184 
EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY 
most quickly succeed and at which they can make the 
largest wage of which they are capable. 
In this day of scientific management this is by no means 
an easy task. The fine subdivision of labor and the 
various piece rates or bonus rates which the task setters 
and time-study men have set for these operations have 
made it very necessary that laborers be chosen with 
equal care and accuracy. As a matter of common ex 
perience, it is well known that not every worker can suc 
ceed at the various tasks which have been set. This is 
largely due to the fact that tasks for various kinds of work 
are set on the basis of a study of a group of workers who 
have already been chosen for that particular kind of 
work by a process of natural selection. When studies are 
made, they are never based on workers who have given 
up the work because of their inability to succeed, but 
always on workers who have had at least a measure of 
success. When a task is set, therefore, it is not intended 
to be within the reach of every individual regardless of 
what his qualities may be, but only within the reach of 
certain types of workers. The task of the psychologist 
and the employment office is to select for the distinct types 
of work which exist in a factory, the type of workers who 
are most likely to succeed. 
The method which the psychologist applies in this 
problem has already been thoroughly described in pre 
vious experiments. By finding significant tests for differ 
ent types of work, the psychologist is enabled to guide 
the various applicants into those kinds of work for which 
their natural and acquired ability best fits them. And 
in doing this, psychological tests make it possible for each 
new worker to begin at the task at which he is most likely 
to succeed and at which he is likely to earn the highest