Management Assessment Centres as a Focus for Change

Discusses a case where an assessment centre programme played a key role in a process of management change in a county council social services department, responding to the Government’s “Care in the Community” initiatives. “New think” management required a paradigm shift – not just acquiring new “bits” of skill or knowledge – particularly with respect to decision making. Argues from this experience that developmental assessment centres provide an arena in which new roles can be rehearsed and allows for reflection on a person’s competence to manage that role.