Increasing Efficiency In Business by Walter Dill Scott (top 10 most read books in the world TXT) đź“–
- Author: Walter Dill Scott
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photographs reproduced in the house bulletin.
This honor and publicity was the chief reward
received by the great majority of contestants,
and was adequate. Minor prizes were offered
on conditions, allowing a large number to qualify,
and tempting virtually everybody to make
an effort to win one. The value of the prizes
did not need to be great, for each man was
impressed with the idea that his comrades were
watching him, that they observed every advance
or retrogression. Success in the contest
meant “making good” in the eyes of the
other salesmen as well as in the eyes of his
superiors.
<p 72>
_This desire for social approval and the spirited
comment of the editor had a marked influence
on the efficiency of many of the younger
salesmen_.
These special contests were conducted
chiefly during the “rush” seasons, when
activity and efficiency of salesmen meant
greater returns to the house. Because of
their varied forms the contests did not become
monotonous, and thus fail in their effect.
During the three or four “big” selling months
when special quotas were announced, an individual
pocket schedule was mailed to each
man, showing how much business he must close
each day to keep pace with “Mr. Quota,” the
constant competitor.
_The most industrious and ambitious men are
stimulated by competition; with the less industrious
such a stimulation is often wonder working
in its effects_.
For many positions in the business world a
hypothetical bogy should be created after the
style of the quota referred to above.
To increase the feeling of comradeship and
<p 73>
promote co<o:>peration between the men the
entire organization or single sections of it
occasionally should be made the unit of competition.
This is perhaps the most helpful
form of competition, but it is hard to execute.
Valuable prizes should always be given to
the winners. This “need” may not necessarily
be monetary.
Promotion should not depend upon success
in contests, but such success may be well
reckoned in awarding promotions.
Public commendation for success in competition
costs the company little and is greatly
appreciated by the winner. There seems to
be no reason why the head of the house should
not assist in the presentation.
The most essential factor in creating interest
in a contest is the skill of the “sporting
editor” in injecting the real spirit of the
game into each contest, thus securing wide
publicity, and enlisting the co<o:>peration of
large numbers of participants.
Prizes should be widely distributed, so that
the greatest number may be encouraged.
<p 74>
A fair system of handicapping should be
adopted in every case where equal opportunity
to win is not possessed by all. Previous records
often make successful bogies, and should be
more extensively employed.
It is possible to carry on contests between
individuals in the same department without
jealousies, but skill is required to conduct
them. There is the danger that individuals
will seek to win by hindering others as well
as by exerting themselves. Where it is not
possible to carry on a contest and retain a
feeling of comradeship between the men, no
competition should be encouraged.
LOYALTY
AS A MEANS OF INCREASING HUMAN EFFICIENCY
DELAYED by a train of accidents, a
big contractor faced forfeiture of his
bond on a city tunnel costing millions
of dollars. He had exhausted his ingenuity
and his resources to comply with the terms of
his contract, but had failed. Because public
opinion had been condemning concessions on
other jobs on flimsy grounds, the authorities
refused to extend the time allowed for completing
the work. By canceling the contract,
collecting the penalty, and reletting the task,
the city would profit without exceeding its
legal rights.
In his dilemma, he called his foremen
together and explained the situation to them.
“Tell the men,” he said. Many of these
<p 75>
<p 76>
had been members of his organization for
years, moving with him from one undertaking
to the next, looking to him for employment,
for help in dull seasons or in times of misfortune,
repaying him with interest in their
tasks and a certain rough attachment.
He had been unusually considerate, adopting
every possible safeguard for their protection,
recognizing their union, employing three shifts
of men, paying more than the required scale
when conditions were hard or dangerous.
A score of unions were represented in the
organization: miners, masons, carpenters,
plasterers, engineers, electricians, and many
grades of helpers. Learning his plight, they
rallied promptly to his aid. They appealed
to their trades and to the central body of
unions to intervene in his behalf with the city
officials.
_How One Considerate Employer was protected
by his Men_
As taxpayers, voters, and members of an
organization potentially effective in politics,
<p 77>
they approached the mayor and the department
heads concerned. They pointed out—
what was true—that the city’s negligence in
prospecting and charting the course of the
tunnel was partly responsible for the contractor’s
failure. They pleaded that the city
should make allowances rather than interrupt
their employment, and that the delay in the
work would counterbalance any advantage
contingent on forfeiture. They promised also
that if three additional months were given the
contractor, they would _*do all in their power to
push construction_.
The mayor yielded; the extension was
granted. And the men made their promise
good literally, waiving jealously guarded rights
and sparing no effort to forward the undertaking.
The miners, masons, carpenters, and
specialists in other lines in which additional
skilled men could not be secured labored frequently
in twelve-hour shifts and accepted
only the regular hourly rate for the overtime.
With such zeal animating them, only one conclusion
was possible. The tunnel was entirely
<p 78>
completed before the ninety days of grace had
expired.
Here was loyalty as stanch and effective
as that which wins battlefields and creates
nations. It increased the efficiency of the
individual workers; it greatly augmented the
effectiveness of the organization as a whole.
It was developed, without appeal to sentiment,
under conditions which make for division
rather than co<o:>peration between employer
and employee. The men were unionists;
wages, hours, and so on, were contract matters
with the boss. Yet in an emergency, the tie
between the tunnel builder and his men was
strong enough to stand the strain of the fatiguing
and long-continued effort necessary
to complete the job and save the former from
ruin. Like incidents, on perhaps a smaller
and less dramatic scale, are not uncommon;
but the historian of business has not yet risen
to make them known.
<p 79>
_Loyalty, to Nation or Organization, shows itself
in an Emergency_
As with patriotism, business loyalty needs
some such crisis as this to evoke its expression.
In peace the patriotism of citizens is
rarely evident and is frequently called in
question. In America we sometimes assume
that it is a virtue belonging only to past
generations. But every time the honor or
integrity of the country is threatened, a multitude
of eager citizens volunteer in its defense.
Likewise, many a business man who has
come to think his workmen interested only in
the wages he pays them, discovers in his hour
of need an unsuspected asset in their devotion
to the welfare of the business, and their willingness
to make sacrifices to bring it past the
cape of storms.
Study of any field, of any single house, or
of any of the periods of depression which have
afflicted and corrected our industrial progress,
will convince one of the unfailing and genuine
loyalty of men to able and considerate em-
<p 80>
ployers. So generally true is this, indeed, that
“house patriotism,” “organization spirit,” or
“loyalty to the management” is accepted
by all great executives as one of the essential
elements in the day-by-day conduct of their
enterprises.
Striking exhibitions of this loyalty may wait
for an emergency. Unless it exists, however,
unless it is apparent in the daily routine, there
is immediate and relentless search for the
antagonistic condition or method, which is
robbing the force of present efficiency and
future power. Co<o:>peration of employees is
the first purpose of organization. Without
loyalty and team work the higher levels in
output, quality, and service are impossible.
_Loyalty on Part of Employer begets Loyalty in
his Workers_
The importance of loyalty in business could
not readily be overestimated, even though its
sole function were to secure united action on
the part of the officers and men. Where no
two men or groups of men were working to
<p 81>
counter purposes, but all are united in a common
purpose, the gain would be enormous, even
though the amount of energy put forth by the
individuals was not increased in the least.
When to this fact of value in organized effort
we add the accompanying psychological facts
of increased efficiency by means of loyalty,
we then begin to comprehend what it means
to have or to lack loyalty.
The amount of work accomplished by an
individual is subject to various conditions.
The whole intellect, feeling, and will must work
in unity to secure the best results. Where
there is no heart in the work (absence of
feeling) relatively little can be accomplished,
even though the intellect be convinced and the
will strained to the utmost. The employee
who lacks loyalty to his employer can at least
render but half-hearted service even though
he strive to his utmost and though he be convinced
that his financial salvation is dependent
upon efficient service. _The employer who
secures the loyalty of his men not only secures
better service, but he enables his men to accomplish_
<p 82>
more with less effort and less exhaustion. The
creator of loyalty is a public benefactor.
Such loyalty is always reciprocal. The
feeling which workmen entertain for their
employer is usually a reflection of his attitude
towards them. Fair wages, reasonable hours,
working quarters and conditions of average
comfort and healthfulness, and a measure of
protection against accident are now no more
than primary requirements in a factory or
store. Without them labor of the better,
more energetic types cannot be secured in the
first place or held for any length of time.
And the employer who expects, in return for
these, any more than the average of uninspired
service is sure to be disappointed.
If he treats his men like machines, looks
at them merely as cogs in the mechanism
of his affairs, they will function like machines
or find other places. If he wishes to stir
the larger, latent powers of their brains and
bodies, thereby increasing their efficiency
as thinkers and workers, he must recognize
them as men and individuals and give in
<p 83>
some measure what he asks. He must identify
them with the business, and make them
feel that they have a stake in its success and
that the organization has an interest in the
welfare of its men. The boss to whom his
employees turn in any serious perplexity or
private difficulty for advice and aid is pretty
apt to receive more than the contract minimum
of effort every day and is sure of devoted
service in any time of need.
_The Effect of Personal Relations in creating
Loyalty in a Force_
It is on this personal relationship, this platform
of mutual interests and helpfulness, that
the success and fighting strength of many one-man houses are built. As in the contractor’s
dilemma already cited, it bears fruit in the
fighting zeal, the keener interest, and the extra
speed and effort which workers bring to bear
on their individual and collective tasks. All
the knowledge and skill they possess are
thrown into the scale; their quickened intelligences
reach out for new methods and short
<p 84>
cuts; when the crisis
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