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

and are much more

subject to direction, inhibition, or development.

If this love of the game were solely a

matter of inheritance, if the business genius

were born and not made, and if it could not

be cultivated and developed, our hope for the

improvement of the race would be small.

 

Potential geniuses exist in large numbers

but fail of discovery because they are not

developed. Instincts manifest themselves only

in the presence of certain stimulating conditions.

They are developed by exercise and

stimulated further by the success attending

upon their exercise.

 

Thus certain conditions, more or less definite,

are effective in determining the line along which

instincts shall manifest themselves, and the

extent to which the instincts shall be developed

and then ultimately supplemented by

experience and reason.

 

Fortunately we have reason to believe that

although the business genius must have a good

inheritance, yet the inheritance does not determine

what its possessor shall make of himself.

<p 192>

Many persons are inclined to overestimate

the influence of inheritance in determining

success in business. The folly of this attitude

is every day becoming more and more

apparent.

 

The conditions essential for developing

the love of the game in business may be

summarized under three heads:—

 

First, a man will develop a love of the game

in any business in which he is led to assume a

responsibility, to take personal initiative, to

feel that he is creating something, and that he

is expressing himself in his work.

 

As organizations become larger and more complex

in their methods, there is a corresponding

increase in the difficulty of making the employees

retain and develop this feeling of independent

and creative responsibility. Business

has become so specialized and the work of the

individual seems so petty that he is not likely

to feel that he is expressing himself through his

work or to retain a feeling of independence.

Properly conceived, there is no position in

trade or industry which does not warrant such

<p 193>

an attitude. To promote this attitude various

devices have been adopted by business firms.

Some try to put a real responsibility on each

employee and to make him feel it. Others

have devised forms of partnership which give

numerous employees shares in the business

and so help to develop this attitude.

 

In developing men for responsible positions

this attitude must be secured and retained

even while they are occupying the lesser

positions.

 

_Few things so stimulate a boy as the feeling

that he is responsible for a certain task, that he is

expressing himself in it, that he is creating something

worth while_.

 

Many managers and more foremen are

unable to develop this feeling in their subordinates

because they assume all the responsibility

and allow those under them no share of

it. On the other hand, some executives have

the happy faculty of inspiring this attitude

in all their men. The late Marshall Field

made partners of his lieutenants and encouraged

them to assume responsibility and to do

<p 194>

creative work. As a result they developed

a love of the game—a fact to which he owed

much of his phenomenal success.

 

The second condition or factor in the

development of the love of the game in business

is social prestige.

 

We have but partially expressed the nature

of man when we have spoken of him as delighting

in independent self-expression, as

being self-centered and self-seeking. Man is

inherently social in his nature and desires

nothing more than the approval of his fellows.

That which society approves we do with enthusiasm.

We change our forms of amusements,

our manner of life, and our daily occupations

according to the whims of society. Fifteen

years ago the riding of bicycles was quite the

proper thing, and we all trained down till we

could ride a century. To-day we are equally

enthusiastic in lowering bogy on the golf

course. This change in our ambitions is

not because it is inherently more fun to beat

bogy than to ride a century. The change has

come about simply because of the change of

<p 195>

social prestige secured from the two forms of

amusement.

 

We may expect to find enthusiastic industry

in the accomplishment of any task which

society looks upon as particularly worthy.

During the past few decades in America

society has given the capitalist unusual honor

and has allowed him monetary rewards unprecedented

in the history of the world.

 

If the capitalist had been honored less than

the poet, the preacher, or the soldier, and his

material rewards fallen below theirs, our

money captains would have been fewer in

number.

 

In spite of occasional muck rakings, society’s

esteem for the capitalist has been unbounded.

He is in general the only man with

a national reputation. Society bestows upon

him unstinted praise and the most generous

rewards for his toil. His rewards are so extravagant

that the game seems worthy of every

effort he can put forth. Love of the game has

consequently been engendered within him,

and his enthusiasm has been unbounded.

<p 196>

 

This motive of social prestige is less easy

of application to the humbler ranks of employees.

 

Most men engaged in the industries are

entirely deprived of the stimulus because

their social group does not look with approval

upon their daily tasks. It may even despise

men for doing well work essential as preparatory

to better positions. There are many young

men engaged in perfectly worthy employment

who prefer that their social set should not

know of the exact nature of their work for

fear it would be regarded as menial and not

sufficiently “swell.”

 

This disrespect for honest toil is due to

various causes. One cause is that nearly

all young men—and indeed most older men

too—look upon their present positions merely

as stepping stones. They look forward to promotion

and more interesting work. They and

their social group fail to accord dignity to the

work which they are doing at any time.

 

Another reason why the motive of social

prestige has no effect in the more humble

<p 197>

positions is that in business we have practically

abandoned the standard of the artist

and adopted that of the capitalist. The

artist’s standard is diametrically opposed to

the capitalistic standard. We honor the capitalist

not for what he does, but for the money

he gets for what he does. We honor the artist

for what he does and never because of the

monetary considerations which follow his

creation.

 

_To substitute the standard of the artist for the

standard of the capitalist would be impossible

in business, yet a harmonious working of the

two is possible_.

 

Such a harmony was probably present in the

old industrial guilds, which developed a class

consciousness creating its own ideals. Within

the guild the most skillful workman had the

highest honor. The work itself, independent

of the money which might be received for it,

was uppermost in the worker’s mind.

 

The executive seeking to stimulate love of

the game among his workmen should in some

way see that social approval attaches itself

<p 198>

to the work as such and not to the wage which

is secured by means of the work. The workmen

must be given an interest in the work as

well as in the wage.

 

Executives everywhere find that “getting

together” with others engaged in the same

work is most stimulating. We are inspired

by the presence of others engaged in the same

sort of work and giving approval to success in

our particular field.

 

_The third condition for securing a love of the

game is that the work itself must appeal to the

individual as something important and useful_.

 

Its useful function must be apparent, and

the necessity and advantage of perfect

performance must be emphasized. I play golf

because the game permits me to assert myself

and engage in independent and exhilarating

activity. My devotion to my professional

tasks, however, is dependent upon the fact

that I regard psychology, whether the work

be in research or instruction, as of the greatest

importance to science and to mankind in

general. The work as a whole and all the

<p 199>

details of it seem to me to be important. In

performing my daily tasks they seem to me to

be worthy of the most persistent and enthusiastic

effort.

 

Doubtless there are classes of work incapable

of appealing to individuals as does my work to

me. But in many instances work seems menial

and ignoble because it is not understood. It is

not seen in its relationships and broader aspects.

The single task as performed by the

individual is so small and so specialized that

it does not seem worth while.

 

The dignity of labor demands that the

workman should respect the work of his

hands.

 

He should look upon his accomplished

tasks as of inherent dignity independent

of the monetary recompense to be received.

To keep the workman’s efficiency keyed up,

the employer should see to it that this broader

aspect of labor is emphasized and that the day

laborer finds some reason for his labor besides

his wage. It is the only game he may ever

have time to play. It is to the interest of

<p 200>

himself, his employer, and society at large that

he should enter enthusiastically into it and be

ennobled by it.

 

_Professional, technical, and vocational schools

are serving a noble function in emphasizing the

dignity of the work for which they are preparing

young men_.

 

They are more and more presenting the

broader aspects of the subjects taught. Even

the altruistic and extremely technical aspects

of the subject are found profitable. The narrower

and apparently the more practical course

does not result so successfully as the broader

and more cultural ones.

 

The boy who goes direct into work from

the public school is not likely to c<o:>ordinate

his task with the general activity of the

establishment, and he is not likely to see how he

is in anyway contributing to the welfare of

humanity by his work. He needs to be shown

how each line of industry and profession serves

a great function, has an interesting history, and

is vitally connected with many of the most

important human interests. He should learn

<p 201>

to see how the different cogs are essential and

worthy factors in the total process. The boy

who thus comprehends his task looks upon it

and is inspired by it in a way that would

otherwise be quite impossible.

 

Some of the most successful houses have

been so impressed with the importance of this

form of industrial education that at their own

expense they have established night schools for

new employees as well as for those who have

been years with the firm. Not only are the

students taught how to perform their respective

tasks, but a broader program is attempted.

Sometimes an attempt is made to lead the

students to appreciate the dignity of the particular

activity in which the firm is engaged.

The history of the firm is then fully presented

so that the employees will comprehend the part

the house has actually taken in the world.

Some firms try to show each man how his

work is related to the work of the house as a

whole and to other departments. In various

ways schools and individual firms are successfully

attempting to inject a nobler regard

<p 202>

and appreciation for labor. The result is most

gratifying and manifests itself in increased

enthusiasm and other expressions of the increased

love of the game.

 

The three conditions which we have been

considering for developing the love of the

game are quite different, appeal to the different

sides of the individual, and are not all

equally applicable to the young man who

seeks