BUSINESS SCHOOL TO USE RATING SCALE

A new rating scale for use in recommending men to prospective employers has been adopted by the Graduate School of Business Administration at the University. The new system of rating, which is similar to those recently adopted in many industries, consists of a series of estimates of each individual's capacity and personal qualities, made by members of the faculty who come in contact with him.

The rating scale is not intended to supplant the regular system of credits leading to degrees, but to supplement it. The adoption of the scale, say the authorities of the School, is an acknowledgment of the fact that when they have the record of a man's grades in his courses, they do not know all they should in order to recommend him for a job. Such recommendations will be made henceforward on the basis of the rating scale as well as of the man's grades in classroom work.

The rating scale is composed of two parts. The first covers the chief mental and personal qualities upon which business success is considered largely to depend. There are seven of these native ability, personality, industry, reliability, initiative, co-operation, and judgment. Each man will be rated as "exceptional", "good", "average", "weak", or unsatisfactory" in respect to each of these qualities, the rating being done by from three to five members of the faculty with whom he comes in personal contact.

The second part of the rating scale consists of an estimate, also made by various members of the faculty who know the man, of his probably fitness for different types of business careers. He is rated as an executive, both in making and carrying out plans and in handling men, as a salesman, and as an analytical worker.