The Power of Assessments - in Memoriam Prof. Dr. Heinz Schuler

Unprecedentedly, in his whole lifetime, he never stopped advocating for and explaining the potential of personnel psychology and assessments for job matching, performance, satisfaction, and happiness. Prof. Heinz Schuler, founder of the German-speaking personnel psychology, recipient of the German psychology prize and member of the HR Hall of Fame, passed away on August 3, 2021 at the age of 76 years. His contribution to science and practice continues. Unparalleled, central concepts  will remain linked with his legacy for HR managers, organizations and everybody at work:

• The principle of multimodality: Several methods for measuring a trait ensure higher accuracy and generalizability in the assessment of qualifications.
• The multimodal interview®: a structured process of experience-based and future-oriented question types in job interviews guarantees a better selection decision.
• The principle of social validity: fairness and acceptance of assessments is fostered through transparency, interaction, information, and feedback in the process.
• The personnel psychology bible: The textbook of personnel psychology (German) is a true Schuler legacy. In addition he was editor of the textbook of organizational psychology and author of several 100 top-class publications.
• The advancement of assessment utility calculations: the renaissance of assessment centers, performance assessments, and improved utility calculations of diagnostics is based on his publications.
• The assessment of potential: Schuler scientifically intensively explored achievement motivation, integrity, creativity, negotiation competences, personality and cognitive abilities and their relation to job performance and success.

Heinz Schuler was a great mentor of his subject and a personal role model full of humor, ease, and spirit. He was a luminary in personnel assessments. Marco Behrmann is proud to be a student of Heinz (dissertation on negotiation competences in 2010). We will continue to pass on Heinz Schuler's legacy.
Our partner RELEVANT has published our longer article in commemoration of Heinz Schuler, describing the benefit and value of really good personnel diagnostics along specific examples. Check it out. We look forward to your comments.

Photo: DGPS