Beginning in the early 1980s and continuing through the middle 1990s, the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) sponsored a comprehensive research and development program to evaluate and enhance the Army's personnel selection and classification procedures. This was a set of interrelated efforts, collectively known as Project A. Project A had a number of basic and applied research objectives pertaining to selection and classification decision making. It focused on the entire selection and classification system for Army enlisted personnel and addressed research questions that can be generalized to other personnel systems. It involved the development and evaluation of a comprehensive array of predictor and criterion measures using samples of tens of thousands of individuals in a broad range of jobs. The research included a longitudinal sample--from which data were collected at organizational entry--following training, after 1-2 years on the job and after 3-4 years on the job. This book provides a concise and readable description of the entire Project A research program. The editors share the problems, strategies, experiences, findings, lessons learned, and some of the excitement that resulted from conducting the type of project that comes along once in a lifetime for an industrial/organizational psychologist. This book is of interest to industrial/organizational psychologists, including experienced researchers, consultants, graduate students, and anyone interested in personnel selection and classification research.

本書は産業心理学の聖杯を求めた壮大な航海記です。単なるデータ集を超え、人間の可能性をいかに科学で解き明かすかという究極の人間讃歌が描かれています。数万人の人生を追跡した記録から浮かび上がるのは、個々の才能を最適の場所へ導こうとする、執念に近い情熱と論理の美学に他なりません。 映像版が個人の葛藤を叙情的に描く一方、原作は予測の限界に挑む知的な苦闘を克明に刻んでいます。映像の感動を、テキストの圧倒的な深みが理論で補完する相乗効果は圧巻です。組織と人間の未来を信じる者に贈る、知の極北を極めた一冊といえるでしょう。