Untested Assumptions and Disregarded Factors in Manpower Research

Abstract

Manpower in America cannot be allocated by totalitarian means. At times such means may seem attractive, but this is not a form of attraction which we can afford to offer our citizens. Any study of manpower allocation must take a good many factors into consideration. The four original professions—the ministry, law, medicine, and teaching—have been augmented by dozens more. These new professions are almost exclusively involved with helping, rather than restrict ing, men; it is in these professions that a shortage of manpower is felt. The sources to fill this shortage are in many instances available by means of a re-evaluation of some of our basic be liefs. First, technology is releasing increased numbers of blue- collar workers; only prejudice keeps us from viewing them as an immense source of professional potential. Second, profes sional women are forced by the influence of psychology to stay at home through some of their most productive years in order to raise their children; the need of the children for their con tinuous presence beyond infancy may well be overrated. Also, the body of knowledge possessed by retired professionals is as sumed to be obsolete—an obsolescence which is at least partly created by the immense value placed on the new and untested in our culture. In this same vein, reward is often withdrawn from the older practicing members of a profession in favor of the less experienced men. Lastly, professionals themselves create problems through their attitudes towards their co-work ers in interdisciplinary teams.—Ed.