scores on the noninteractive exercises; (2) candidates' scores on interactive exercises will be higher for the hired/qualified candidates than for the nonhired/nonqualified candidates; (3) hired/qualified candidates will have lower communication apprehension scores than nonhired/nonqualified candidates; (4) communication apprehension will be a significant negative predictor of hired/qualified candidates.;Empirical techniques were used to analyze relationships between: (1) interactive and noninteractive exercise scores; (2) communication apprehension and interactive and noninteractive exercise scores; (3) interactive and noninteractive exercise scores, and communication apprehension and the hired/qualified decision. Rater rankings of the importance of interactive and noninteractive exercises for the hired/qualified decision were also examined.;This study recommends the measure of communication apprehension in assessment centers. It also establishes the importance of interactive and noninteractive exercises along with the measure of communication apprehension in assessment centers.