The assessment process in the Bell System's Management Progress Study is described, and the results of several analyses of the process are presented. Included are studies of assessment staff evaluations, contributions to the process of selected techniques, and relationships of assessment data to subsequent progress in management. The results, based on 355 young managers, indicate that the evaluations by the assessment staffs were influenced considerably by their overall judgments of the men assessed but also made many intraindividual discriminations. The results also show that all of the techniques studied made at least some contribution to the judgments of the assessors. Situational methods (group exercises and In-Basket) had considerable influence; paper-and-pencil ability tests had somewhat less influence; personality questionnaires were given the least weight. (Projective methods and interviews were not included in the analyses but are being studied.) The relationships between assessor judgments and subsequent progress in management, though covering only a relatively short time period, indicate that the assessors' predictions were quite accurate. The results also show that a complex of personal characteristics is more predictive of progress than any single characteristic. Some of the characteristics, however, appear to have higher relationships to progress than do others. Of the techniques studied the situational methods and paper-and-pencil ability tests are more predictive of progress than the personality questionnaires.

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Test validation data for telephone company installation and repair occupations are presented. Criteria used are proficiency measures obtained from a Learning Assessment Program (LAP), which is described. The samples consist of employees, 211 minority and 219 nonminority, of five geographically spread telephone companies. Five aptitude tests were administered at or immediately following employment. The 5s went through the LAP prior to obtaining onthe-job experience. Test scores were correlated with the proficiency measures and the coefficients for minority and nonminority 5s compared. All of the tests are significantly predictive of success in the LAP, and correlation coefficients for the two samples are comparable. Regression equations for the two samples were also compared. The slopes are nearly identical, though the intercepts differ. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Samples of minority (black) and nonminority, newly hired telephone company service representatives participated in a test validation study. Tests administered during employment were related to specially developed proficiency criteria. Generally, individual and composite test and criterion averages obtained by the ethnic samples differed significantly, but validity coefficients were comparable. Regression equation comparisons indicated that common test standards could be used to evaluate minority and nonminority job applicants.

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