. EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY 
investigator naturally wants good evidence that it is really 
an important item. 
The relative importance of any ability varies with the 
frequency with which the job demands its exercise and with 
the proportion of the worker’s time which he has to devote 
to the work for which the ability in question is necessary. 
Ability to dictate his correspondence crisply would, on this 
score, rank low among the abilities desired in an accountant. 
The table of frequencies of duties performed by secretaries 
as found by Charters and Whitley (33) brings into clear 
perspective the relative importance of these abilities. 
FREQUENCY OF DUTIES OF SECRETARIES 
Some Dyin She Lees 10% Some le Yost 10% 
Take dictation: letters Take dictation: sales quotas and 
Answer telephone x graphs : 
Meet callers Address a meeting of employees 
: Attend buyers’ or salesmen’s meet- 
Make engagements and appoint- ings 
ments Organize committees 
Compose letters Check cash-register returns 
Clean and oil typewriter Make blue-prints 
The investigator should determine the relative importance 
of the items he has listed with reference to the selected 
standards of success. For instance, certain items will assume 
importance if length of service is the standard by which they 
are judged, whereas these items may lose in importance if 
output or other considerations have been chosen as indices 
of success of workers. 
The priority of the several items with regard to one cri- 
terion of success may be roughly determined by getting 
supervisors to rank the items in order of importance. 
Another method is to obtain ratings on workers with refer- 
ence to these items and to compare these ratings with stand- 
ings of the workers in the criterion of success. Ratings on 
some points will be found to correspond more closely with 
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