Role Play
Description
The candidate is placed in a situation with an actor as counterpart. The actor steers the situation, based on a predefined scenario, passing specific realistic situations. Observation is done based on a checklist.
The role play is effective for testing communicative and social competences like interviewing, rhetoric, argumentation, empathy, assertiveness, persuasiveness, sensitivity (behavioral observation). It's also useful for assessing operational readiness, goal orientation, frustration tolerance, persistence, problem solving skills, analytic skills, decision making skills. and. It can test the skill of adapting communication and language to different target groups. The setting of the role play can be a difficult collaborator interview, a conflict with a leading person, a critical incident on the workplace, a discussion with a designer or a discussion with a technical director.
Quality Concepts
Validity
The validity of the method is increased by the tasks being appropriate for the competences to be measured. Above all, interpersonal and artistic skills can be assessed with the role play. The following communicative and social skills can be assessed: interviewing, rhetoric, reasoning, empathy, assertiveness, persuasiveness and sensitivity. In order to increase the validity, the selected role-playing situations should be representative of the event technology. It is important to make the situation challenging and relevant. The situations need to occur regularly in real life. As the scenario only reflects one concrete situation there is a risk that it doesn't reflect all situations in professional practice. However, the method is close to real life and is well controllable.
A particular challenge for the validity of the role play is the requirement on the candidate to be active as an actor. Care should be taken here to make it clear that the acting performance is not assessed. The candidate should be able to develop his role freely and without pressure in order to be able to express his inherent competencies.
According to Obermann (2018), the relationship between job success and the results of role play is .16. This corresponds to a very low correlation. It should be noted, however, that in the assessment context, job success is only indirectly relevant in the context of validation.
Reliability
The role play should be constructed in such a way that the competences to be measured should not be reflected in a single situation. Otherwise there is a risk that the candidate will accidentally behave correctly. If several situations are to reveal the same competencies, the reliability is increased. The situations and the start of the conversation should be clearly worded. Unclear formulations can lead to the candidate misunderstanding the task and situation, which disrupts reliability. Language barriers should also be taken into account accordingly. The starting position is identical for each candidate if the scenario is well developed. But the path can be different and contain unpredicted situations. The assessor needs to find a balance to steer on one hand, but leave the initiative to the candidate on the other. Various factors can limit the candidate's concentration and performance: poor room lighting or ventilation, disturbing sources of noise, lack of equipment, poor health or psychological condition of the candidate (e.g. fear, stress). The reliability is increased by not changing the order of the methods. In this way, the assessment processes remain comparable. The assessors / observers should be extensively trained to ensure evaluation and interpretation, to ensure comparability and objectivity. It should be clear which behaviors can be attributed to certain skills. So, reliability is enforced by a good scoring structure. The behavior of the interlocutors is standardized by means of a written instruction. This is a prerequisite for objectivity, which in turn ensures that different results are due to the performance of the participants and not to variations in the interlocutors. |
Limitations
Role plays are less suitable for assessing knowledge-based skills. Likewise, no competencies are expressed that are expressed in written and drawn results. The methodology is less useful for observing physical skills, except if combined with an observation in a simulated environment.
To check how the candidate behaves in a non-simulated environment, real-life observations should be preferred. A good scenario should be able to bring forward knowledge based skills.
Considerations
Tips
Educate the candidate that their acting performance is not being tested. He should behave as he would in everyday work. The atmosphere should be as realistic as possible. Cabdidate and interlocutors (= role players) need prior written information. This gives the other party information on how to react to certain situations and questions. The person watching should not have direct eye contact with the candidate. In advance, it is recommended for observer training to practice role-playing with video analysis. Assessors need to be trained for the specific scenario's, ideally in interaction with their colleagues. It can help to get the candidate on the right track to use some properties (accessories) to visualise the role of the actor (for example a typical piece of clothing, documents, models, ...). Make clear the candidate is playing his/her own role in the given situation. |
Traps
The situation characteristics from the requirements analysis cannot be implemented carefully enough. This can have the consequence that the behavior is not relevant for the competence to be tested. Sentences like "In reality I would do it completely differently." are signs of this. There is a risk for socially expected answers and behavior.
If the assessor has no experience with role-playing games, an unpredictable momentum can develop which affects the comparability. Assessors need to be aware of the reasons for all scenario steps and have to balance natural behaviour and following the storyline of the scenario that leads to the visibility of the skills. Errors can be a high level of willingness to compromise or hardness. Principle of local independence: The interview partner must act neutrally in the individual situations, even if the assessee had a poor start in a previous situation. Otherwise only the overall performance can be assessed, but not individual competencies. Avoid that the same assessor is playing different roles for the same candidate.
A short instruction in the role play overemphasizes the situational flexibility. Communicative observations can take place less.
Uncertainties about the setting (e.g. Has the exercise already started? Who ends the conversation?) should be avoided. Other participants should not act as conversation partners as this does not standardize the exercise. An assessor can't be the role player at the same time.
Scoring Tools
There could be used a check List and notes about the behaviour of the candidate with reference to the expected behaviour. The criteria should be derived from the sectoral layer skills, in other words, they are a concretization of the visible, observable result of the skill in a specific situation. As the situation can differ, the scoring tool will be more general and leave more room for interpretation than other methods.
Implementation
Information for Standard
The method should include a short description and the expected behaviour.
Development
The development of an assessment scenario starts from the analysis of the skills that need to be assessed. The scenario reflects a real life situation in which the tested skills are prominently present. Based on the scenario, a list of observable criteria, derived from the competences is created.
Needs/Set-Up
In most cases a quiet space with a table and some chairs is all that is needed. Depending on the test, documentation can be needed (light plots, sound documentation, …).
Requirements for Assessors
Assessors must be able to instruct the actors according to the situation. As observers, they need skills in observing, diagnosing and evaluating the candidate's behavior. The assessment of competencies requires professional expertise.
Examples
The candidate has a discussion with a designer about a design concept that needs to be translated into a practical plan. In this discussion e.g. conceptual and artistical understanding, technical problem solving and predicting problems and language use can be assessed.
In Combination with
Role Plays can be used in combination with a post box exercise, where the information needed is not (or limited) put on paper, but the counterpart is presenting the information and the candidate can ask questions about the required results. It can be complemented with a criterium focused interview for skills that didn't become visible.
References/Notes
- Catalogus Assessmentmethodes voor EVC, Agentschap Hoger Onderwijs, volwassenenonderwijs, Kwalificaties en Studietoelagen, Ministery of education and training of the Flemish community (2015). Online: http://www.erkennenvancompetenties.be/evc-professionals/evctoolbox/bestanden/catalogus-assessmentmethodes-evc-2015.pdf. (last 17.08.2020)
- Eck, C. et al. (2016): Assessment-Center. Entwicklung und Anwendung – mit 57 AC-Aufgaben und Checklisten zum Downloaden und Bearbeiten im Internet. 3. Aufl. Berlin / Heidelberg: Springer.
- Obermann, C. (2018): Assessment Center. Entwicklung, Durchführung, Trends. Mit neuen originalen AC-Übungen. 6., vollständig überarb. u. erw. Aufl. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien.