The Great Eight competencies are work behaviors that promote employee effectiveness in 21st-century organizations. These competencies include enterprising and performing, adapting and coping, organizing and executing, creating and conceptualizing, analyzing and interpreting, interacting and presenting, supporting and cooperating, and leading and deciding. This article proposes an alternative pedagogy, leaderless group discussion, for developing the Great Eight competencies in business students. An example and a roadmap are also provided that show how leaderless group discussion can be employed in the college classroom. Leaderless group discussion is surprisingly efficient in that all of the Great Eight competencies can be developed within the student at the same time with one exercise. Recommendations to help make leaderless group discussion practical for the business classroom are discussed.
Alsop, R.J. ( 2003). The Wall Street Journal: Guide to the top business schools . New York: Simon & Schuster .
2.
Arthur, W., Day, E.A., McNelly, T.L., & Edens, P.S. ( 2003). A meta-analysis of the criterion-related validity of assessment center dimensions. Personnel Psychology, 56, 125-154.
3.
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). (2006). 2005-2006 Business School Questionnaire . Unpublished data.
4.
Bartels, L.K., Bommer, W.H., & Rubin, R.S. ( 2000). Student performance: Assessment centers versus traditional classroom evaluation techniques. Journal of Education for Business, 75, 198-201.
5.
Bartram, D. ( 2005). The Great Eight competencies: A criterion-centric approach to validation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 1185-1203.
6.
Bartram, D., Robertson, I.T., & & Callinan, M. (2002). Introduction: A framework for examining organizational effectiveness. In I. T. Robertson, M. Callinan, & D. Bartram (Eds.), Organizational effectiveness: The role of psychology (pp. 1-10). Chichester, UK: Wiley.
7.
Bass, B.M. ( 1950). The leaderless group discussion technique. Personnel Psychology, 3, 17-32.
8.
Bernardin, H.J., & Russell, J.E.A. (1993). Human resource management: An experiential approach. New York: McGraw-Hill.
9.
Boyatzis, R.E., Stubbs, E.C., & Taylor, S.N. ( 2002). Learning cognitive and emotional intelligence competencies through graduate management education. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 1, 150-162.
10.
Brockbank, W., Ulrich, D., & Beatty, R.W. ( 1999). HR professional development: Creating the future creators at the University of Michigan Business School. Human Resource Management, 38, 111-118.
11.
Carissimi, D.C. ( 1982). Using management assessment centers in health care. Training and Development Journal, 36, 95-97.
12.
Cialdini, R.B., & Sagarin, B.J. ( 2005). Principles of interpersonal influence. In T. C. Brock & M. C. Green (Eds.), Persuasion: Psychological insights and perspectives (pp. 143-170), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
13.
DeCenzo, D.A., & Robbins, S.P. ( 1994). Human resources management: Concepts and practices (4th ed.) New York: John Wiley.
14.
DeNisi, A.S., & Kluger, A.N. ( 2000). Feedback effectiveness: Can 360-degree appraisals be improved? The Academy of Management Executive, 14, 129-139.
15.
Doh, J.P. ( 2003). Can leadership be taught? Perspectives from management educators. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 2, 54-67.
16.
Extejt, M.M., Forbes, J.B., & Smith, J.E. ( 1996). Evaluation of a multimethod undergraduate management skills development program. Journal of Education for Business , 71, 223-231.
17.
Gatewood, R.D., & Field, H.S. ( 2001). Human resource selection (5th ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt .
18.
Gebel, A.S. ( 1954). Self perception and leaderless group discussion status . Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 309-318.
19.
Griffeth, R.W., Hom, P.W., & Gaertner, S. ( 2000). A meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: Update, moderator tests, and research implications for the next millennium. Journal of Management, 26, 463-488.
Hinrichs, J.R. ( 1978). An eight-year follow-up of a management assessment center . Journal of Applied Psychology, 63, 596-601.
22.
Holtom, B.C., Mitchell, T.R., Lee, T.W., & Inderrieden, E.J. (2005). Shocks as causes of turnover: What they are and how organizations can manage them. Human Resource Management, 44, 337-352.
Kacmar, K.M., Andrews, M.C., Van Rooy, D.L., Steilberg, R.C., & Cerrone, S. ( 2006). Sure everyone can be replaced…but at what cost? Turnover as a predictor of unit-level performance. Academy of Management Journal, 49, 133-144.
25.
Lewicki, R.J., Bowen, D.D., Hall, D.T., & Hall, F.S. ( 1988). Experiences in management and organizational behavior . New York: John Wiley.
26.
The lists. (2004). Rochester Business Journal , 19, 51-53.
27.
McClelland, D.C. ( 1973). Testing for competence rather than intelligence. American Psychologist, 28, 1-14.
28.
McEvoy, G.M., Hayton, J.C., Warnick, A.P., Mumford, T.V., Hanks, S.H., & Blahna, M.J. ( 2005). A competency-based model for developing human resource professionals. Journal of Management Education, 29, 383-401.
29.
Mintzberg, H. ( 1973). The nature of managerial work. New York: Harper & Row.
Quinn, R.E., Faerman, S.R., Thompson, M.P., & McGrath, M.R. ( 1990). Becoming a master manager. New York : John Wiley.
32.
Riggio, R.E., Mayes, B.T., & Schleicher, D.J. (2003). Using assessment center methods for measuring undergraduate business student outcomes. Journal of Management Inquiry, 12, 68-78.
33.
Shechtman, Z. ( 1992). A group assessment procedure as a predictor of on-the-job performance of teachers. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 383-387.
34.
Smith, J.E., & Forbes, J.B. ( 2001). Creating a competency-based leadership and managerial skills program: A model for smaller schools. Journal of Management Education, 25, 209-230.
35.
Thornton, G.C. ( 1992). Assessment centers in human resources management. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
36.
Thornton, G.C., & Mueller-Hanson, R.A. (2004). Developing organizational simulations: A guide for practitioners and students. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
37.
Thornton, G.C., & Rupp, D.E. ( 2006). Assessment centers in human resource management. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
38.
Waldman, D.A., & Korbar, T. ( 2004). Student assessment center performance in prediction of early career success. Academy of Management Learning and Education , 3, 151-167.
39.
Weintraub, J., Hunt, J.M., Brown, W., Bosse, C., & Schiffman, S. ( 1998). Listening to the customer: External assessment of competencies at Babson College. In F. Evers, J. Rush, & I. Berdrow (Eds.), The bases of competence: Skills for lifelong learning and employability (pp. 207-228). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
