Workplace-based assessment: effects of rater expertise

Traditional psychometric approaches towards assessment tend to focus exclusively on quantitative properties of assessment outcomes. This may limit more meaningful educational approaches towards workplace-based assessment (WBA). Cognition-based models of WBA argue that assessment outcomes are determined by cognitive processes by raters which are very similar to reasoning, judgment and decision making in professional domains such as medicine. The present study explores cognitive processes that underlie judgment and decision making by raters when observing performance in the clinical workplace. It specifically focuses on how differences in rating experience influence information processing by raters. Verbal protocol analysis was used to investigate how experienced and non-experienced raters select and use observational data to arrive at judgments and decisions about trainees’ performance in the clinical workplace. Differences between experienced and non-experienced raters were assessed with respect to time spent on information analysis and representation of trainee performance; performance scores; and information processing––using qualitative-based quantitative analysis of verbal data. Results showed expert-novice differences in time needed for representation of trainee performance, depending on complexity of the rating task. Experts paid more attention to situation-specific cues in the assessment context and they generated (significantly) more interpretations and fewer literal descriptions of observed behaviors. There were no significant differences in rating scores. Overall, our findings seemed to be consistent with other findings on expertise research, supporting theories underlying cognition-based models of assessment in the clinical workplace. Implications for WBA are discussed

The construction manager’s mask : a more purpose-fit selection for South Africa

The construction manager requires an educational background, technical skills, practical experience with specific soft skills in the competency domain and a specific personality profile – in order to ensure the success of a project. To enroll the correct profile student for construction management can reduce the probability of skills lost over time. The South African Personality Inventory (SAPI) was used to test the personality profiles of construction management industry participants sample (N = 10). The student group sample (N = 16) included students in their 3rd year of construction management studies enrolled at three different universities in South Africa. The online SAPI personality results suggested a remarkably similar profile between the industry group and the students’ group. The online SAPI personality tests’ main dimension results scored the highest in Intellect/Openness, followed by Conscientiousness, the lowest were Neuroticism and Negative Social Relational Disposition. Construction management students need to do practical work for a year before they start their studies. This will give them a better understanding of the work conditions, pressure and work-life balance associated with the construction industry, as this is not tested in the online SAPI personality test.http://www.springer.comseries/111562020-06-02hj2020Construction Economic

International Human Resource Management in the Introductory HRM Course

This paper explores the extent to which students in the introductory HRM course in US institutions are likely to be exposed to information on international and cross-cultural aspects of HRM. Two methods are used: (1) an analysis of international content in fifteen popular introductory HRM textbooks and (2) a survey of professors teaching introductory HRM. The vast majority of responding instructors said their classes got some exposure to international issues in HRM, and most introductory texts included some relevant content. Critiques of international boxed features and dedicated IHRM chapters are provided, and suggestions for improving the quality and depth of IHRM content in introductory textbooks are made

Critical essay: Blinding faith – Paradoxes and pathologies of opacity in peer review

The standing and progress of science depends upon confidence in the evaluation of knowledge claims. This essay affirms the value of peer review as a ‘gold standard’ but argues that its efficacy for scientific progress is, on balance, diminished by blinding. It reflects critically upon the anomaly between an ethos of openness that is widely held to define scientific work, and the opacity institutionalized in reviewing and editorial processes, with specific reference to the field of management and organization studies. The anomaly is attributed to the operation of asymmetrical relations of power in the establishment and reproduction of evaluation processes. The proposed means of mitigating the anomaly, and thereby improving manuscript evaluation, is movement in the direction of more open peer review