The Psychology of Management by Lillian Moller Gilbreth
3. There is no fear of criticism or discharge for using his
2338 words | Chapter 180
own faulty judgment.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT HAS A STANDARD "METHOD OF ATTACK."--We
must note next the standard "method of attack" in Scientific
Management. It is recognized that sensations are modified by those
that come before, by those that come simultaneously, and by those
that follow. The psychic effect of each and every kind of sensation
depends upon what other sensations have been experienced, are being
experienced at that time, or will presently be experienced. The
scientific manager realizes this, and provides for the most
desirable sequence of sensation; then, having seen, to the best of
his ability, that the sensation occurs at the time which he desires
it to occur, he provides for concentration upon that one sensation
and elimination of all other thoughts or desires.
Professor Faraday says: "That part of self-education which
consists in teaching the mind to resist the desires and inclinations
until they are proved to be right is the most important of all." How
this is shown under Scientific Management will be shown in "Teaching."
It is sufficient to say here that the method of attack of
Scientific Management is to eliminate all possible bodily as well as
mental exertion,--to cut down motions, to cut down even sensations
and such mental acts as visualizing. The object is, not so much to
eliminate these motions and these sensations, and this visualizing
from the life of the worker, as simply to use up less energy in
producing the output. This allows the worker an extra supply of
energy upon which to fall back to produce greater output and to get
greater wages. If his energy is not all utilized in his working
hours, then, as will be shown more clearly under "Welfare," there is
that much more left for him to enjoy in his own leisure time.
SUMMARY
RESULT TO THE WORK.--Under Traditional Management, where
standards are not established, the worker is constantly delayed by
the necessity for decision of choice, by the lack of knowing what
should be chosen, and by a dearth of standard equipment, materials
and tools from which to choose.
Under Transitory Management, with the introduction of standards,
the elimination of delays and the provision for standard
surroundings and supplies of all kinds, comes increased output of
the desired quality.
Under Scientific Management, not only is output increased and
quality assured, but results of work can be predicted.[13]
RESULTS TO THE WORKER.--Results from standardization to the
worker under Traditional and Transitory Management are the same as,
and are included in, results under Scientific Management.
STATE OF WORKER'S FEELINGS IMPROVED.--Under Scientific
Management the state of the employé's feelings is improved by the
standardization. It is a recognized fact that mental disturbance
from such causes as fear of losing his job will sometimes have the
same ill effect upon a workman as does overwork, or insufficient
rest for overcoming fatigue. It will occasionally wear upon the
nervous system and the digestive organs. Now Scientific Management
by standardization removes from the workman this fear of losing his
job, for the worker knows that if he conforms to the standard
instructions he certainly will not lose his position unless the
business as a whole is unsuccessful.
On the other hand, feelings, such as happiness and contentment,
and even hearing rhythmic sounds, music, etc., are an aid toward
increasing output. For the best results, therefore, under Scientific
Management the worker is furnished with standard conditions; his
train of ideas is held upon the work in hand without interruption,
and the working conditions are such that the managers furnish the
worker with inducements to conform to the standard conditions
happily.
WORKER'S RETENTIVE POWER INCREASED.--We note in the second
place, the increased retentive power of anyone who is working with
standards. There is great difference between different people of the
same degree of intelligence as to their ability to memorize certain
things, especially such as sequences of the elements of a process.
This lack of retentive power is illustrated particularly well in the
cases often found where the student has difficulty in learning to
spell. It is here that the standard instruction card comes into play
to good effect. Its great detail remedies the defect in memorizing
of certain otherwise brilliant workers, and its standard form and
repetition of standard phrases aid the retentive power of the man
who has a good memory.
STANDARD ELEMENTS SERVE AS MEMORY DRILLS.--This use of
standardized elements makes the time elapsing between repetitions
shorter, for, while it may be a long time before the worker again
encounters the identical work or method, still, the fact that
elements are standard means that he will have occasion to repeat
elements frequently, and that his memory will each time be further
drilled by these repetitions.
GANG INSTRUCTION CARD AN AID TO MEMORY.--The gang instruction
card has been used with good effect at the beginning of unfamiliar
repetitive cycles of work to train the memory of whole gangs of men
at once, and to cut down the elapsed time from the time when one
man's operation is sufficiently completed to permit the next man to
commence his. It has been found, in the case of setting timbers in
mill construction for example, that to have one man call out the
next act in the sequence as fast as the preceding one is finished,
until all have committed the sequence to memory, will materially
decrease the time necessary for the entire sequence of elements in a
cycle of work.
INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION CARD AN INANIMATE MEMORY.--The
instruction card supplies a most accurate memory in inanimate form,
that neither blurs nor distorts with age.
The ranter against this standard memory is no more sensible than
a man who would advocate the worker's forgetting the result of his
best experience, that his mind might be periodically exercised by
rediscovering the method of least waste anew with each problem.
Other things being equal, that worker has the longest number of
years of earning power who remembers the largest number of right
methods; or at least remembers where to find them described in
detail; and, conversely, those who have no memory, and know not
where to look for or to lay their hand on the method of least waste,
remain at the beginning of their industrial education. "Experience,"
from an earning standpoint, does not exist when the mind does not
retain a memory of the method. The instruction card, then, acts as a
form of transferable memory--it conserves memory. Once it is made,
it furnishes the earning power without the necessity of the former
experience having been had more than once.
Plans, details, free-hand sketches, and two-dimension
photographs surpass the highest form of mental imagery, and such
cultivated imagery is undoubtedly a high achievement. There is no
kind of memory, visualization, nor constructive imagination that can
equal the stereoscopic or three-dimension photographs that may
accompany the instruction card for enabling the worker to "see the
completed work before it is begun." Probably the greatest hindrance
to development of lower forms of animal life is their inability to
picture past experiences, and the reason for the intellectual
strides made by the worker under Scientific Management is the
development of this faculty.
A CONSERVER OF INDIVIDUAL MEMORIES.--Many people believe that
the memory of a person ceases at his death. Whether this is so or
not, the loss to the world, and particularly the industrial world,
of not having the instruction card for the passing on of the
worker's experience to the workers who follow is stupendous and
incalculable, and this loss, like so many other losses, can be
eliminated by the process of making written standards.
MOTOR MEMORY IMPROVED BY STANDARDIZATION.--Not only are the
retentive powers of the brain improved, but also the brain centers,
and the muscles, etc., become trained through standardization. With
standardization a long sequence of muscular motions or operations
can be noted at a glance, and can be remembered without difficulty.
STANDARDS PREVENT MEN FROM BECOMING MACHINES.--Those who object
to the worker taking advantage of these scientifically derived
standards which aid the memory, can only be compared to such people
as desire the workers to turn into unthinking animals. Psychologists
believe that some of the lower animals have no memory. Turning the
workers into machines which do not in any way utilize thought-saving
devices is simply putting them but little above the class of these
lower, memory-less, animals.
THROUGH STANDARDS THE WORKER'S ATTENTION IS GAINED AT THE
START.--The general act of attention plays an important part in
Scientific Management. The insistence upon standardized performance
requires the utmost attention at the beginning of learning a new
method of performance. This extra output of mental activity, which
is always required for accomplishing new methods of work, could not
be continuously maintained, but after the new method has once been
learned, its repetition requires less attention, consequently less
fatigue. The attention of the worker is, therefore, strongly
demanded at the beginning and when, later, it is not needed except
for new and unfamiliar work, an opportunity arises for invention and
mental advancement.
ATTENTION ALLOWED TO LAPSE AND THEN RECALLED.--Standardization
shifts the objects of attention and eliminates the need for constant
concentration. The standardization of processes relieves the worker
to a marked extent from the extremely fatiguing mental effort of
unproductive fixed, valueless, and unnecessary attention on the
stream of consciousness. The repeated elements which form a part
of all standards reconcentrates the attention if it is allowed
to lapse.
STANDARDIZATION ELIMINATES THE SHIFTING VIEWPOINT.--Under
old-time Traditional Management the way that the man happened to
feel at the particular time made a great difference, not only in his
work, but in his relations with other men. The standardization not
only of the relationship between the men, but of the relationships
between the foreman, the manager, and the worker, the fact that the
disciplining is put in the hands of a man who is not biased by his
personal feelings in his dealings with the men;--all of these things
mean that the viewpoint of the men as to their work and their
relationship remains fixed. This standardizing of the viewpoint is
an enormous help toward increasing output.
THE COMMON VIEWPOINT IS AN IMPETUS.--There are those who believe
that the concerted standard process of thought of the many minds
assists the operation of any one mind. However this may be, there is
no doubt that the fact that the standard thought is present in all
minds at one time at least eliminates some cause for discussion and
leads to unity and consequent success in the work.
INVENTION IS STIMULATED.--Chances for invention and construction
are provided by standardization.[14] By having a scientifically
derived standard method as a starter, the worker can exert much of
his mental power toward improvement from that point upward, instead
of being occupied with methods below it and in wasting, perhaps, a
lifetime in striving to get up to it,[15] this in distinction to the
old plan, where a worker knew only what he could personally remember
of what had been handed down by tradition, tradition being the
memory of society. Under Scientific Management a worker has many
repetitions of experience, some of which he does not always
recognize as such. When he does recognize them, he has the power and
daring for rapid construction that come to those only who "know that
they know."
Standardization of ultimate subdivisions, as such, brings that
power to the worker sooner. The conscious knowledge of familiarity
of process is an essential for attaining the complete benefits of
experience.
Far from making machines out of the men, standardization causes
a mental state that leads to invention, for the reason that the
worker's brain is in most intimate contact with the work, and yet
has not been unnecessarily fatigued by the work itself. No more
monotonous work could be cited than that of that boy whose sole duty
was to operate by hand the valve to the engine, yet he invented the
automatic control of the slide valve used throughout the world
to-day.
STANDARDIZATION PREVENTS ACCIDENTS.--The results of
standardization so far given, concern changes in the worker's mental
capacity, or attitude. Such changes, and other changes, will be
discussed from a different viewpoint under "Teaching." As for
results to the worker's body, one of the most important is the
elimination of causes for accidents.
The rigid inspection, testing, and repairing provided for by
Scientific Management provides against accidents from defects in
equipment, tools, or material. The fact that instructions are
written, provides against wrong methods of handling work.[16] The
concentrated attention caused by standardization, is a safeguard
against accidents that occur from the worker's carelessness.[17] The
proper allowance of rest for overcoming fatigue, insures that the
worker's mind is fresh enough to enable him to comply with
standards, and, finally, the spirit of coöperation that underlies
Scientific Management is an added check against accidents, in that
everyone is guarding his fellows as well as himself.
PROGRESS OF STANDARDIZATION ASSURED.--As Scientific Management
becomes older, progress will be faster, because up to this time
there has been a hindrance standing in the way of rapid advancement
of the best standards. This hindrance has been the tendency of
habits of thought coinciding with former practice. For example, the
design of concrete building for years followed the habit of thinking
in terms of brick, or wood, or steel, and then attempting to design
and construct in reinforced concrete. Again, in the case of the
motor car, habits of thinking in vehicles drawn by animals for years
kept the design unnecessarily leaning toward that of horse vehicles.
As soon as thought was in terms of power vehicles, the efficient
motor truck of to-day was made, using the power also for power
loading and power hoisting, as is now done in motor trucks specially
designed for transporting and handling pianos and safes. So, also,
while the thought was of traditional practice, standard practice was
held back. Now that the theories of standardization are well
understood, standardization and standards in general can advance
with great rapidity.
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