This paper provides a systematic review of several of the available manpower scheduling algorithms from a common framework. The five-stage framework is based on the recognition that the general scheduling problem can be decomposed into five separate but related subproblems or stages, namely, the determination of temporal manpower requirements, total manpower requirement, recreation blocks, recreation/work schedule, and shift schedule. One or more general models are developed at each stage to categorize the problem formulation(s) suggested by the various algorithms. Additionally, the algorithms are compared and their stage-specific solution methods are discussed.