TFE SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS 203
If he is good he is good. And if he is bad he is bad. In
other words, they labor under the belief that the moral
Qualities are constant qualities which are an inseparable
part of a human being as scales, fur, and hide are an inseparable
feature of the fish, the dog, and the elephant;
and further, that no matter where people are and what
they are doing, their moral qualities are an invariable part
°f their nature. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The moral qualities are not absolute. They are not
blanket qualities which cover an individual’s entire range
°f life no matter under what circumstances he may live.
On the contrary, moral traits are relative, and their nature
depends upon a very wide variety of external economic,
social and bodily conditions.
Nowhere is this fact more obvious than in the selection
and retention of employees. The experiments described
have demonstrated nothing more conclusively than the
relativity of the moral qualities. It has been found repeatedly
that the listlessness or laziness of an individual
at a given job was due not to any permanent moral
flabbiness, but to the fact that the individual did not like
the work or had not been able to do it because he lacked
the necessary mental qualifications. In cases of this
kind, it frequently happens that when an individual is
transferred to another type of work, more nearly within
the reach of his capacities and inclinations, he develops
a most admirable degree of industry and energy. The
same may be said of most other moral traits. Initiative
is a moral quality which a worker may reveal while he
is engaged in work for which his training and preparation
fit him, but which may be entirely absent if he is placed,
hy mistake, at work which does not come within the scope
of his ability. The same may be said of punctuality and
