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Managerial roles require knowledge, skills and abilities that are difficult to assess during the hiring process. Consequently, hiring an unqualified candidate for a managerial position can result in a disastrous outcome for the organization. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose a hiring technique that allows a more accurate assessment of a managerial candidate’s overall skills to aid better hiring decisions.

The proposed technique, video-based structured interviews, shows the interviewee a video clip of a work-related scenario and follow-up with standardized questions to assess their ability to both understand the situation and make good decisions.

Compared with verbal situational questions, using video-based scenarios is a more robust and realistic technique as it requires the interviewee to use multiple senses (seeing and hearing) to observe and then respond to a given situation in a way that is closer to how they would encounter it at work.

The video-based scenarios can be used as a hybrid technique blending elements of both patterned-behavior-description and situational interview. In addition, this technique can be used to measure a potential manager’s compatibility related to key organizational values such as safety first or quality first.

The proposed video-based structured interview technique enhances the preemployment assessment process to identify and select managerial employees that has the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities to be successful in their roles. This interview technique, combined with other relevant assessment tools, provides a clearer picture of the candidate’s capabilities.

The introduction of new products becomes increasingly more expensive, and the newer the product the greater the risk. In the chemical industry generally, there appears to be no real incentive these days to take large risks. Indeed, several of the large chemical companies have indicated that they will not undertake dramatically new programmes in the foreseeable future. Rather they will concentrate on the products and lines of business with which they are familiar and will try to do a better job in product control, technical service, marketing, and distribution. The general feeling, in the coatings industry, is that there will be many variations on old themes but very few new paints.

Electrocoating, spurred on by the impetus of anti‐pollution as well as by the inherent efficiency and efficacy of the process continues, to grow. There are today approximately 250 electrocoating tanks in operation in the United States which translates to a tank capacity of nearly 2 million gallons. Annual sales of coatings are now at the rate of 600 000 gallons. Forty per cent of this amount is utilised in the automotive industry; another 40% in the appliance industry; and the remaining 20%, in miscellaneous applications.

The number of articles on solvent‐based acrylic resins in the paint industry has decreased in the past two years. It is not entirely clear why this is, since acrylic resins serve a key function in the industrial coatings segment of the paint industry, because of their outstanding weathering performance. The fact that they are available in both thermoset and thermoplastic forms makes them highly versatile. Structurally they are capable of wide variation, as indicated by an article by Ailhaud [Peintures, Pigments, Vernis, 47, March (1971) p. 170] who reports on the properties of block copolymers based on a variety of different alkyl methacrylates.

Modern powder coatings were introduced in 1952. They created great interest and much was written about them and much predicted for them. They did indeed find a niche, but they did not deliver quite as had been anticipated and by the early 1960's their star was waning. But one must never discount the impact of advancing technology — particularly when economy, convenience and performance are involved. Novel methods of application, primarily electrostatic spraying to complement the original fluidised bed approach, new formulations, faster curing epoxies and a better understanding of both the virtues and the defects of this method for industrial coating, has brought powder coatings back into their own.

The trend towards fewer new proprietary products commented on in previous Coatings Updates continues. As the cost of introducing new products as well as the cost of the development to formulate them increases, companies try more and more to capitalize on what they have. This is true today throughout the chemical industry generally. It is a natural consequence of two factors. One is inflation; the other is the increasing allocation of R & D funds to projects necessitated by government regulations. This trend can be expected to continue for some time, although it will be tempered by the inevitable creation of new opportunities in the marketplace and also by needs which arise in the marketplace because of changing environment and changing consumer demands. An obvious example of the latter is the need for pollution‐free coatings which in its own way is creating more than a minor revolution in the coatings industry.

Alkyd resins are—and undoubtedly will continue to be—the mainstay of the protective coatings industry. In 1970 one estimate indicated that 680 million pounds of alkyd resins with a value of 180 million dollars were utilised by the paint industry. Thus alkyd resin usage was far ahead of the next contender, vinyl resins. These, which find important application in water‐based paints were utilised to the extent of 300 million pounds worth about ninety million dollars. Altogether 1.67 billion pounds of synthetic resins were utilised and these were worth 530 million dollars. Thus alkyd resins accounted for about 41 per cent of the total synthetic resin volume and 34 per cent of the dollar value.

Developments will be described which represent departures from the conventional approaches with which the coatings industry is familiar. Many of these developments are highly specialised, finding application in limited areas. Many represent true innovation such as foam coating or the use of new and specialised polymers as coating vehicles such as poly(phenylene sulphide) or poly(phenylene oxide). Some of the advances are related to technology which is already known. An example is the use of pulsed light to cure coatings, a takeoff on radiation curing which is now well advanced.

The technological aspects of the coatings industry are undergoing marked changes as has been emphasised in an earlier part of this review. Technological change demands that marketing keep pace. Accordingly, the marketing techniques of a decade ago for most companies are probably in serious need of modification. As technology becomes more sophisticated, it is necessary for the marketer to gain a greater and greater understanding of the technology with which he is dealing. In an industry in which technology is changing, it is important to know and to be able to document the advantages pro and con of a variety of systems.

New primers The desire to inhibit corrosion motivates continual research on primers.