The Psychology of Management by L. M. Gilbreth (latest books to read txt) 📖

Scientific Management Needs Support in Studying Workers. — The best of management is by no means at its ultimate stage in practice in this field. This, not because of a lack in the laws of management, but because, so far, Scientific Management has not received proper support from other lines of activity.

Present Lack of Knowledge of Applicants. — At present, the men who apply to the Industries for positions have no scientifically determined idea of their own capabilities, neither has there been any effort in the training or experience of most of those who apply for work for the first time to show them how fit they really are to do the work which they wish to do.

Supplements Demanded by Scientific Management. — Before the worker can be scientifically selected so that his individuality can be appreciated, Scientific Management must be supplemented in two ways: —

1. By psychological and physiological study of workers under it. By such study of the effect of various kinds of standardized work upon the mind and body, standard requirements for men who desire to do the work can be made.

2. By scientific study of the worker made before he comes into the Industries, the results of which shall show his capabilities and possibilities.9

Whence This Help Must Come. — This study must be made

a. In the Vocational Guidance Work.

b. In the Academic Work, and in both fields psychological and physiological investigations are called for.

Work of Vocational Guidance Bureaus. — Vocational Guidance Bureaus are, at present, doing a wonderful work in their line. This work divides itself into two parts:

1. Determining the capabilities of the boy, that is, seeing what he is, by nature and training, best fitted to do.

2. Determining the possibilities of his securing work in the line where he is best fitted to work, that is, studying the industrial opportunities that offer, and the "welfare" of the worker under each, using the word welfare in the broadest sense, of general wellbeing, mental, physical, moral and financial.

Work of Academic World. — The Academic World is also, wherever it is progressive, attempting to study the student, and to develop him so that he can be the most efficient individual. Progressive educators realize that schools and colleges must stand or fall, as efficient, as the men they train become successful or unsuccessful in their vocations, as well as in their personal culture.

Need for Psychological Study in All Fields. — In both these complementary lines of activity, as in Scientific Management itself, the need for psychological study is evident.10 Through it, only, can scientific progress come. Here is emphasized again the importance of measurement. Through accurate measurement of the mind and the body only can individuality be recognized, conserved and developed as it should be.

Preparedness of Experimental Psychology. — Experimental psychology has instruments of precision with which to measure and test the minds and bodies brought to it, and its leading exponents are so broadening the scope of its activities that it is ready and glad to plan for investigations.

Method of Selection Under Ultimate Management. — Under Ultimate Management, the minds of the workers, — and of the managers too, — will have been studied, and the results recorded from earliest childhood. This record, made by trained investigators, will enable vocational guidance directors to tell the child what he is fitted to be, and thus to help the schools and colleges to know how best to train him, that is to say, to provide what he will need to know to do his life work, and also those cultural studies that his vocational work may lack, and that may be required to build out his best development as an individual.

It is not always recognized that even the student who can afford to postpone his technical training until he has completed a general culture course, requires that his culture course be carefully planned. Not only must he choose those general courses that will serve as a foundation for his special study, and that will broaden and enrich his study, but also he must be provided with a counter-balance, — with interests that his special work might never arouse in him. Thus the field of Scientific Management can be narrowed to determining and preparing standard plans for standard specialized men, and selecting men to fill these places from competent applicants.

What part of the specialized training needed by the special work shall be given in schools and what in the industries themselves can be determined later. The "twin apprentice" plan offers one solution of the problem that has proved satisfactory in many places. The psychological study should determine through which agency knowledge can best come at any particular stage of mental growth.

Effect on Workers of Such Selection. — As will be shown at greater length under "Incentives," Scientific Management aims in every way to encourage initiative. The outline here given as to how men must, ultimately, under Scientific Management, be selected serves to show that, far from being "made machines of," men are selected to reach that special place where their individuality can be recognized and rewarded to the greatest extent.

Selection Under Scientific Management To-day. — At the present day, the most that Scientific Management can do, in the average case, is to determine the type of men needed for any particular kind of work, and then to select that man who seems, from such observations as can be made, best to conform to the type. The accurate knowledge of the requirements of the work, and the knowledge of variables of the worker make even a cursory observation more rich in results than it would otherwise be. Even such an apparently obvious observation, as that the very fact that a man claims that he can do the work implies desire and will on his part to do it that may overcome many natural lacks, — even this is an advance in recognizing individuality.

Effect of This Selection. — The result of this scientific selection of the workman is not only better work, but also, and more important from the psychological side, the development of his individuality. It is not always recognized that the work itself is a great educator, and that acute cleverness in the line of work to which he is fitted comes to the worker.

Individuality Developed by Separating Outputs. — Under Scientific Management the work of each man is arranged either so that his output shows up separately and on the individual records, or, if the Work is such that it seems best to do it in gangs, the output can often be so recorded that the individual's output can be computed from the records.

Purpose of Separating Outputs. — The primary purpose of separating the output is to see what the man can do, to record this, and to reward the man according to his work, but this separating of output has also an individual result, which is even more important than the result aimed at, and that is the development of individuality.

Under Traditional Management and the usual "day work," much of the work is done by gangs and is observed or recorded as of gangs. Only now and then, when the work of some particular individual shows up decidedly better or worse than that of his fellows, and when the foreman or superintendent, or other onlooker, happens to observe this is the individual appreciated, and then only in the most inexact, unsystematic manner.

Under Scientific Management, making individual output show up separately allows of individual recording, tasks, teaching and rewards.

Effect on Athletic Contests. — Also, with this separation of the work of the individual under Scientific Management comes the possibility of a real, scientific, "athletic contest." This athletic contest, which proves itself so successful in Traditional Management, even when the men are grouped as gangs and their work is not recorded or thought of separately, proves itself quite as efficient or more efficient under Scientific Management, when the work of the man shows up separately. It might be objected that the old gang spirit, or it might be called "team" spirit, would disappear with the separation of the work. This is not so, as will be noted by a comparison to a baseball team, where each man has his separate place and his separate work and where his work shows up separately with separate records, such as "batting average" and "fielding average." Team spirit is the result of being grouped together against a common opponent, and it will be the same in any sort of work when the men are so grouped, or given to understand that they belong on the same side.

The following twelve rules for an Athletic Contest under Transitory System are quoted as exemplifying the benefits which accrue to Individuality.

 1. Men must have square deal.

 2. Conditions must be similar.

 3. Men must be properly spaced and placed.

 4. Output must show up separately.

 5. Men must be properly started.

 6. Causes for delay must be eliminated.

 7. Pace maker must be provided.

 8. Time for rest must be provided.

 9. Individual scores must be kept and posted.

10. "Audience" must be provided.

11. Rewards must be prompt and provided for all good scores — not for winners only.

12. Appreciation must be shown. 11

This list shows the effects of many fundamental principles of Scientific Management, — but we note particularly here that over half the rules demand that outputs be separated as a prerequisite.

None of the benefits of the Athletic Contest are lost under Scientific Management. The only restrictions placed are that the men shall not be grouped according to any distinction that would cause hatred or ill feeling, that the results shall be ultimately beneficial to the workers themselves, and that all high scores shall win high prizes.

As will be brought out later under "Incentives," no competition is approved under Scientific Management which speeds up the men uselessly, or which brings any ill feeling between the men or any feeling that the weaker ones have not a fair chance. All of these things are contrary to Scientific Management, as well as contrary to common sense, for it goes without saying that no man is capable of doing his best work permanently if he is worried by the idea that he will not receive the square deal, that someone stronger than he will be allowed to cheat or to domineer over him, or that he will be speeded up to such an extent that while his work will increase for one day, the next day his work will fall down because of the effect of the fatigue of the day before.

The field of the contests is widened, as separating of the work of the individual not only allows for competition between individuals, but for the competition of the individual with his own records. This competition is not only a great, constant and helpful incentive to every worker, but it is also an excellent means of developing individuality.

Advantages to Managers of Separating Output. — The advantages to the managers of separating the work are that there is a chance to know exactly who is making the high output, and that the spirit of competition which prevails when men compare their outputs to their own former records or others, leads to increased effort.

Advantages to Workers of Separating Output. — As for advantages to the men:

By separation of the individual work, not only is the man's work itself shown, but at the same time the work of all other people is separated, cut away and put aside, and he can locate the man who is delaying him by, for example, not keeping him supplied with materials. The man has not only an opportunity to concentrate, but every possible incentive to exercise his will and his desire to do things. His attention is concentrated on the fact that he as an individual