The Psychology of Management by Lillian Moller Gilbreth
3. industrial coöperation. These are defined and discussed at
5757 words | Chapter 257
length in his book in a lucid and simple manner.
It is only necessary to quote him here as to the relationship
between these different forms, where he says, page 11,--"The two
leading forms of industrial remuneration under the Wages System are
time wages, and piece wages. Intermediate between these principal
forms, stands that known as task wage, while supplemental to these
two named methods, we find those various systems which will here be
designated by the name of Progressive Wages."[6]
DAY WORK NEVER SCIENTIFIC.--The simplest of all systems, says
Dr. Taylor in "A Piece Rate System," paragraph 10, in discussing the
various forms of compensation "is the Day Work plan, in which the
employés are divided into certain classes, and a standard rate of
wages is paid to each class of men," He adds--"The men are paid
according to the position which they fill, and not according to
their individual character, energy, skill and reliability," The
psychological objection to day work is that it does not arouse
interest or effort or hold attention, nor does it inspire to
memorizing or to learning.
It will be apparent that there is no inducement whatever for the
man to do more than just enough to retain his job, for he in no wise
shares in the reward for an extra effort, which goes entirely to his
employer. "Reward," in this case, is usually simply a living
wage,--enough to inspire the man, if he needs the money enough to
work to hold his position, but not enough to incite him to any extra
effort.
It is true that, in actual practice, through the foreman or some
man in authority, the workers on day work may be "speeded up" to a
point where they will do a great deal of work; the foreman being
inspired, of course, by a reward for the extra output, but, as Dr.
Taylor says, paragraph 17--"A Piece Rate System," this sort of
speeding up is absolutely lacking in self-sustaining power. The
moment that this rewarded foreman is removed, the work will again
fall down. Therefore, day wage has almost no place in ultimate,
scientifically managed work.
PIECE WORK PROVIDES PAY IN PROPORTION TO WORK DONE.--Piece Work
is the opposite of time work, in that under it the man is paid not
for the time he spends at the work, but for the amount of work which
he accomplishes. Under this system, as long as the man is paid a
proper piece rate, and a rate high enough to keep him interested, he
will have great inducements to work. He will have a chance to
develop individuality, a chance for competition, a chance for
personal recognition. His love of reasonable racing will be
cultivated. His love of play may be cultivated.
All of these incentives arise because the man feels that his
sense of justice is being considered; that if the task is properly
laid out, and the price per piece is properly determined, he is
given a "square deal" in being allowed to accomplish as great an
amount of work as he can, with the assurance that his reward will be
promptly coming to him.
DANGER OF RATE BEING CUT.--Piece work becomes objectionable only
when the rate is cut. The moment the rate is cut the first time, the
man begins to wonder whether it is going to be cut again, and his
attention is distracted from the work by his debating this question
constantly. At best, his attention wanders from one subject to the
other, and back again. It cannot be concentrated on his work. After
the rate has been cut once or twice,--and it is sure to be cut
unless it has been set from scientifically derived elementary time
units,--the man loses his entire confidence in the stability of the
rate, and, naturally, when he loses this confidence, his work is
done more slowly, due to lack of further enthusiasm. On the
contrary, as long as it is to his advantage to do the work and he is
sure that his reward will be prompt, and that he will always get the
price that has been determined as right by him and by the employers
for his work, he can do this work easily in the time set. As soon as
he feels that he will not get it, he will naturally begin to do
less, as it will be not only to his personal advantage to do as
little as possible, but also very much to the advantage of his
fellows, for whom the rate will also be cut.
TASK WAGE CONTAINS NO INCENTIVE TO ADDITIONAL WORK.--What
Schloss calls the Task Wage would, as he well says, be the
intermediate between time or day wage and piece wage; that is, it
would be the assigning of a definite amount of work to be done in
definite time, and to be paid for by a definite sum. If the task
were set scientifically, and the time scientifically determined, as
it must naturally be for a scientific task, and the wage adequate
for that work, there would seem to be nothing about this form of
remuneration which could be a cause of dissatisfaction to the
worker. Naturally, however, there would be absolutely no chance for
him to desire to go any faster than the time set, or to accomplish
any more work in the time set than that which he was obliged to, in
that he could not possibly get anything for the extra work done.
WORTH OF PREVIOUS METHODS IN THE HANDLING.--It will be noted in
the discussion of the three types of compensation so far discussed,
that there is nothing in them that renders them unscientific. Any
one of the three may be used, and doubtless all are used, on works
which are attempting to operate under Scientific Management. Whether
they really are scientific methods of compensation or not, is
determined by the way that they are handled. Certainly, however, all
that any of these three can expect to do is to convince the man that
he is being treated justly; that is to say, if he knows what sort of
a contract he is entering into, the contract is perfectly fair,
provided that the management keeps its part of the contract, pays
the agreed-upon wage.
In proceeding, instead of following the order of Schloss we will
follow the order, at least for a time, of Dr. Taylor In "A Piece
Rate System"; this for two reasons:
First, for the reason that the "Piece Rate System" is later than
Schloss' book, Schloss being 1891, and the "Piece Rate" being 1895;
in the second place that we are following the Scientific Management
side in distinction to the general economic side, laid down by
Schloss. There is, however, nothing in our plan of discussion here
to prevent one's following fairly closely in the Schloss also.
THE GAIN-SHARING PLAN.--We take up, then, the Gain-sharing Plan
which was invented by Mr. Henry R. Towne and used by him with
success in the Yale & Towne works. This is described in a paper read
before the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, in professional
paper No. 341, in 1888 and also in the Premium Plan, Mr. Halsey's
modification of it, described by him in a paper entitled the
"Premium Plan of Paying for Labor," American Society of
Mechanical Engineers, 1891, Paper 449. In this, in describing the
Profit-sharing Plan, Mr. Halsey says--"Under it, in addition to
regular wages, the employés were offered a certain percentage of the
final profits of the business. It thus divides the savings due to
increased production between employer and employé."
OBJECTIONS TO THIS PLAN.--We note here the objection to this
plan: First,--"The workmen are given a share in what they do not
earn; second, the workmen share regardless of individual deserts;
third, the promised rewards are remote; fourth, the plan makes no
provision for bad years; fifth, the workmen have no means of knowing
if the agreement is carried out." Without discussing any farther
whether these are worded exactly as all who have tried the plan
might have found them, we may take these on Mr. Halsey's authority
and discuss the psychology of them. If the workmen are given a share
in what they do not earn, they have absolutely no feeling that they
are being treated justly. This extra reward which is given to them,
if in the nature of a present, might much better be a present out
and out. If it has no scientific relation to what they have gotten,
if the workmen share regardless of individual deserts, this, as Dr.
Taylor says, paragraph 27 in the "Piece Rate System," is the most
serious defect of all, in that it does not allow for recognition of
the personal merits of each workman. If the rewards are remote, the
interest is diminished. If the plan makes no provision for bad
years, it cannot be self-perpetuating. If the workmen have no means
of knowing if the agreement will be carried out or not, they will be
constantly wondering whether it is being carried out or not, and
their attention will wander.
THE PREMIUM PLAN.--The Premium Plan is thus described by Mr.
Halsey--"The time required to do a given piece of work is determined
from previous experience, and the workman, in addition to his usual
daily wages, is offered a premium for every hour by which he reduces
that time on future work, the amount of the premium being less than
his rate of wages. Making the hourly premium less than the hourly
wages is the foundation stone upon which rest all the merits of
the system."
DR. TAYLOR'S DESCRIPTION OF THIS PLAN.--Dr. Taylor comments upon
this plan as follows:
"The Towne-Halsey plan consists in recording the quickest time
in which a job has been done, and fixing this as a standard. If the
workman succeeds in doing the job in a shorter time, he is still
paid his same wages per hour for the time he works on the job, and,
in addition, is given a premium for having worked faster, consisting
of from one-quarter to one-half the difference between the wages
earned and the wages originally paid when the job was done in
standard time," Dr. Taylor's discussion of this plan will be found
in "Shop Management," paragraphs 79 to 91.
Psychologically, the defect of this system undoubtedly is that
it does not rest upon accurate scientific time study, therefore
neither management nor men can predict accurately what is going to
happen. Not being able to predict, they are unable to devote their
entire attention to the work in hand, and the result cannot be as
satisfactory as under an assigned task, based upon time study. The
discussion of this is so thorough in Dr. Taylor's work, and in Mr.
Halsey's work, that it is unnecessary to introduce more here.
PROFIT-SHARING.--Before turning to the methods of compensation
which are based upon the task, it might be well to introduce here
mention of "Coöperation," or "Profit-sharing," which, in its extreme
form, usually means the sharing of the profits from the business as
a whole, among the men who do the work. This is further discussed by
Schloss, and also by Dr. Taylor in paragraphs 32 to 35, in "A Piece
Rate System"; also in "Shop Management," quoting from the "Piece
Rate System," paragraphs 73 to 77.
OBJECTIONS TO PROFIT-SHARING.--The objections, Dr. Taylor says,
to coöperation are, first in the fact that no form of coöperation
has been devised in which each individual is allowed free scope for
his personal ambition; second, in the remoteness of the reward;
third, in the unequitable division of the profits. If each
individual is not allowed free scope, one sees at once that the
entire advantage of individuality, and of personal recognition, is
omitted. If the reward is remote, we recognize that its power
diminishes very rapidly; and if there cannot be equitable division
of the profits, not only will the men ultimately not be satisfied,
but they will, after a short time, not even be satisfied while they
are working, because their minds will constantly be distracted by
the fact that the division will probably not be equitable, and also
by the fact that they will be trying to plan ways in which they can
get their proper share. Thus, not only in the ultimate outcome, but
also during the entire process, the work will slow up necessarily,
because the men can have no assurance either that the work itself,
or the output, have been scientifically determined.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT EMBODIES VALUABLE ELEMENTS OF
PROFIT-SHARING.--Scientific Management embodies the valuable
elements of profit-sharing, namely, the idea of coöperation, and the
idea that the workers should share in the profit.
That the latter of these two is properly emphasized by
Scientific Management is not always understood by the workers. When
a worker is enabled to make three or four times as much output in a
day as he has been accustomed to, he may think that he is not
getting his full share of the "spoils" of increased efficiency,
unless he gets a proportionately increased rate of pay. It should,
therefore, be early made clear to him that the saving has been
caused by the actions of the management, quite as much as by the
increased efforts for productivity of the men. Furthermore, a part
of the savings must go to pay for the extra cost of maintaining the
standard conditions that make such output possible. The necessary
planners and teachers usually are sufficient as object-lessons to
convince the workers of the necessity of not giving all the extra
savings to the workers.
It is realized that approximately one third of the extra profits
from the savings must go to the employer, about one third to the
employés, and the remainder for maintaining the system and carrying
out further investigations.
This once understood, the satisfaction that results from a
coöperative, profit-sharing type of management will be enjoyed.
The five methods of compensation which are to follow are all
based upon the task, as laid down by Dr. Taylor; that is to say,
upon time study, and an exact knowledge by the man, and the
employers, of how much work can be done.
DIFFERENTIAL RATE PIECE WORK THE ULTIMATE FORM OF COMPENSATION.--
Dr. Taylor's method of compensation, which is acknowledged by all
thoroughly grounded in Scientific Management to be the ultimate
form of compensation where it can be used, is called Differential
Rate Piece Work. It is described in "A Piece Rate System,"
paragraphs 50 to 52, as follows:--
"This consists, briefly, in paying a higher price per piece, or
per unit, or per job, if the work is done in the shortest possible
time and without imperfection, than is paid if the work takes a
longer time or is imperfectly done. To illustrate--suppose 20 units,
or pieces, to be the largest amount of work of a certain kind that
can be done in a day. Under the differential rate system, if a
workman finishes 20 pieces per day, and all of these pieces are
perfect, he receives, say, 15 cents per piece, making his pay for
the day 15 times 20 = $3.00. If, however, he works too slowly and
turns out only, say 19 pieces, then instead of receiving 15 cents
per piece he gets only 12 cents per piece, making his pay for the
day 12x19= $2.28, instead of $3.00 per day. If he succeeds in
finishing 20 pieces--some of which are imperfect--then he should
receive a still lower rate of pay, say 10¢ or 5¢ per piece,
according to circumstances, making his pay for the day $2.00 or only
$1.00, instead of $3.00."
ADVANTAGES OF THIS SYSTEM.--This system is founded upon
knowledge that for a large reward men will do a large amount of
work. The small compensation for a small amount of work--and under
this system the minimum compensation is a little below the regular
day's work--may lead men to exert themselves to accomplish more
work. This system appeals to the justice of the men, in that it is
more nearly an exact ratio of pay to endeavor.
TASK WORK WITH A BONUS.--The Task work with Bonus system of
compensation, which is the invention of Mr. H.L. Gantt, is explained
in "A Bonus System of Rewarding Labor," paper 923, read before the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, December, 1901, by Mr.
Gantt. This system is there described as follows:--
"If the man follows his instructions and accomplishes all the
work laid out for him as constituting his proper task for the day,
he is paid a definite bonus in addition to the day rate which he
always gets. If, however, at the end of the day he has failed to
accomplish all of the work laid out, he does not get his bonus, but
simply his day rate." This system of compensation is explained more
fully in Chapter VI of Mr. Gantt's book, "Work, Wages and Profits,"
where he explains the modification now used by him in the bonus.
ADVANTAGES OF TASK WORK WITH A BONUS.--The psychological
advantage of the task with a Bonus is the fact that the worker has
the assurance of a living wage while learning, no matter whether he
succeeds in winning his bonus or not. In the last analysis, it is
"day rate" for the unskilled, and "piece rate" for the skilled, and
it naturally leads to a feeling of security in the worker. Mr. Gantt
has so admirably explained the advantages, psychological as well as
industrial, of his system, that it is unnecessary to go farther,
except to emphasize the fine feeling of brotherhood which underlies
the idea, and its expression.
THE DIFFERENTIAL BONUS SYSTEM.--The Differential Bonus System of
Compensation is the invention of Mr. Frederick A. Parkhurst, and is
described by him in his book "Applied Methods of Scientific
Management."
"The time the job should be done in is first determined by
analysis and time study. The bonus is then added above the day work
line. No bonus is paid until a definitely determined time is
realized. As the time is reduced, the bonus is increased."
THREE RATE WITH INCREASED RATE SYSTEM.--The Three Rate System of
Compensation is the invention of Mr. Frank B. Gilbreth and consists
of day work, i.e., a day rate, or a flat minimum rate, which all who
are willing to work receive until they can try themselves out; of a
middle rate, which is given to the man when he accomplishes the work
with exactness of compliance to prescribed motions, according to the
requirements of his instruction card; and of a high rate, which is
paid to the man when he not only accomplishes the task in accordance
with the instruction card, but also within the set time and of the
prescribed quality of finished work.
ADVANTAGE OF THIS SYSTEM.--The advantage of this is, first of
all, that the man does not have to look forward so far for some of
his reward, as it comes to him just as soon as he has shown himself
able to do the prescribed methods required accurately. The first
extra reward is naturally a stimulus toward winning the second extra
reward. The middle rate is a stimulus to endeavor to perform that
method which will enable him easiest to achieve the accomplishment
of the task that pays the highest wage. The day rate assures the man
of a living wage. The middle rate pays him a bonus for trying to
learn. The high rate gives him a piece rate when he is skilled.
Lastly, as the man can increase his output, with continued
experience, above that of the task, he receives a differential rate
piece on the excess quantity, this simply making an increasing
stimulus to exceed his previous best record.
ALL TASK SYSTEMS INVESTIGATE LOSS OF BONUS.--Under all these
bonus forms of wages, if the bonus is not gained the fact is at once
investigated, in order that the blame may rest where it belongs. The
blame may rest upon the workers, or it may be due to the material,
which may be defective, or different from standard; it may be upon
the supervision, or some fault of the management in not supplying
the material in the proper quality, or sequence, or a bad condition
of tools or machinery; or upon the instruction card. The fact that
the missing of the bonus is investigated is an added assurance to
the workman that he is getting the "square deal," and enlists his
sympathy with these forms of bonus system, and his desire to work
under them. The fact that the management will investigate also
allows him to concentrate upon output, with no worry as to the
necessity of his investigating places where he has fallen short.
NECESSITY FOR WORKERS BEARING THIS LOSS.--In any case, whether
the blame for losing the bonus is the worker's fault directly or
not, he loses his bonus. This, for two reasons; in the first place,
if he did not lose his bonus he would have no incentive to try to
discover flaws before delays occurred; he would, otherwise, have an
incentive to allow the material to pass through his hands, defective
or imperfect as the case might be. This is very closely associated
with the second reason, and that is, that the bonus comes from the
savings caused by the plan of management, and that it is necessary
that the workers as well as the management shall see that everything
possible tends to increase the saving. It is only as the worker
feels that his bonus is a part of the saving, that he recognizes the
justice of his receiving it, that it is in no wise a gift to him,
simply his proper share, accorded not by any system of philanthropy,
or so-called welfare work, but simply because his own personal work
has made it possible for the management to hand back his share
to him.
USERS OF ANY TASK SYSTEM APPRECIATE OTHER TASK SYSTEMS.--It is
of great importance to the workers that the users of any of these
five methods of compensation of Scientific Management are all ready
and glad to acknowledge the worth of all these systems. In many
works more than one, in some all, of these systems of payment may be
in use. Far from this resulting in confusion, it simply leads to the
understanding that whatever is best in the particular situation
should be used. It also leads to a feeling of stability everywhere,
as a man who has worked under any of these systems founded on time
study can easily pass to another. There is also a great gain here in
the doing away of industrial warfare.
SHORTER HOURS AND HOLIDAYS EFFECTIVE REWARDS.--Probably the
greatest incentive, next to promotion and more pay, are shorter
hours and holidays. In some cases, the shorter hours, or holidays,
have proven even more attractive to the worker than the increase of
pay. In Shop Management, paragraph 165, Dr. Taylor describes a case
where children working were obliged to turn their entire pay
envelopes over to their parents. To them, there was no particular
incentive in getting more money, but, when the task was assigned, if
they were allowed to go as soon as their task was completed, the
output was accomplished in a great deal shorter time. Another case
where shorter hours were successfully tried, was in an office where
the girls were allowed the entire Saturday every two weeks, if the
work was accomplished within a set amount of time. This extra time
for shopping and matinees proved more attractive than any reasonable
amount of extra pay that could be offered.
DESIRE FOR APPROBATION AN INCENTIVE.--Under "Individuality" were
discussed various devices for developing the individuality of the
man, such as his picture over a good output or record. These all act
as rewards or incentives. How successful they would be, depends
largely upon the temperament of the man and the sort of work that is
to be done. In all classes of society, among all sorts of people,
there is the type that loves approbation. This type will be appealed
to more by a device which allows others to see what has been done
than by almost anything else. As to what this device must be,
depends on the intelligence of the man.
NECESSITY FOR COÖPERATION A STRONG INCENTIVE.--Under Scientific
Management, many workers are forced by their coworkers to try to
earn their bonuses, as "falling down on" tasks, and therefore
schedules, may force them to lose their bonuses also.
The fact that, in many kinds of work, a man falling below his
task will prevent his fellows from working, is often a strong
incentive to that man to make better speed. For example, on a
certain construction job in Canada, the teamsters were shown that,
by their work, they were cutting down working opportunities for cart
loaders, who could only be hired as the teamsters hauled sufficient
loads to keep them busy.
VALUE OF KNOWLEDGE GAINED AN INCENTIVE TO A FEW ONLY.--Extra
knowledge, and the better method of attack learned under Scientific
Management, are rewards that will be appreciated by those of
superior intelligence only. They will, in a way, be appreciated by
all, because it will be realized that, through what is learned, more
pay or promotion is received, but the fact that this extra
knowledge, and better method of attack, will enable one to do better
in all lines, not simply in the line at which one is working, and
will render one's life more full and rich, will be appreciated only
by those of a wide experience.
ACQUIRED PROFESSIONAL STANDING A POWERFUL INCENTIVE.--Just as
the success of the worker under Scientific Management assures such
admiration by his fellow-workers as will serve as an incentive
toward further success, so the professional standing attained by
success in Scientific Management acts as an incentive to those in
more responsible positions.
As soon as it is recognized that Scientific Management furnishes
the only real measure of efficiency, its close relationship to
professional standing will be recognized, and the reward which it
can offer in this line will be more fully appreciated.
PUNISHMENTS NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE.--Punishments may be first
negative, that is, simply a loss of promised rewards. Such
punishments, especially in cases of men who have once had the
reward, usually will act as the necessary stimulus to further
activity. Punishments may also be positive, such things as fines,
assignment to less pleasant work, or as a last resort, discharge.
FINES NEVER ACCRUE TO THE MANAGEMENT.--Fines have been a most
successful mode of punishment under Scientific Management. Under
many of the old forms of management, the fines were turned back to
the management itself, thus raising a spirit of animosity in the
men, who felt that everything that they suffered was a gain to those
over them. Under Scientific Management all fines are used in some
way for the benefit of the men themselves. All fines should be used
for some benefit fund, or turned into the insurance fund. The fines,
as has been said, are determined solely by the disciplinarian, who
is disinterested in the disposition of the funds thus collected. As
the fines do not in any way benefit the management, and in fact
rather hurt the management in that the men who pay them, no matter
where they are applied, must feel more or less discouraged, it is,
naturally, for the benefit of the management that there shall be as
few fines as possible. Both management and men realize this, which
leads to industrial peace, and also leads the managers, the
functional foremen, and in fact every one, to eliminate the
necessity and cause for fines to as great an extent as is possible.
ASSIGNMENT TO LESS PLEASANT WORK EFFECTIVE PUNISHMENT.--
Assignment to less pleasant work is a very effective form of
discipline. It has many advantages which do not show on the surface,
The man may not really get a cut in pay, though his work be changed,
and thus the damage he receives is in no wise to his purse, but
simply to his feeling of pride. In the meantime, he is gaining a
wider experience of the business, so that even the worst
disadvantage has its bright side.
DISCHARGE TO BE AVOIDED WHEREVER POSSIBLE.--Discharge is, of
course, available under Scientific Management, as under all other
forms, but it is really less used under Scientific Management than
under any other sort, because if a man is possibly available, and in
any way trained, it is better to do almost anything to teach him, to
assign him to different work, to try and find his possibilities,
than to let him go, and have all that teaching wasted as far as the
organization which has taught it is concerned.
DISCHARGE A GRAVE INJURY TO A WORKER.--Moreover, Scientific
Management realizes that discharge may be a grave injury to a
worker. As Mr. James M. Dodge, who has been most successful in
Scientific Management and is noted for his good work for his
fellow-men, eloquently pleads, in a paper on "The Spirit in Which
Scientific Management Should Be Approached," given before the
Conference on Scientific Management at Dartmouth College,
October, 1911:
"It is a serious thing for a worker who has located his home
within reasonable proximity to his place of employment and with
proper regard for the schooling of his children, to have to seek
other employment and readjust his home affairs, with a loss of time
and wages. Proper management takes account not only of this fact,
but also of the fact that there is a distinct loss to the employer
when an old and experienced employé is replaced by a new man, who
must be educated in the methods of the establishment. An old employé
has, in his experience, a potential value that should not be lightly
disregarded, and there should be in case of dismissal the soundest
of reasons, in which personal prejudice or temporary mental
condition of the foreman should play no part.
"Constant changing of employés is not wholesome for any
establishment, and the sudden discovery by a foreman that a man who
has been employed for a year or more is 'no good' is often a
reflection on the foreman, and more often still, is wholly untrue.
All working men, unless they develop intemperate or dishonest
habits, have desirable value in them, and the conserving and
increasing of their value is a duty which should be assumed by
their superiors."
PUNISHMENT CAN NEVER BE ENTIRELY ABOLISHED.--It might be asked
why punishments are needed at all under this system; that is, why
positive punishments are needed. Why not merely a lack of reward for
the slight offenses, and a discharge if it gets too bad? It must be
remembered, however, that the punishments are needed to insure a
proper appreciation of the reward. If there is no negative side, the
beauty of the reward will never be realized; the man who has once
suffered by having his pay cut for something which he has done
wrong, will be more than ready to keep up to the standard. In the
second place, unless individuals are punished, the rights of other
individuals will, necessarily, be encroached upon. When it is
considered that under Scientific Management the man who gives the
punishment is the disinterested disciplinarian, that the punishment
is made exactly appropriate to the offense, and that no advantage
from it comes to any one except the men themselves, it can be
understood that the psychological basis is such as to make a
punishment rather an incentive than a detriment.
DIRECT INCENTIVES NUMEROUS AND POWERFUL.--As for the direct
incentives, these are so many that it is possible to enumerate only
a few. For example--
This may be simply a result of love of speed, love of play, or
love of activity, or it may be, in the case of a man running a
machine, not so much for the love of the activity as for a love of
seeing things progress rapidly. There is a love of contest which has
been thoroughly discussed under "Athletic Contests," which results
in racing, and in all the pleasures of competition.
RACING DIRECTED UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.--The psychology of
the race under Scientific Management is most interesting. The race
is not a device of Scientific Management to speed up the worker, any
speed that would be demanded by Scientific Management beyond the
task-speed would be an unscientific thing. On the other hand, it is
not the scope of Scientific Management to bar out any contests which
would not be for the ultimate harm of the workers. Such interference
would hamper individuality; would make the workers feel that they
were restricted and held down. While the workers are, under
Scientific Management, supposed to be under the supervision of some
one who can see that the work is only such as they can do and
continuously thrive, any such interference as, for example, stopping
a harmless race, would at once make them feel that their individual
initiative was absolutely destroyed. It is not the desire of
Scientific Management to do anything of that sort, but rather to use
every possible means to make the worker feel that his initiative is
being conserved.
ALL "NATIVE REACTIONS" ACT AS INCENTIVES.--Pride,
self-confidence, pugnacity,--all the "native reactions" utilized by
teaching serve as direct incentives.
RESULTS OF INCENTIVES TO THE WORK.--All incentives in every form
of management, tend, from their very nature, to increase output.
When Scientific Management is introduced, there is selection of such
incentives as will produce greatest amount of specified output, and
the results can be predicted.
RESULTS OF INCENTIVES TO THE WORKER.--Under Traditional
Management the incentives are usually such that the worker is likely
to overwork himself if he allows himself to be driven by the
incentive. This results in bodily exhaustion. So, also, the anxiety
that accompanies an unstandardized incentive leads to mental
exhaustion. With the introduction of Transitory Management, danger
from both these types of exhaustion is removed. The incentive
is so modified that it is instantly subject to judgment as to its
ultimate value.
Scientific Management makes the incentives stronger than they
are under any other type, partly by removing sources of worry, waste
and hesitation, partly by determining the ratio of incentive to
output. The worker under such incentives gains in bodily and mental
poise and security.
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