Habits of Attention Formed by Scientific Management. — The good habits which result from teaching standard methods result in habits of attention. The standards aid the mind in holding a "selective attitude," 27 by presenting events in an orderly sequence. The conditions under which the work is done, and the incentives for doing it, provide that the attention shall be "lively and prolonged."
Prescribed Motions Afford Rhythm and Æsthetic Pleasure. — The prescribed motions that result from motion study and time study, and that are arranged in cycles, afford a rhythm that allows the attention to "glide over some beats and linger on others," as Prof. Stratton describes it, in a different connection.28 So also the "perfectly controlled" movements, which fall under the direction of a guiding law, and which "obey the will absolutely,"29 give an æsthetic pleasure and afford less of a tax upon the attention.
Instruction Card Creates and Holds Attention. — As has been already said in describing the instruction card under Standardization, it was designed as a result of investigations as to what would best secure output, — to attract and hold the attention.30 Providing, as it does, all directions that an experienced worker is likely to need, he can confine his attention solely to his work and his card; usually, after the card is once studied, to his work alone. The close relation of the elements of the instruction card affords a field for attention to lapse, and be recalled in the new elements that are constantly made apparent.
Oral Individual Teaching Fosters Concentrated Attention. — The fact that under Scientific Management oral teaching is individual, not only directly concentrates the attention of the learner upon what he is being taught, but also indirectly prevents distraction from fear of ridicule of others over the question, or embarrassment in talking before a crowd.
The Bulletin Board Furnishes the Element of Change. — In order that interest or attention may be held, there must be provision for allied subjects on which the mind is to wander. This, under Scientific Management, is constantly furnished by the collection of jobs ahead on the bulletin board. The tasks piled up ahead upon this bulletin board provide a needed and ready change for the subject of attention or interest, which conserves the economic value of concentrated attention of the worker upon his work. Such future tasks furnish sufficient range of subject for wandering attention to rest the mind from the wearying effect of overconcentration or forced attention. The assigned task of the future systematizes the "stream of attention," and an orderly scheme of habits of thought is installed. When the scheme is an orderly shifting of attention, the mind is doing its best work, for, while the standardized extreme subdivision of Taylor's plan, the comparison of the ultimate unit, and groupings of units of future tasks are often helps in achieving the present tasks, without such a definite orderly scheme for shifting the attention and interest, the attention will shift to useless subjects, and the result will be scattered.
Incentives Maintain Interest. — The knowledge that a prompt reward will follow success stimulates interest. The knowledge that this reward is sure concentrates attention and thus maintains interest.
In the same way, the assurance of promotion, and the fact that the worker sees those of his own trade promoted, and knows it is to the advantage of the management, as well as to his advantage, that he also be promoted, — this also maintains interest in the work.
This Interest Extends to the Work of Others. — The interest is extended to the work of others, not only by the interrelated bonuses, but also by the fact that every man is expected to train up a man to take his place, before he is promoted.
Close Relationship of All Parts of Scientific Management Holds Interest. — The attention of the entire organization, as well as of the individual worker, is held by Scientific Management and its teaching, because all parts of Scientific Management are related, and because Scientific Management provides for scientifically directed progression. Every member of the organization knows that the standards which are taught by Scientific Management contain the permanent elements of past successes, and provide for such development as will assure progress and success in the future. Every member of the organization realizes that upon his individual coöperation depends, in part, the stability of Scientific Management, because it is based on universal coöperation. This provides an intensity and a continuity of interest that would still hold, even though some particular element might lose its interest.
This Relationship Also Provides for Associations. — The close relationship of all parts of Scientific Management provides that all ideas are associated, and are so closely connected that they can act as a single group, or any selected number of elements can act as a group.
Scientific Management Establishes Brain Groups That Habitually Act in Unison. — Professor Read, in describing the general mental principle of association says, "When any number of brain cells have been in action together, they form a habit of acting in unison, so that when one of them is stimulated in a certain way, the others will also behave in the way established by the habit."31 This working of the brain is recognized in grouping of motions, such as "playing for position." 32 Scientific Management provides the groups, the habit, and the stimulus, all according to standard methods, so that the result is largely predictable.
Method of Establishing Such Groups in the Worker's Brain. — The standard elements of Scientific Management afford units for such groups. Eventually, with the use of such elements in instruction cards, would be formed, in the minds of the worker, such groups of units as would aid in foreseeing results, just as the foreseeing of groups of moves aids the expert chess or checker player. The size and number of such groups would indicate the skill of the worker.
That such skill may be gained quickest, Scientific Management synthesizes the units into definite groups, and teaches these to the workers as groups.
Teaching Done by Means of Motion Cycles. — The best group is that which completes the simplest cycle of performance. This enables the worker to associate certain definite motions, to make these into a habit, and to concentrate his attention upon the cycle as a whole, and not upon the elementary motions of which it is composed.
For example — The cycle of the pick and dip process of bricklaying is to pick up a brick and a trowel full of mortar simultaneously and deposit them on the wall simultaneously. 33 The string mortar method has two cycles, which are, first to pick a certain number of trowelfuls of mortar and deposit them on the wall, and then to pick up a corresponding number of bricks and deposit them on the wall. 34 Each cycle of these two methods consists of an association of units that can be remembered as a group.
Such Cycles Induce Speed. — The worker who has been taught thus to associate the units of attention and action into definite rhythmic cycles, is the one who is most efficient, and least fatigued by a given output. The nerves acquire the habit, as does the brain, and the resulting swift response to stimulus characterizes the efficiency of the specialist. 35
Scientific Management Restricts Associations. — By its teaching of standard methods, Scientific Management restricts association, and thus gains in the speed with which associated ideas arise.36 Insistence on causal sequence is a great aid. This is rendered by the Systems, which give the reasons, and make the standard method easy to remember.
Scientific Management Presents Scientifically Derived Knowledge to the Memory. — Industrial memory is founded on experience, and that experience that is submitted by teaching under Scientific Management to the mind is in the form of scientifically derived standards. These furnish
(a) data that is correct.
(b) images that are an aid in acquiring new habits of forming efficient images.
(c) standards of comparison, and constant demands for comparison.
(d) such arrangement of elements that reasoning processes are stimulated.
(e) conscious, efficient grouping.
(f) logical association of ideas.
Provision for Repetition of Important Ideas. — Professor Ebbinghaur says, "Associations that have equal reproductive power lapse the more slowly, the older they are, and the oftener they have been reviewed by renewed memorizing." Scientific Management provides for utilizing this law by teaching right motions first, and by so minutely dividing the elements of such motions that the smallest units discovered are found frequently, in similar and different operations.
Best Periods for Memorizing Utilized. — As for education of the memory, there is a wide difference of opinion among leading psychologists in regard to whether or not the memorizing faculty, as the whole, can be improved by training; but all agree that those things which are specially desired to be memorized can be learned more easily, and more quickly, under some conditions than under others:
For example, there is a certain time of day, for each person, when the memory is more efficient than at other times. This is usually in the morning, but is not always so. The period when memorizing is easiest is taken advantage of, and, as far as possible, new methods and new instruction cards are passed out at that time when the worker is naturally best fitted to remember what is to be done.
Individual Differences Respected. — It is a question that varies with different conditions, whether the several instruction cards beyond the one he is working on shall be given to the worker ahead of time, that he may use his own judgment as to when is the best time to learn, or whether he shall have but one at a time, and concentrate on that. For certain dispositions, it is a great help to see a long line of work ahead. They enjoy getting the work done, and feeling that they are more or less ahead of record. Others become confused if they see too much ahead, and would rather attack but one problem at a time. This fundamental difference in types of mind should be taken advantage of when laying out material to be memorized.
Aid of Mnemonic Symbols to the Memory. — The mnemonic classifications furnish a place where the worker who remembers but little of a method or process can go, and recover the full knowledge of that which he has forgotten. Better still, they furnish him the equivalent of memory of other experiences that he has never had, and that are in such form that he can connect this with his memory of his own personal experience.
The ease with which a learner or skilled mechanic can associate new, scientifically derived data with his memory, because of the classifications of Scientific Management, is a most important cause of workers being taught quicker, and being more intelligent, under Scientific Management, than under any other type of management.
Proper Learning Insures Proper Remembering. — Professor Read says, "Take care of the learning and the remembering will take care of itself." 37 Scientific Management both provides proper knowledge, and provides that this shall be utilized in such a manner that proper remembering will ensue.
Better Habits of Remembering Result. — The results of cultivating the memory under Scientific Management are cumulative. Ultimately, right habits of remembering result that aid the worker automatically so to arrange his memory material as to utilize it better.38
"Imagination" Has Two Definitions. — Professor Read gives definitions for two distinct means of Imagination.
1. "The general function of the having of images."
2. "The particular one of having images which are not consciously memories or the reproduction of the facts of experience as they were originally presented to consciousness." 39
Scientific Management Provides Material for Images. — As was shown under the discussion of the appeals of the various teaching devices of Scientific Management, — provision is made for the four classes of imagination of Calkins40 —
1. visual,
2. auditory,
3. tactual, and
4. mixed.
It Also Realizes the Importance of Productive Imagination. — Scientific Management realizes that one of the special functions of teaching the trades is systematic exercising and guiding of imaginations of apprentices and learners. As Professor Ennis says, — "Any kind of planning ahead will result in some good," but to plan ahead most effectively it is necessary to have a well-developed power of constructive imagination. This consists of being able to construct new mental images from old memory images; of being able to modify and group images of past experiences, or thoughts, in combination with new images based on imagination, and not on experience. The excellence of the image arrived at in the complete work is dependent wholly upon the training in image forming in the past. If there has not been a complete economic system of forming standard habits of thought, the worker may have difficulty in controlling the trend of associations of thought images, and difficulty in adding entirely new images to the groups of experienced images, and the problem to be thought out will suffer from wandering of the mind. The result will be more like a dream than a well balanced mental planning. It is well known that those apprentices, and journeymen as well, are the quickest to learn, and are better learners, who have the most vivid imagination. The best method of teaching the trade, therefore, is the one that also develops the power of imagination.
Scientific Management Assists Productive Imagination. — Scientific Management assists productive, or constructive, imagination, not only by providing standard units, or images, from which the results may, be synthesized, but also, through the unity of the instruction card, allows of imagination of the outcome, from the start.
For example, — in performing a prescribed cycle of motions, the worker has his memory images grouped in such a figure, form, or sequence, — often geometrical, — that each motion is a part of a growing, clearly imagined whole.
The elements of the cycle may be utilized in other entirely new cycles, and are, as provided for in the opportunities for invention that are a part of Scientific Management.
Judgment the Result of Faithful Endeavor. — Judgment, or the "mental process which ends in an affirmation or negation of something," 41 comes as the result of experience, as is admirably expressed by Prof. James, — "Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education whatever the line of it may be. If he keeps faithfully busy each hour of the working day, he may safely leave the final result to itself. He can with perfect certainty count on waking up some fine morning, to find himself one of the competent ones of his generation, in whatever pursuit he may have singled out. Silently, between all the details of his business, the power of judging in all that class of matter will have built itself up within him as a possession that will never pass away. Young people should know this truth in advance. 42 The ignorance of it has probably engendered more discouragement and faint-heartedness in youths embarking on arduous careers than all other causes put together." 43
Teaching Supplies This Judgment Under Scientific Management. — Under Scientific Management this judgment is the result of teaching of standards that are recognized as such by the learner. Thus, much time is eliminated, and the apprentice under Scientific Management can work with all the assurance as to the value of his methods that characterized the seasoned veterans of older types of management.
Teaching Also Utilizes the Judgment. — The judgment that is supplied by Scientific Management is also used as a spring toward action.44 Scientific Management appeals to the reason, and workers perform work as they do because, through the Systems and otherwise, they are persuaded that the method they employ is the best.
The Power of Suggestion Is Also Utilized. 45 — The dynamic power of ideas is recognized by Scientific Management, in that the instruction card is put in the form of direct commands, which, naturally, lead to immediate action. So, also, the teaching written, oral and object, as such, can be directly imitated by the learner. 46
Imitation, which Dr. Stratton says "may well be counted a special form of suggestion," will be discussed later in this chapter at length.47
Worker Always Has Opportunity to Criticise the Suggestion. — The worker is expected to follow the suggestion of Scientific Management without delay, because he believes in the standardization on which it is made, and in the management that makes it. But the Systems afford him an opportunity of reviewing the reasonableness of the suggestion at any time, and his constructive criticism is invited and rewarded.
Suggestion Must Be Followed at the Time. — The suggestion must be followed at the time it is given, or its value as a suggestion is impaired. This is provided for by the underlying idea of coöperation on which Scientific Management rests, which molds the mental attitude of the worker into that form where suggestions are quickest grasped and followed. 48
"Native Reactions" Enumerated by Prof. James. — Prof. James enumerates the "native reactions" as (1) fear, (2) love, (3) curiosity, (4) imitation, (5) emulation, (6) ambition, (7) pugnacity, (8) pride, (9) ownership, (10) constructiveness.49 These are all considered by Scientific Management. Such as might have a harmful effect are supplanted, others are utilized.
Fear Utilized by Ancient Managers. — The native reaction most utilized by the first managers of armies and ancient works of construction was that of fear. This is shown by the ancient rock carvings, which portray what happened to those who disobeyed.50
Fear Still Used by Traditional Management. — Fear of personal bodily injury is not usual under modern Traditional Management, but fear of less progress, less promotion, less remuneration, or of discharge, or of other penalties for inferior effort or efficiency is still prevalent.
Fear Transformed Under Scientific Management. — Under Scientific Management the worker may still fear that he will incur a penalty, or fail to deserve a reward, but the honest, industrious worker experiences no such horror as the old-time fear included. This is removed by his knowledge
1. that his task is achievable.
2. that his work will not injure his health.
3. that he may be sure of advancement with age and experience.
4. that he is sure of the "square deal."
Thus such fear as he has, has a good and not an evil effect upon him. It is an incentive to coöperate willingly. Its immediate and ultimate effects are advantageous.
Love, or Loyalty, Fostered by Scientific Management. — The worker's knowledge that the management plans to maintain such conditions as will enable him to have the four assurances enumerated above leads to love, or loyalty, between workers and employers.51
Far from Scientific Management abolishing the old personal and sympathetic relations between employers and workers, it gives opportunities for such relations as have not existed since the days of the guilds, and the old apprenticeship. 52
The coöperation upon which Scientific Management rests does away with the traditional "warfare" between employer and workers that made permanent friendliness almost impossible. Coöperation induces friendliness and loyalty of each member in the organization to all the others.
Mr. Wilfred Lewis says, in describing the installation of Scientific Management in his plant, "We had, in effect, been installing at great expense a new and wonderful means for increasing the efficiency of labor, in the benefits of which the workman himself shared, and we have today an organization second, I believe, to none in its loyalty, efficiency and steadfastness of purpose."53 This same loyalty of the workers is plain in an article in Industrial Engineering, on "Scientific Management as Viewed from the Workman's Standpoint," where various men in a shop having Scientific Management were interviewed.54 After quoting various workers' opinions of Scientific Management and their own particular shop, the writer says: "Conversations with other men brought out practically the same facts. They are all contented. They took pride in their work, and seemed to be especially proud of the fact that they were employed in the Link-Belt shops." 55
Teaching Under Scientific Management Develops Such Loyalty. — The manner of teaching under Scientific Management fosters such loyalty. Only through friendly aid can both teacher and taught prosper. Also, the perfection of the actual workings of this plan of management inspires regard as well as respect for the employer.
Value of Personality Not Eliminated. — It is a great mistake to think that Scientific Management underestimates the value of personality. 56 Rather, Scientific Management enhances the value of an admirable personality. This is well exemplified in the Link-Belt Co., 57 and in the Tabor Manufacturing Co. of Philadelphia, as well as on other work where Scientific Management has been installed a period of several years.
Curiosity Aroused by Scientific Management. — Scientific Management arouses the curiosity of the worker, by showing, through its teaching, glimpses of the possibilities that exist for further scientific investigation. The insistence on standard methods of less waste arouses a curiosity as to whether still less wasteful methods cannot be found.
Curiosity Utilized by Scientific Management. — This curiosity is very useful as a trait of the learner, the planner and the investigator. It can be well utilized by the teacher who recognizes it in the learner, by an adaptation of methods of interpreting the instruction card, that will allow of partially satisfying, and at the same time further exciting, the curiosity.
In selecting men for higher positions, and for special work, curiosity as to the work, with the interest that is its result, may serve as an admirable indication of one sort of fitness. This curiosity, or general interest, is usually associated with a personal interest that makes it more intense, and more easy to utilize.
Scientific Management Places a High Value on Imitation. — It was a popular custom of the past to look down with scorn on the individual or organization that imitated others. Scientific Management believes that to imitate with great precision the best, is a work of high intelligence and industrial efficiency.
Scientific Management Uses Both Spontaneous and Deliberate Imitation. — Teaching under Scientific Management induces both spontaneous and deliberate imitation. The standardization prevalent, and the conformity to standards exacted, provide that this imitation shall follow directed lines.
Spontaneous Imitation Under Scientific Management Has Valuable Results. — Under Scientific Management, the worker will spontaneously imitate the teacher, when the latter has been demonstrating. This leads to desired results. So, also, the worker imitates, more or less spontaneously, his own past methods of doing work. The right habits early formed by Scientific Management insure that the results of such imitation shall be profitable.
Deliberate Imitation Constantly Encouraged. — Deliberate imitation is caused more than anything else by the fact that the man knows, if he does the thing in the way directed, his pay will be increased.
Such imitation is also encouraged by the fact that the worker is made to believe that he is capable, and has the will to overcome obstacles. He knows that the management believes he can do the work, or the instruction card would not have been issued to him. Moreover, he sees that the teacher and demonstrator is a man promoted from his rank, and he is convinced, therefore, that what the teacher can do he also can do. 58
Scientific Management Provides Standards for Imitation. — It is of immense value in obtaining valuable results from imitation, that Scientific Management provides standards. Under Traditional Management, it was almost impossible for a worker to decide which man he should imitate. Even though he might come to determine, by constant observation, after a time, which man he desired to imitate, he would not know in how far he would do well to copy any particular method. Recording individually measured output under Transitory Management allows of determining the man of high score, and either using him as a model, or formulating his method into rules. Under Scientific Management, the instruction card furnishes a method which the worker knows that he can imitate exactly, with predetermined results.
Imitation Is Expected of All. — As standardization applies to the work of all, so imitation of standards is expected of all. This fact the teacher under Scientific Management can use to advantage, as an added incentive to imitation. Any dislike of imitation is further decreased, by making clear to every worker that those who are under him are expected to imitate him, — and that he must, himself, imitate his teachers, in order to set a worthy example.
Imitation Leads to Emulation. — Imitation, as provided for by teaching under Scientific Management, and admiration for the skillful teacher, or the standard imitated, naturally stimulate emulation. This emulation takes three forms:
1. Competition with the records of others.
2. Competition with one's own record.
3. Competition with the standard record.
No Hard Feeling Aroused. — In the first sort of competition only is there a possibility of hard feeling being aroused, but danger of this is practically eliminated by the fact that rewards are provided for all who are successful. In the second sort of competition, the worker, by matching himself against what he has done, measures his own increased efficiency. In the third sort of competition, there is the added stimulus of surprising the management by exceeding the task expected. The incentive in all three cases is not only more pay and a chance for promotion, but also the opportunity to win appreciation and publicity for successful performance.
Ambition Is Aroused. — The outcome of emulation is ambition. This ambition is stimulated by the fact that promotion is so rapid, and so outlined before the worker, that he sees the chance for advancement himself, and not only advancement that means more pay, but advancement also that means a chance to specialize on that work which he particularly likes.
Pugnacity Utilized. — Pugnacity can never be entirely absent where there is emulation. Under Scientific Management it is used to overcome not persons, but things. Pugnacity is a great driving force. It is a wonderful thing that under Scientific Management this force is aroused not against one's fellow-workers, but against one's work. The desire to win out, to fight it out, is aroused against a large task, which the man desires to put behind him. Moreover, there is nothing under Scientific Management which forbids an athletic contest. While the workers would not, under the ultimate form, be allowed to injure themselves by overspeeding, a friendly race with a demonstration of pugnacity which harms no one is not frowned upon.
Pride Is Stimulated. — Pride in one's work is aroused as soon as work is functionalized. The moment a man has something to do that he likes to do, and can do well, he takes pride in it. So, also, the fact that individuality, and personality, are recognized, and that his records are shown, makes pride serve as a stimulus. The outcome of the worker's pride in his work is pride in himself. He finds that he is part of a great whole, and he learns to take pride in the entire management, — in both himself and the managers, as well as in his own work.
Feeling of Ownership Provided For. — It may seem at first glance that the instinct of ownership is neglected, and becomes stunted, under Scientific Management, in that all tools become more or less standardized, and the man is discouraged from having tools peculiar in shape, or size, for whose use he has no warrant except long time of use.
Careful consideration shows that Scientific Management provides two opportunities for the worker to conserve his instinct for ownership, —
1. During working hours, where the recognition of his personality allows the worker to identify himself with his work, and where his coöperation with the management makes him identified with its activities.
2. Outside the work. He has, under Scientific Management, more hours away from work to enjoy ownership, and more money with which to acquire those things that he desires to own.
The teacher must make clear to him both these opportunities, as he readily can, since the instinct of ownership is conserved in him in an identical manner.
Constructiveness a Part of Scientific Management. — Every act that the worker performs is constructive, because waste has been eliminated, and everything that is done is upbuilding. Teaching makes this clear to the worker. Constructiveness is also utilized in that exercise of initiative is provided for. Thus the instinct, instead of being weakened, is strengthened and directed.
Progress in Utilizing Instincts Demands Psychological Study. — Teaching under Scientific Management can never hope fully to understand and utilize native reactions, until more assistance has been given by psychology. At the present time, Scientific Management labors under disadvantages that must, ultimately, be removed. Psychologists must, by experiments, determine more accurately the reactions and their controlability. More thorough study must be made of children that Scientific Management may understand more of the nature of the reactions of the young workers who come for industrial training. Psychology must give its help in this training. Then only, can teaching under Scientific Management become truly efficient.
Scientific Management Realizes the Importance of Training the Will. — The most necessary, and most complex and difficult part of Scientific Management, is the training of the will of all members of the organization. Prof. Read states in his "Psychology" five means of training or influencing the will. These are59
"1. The first important feature in training the will is the help furnished by supplying the mind with a useful body of ideas.
"2. The second great feature of the training of the will is the building up in the mind of the proper interests, and the habit of giving the attention to useful and worthy purposes.
"3. Another important feature of the training of the will is the establishing of a firm association between ideas and actions, or, in other words, the forming of a good set of habits.
"4. Another very important feature of the training of the will has reference to its strength of purpose or power of imitation.
"5. The matter of discipline."
Teaching under Scientific Management does supply these five functions, and thus provide for the strengthening and development of the will.
Variations in Teaching of Apprentices and Journeymen. — Scientific Management must not only be prepared to teach apprentices, as must all types of management, it must also teach journeymen who have not acquired standard methods.
Apprentices Are Easily Handled. — Teaching apprentices is a comparatively simple proposition, far simpler than under any other type of management. Standard methods enable the apprentice to become proficient long before his brother could, under the old type of teaching. The length of training required depends largely on how fingerwise the apprentice is.
Older Workers Must Be Handled with Tact. — With adult workers, the problem is not so simple. Old wrong habits, such as the use of ineffective motions, must be eliminated. Physically, it is difficult for the adult worker to alter his methods. Moreover, it may be most difficult to change his mental attitude, to convince him that the methods of Scientific Management are correct.
A successful worker under Traditional Management, who is proud of his work, will often be extremely sensitive to what he is prone to regard as the "criticism" of Scientific Management with regard to him.
Appreciation of Varying Viewpoints Necessary. — No management can consider itself adequate that does not try to enter into the mental attitude of its workers. Actual practice shows that, with time and tact, almost any worker can be convinced that all criticism of him is constructive, and that for him to conform to the new standards is a mark of added proficiency, not an acknowledgment of ill-preparedness. The "Systems" do much toward this work of reconciling the older workers to the new methods, but most of all can be done by such teachers as can demonstrate their own change from old to standard methods, and the consequent promotion and success. This is, again, an opportunity for the exercise of personality.
Scientific Management Provides Places for Such Teaching. — Under the methods of teaching employed by Scientific Management, — right motions first, next speed, with quality as a resultant product, — it is most necessary to provide a place where learners can work. The standard planning of quality provides such a place. The plus and minus signs automatically divide labor so that the worker can be taught by degrees, being set at first where great accuracy is not demanded by the work, and being shifted to work requiring more accuracy as he becomes more proficient. In this way even the most untrained worker becomes efficient, and is engaged in actual productive work.
Measurement of Teaching and Learning. — Under Scientific Management the results of teaching and learning become apparent automatically in records of output. The learner's record of output of proper prescribed quality determines what pay he shall receive, and also has a proportionate effect on the teacher's pay. Such a system of measurement may not be accurate as a report of the learner's gain, — for he doubtless gains mental results that cannot be seen in his output, — but it certainly does serve as an incentive to teaching and to learning.
Relation of Teaching in Scientific Management to Academic Training and Vocational Guidance. 60 — Teaching under Scientific Management can never be most efficient until the field of such teaching is restricted to training learners who are properly prepared to receive industrial training. 61 This preparedness implies fitting school and academic training, and Vocational Guidance.
Learner Should Be Manually Adept. — The learner should, before entering the industrial world, be taught to be manually adept, or fingerwise, to have such control over his trained muscles that they will respond quickly and accurately to orders. Such training should be started in infancy, 62 in the form of guided play, as, for example, whittling, sewing, knitting, handling mechanical toys and tools, and playing musical instruments, and continued up to, and into, the period of entering a trade.
Schools Should Provide Mental Preparedness. — The schools should render every student capable of filling some place worthily in the industries. The longer the student remains in school, the higher the position for which he should be prepared. The amount and nature of the training in the schools depends largely on the industrial work to be done, and will be possible of more accurate estimation constantly, as Scientific Management standardizes work and shows what the worker must be to be most efficient.
Vocational Guidance Must Provide Direction. — As made most clear in Mr. Meyer Bloomfield's book, "Vocational Guidance,"63 bureaus of competent directors stand ready to help the youth find that line of activity which he can follow best and with greatest satisfaction to himself. At present, such bureaus are seriously handicapped by the fact that little data of the industries are at hand, but this lack the bureaus are rapidly supplying by gathering such data as are available. Most valuable data will not be available until Scientific Management has been introduced into all lines.
Progress Demands Coöperation. — Progress here, as everywhere, demands coöperation. 64 The three sets of educators, — the teachers in the school, in the Vocational Guidance Bureaus, and in Scientific Management, must recognize their common work, and must coöperate to do it. There is absolutely no cause for conflict between the three; their fields are distinct, but supplementary. Vocational Guidance is the intermediary between the other two.
Results to the Work. — Under the teaching of Traditional Management, the learner may or may not improve the quantity and quality of his work. This depends almost entirely on the particular teacher whom the learner happens to have. There is no standard improvement to the work.
Under the teaching of Transitory Management, the work gains in quantity as the methods become standardized, and quality is maintained or improved.
Under the teaching of Scientific Management, work, the quantity of work, increases enormously through the use of standards of all kinds; quantity is oftentimes tripled.
Under the teaching of Scientific Management, when the schools and Vocational Guidance movement coöperate, high output of required quality will be obtained at a far earlier stage of the worker's industrial life than is now possible, even under Scientific Management.
Results to the Worker. — Under Traditional Management, the worker gains a knowledge of how his work can be done, but the method by which he is taught is seldom, of itself, helpful to him. Not being sure that he has learned the best way to do his work, he gains no method of attack. The result of the teaching is a habit of doing work which is good, or bad, as chance may direct.
Under Transitory Management, with the use of Systems as teachers, the worker gains a better method of attack, as he knows the reason why the prescribed method is prescribed. He begins to appreciate the possibilities and benefits of standardized teaching.
The method laid down under Scientific Management is devised to further the forming of an accurate accumulation of concepts, which results in a proper method of attack. The method of instruction under Scientific Management is devised to furnish two things:
1. A collection of knowledge relating in its entirety to the future work of the learner.
2. A definite procedure, that will enable the learner to apply the same process to acquiring knowledge of other subjects in the most economical and efficient way.
It teaches the learner to be observant of details, which is the surest method for further development of general truths and concepts.
The method of attack of the methods provided for in Scientific Management results, naturally, in a comparison of true data. This is the most efficient method of causing the learner to think for himself.
Processes differing but little, apparently, give vastly different results, and the trained habits of observation quickly analyze and determine wherein the one process is more efficient than the other.
This result is, of course, the one most desired for causing quick and intelligent learning.
The most valuable education is that which enables the learner to make correct judgments. The teaching under Scientific Management leads to the acquisition of such judgment, plus an all-around sense training, a training in habits of work, and a progressive development.
A partial topic list of the results may make more clear their importance.
1. Worker better trained for all work.
2. Habits of correct thinking instilled.
3. Preparedness provided for.
4. Productive and repetitive powers increased.
5. Sense powers increased.
6. Habits of proper reaction established.
7. "Guided original work" established.
8. System of waste elimination provided.
9. Method of attack taught.
10. Brain fully developed.
11. "Standard response" developed.
12. Opportunities and demands for "thinking" provided.
13. Self-reliance developed.
14. Love of truth fostered.
15. Moral sentiment developed.
16. Resultant happiness of worker.
Results To Be Expected in the Future. — When the schools, vocational guidance and teaching under Scientific Management coöperate, the worker will not only receive the benefits now obtained from Scientific Management, but many more. There will be nothing to unlearn, and each thing that is learned will be taught by those best fitted to teach it. The collection of vocational guidance data will begin with a child at birth, and a record of his inheritance will be kept. This will be added to as he is educated, and as various traits and tendencies appear. From this scientifically derived record will accrue such data as will assist in making clear exactly in what place the worker will be most efficient, and in what sphere he will be able to be most helpful to the world, as well as to himself. All early training will be planned to make the youth adept with his muscles, and alert, with a mind so trained that related knowledge is easily acquired.
When the vocation for which he is naturally best fitted becomes apparent, as it must from the study of the development of the youth and his desires, the school will know, and can give exactly, that training that is necessary for the vocation. It can also supplement his limitations intelligently, in case he decides to follow a vocation for which he is naturally handicapped.
This will bring to the industry learners prepared to be taught those things that characterize the industry, the "tricks of the trade," and the "secrets of the craft," now become standard, and free to all. Such teaching Scientific Management is prepared to give. The results of such teaching of Scientific Management will be a worker prepared in a short time to fill efficiently a position which will allow of promotion to the limit of his possibilities.
The result of such teaching will be truly educated workers, equipped to work, and to live,65 and to share the world's permanent satisfactions.
The effect of such education on industrial peace must not be underestimated. With education, including in education learning and culture, — prejudice will disappear. The fact that all men, those going into industries and those not, will be taught alike to be finger wise as well as book wise, up to the time of entering the industries, will lead to a better understanding of each other all through life.
The entire bearing of Scientific Management on industrial peace cannot be here fully discussed. We must note here the strong effect that teaching under Scientific Management will ultimately have on doing away with industrial warfare, — the great warfare of ignorance, where neither side understands the other, and where each side should realize that large immediate sacrifices should be made if necessary, that there may be obtained the great permanent benefit and savings that can be obtained only by means of the heartiest coöperation.
1. F.B. Gilbreth, Bricklaying System, para. 541-545.
2. H.K. Hathaway, Prerequisites to the Introduction of Scientific Management, Engineering Magazine, April, 1911, p. 141.
3. H.L. Gantt, paper 928, A.S.M.E., p. 372.
4. H.L. Gantt, Work, Wages and Profits, p. 116.
5. H.L. Gantt, paper 928, A.S.M.E., p. 342.
6. F.W. Taylor, Shop Management, para. 289, Harper Ed., pp. 127-128.
7. H.K. Hathaway, Engineering Magazine, April, 1911, p. 144.
8. W.D. Ennis, An Experiment in Motion Study, Industrial Engineering, June, 1911, p. 462.
9. C.S. Myers, M.D., An Introduction to Experimental Psychology, chap. V, p. 73.
10. G.M. Stratton, Experimental Psychology and Culture, p. 125.
11. William James, Psychology, Briefer Course, p. 171.
12. F.B. Gilbreth, Bricklaying System, chap. I, Training of Apprentices.
13. McClure's Magazine, May, 1911, Dec, 1911, Jan., 1912.
14. As a woodman's keenness of hearing.
15. M.W. Calkins, A First Book in Psychology, chap. III.
16. Stratton, Experimental Psychology and Culture, chap. VII.
17. Compare with an actor's learning a part.
18. As proved by experimenting with a six-year-old child.
19. Imbert, Etudes experimentales de travail professionnel ouvrier, Sur la fatigue engendree par les mouvements rapides.
20. William James, Psychology, Briefer Course, p. 134.
21. Ibid., p. 138. William James, Psychology, Advanced Course. p. 112.
22. F.B. Gilbreth, Bricklaying System, p. 142.
23. Stratton, Experimental Psychology and Culture, p. 214.
24. Prof. Bain, quoted In William James' Psychology, Briefer Course, pp. 145-147.
25. F.B. Gilbreth, Bricklaying System, para. 18-19.
26. M.W. Calkins, A First Book in Psychology, p. 354.
27. James Sully, The Teacher's Handbook of Psychology, p. 119.
28. Stratton, Experimental Psychology and Culture, p. 99.
29. Stratton, Experimental Psychology and Culture p. 240.
30. Attracting the attention is largely a matter of appealing to what is known to interest, for example, to a known ambition.
31. M.S. Read, An Introductory Psychology, p. 183.
32. F.B. Gilbreth, Motion Study, p. 89.
33. Ibid., </>Bricklaying System, para. 555-557.
34. F.B. Gilbreth, Bricklaying System, p. 150.
35. M.S. Read, An Introductory Psychology, pp. 179-194.
36. G.M. Stratton, Experimental Psychology and Culture, p. 42.
37. M.S. Read, An Introductory Psychology, p. 208.
38. William James, Psychology, Advanced Course, Vol. I, p. 667.
39. M.S. Read, An Introductory Psychology, pp. 212-213. William James, Psychology, Briefer Course, p. 302.
40. M.W. Calkins, A First Book in Psychology, p. 25.
41. James Sully, The Teacher's Handbook of Psychology, p. 290.
42. William James, Psychology, Briefer Course, p. 150.
43. W.D. Scott, Influencing Men in Business, chap. II.
44. Ibid., chap. III.
45. W.D. Scott, The Theory of Advertising, p. 71.
46. W.D. Scott, Increasing Human Efficiency in Business, p. 41.
47. G.M. Stratton, Experimental Psychology and Culture, p. 200.
48. F.W. Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management, p. 36.
49. William James, Talks to Teachers, chap. III.
50. Knight's Mechanical Dictionary, Vol. III, p. 2204.
51. For example, see W.D. Scott's Increasing Efficiency in Business, chap. IV.
52. R.A. Bray, Boy Labor and Apprenticeship, chap. II, especially p. 8.
53. Wilfred Lewis, Proceedings of the Congress of Technology, 1911, p. 175.
54. November, 1910.
55. The Link-Belt Co., Philadelphia, Pa.
56. For value of personality see J.W. Jenks's, Governmental Action for Social Welfare, p. 226.
57. F.W. Taylor, Shop Management, para. 311, Harper Ed., p. 143.
58. Compare with the old darkey, who took her sons from a Northern school, where the teacher was white, in order to send them to a Southern school having a colored teacher that they might feel, as they looked at him, "What that nigger can do, this nigger can do."
59. M.S. Read, An Introductory Psychology, pp. 297-303.
60. Hugo Münsterberg, American Problems, p. 29.
61. Morris Llewellyn Cooke, Bulletin No. 5 of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, p. 70. William Kent, Discussion of Paper 647, A.S.M.E., p. 891.
62. A well known athlete started throwing a ball at his son in infancy, to prepare him to be an athlete, thus practically sure of a college education.
63. Meyer Bloomfield, The Vocational Guidance of Youth, Houghton Mifflin & Co.
64. A. Pimloche, Pestalozzi and the Foundation of the Modern Elementary School, p. 139.
65. Friedrich Froebel, Education of Man, "To secure for this ability skill and directness, to lift it into full consciousness, to give it insight and clearness, and to exalt it into a life of creative freedom, is the business of the subsequent life of man in successive stages of development and cultivation."
Definition of Incentive. — An "incentive" is defined by the Century Dictionary as "that which moves the mind or stirs the passions; that which incites or tends to incite to action; motive, spur." Synonyms — "impulse, stimulus, incitement, encouragement, goad."
Importance of the Incentive. — The part that the incentive plays in the doing of all work is enormous. This is true in learning, and also in the performance of work which is the result of this learning: manual work and mental work as well. The business man finishing his work early that he may go to the baseball game; the boy at school rushing through his arithmetic that he may not be kept after school; the piece-worker, the amount of whose day's pay depends upon the quantity and quality he can produce; the student of a foreign language preparing for a trip abroad, — these all illustrate the importance of the incentive as an element in the amount which is to be accomplished.
Two Kinds of Incentives. — The incentive may be of two kinds: it may be first of all, a return, definite or indefinite, which is to be received when a certain portion of the work is done, or it may be an incentive due to the working conditions themselves. The latter case is exemplified where two people are engaged in the same sort of work and start in to race one another to see who can accomplish the most, who can finish the fixed amount in the shortest space of time, or who can produce the best quality. The incentive may be in the form of some definite aim or goal which is understood by the worker himself, or it may be in some natural instinct which is roused by the work, either consciously to the worker, or consciously to the man who is assigning the work, or consciously to both, or consciously to neither one. In any of these cases it is a natural instinct that is being appealed to and that induces the man to do more work, whether he sees any material reward for that work or not.
Definitions of Two Types. — We may call the incentive which utilizes the natural instinct, "direct incentive," and the incentive which utilizes these secondarily, through some set reward or punishment, "indirect incentive." This, at first sight, may seem a contradictory use of terms — it may seem that the reward would be the most direct of incentives; yet a moment's thought will cause one to realize that all the reward can possibly do is to arouse in the individual a natural instinct which will lead him to increase his work.
Indirect Incentives Include Two Classes. — We will discuss the indirect incentives first as, contrary to the usual use of the word "indirect," they are most easy to estimate and to describe. They divide themselves into two classes, reward and punishment.
Definition of Reward. — Reward is defined by the Century Dictionary as — "return, recompense, the fruit of one's labor or works; profit," with synonyms, "pay, compensation, remuneration, requital and retribution." Note particularly the word "retribution," for it is this aspect of reward, that is, the just outcome of one's act, that makes the reward justly include punishment. The word "reward" exactly expresses what management would wish to be understood by the incentive that it gives its men to increase their work.
Definition of Punishment. — The word "punishment" is defined as — "pain, suffering, loss, confinement, or other penalty inflicted on a person for a crime or offense by the authority to which the offender is subject," with synonyms, "chastisement, correction, discipline."
The word punishment, as will be noted later, is most unfortunate when applied to what Scientific Management would mean by a penalty, though this word also is unfortunate; but, in the first place, there is no better word to cover the general meaning; and in the second place, the idea of pain and suffering, which Scientific Management aims to and does eliminate, is present in some of the older forms of management Therefore the word punishment must stand.
Rewards and Punishments Result in Action. — There can be no doubt that a reward is an incentive. There may well be doubt as to whether a punishment is an incentive to action or not. This, however, is only at first glance, and the whole thing rests on the meaning of the word "action." To be active is certainly the opposite of being at rest. This being true, punishment is just as surely an incentive to action as is reward. The man who is punished in every case will be led to some sort of action. Whether this really results in an increase of output or not simply determines whether the punishment is a scientifically prescribed punishment or not. If the punishment is of such a nature that the output ceases because of it, or that it incites the man punished against the general good, then it does not in any wise cease to be an active thing, but it is simply a wrong, and unscientifically assigned punishment, that acts in a detrimental way.
Soldiering Alone Cuts Down Activity. — It is interesting to note that the greatest cause for cutting down output is related more closely to a reward than a punishment. Under such managements as provide no adequate reward for all, and no adequate assurance that all can receive extra rewards permanently without a cut in the rate, it may be advisable, for the worker's best interests, to limit output in order to keep the wages, or reward, up, and soldiering results. The evils of soldiering will be discussed more at length under the "Systems of Pay." It is plain, however, here that soldiering is the result of a cutting down of action, and it is self-evident that anything which cuts down action is harmful, not only to the individual himself, but to society at large.
Nature of Rewards and Punishments. — Under all types of management, the principal rewards consist of promotion and pay, pay being a broad word used here to include regular wages, a bonus, shorter hours, other forms of remuneration or recompense; anything which can be given to the man who does the work to benefit him and increase his desire to continue doing the work. Punishments may be negative, that is, they may simply take the form of no reward; or they may be positive, that is, they may include fines, discharge, assignment to less remunerative or less desirable work, or any other thing which can be given to the man to show him that he has not done what is expected of him and, in theory at least, to lead him to do better.
Nature of Direct Incentives. — Direct incentives will be such native reaction as ambition, pride and pugnacity; will be love of racing, love of play; love of personal recognition; will be the outcome of self-confidence and interest, and so on.
The Reward Under Traditional Management Unstandardized. — As with all other discussions of any part or form of Traditional Management, the discussion of the incentive under Traditional Management is vague from the very nature of the subject. "Traditional" stands for vagueness and for variation, for the lack of standardization, for the lack of definiteness in knowledge, in process, in results. The rewards under Traditional Management, as under all types of management, are promotion and pay. It must be an almost unthinkably poor system of management, even under Traditional Management, which did not attempt to provide for some sort of promotion of the man who did the most and best work; but the lack of standardization of conditions, of instructions, of the work itself, and of reward, makes it almost impossible not only to give the reward, but even to determine who deserves the reward. Under Traditional Management, the reward need not be positive, that is, it might simply consist in the negation of some previously existing disadvantage. It need not be predetermined. It might be nothing definite. It might not be so set ahead that the man might look forward to it. In other words it might simply be the outcome of the good, and in no wise the incentive for the good. It need not necessarily be personal. It could be shared with a group, or gang, and lose all feeling of personality. It need not be a fixed reward or a fixed performance; in fact, if the management were Traditional it would be almost impossible that it would be a fixed reward. It might not be an assured reward, and in most cases it was not a prompt reward. These fixed adjectives describe the reward of Scientific Management — positive, predetermined, personal, fixed, assured and prompt. A few of these might apply, or none might apply to the reward under Traditional Management.
Reward a Prize Won by One Only. — If this reward, whether promotion or pay, was given to someone under Traditional Management, this usually meant that others thereby lost it; it was in the nature of a prize which one only could attain, and which the others, therefore, would lose, and such a lost prize is, to the average man, for the time at least, a dampener on action. The rewarding of the winner, to the loss of all of the losers, has been met by the workmen getting together secretly, and selecting the winners for a week or more ahead, thus getting the same reward out of the employer without the extra effort.
Punishment Under Traditional Management Wrong in Theory. — The punishment, under Traditional Management, was usually much more than negative punishment; that is to say, the man who was punished usually received much more than simply the negative return of getting no reward. The days of bodily punishment have long passed, yet the account of the beatings given to the galley slaves and to other workers in the past are too vividly described in authentic accounts to be lost from memory. To-day, under Traditional Management, punishment consists of
1. fines, which are usually simply a cutting down of wages, the part deducted remaining with the company,
2. discharge, or
3. assignment to less pleasant or less desirable work.
This assignment is done on an unscientific basis, the man being simply put at something which he dislikes, with no regard as to whether his efficiency at that particular work will be high or not.
Results Are Unfortunate. — The punishment, under Traditional Management, is usually meted out by the foreman, simply as one of his many duties. He is apt to be so personally interested, and perhaps involved, in the case that his punishment will satisfy some wrong notions, impulse of anger, hate, or envy in him, and will arouse a feeling of shame or wounded pride, or unappreciation, in the man to whom punishment is awarded.
Direct Incentives Not Scientifically Utilized. — As for what we have called direct incentive, the love of racing was often used under Traditional Management through Athletic Contests, the faults in these being that the men were not properly studied, so that they could be properly assigned and grouped; care was not always exercised that hate should not be the result of the contest; the contest was not always conducted according to the rules of clean sport; the men slighted quality in hastening the work, and the results of the athletic contests were not so written down as to be thereafter utilized. Love of play may have been developed unconsciously, but was certainly not often studied, Love of personal recognition was probably often utilized, but in no scientific way. Neither was there anything in Traditional Management to develop self-confidence, or to arouse and maintain interest in any set fashion. Naturally, if the man were in a work which he particularly liked, which under Traditional Management was a matter of luck, he would be more or less interested in it, but there was no scientific way of arousing or holding his interest. Under Traditional Management, a man might take pride in his work, as did many of the old bricklayers and masons, who would set themselves apart after hours if necessary, lock themselves in, and cut bricks for a complicated arch or fancy pattern, but such pride was in no way fostered through the efforts of the management. Pugnacity was aroused, but it might have an evil effect as well as a good, so far as the management had any control. Ambition, in the same way, might be stimulated, and might not. There is absolutely nothing under Traditional Management to prevent a man being ambitious, gratifying his pride, and gratifying his pugnacity in a right way, and at the same time being interested in his work, but there was nothing under Traditional Management which provided for definite and exact methods for encouraging these good qualities, seeing that they developed in a proper channel, and scientifically utilizing the outcome again and again.
Pay for Performance Provided for by Transitory Management. — Under Transitory Management, as soon as practicable, one bonus is paid for doing work according to the method prescribed. As standardization takes place, the second bonus for completing the task in the time set can be paid. As each element of Scientific Management is introduced, incentives become more apparent, more powerful, and more assured.
Direct Incentives More Skillfully Used. — With the separating of output, and recording of output separately, love of personal recognition grew, self-confidence grew, interest in one's work grew. The Athletic Contest is so conducted that love of speed, love of play, and love of competition are encouraged, the worker constantly feeling that he can indulge in these, as he is assured of "fair play."