Review of Workbook in personnel methods

Abstract

Reviews the book entitled "Wookbook in personnel methods" by R. M. Bellows and C. H. Rush Jr. (see record 1950-02843-000 ). This workbook is designed for use in an introductory course in personnel methods to accompany Bellows' "Psychology of Personnel in Business and Industry." It attempts to "enable the personnel methods trainee actually to participate in personnel methods problems." It emphasizes the objective approach to problems and gives practice in the handling of quantitative data and in quantitative approaches to human relations problems. In line with this orientation, the authors have prepared exercises which require the analysis and interpretation of data such as might be obtained in an actual situation and which illustrate typical personnel techniques. Practice is given in the use of Taylor-Russell tables, an interview guide, an item discrimination nomograph, norms, scattergrams, a merit rating form, a sociogram, the Flesch readability formula. Altogether 22 exercises related to 14 of the 20 chapters in the text are provided. In general, the exercises are well worked out; the instructions are clear, the data are well presented, the interpretation questions are thought-provoking. The common danger of a workbook's becoming merely a study guide to the text has been avoided. It is not the "case-study" type of textbook supplement but one which is designed to give the student an exposure to some of the simpler tools used in the scientific approach to personnel problems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)