Assessment (structured evaluation): meaning

An assessment is a structured evaluation carried out with stated criteria and a written outcome. In current Italian business usage the term covers two distinct objects: it assesses people, in hiring and in assessment centers, or it assesses risks, in the risk assessment required by management systems. A third use extends it to organizational diagnosis, which however has a different object: it examines the way work is done, not the skills of the people doing it nor the probability of an adverse event. The distinction matters before the initiative starts, because the question being answered determines the tool and who runs it.

Distinctive: assesses people
Distinctive: assesses risks
Essential: structured evaluation
Essential: stated criteria
Constant: a written outcome

Glossary

Assessment (structured evaluation)

A structured evaluation that in current usage refers to two distinct objects, people or risks, and is improperly extended to organizational diagnosis.