Manpower continues to be a critical resource. Committed satisfied employees work much more effectively than do those who bored, dissatisfied, or actively antagonistic.

Thus, since most employees work in organizations, at jobs where typically there is no easy measure of personal output, effective methods of personnel management are

indispensable. In what is increasingly called our post-

industrial society, employees are more sensitive to the quality of work and supervision, and management often as a heavy investment in their technical training Although most managers recognize the importance of the human dimension, they differ greatly in how they translate that recognition into action. A great deal of What is thought and practiced today-conceptions about people and the role of personnel-has been inherited from previous generations of managers. To understand the

personnel field today, we need to know something about antecedents.