Increasing Efficiency In Business - Walter Dill Scott (ebook reader browser .txt) 📗

he was afraid not to.

The man labored because poverty threatened

him if idle. We were in what might be called

a “pain economy”; we worked to escape pain.

To-day this has largely been changed.

 

Employers, too, are experimenting boldly

with the idea of creating pleasure in work.

The first step has been taken in the very

general elimination of the old wasteful, neglectful

elements of factory and office environment.

Comfort, the first neutral element

of pleasure, is provided for employees just as

solid foundations are provided for the factory

buildings. There is light, heat, and ventilation

where a generation ago there were tiny windows,

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shadows, lonely stoves, and foul air. Cleanliness

is provided and preserved; not a few of

the larger industries employ a regular corps of

janitors to keep floors, walls, and windows clean.

The walls are tinted; the lights are arranged

so as to provide the right illumination without

straining the workers’ eyes. The departments

are symmetrically arranged; the aisles are

wide; the working space is ample; there is

no fear to haunt machine tenders that a mis-step or a moment of forgetfulness will entangle

them in a neighboring machine. The factory

buildings themselves, without being pretentious,

have pleasing, simple lines and unobtrusive

ornamentation. They look like, and

are, when the human equation does not interfere,

*pleasant places to work in.

 

This is the typical modern factory; thousands

can be found in America. On this

foundation of good working conditions and

pleasant environment, many companies have

built more or less elaborate systems of welfare

work, whose effectiveness in creating

pleasure and efficiency seem to depend on the

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purpose and spirit of the men behind them.

These systems frequently begin with beautification

of the factory premises and workrooms

—window boxes, factory lawns, ivied walls,

trees, and shrubs—and advance by various

stages to lunch rooms for workers, factory

libraries, rest rooms for women workers, factory

nurses and physicians, and sometimes the

development of a social life among employees

through picnics, lectures, dances, night schools,

and like activities. The methods employed

are too diverse and too recent to permit an accurate

estimate of their work or a true analysis

of the elements of their success. It is incumbent

on the employer to find or work out for

himself the method best suited to his individual

needs.

 

_To understand how pleasure heightens the

suggestibility of the individual it is but necessary

to consider the well-known effects which pleasure

has on the various bodily and mental processes_.

 

The action of pleasure and displeasure upon

the muscles of the body is most apparent.

With displeasure the muscles of the forehead

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contract; folds and wrinkles appear. The

corners of the mouth are drawn down; the

head bowed; the shoulders stoop and draw

together over the breast; the chest is contracted;

the fingers of the hand close, and there

is also a tendency to bend the arms so as to

protect the fore part of the body. In displeasure

the body is thus seen to contract and

to put itself on the defensive. It closes itself

to outside influences and attempts to “withdraw

within its shell.”

 

With pleasure the forehead is smoothed

out; the corners of the mouth are lifted; the

head is held erect; the shoulders are thrown

back; the chest is expanded; the fingers of

the hand are opened, and the arm is ready to

go out to grasp any object. The whole body

is thrown into a receptive attitude. It is prepared

to be affected by outside stimulations

and is ready to profit by them.

 

That these characteristic bodily attitudes

of pleasure and displeasure have an effect

on the mind is evident. Bodily and mental attitudes

have developed together in the history

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of the race. The conditions which cause a

receptive attitude of body cause also a suggestible

state of mind. The conditions which

call for bodily protection also demand a suspicious

and non-responsive attitude of mind.

The bodily and the mental attitudes have become

so intimately associated that the presence

of one assures the presence of the other.

 

_Pleasure and a particular attitude of body are

indissolubly united, and when these two are

present, a suggestible condition of mind seems of

necessity to follow_.

 

Thus by the subtle working of pleasant

impressions the customer is disarmed of his

suspicion and made ready to respond to the

suggestions of the merchant.

 

The effect of the suggestible attitude of the

body, as produced by pleasure, is increased

by certain other effects which pleasure produces

on the body.

 

Muscular strength is frequently measured

by finding the maximum grip on a recording

instrument. The amount of the grip varies

from time to time and is affected by various

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conditions. One of the phenomena which has

been thoroughly investigated is the effect of

pleasure and of pain on the intensity of the

grip. It is well established that pleasure

increases the grip or the available amount of

energy. Displeasure reduces the strength.

 

The total volume of the body would seem

to be constant for any particular short interval

of time. Such, however, is not the case.

 

_With pleasure the lungs are filled with air

from deepened breathing; the volume of the

limbs is increased by the increased flow of blood.

Pleasure thus actually makes us larger and displeasure

smaller_.

 

This increase in muscular strength and bodily

volume due to pleasure has a very decided

effect upon the mind. The increase of muscular

strength gives us a feeling of power and

assurance, the increase in volume gives us a

feeling of expansion and importance. These

conditions produced by increase of muscular

strength and bodily volume contribute to the

general suggestible condition described above.

 

If I am in a suggestible condition and if I

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also feel an unusual degree of assurance in my

own powers and importance, I shall have such

confidence in the wisdom of my intended acts

that there will seem to be no ground for delay.

Furthermore the increased action of the heart,

due to the effect of pleasure, gives me a feeling

of buoyancy and invigoration which adds appreciably

to the tendency to action.

 

We thus see why pleasure renders us more

suggestible and hence makes us more apt to

purchase proffered merchandise or to respond

to the suggestions of our foreman or our executive.

We also see why it is that a man may

increase his efficiency by pleasing those with

whom he has to work, whether they be customers

or employees.