Executives and Sales Aptitude Testing

See, for example, Stanton W. J. Buskirk R. H. , Management of the Sales Force (Homewood, III.: Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1959), pp. 152–158 and 193–207.

See discussion in Mursell James L. , Psychological Testing (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1947), pp. 146–147.

Personality traits are here considered in the usual operational sense as those human behavior aspects which go beyond intelligence.

The best-known antagonistic treatment is, of course, that by Gross Martin L. , The Brain Watchers (New York: Random House, 1962), especially chap. xi.

Introduction to Ward Lewis B. , “Problems in Review: Putting Executives to the Test,” Harvard Business Review, July-August 1960, p. 6.

Super Donald E. , Appraising Vocational Fitness (New York: Harper & Bros., 1949), p. 352.

Study by Austin Ronald L. , 1954, quoted by Henell Olof , Some Science in Personal Selling (Stockholm: Esselte Reklam, 1961), p. 65.

Maier N. R. F. , Psychology and Industry (2d ed.; Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1955), p. 276.

Cronbach Lee J. , Psychological Tests and Personnel Decisions (University of Illinois Press, 1957), p. 1.

Perrin Stryker and the editors of Fortune, A Guide to Modern Management Methods (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1954), p. 61.

Goldwag Elliott , A Survey on the Use of Psychological Tests in Selecting Salesmen (National Sales Executives, 1956), p. 18.

Hilgert J. Robert , “How Sales Aptitude Tests Help the Efficiency of Sales Management,” in Current Readings in Marketing (Printer's Ink Publishing Company, 1954), p. 135.

Op. Cit., p. 8.

Spriegel W. P. , “Personnel Practices in Industry,” Bureau of Business Research, University of Texas, Personnel Study No. 8 (Revised), 1957, p. 14.

Ward , op. cit., p. 8. This study and the Texas University survey do not apply to sales testing alone.

See Gross , op. cit., pp. 6–7.

Goldwag , op. cit., p. 19.

Ibid., p. 12.

Ward , op. cit., p. 8.

Ibid., p. 7.

Goldwag , op. cit., p. 14.

Ibid., p. 8.

Ibid., p. 10.

Ibid., pp. 9 and 19.

See comments attributed to McNulty John Dr. in Industrial Relations News, November 1962, p. 2, and to Dr. Ross Stagner in Gross, op. cit., p. 272.

Hilgert , op. cit., p. 135.

Ibid.

Goldwag , op. cit., p. 27.

See Nirenberg Jesse S. , “How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Salesman,” Printer's Ink, February 19, 1954, pp. 43–45, and Dartnell Sales Executive Series, “Turnover in the Sales Force,” January 1963.

See Nirenberg , op. cit., table on p. 44.

National Sales Executive data indicate a median figure of $5,600 for this function.

See Dartnell Sales Executive Series, “Turnover in the Sales Force,” January 1963, tabulation at the end of report.

Ibid., p. 3.

See Goldwag , op. cit., p. 44, for evidence of this sort of use.

Ibid., p. 45.

See Industrial Relations News, November 1962, “Consultants Review the Controversy in Personnel Testing,” p. 1.

Address by Brown Edward H. , Vice President, Bauer & Black Division, The Kendall Company, Proceedings of The Klein Institute, 20th Anniversary Client Conference, 1960, p. 13.

Goldwag , op. cit., p. 46.

Ibid., Goldwag's data had earlier indicated that more sales executives hire men rated unsatisfactory (46 per cent) than do not (42 per cent). It is, in fact, the size of this fraction, not the fact that it may constitute a majority, which is significant.