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Industrialists familiar with every idiosyncrasy of their raw materials, who knew to the last split millimeter the possible performance of their equipment, used to consider their workers as machines capable of enduring an almost infinite variety of stresses. The inefficiency resulting from this haphazard use of manpower became apparent in high overhead costs. This led the industrialists, with some reluctance, to call in psychological help, and in this book the psychologist explains how he can come to their aid.
In the first and longest section the writer describes the tools by which men can be selected and placed in the jobs that best suit them. Among other methods he mentions the personal history, the interview, the personality questionnaire in all its variations, tests for aptitude in various fields, and such projective techniques as the Rorschach and TAT methods. The writer explains their use and evaluates their reliability with a precision reassuring to those who are accustomed to count and measure and are somewhat distrustful of the comparative vagueness of psychological concepts.
Observing the Worker on the Job quotes many authorities in suggesting practical measures for improving the working environment and for diminishing accidents, fatigue, absenteeism, and labor turnover. It also deals with the use of ratings, and other aspects of plant morale. This section is introductory and factual.
In his last chapter the author discusses Counseling the Worker, which leads him onto the dangerous ground of psychodynamics. Here he is faced with the necessity of explaining psychic phenomena in a few pages to people with little previous orientation. This he