THE USE OF PSYCHOMOTOR TESTS TO SELECT SEWING MACHINE OPERATORS--SOME NEGATIVE FINDINGS.

The article reports on the pessimistic findings of psychomotor test on sewing machine operators. The use of psychomotor tests as employee selection devices is common practice among apparel manufacturers. However, the statistical study of sewing machine operators, in eight different plant locations, fails to show a significant correlation between test scores and subsequent measured productivity. It was found out that employee production records and scores on the pin board and form board tests failed to show a relationship by Chi-square testing or a statistically significant correlation by regression analyses. At a single plant of the same company only negative correlations could be demonstrated between the results of three different specially designed psychomotor tests and observed productivity.