PART  III

SELECTION  AND  RETENTION
A  very  common  notion  among  industrial  and  employment ­
  managers  is  that  all  their  problems  will  be  solved
when  a  scheme  has  been  devised  which  will  make  it  possible ­
  to  select  the  right  man  for  the  right  place.  A  scheme
which  will  do  this,  they  believe,  will  do  away  with  the
enormous  labor  turnover  which  is  so  characteristic  of
industry  to-day,  and  which  adds  such  tremendous  difficulties ­
  to  the  problems  of  production.  The  right  man  in
the  right  place  is  a  slogan  to  conjure  with  in  commercial
circles.  It  sounds  as  though  it  might  well  be  the  broad  and
genuine  remedy  for  industrial  as  well  as  all  other  social
ills.  However,  at  the  risk  of  seeming  sensational,  it  must
be  said  that  industries  to-day,  especially  the  larger  organizations, ­
  are  suffering  not  so  much  from  inability  to
select  the  right  man  for  the  right  place  as  from  inability
to  know  when  the  right  man  for  the  right  place  has  been
selected.  To  such  an  extent  is  this  true  that  it  can  further
be  said  that  even  if  industries  were  in  possession  of  a  perfect ­
  system  of  selection,  and  were  able  to  use  it  perfectly,
their  labor  turnover  would  still  remain  mysteriously  high.
Moreover,  this  high  labor  turnover  would  be  in  a  very
large  measure  due  to  the  inability  to  recognize  when  the
right  man  for  the  right  place  had  been  chosen.
The  business  man  will  not  let  these  statements  pass  unchallenged. ­
  In  anticipation  of  his  challenge  the  following
question  is  proposed  for  consideration:  How  is  it  possible
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