Assessment Center: The Beginnings
The first industrial firm to adopt this approach was AT&T in 1956 in its Management Progress Study. This longitudinal study is likely the largest and most comprehensive investigation of managerial career development ever undertaken. Its purpose was to attempt to understand what characteristics (cognitive, motivational, and attitudinal) were important to the career progress of young employees who move through the Bell System from their first job to middle-and upper-management levels. The original sample (N=422) was composed of 274 college men and 148 non-college men assessed over several summers from 1956 to 1960. In 1965, 174 of college men and 145 of the non-college men still were employed with the company.