Our Organisational Psychology Honours students and members of the Department thoroughly enjoyed a guest seminar on Psychological Assessment in Organisations on 13 August 2018. 

The Seminar was presented by Dr Werner Barkhuizen, an Industrial Psychologist and CEO of Saville Consulting (Pty) Ltd.  Dr Barkhuizen is unique in the field of Industrial Psychology in that he is not only a psychologist who founded one of the largest psychological assessment and talent management companies in Africa and several technology and innovation businesses, but is also a qualified helicopter pilot and the founder and owner of two fixed wing aircraft companies.  He has businesses in South Africa, the USA and Russia.

The Seminar coincides with the Honours course on Psychological Assessment in Organisations, which is currently underway.  Dr Barkhuizen kindly donated his time and his company’s top of the range individual personality assessments to our students and staff members.

During the seminar, he discussed the development and theoretical underpinnings of the Wave assessment, its psychometric properties and how it is used in practice.  The experience was made all the more meaningful to the students, who were given the opportunity to take the assessment online and were presented with their own personal Wave Profile reports prior to the seminar.

Dr Barkhuizen emphasised the role of technology, artificial intelligence and innovation in the field of industrial and organisational psychology and encouraged students to push the curve in this regard.  It is one of the areas in which the discipline has the most to learn and to contribute.

This guest seminar was described by one of the students as the highlight of his Honours year.