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I begin by examining some ways in which organisations have attempted to improve their recruitment and selection procedures to minimise bias and unfair discrimination, and focus on the assessment centre as a potentially useful technique in this respect, especially for managerial selection. I go on to examine the assessment centre in more detail, including its origins, construction and uses, before discussing the strong evidence for its validity as a selection and assessment procedure. I then describe some recent British innovations in assessment centre design and practice, especially in its use for management and organisation development purposes, before discussing some of my own recent research, in collaboration with Ivan Robertson and Usha Rout, on participants' attitudes towards the use of assessment centres for selection and development purposes, including gender differences in attitudes.

The total number of samples analysed in 1911 was 103,221, an increase of 2,472 samples over the number for the previous year. The principal increases were the following: Milk, 2,954; flour, 405; bread, 291; and spirits, 255. The principal decreases occurred in lard, 973; cheese, 285; and margarine, 208.

Referring to the question of the adulteration of brandy with silent spirit, the Standard recently observed that the question of obtaining, by legislation or otherwise, an improvement in the present system of public control over the purity of articles of food and drink has become one of great and even national importance. Many of the grosser kinds of adulteration, against which the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts were originally directed, are of far less frequent occurrence, but in their place has arisen a great variety of more subtle forms of adulteration, frequently very harmful, and always objectionable on account of the misrepresentation that the sophisticated article is the genuine product which the purchaser has asked for and has a right to expect. With adulteration of this kind the local authorities, whose business it is to enforce the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, are often unable to deal satisfactorily, and this fact has been insisted upon by many scientific authorities who have interested themselves in the subject. The position of affairs with regard to spirits typifies the difficulty which constantly arises in connection with a large variety of articles of food and drink of both home and foreign manufacture. It is obvious that when cases relating to the additions of “preservative” chemicals to milk and butter, of glucose to marmalade, or the proportion of “esters” in a brandy, come before different magistrates, supported by a mass of conflicting evidence on both sides, the justices cannot be expected to come to consistent or satisfactory conclusions. Government policy in the matter seems so far to have been confined to appointing a series of committees or commissions, and afterwards doing nothing, or next to nothing, with their reports.

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.

The modern workplace contains many physical and interpersonal hazards to employee physical and psychological health/well-being. This chapter integrates the literatures on occupational safety (i.e., accidents and injuries) and mistreatment (physical violence and psychological abuse). A model is provided linking environmental (climate and leadership), individual differences (demographics and personality), motivation, behavior, and outcomes. It notes that some of the same variables have been linked to both safety and mistreatment, such as safety climate, mistreatment climate, conscientiousness, and emotional stability.

Assessment centres as a total system, involving theoretical, practical and technical aspects, are focused on. Recent research findings on assessment centres, their processes and practices, are discussed and the implications for practice are examined.

A fair amount of evidence has been amassed concerning the reliability, validity and fairness of assessment centres when used for selection purposes. Selection‐oriented assessment centres provide valid predictions of managerial performance and success, and seem not to generate significant adverse impact against black or female candidates. Assessment centres increasingly, however, seem to be used for purposes other than immediate job selection. In particular, they are often used for the identification of long‐term managerial potential, and for the diagnosis of training and development needs, perhaps as a part of an overall audit of managerial strengths and weaknesses or as a part of a wider organisational development effort. Two studies of participants′ reactions to development centres are presented. These are followed by two longitudinal studies of the impact on a range of career and organisational attitudes held by participants of two development centres run by two major UK financial services organisations.

Explores the practical implications and the psychological meaning of the links between specific job competences and personality variables using biographical material from the lives of famous people such as Anita Roddick, Sir John Harvey‐Jones, Lord Shaftesbury and Mikhail Gorbachev. Uses results from an earlier study, involving a meta‐analysis of personality data to provide an empirical base. Focuses on four areas: “creative/innovative”, “analysis and judgement”, “resilience” and “persuasiveness”.