The Psychology of Management by Lillian Moller Gilbreth
4. that he is sure of the "square deal."
1041 words | Chapter 224
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:
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