How Much Immersive is Virtual Reality? Evidence from VR-Based Managerial Competency Assessment Tool Testing

Human resource management (HRM) is one of the rapidly evolving areas of VR application. Recently, there has been an increasing focus on the development of staff selection and competency assessment tools. The purpose of this paper is to disclose the key points of immersive VR applications based on real work situations for the assessment of managerial competencies. In doing this, first, 29 and later, after improving the VR applications, 50 experiments were performed testing 11 different VR applications based on managerial issues. Immersion in VR was assessed using the Slater-Usoh-Steed questionnaire (SUS), supplemented by questions allowing for assessing the immersiveness of simulated managerial situations and subjective feelings of stress while in VR. In line with the research findings, insights are provided on how to enhance the immersive VR applications based on real managerial situations for the assessment of competencies.