Raymond Abraham Katzell (1919-2003)

Obituary of Raymond Abraham Katzell (1919-2003) who was renowned for exploring the influence of attitude and leadership on productivity and job satisfaction. Among other things, the obituary notes that in 1965, Ray Katzell and Richard S. Barrett readdressed the issue of testing inequities by asking whether psychological tests--used in employee selection--were equally valid and fair for use with various ethnic groups. With Ford Foundation support, they compiled and analyzed relevant data already available in years of company records. Their findings that such employment tests may, indeed, not always work to the same advantage for all ethnic groups were published in Testing and Fair Employment (Kirkpatrick, Ewen, Barrett, & Katzell, 1968). This book led to Ray's chairing the Department of Labor's Advisory Committee on Testing and Selection, which was influential in the drafting of Office of Federal Contract and Compliance and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission testing guidelines. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)