Evaluating Personnel Administration.

The article reports on a survey of 60 companies in the United States concerning the effectiveness of their personnel departments and joint line-staff responsibility. The reports sent to top management by staff specialists as well as the performance of line officials were used to assess the effectiveness of personnel administration in providing services or advice to the operating departments. The approaches to evaluation in reports include creating a record of accomplishment and justifying the personnel function with turnover, training, and safety costs. Topics are measuring employee morale and attitudes, management's attitude about discussing reports with line supervisors, and the survey's research methods.