Presents a response to a letter to the editor about the use of discriminant analysis as an aid to employee selection, published in this issue of the periodical.

This article presents a study on the discriminant analysis as an aid to employee selection in public accounting in the U.S. The employment function of large certified public accounting firms statistically assists the employment manager by predictively eliminating unacceptable applicants from his consideration. In so doing the analysis allows a larger number of the applicants' qualities to be evaluated simultaneously than are possible through the mental processes alone. Consequently, the manager is able, on the average, to hire a larger proportion of superior applicants who will work harder and remain with the firm longer. The level of experience and abilities for the firm's personnel increases in each functional area within the firm, thereby increasing the quality and quantity of the firm's output.

Previous studies examining internal accounting control judgments have found an inconclusive association between auditor consensus and auditor experience. The present study suggests that an association between judgment consensus and situational experience may be confounded because of the tenure of an auditor with the same audit staff group and/or superior. The adaptive behavior in an organizational relation suggests that judgment consensus among subordinates should increase (i.e., become more congruent) as the subordinate has greater interaction with the audit staff group and/or superior. As support for these expectations, an experiment was conducted using auditors of a state auditor's office. The results indicate that consensus among staff auditors increased as the length of time that staff auditors had been associated with the same audit manager increased, but did not increase based on the length of time that the auditors had been with the state auditor's office.

[Previous studies examining internal accounting control judgments have found an inconclusive association between auditor consensus and auditor experience. The present study suggests that an association between judgment consensus and situational experience may be confounded because of the tenure of an auditor with the same audit staff group and/or superior. The adaptive behavior in an organizational relation suggests that judgment consensus among subordinates should increase (i.e., become more congruent) as the subordinate has greater interaction with the audit staff group and/or superior. As support for these expectations, an experiment was conducted using auditors of a state auditor's office. The results indicate that consensus among staff auditors increased as the length of time that staff auditors had been associated with the same audit manager increased, but did not increase based on the length of time that the auditors had been with the state auditor's office.]

Municipal bonds, Spending rate, Riskiness of Municipal bonds, Information content

The impact of personality variables on participative management systems has been a subject of considerable current interest to researchers. The effect of locus of control on the relationship between participation and performance of subordinates in a participative budgeting environment was recently examined by Brownell. This study examines the participative relationship between superiors and subordinates. The findings of a laboratory experiment indicate that locus of control also may influence the behavior of superiors involved in the participative budgeting process in accepting the inputs of their subordinates. The results of this experiment support the hypothesis that internal managers are willing to allow subordinates greater participation than are external managers.

[The impact of personality variables on participative management systems has been a subject of considerable current interest to researchers. The effect of locus of control on the relationship between participation and performance of subordinates in a participative budgeting environment was recently examined by Brownell. This study examines the participative relationship between superiors and subordinates. The findings of a laboratory experiment indicate that locus of control also may influence the behavior of superiors involved in the participative budgeting process in accepting the inputs of their subordinates. The results of this experiment support the hypothesis that internal managers are willing to allow subordinates greater participation than are external managers.]