THE MEASURE OF COMPARATIVE PRODUCTIVENESS 299 
man hired may all agree and the man may become a 
valuable employee. 
These very typical cases all indicate how large a part 
personal judgments may play in the selection and reten 
tion of employees. The agreements and differences in 
volved in these hypothetical situations make it necessary 
to ask: Who is right or wrong, the foreman, the employ 
ment manager, or the applicant? We are obliged to take 
the word of some one. Either the foreman is right and 
the employment manager wrong, or vice versa, or both 
may be right and the employee wrong, or both may be 
wrong and the employee right, or all of them may be 
wrong. At the present time, many companies require 
the foreman to give a reason for laying a man off, and in 
fairness to the employee, the latter is also asked to state 
his reason for leaving or being laid off. Practical expe 
rience has shown that there is very little agreement be 
tween the two sides of the story, and that the reasons 
given are very often entirely worthless. Again, it is one 
personal opinion against another. Some companies have 
committees to determine whether a man shall be laid 
off or promoted. These committees consist of the fore 
man, employment manager, fellow workmen, educational 
manager, etc. Such committees are conducive to greater 
deliberateness and care; but nevertheless, their decision 
must also rest largely upon a basis of personal opinions 
and impressions, rather than upon some definite objective 
basis. Obviously, any attempt to fix the degree of corre 
lation between the selection and retention of employees 
is bound to be almost valueless as long as it depends upon 
such precarious grounds as these. Even if the individuals 
governing selection and retention were of the most reliable 
character and ability, the continuous change in the per