Wife-testing

Abstract

Karl Kringle is one of the American directors of John Armitage (Industrial Machinery) Ltd, a British company based at Stockport. He has recently returned from a trip to the parent company in the USA. He has drafted a report to the rest of the Board of Directors of the British subsidiary in which he mentions the care taken by the parent company when selecting top executives. In some cases, when a candidate applies for a senior post, the selection process includes a full vetting of the candidate’s wife. The wife is interviewed separately from her husband and is asked searching questions to discover her attitude on certain matters which the firm considers of importance. An attempt is made to discover whether she has any personality problems which might pose a threat to her husband’s career.