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The aim is to take decision making about people beyond “gut feel” and to make psychological measurement relevant to the key challenge of our time, which is to give strategic shape to the human aspect of business. The thesis is that, if we wish to obtain better results from our decisions than we do from gut feel alone, we must have the capacity to predict accurately the behaviours which lead to success in a given context. Psychological assessment gives us this capacity because it measures key and critical attributes, specifies their interaction, predicts their impact on behaviour and so constructs a model of psychological economy to forecast the success of the self‐in‐context. How psychological measurement accomplishes these tasks is explained and some consideration is given to key points of method.

The thesis of this article is that the single psychological test or test system is a wholly inadequate decision‐aid to address the strategic problem‐objectives of the people aspect of business. After reviewing the current uses of the single test the article outlines the properties and tasks of psychological measurement. It proposes that only the joint use of several tests relevant to a specific problem objective can improve the accuracy of management decisions on people in the varied contexts of business.

Aims to corroborate the observation which the title states, and answers the question which it poses by drawing on the results of a project conducted at a pharmaceutical company. Results showed that: the roles of sales executive and sales management had primary performance demands which were opposites; the primary attributes required for success in the two roles were also opposites; therefore those who succeed in the sales role because they possess the attributes which that role requires for success can succeed in the management role only if they also possess the opposite attributes; it is known from personality research that personality traits cluster in positive correlations, so people who possess opposite attributes are rare. Discusses the implications of this state of affairs and closes by pulling its separate strands together.