XVIII 
ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE EXAMINATIONS 
Necessity for comparison of old and new methods of selection. Relative 
predictive accuracy. Relative economic value. 
WILL it pay to use the scientific selection method? The 
relative cost of installing and using improved methods of 
selecting employees and the economic savings to the man- 
agement which follow from their adoption are matters which 
the investigator cannot ignore. He may have established 
the validity of the new methods, but to justify their installa- 
tion he must interpret them to the management in economic 
terms. He will be asked, first, whether the new methods 
give more dependable predictions than the old, and second, 
whether the net savings are greater in view of relative cost. 
To answer the first of these questions, the investigator 
must compare the validity of the new method of selecting 
employees with the one previously in use. The same stand- 
ards of evaluation must be applied to both. It is possible 
that the old method may have greater accuracy than the 
new. There are grounds for believing that a scientific 
method of selection has greater validity than an unscientific 
one, but it is unscientific to make an a priori assumption to 
this effect. 
The second question requires for its answer a comparison 
of methods from the economic standpoint. The investigator 
should estimate, as well as available cost data permit, the 
relative expense of administering the old and the new pro- 
cedures and the savings which the use of the more valid 
method makes possible. 
In making his report to the management, the investigator’s 
case for scientific selection must be presented from these two 
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