The Psychology of Management - L. M. Gilbreth (read novel full TXT) 📗

Better Habits of Remembering Result. — The results of cultivating the memory under Scientific Management are cumulative. Ultimately, right habits of remembering result that aid the worker automatically so to arrange his memory material as to utilize it better.38

"Imagination" Has Two Definitions. — Professor Read gives definitions for two distinct means of Imagination.

1. "The general function of the having of images."

2. "The particular one of having images which are not consciously memories or the reproduction of the facts of experience as they were originally presented to consciousness." 39

Scientific Management Provides Material for Images. — As was shown under the discussion of the appeals of the various teaching devices of Scientific Management, — provision is made for the four classes of imagination of Calkins40 —

1. visual,

2. auditory,

3. tactual, and

4. mixed.

It Also Realizes the Importance of Productive Imagination. — Scientific Management realizes that one of the special functions of teaching the trades is systematic exercising and guiding of imaginations of apprentices and learners. As Professor Ennis says, — "Any kind of planning ahead will result in some good," but to plan ahead most effectively it is necessary to have a well-developed power of constructive imagination. This consists of being able to construct new mental images from old memory images; of being able to modify and group images of past experiences, or thoughts, in combination with new images based on imagination, and not on experience. The excellence of the image arrived at in the complete work is dependent wholly upon the training in image forming in the past. If there has not been a complete economic system of forming standard habits of thought, the worker may have difficulty in controlling the trend of associations of thought images, and difficulty in adding entirely new images to the groups of experienced images, and the problem to be thought out will suffer from wandering of the mind. The result will be more like a dream than a well balanced mental planning. It is well known that those apprentices, and journeymen as well, are the quickest to learn, and are better learners, who have the most vivid imagination. The best method of teaching the trade, therefore, is the one that also develops the power of imagination.

Scientific Management Assists Productive Imagination. — Scientific Management assists productive, or constructive, imagination, not only by providing standard units, or images, from which the results may, be synthesized, but also, through the unity of the instruction card, allows of imagination of the outcome, from the start.

For example, — in performing a prescribed cycle of motions, the worker has his memory images grouped in such a figure, form, or sequence, — often geometrical, — that each motion is a part of a growing, clearly imagined whole.

The elements of the cycle may be utilized in other entirely new cycles, and are, as provided for in the opportunities for invention that are a part of Scientific Management.

Judgment the Result of Faithful Endeavor. — Judgment, or the "mental process which ends in an affirmation or negation of something," 41 comes as the result of experience, as is admirably expressed by Prof. James, — "Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education whatever the line of it may be. If he keeps faithfully busy each hour of the working day, he may safely leave the final result to itself. He can with perfect certainty count on waking up some fine morning, to find himself one of the competent ones of his generation, in whatever pursuit he may have singled out. Silently, between all the details of his business, the power of judging in all that class of matter will have built itself up within him as a possession that will never pass away. Young people should know this truth in advance. 42 The ignorance of it has probably engendered more discouragement and faint-heartedness in youths embarking on arduous careers than all other causes put together." 43

Teaching Supplies This Judgment Under Scientific Management. — Under Scientific Management this judgment is the result of teaching of standards that are recognized as such by the learner. Thus, much time is eliminated, and the apprentice under Scientific Management can work with all the assurance as to the value of his methods that characterized the seasoned veterans of older types of management.

Teaching Also Utilizes the Judgment. — The judgment that is supplied by Scientific Management is also used as a spring toward action.44 Scientific Management appeals to the reason, and workers perform work as they do because, through the Systems and otherwise, they are persuaded that the method they employ is the best.

The Power of Suggestion Is Also Utilized. 45 — The dynamic power of ideas is recognized by Scientific Management, in that the instruction card is put in the form of direct commands, which, naturally, lead to immediate action. So, also, the teaching written, oral and object, as such, can be directly imitated by the learner. 46

Imitation, which Dr. Stratton says "may well be counted a special form of suggestion," will be discussed later in this chapter at length.47

Worker Always Has Opportunity to Criticise the Suggestion. — The worker is expected to follow the suggestion of Scientific Management without delay, because he believes in the standardization on which it is made, and in the management that makes it. But the Systems afford him an opportunity of reviewing the reasonableness of the suggestion at any time, and his constructive criticism is invited and rewarded.

Suggestion Must Be Followed at the Time. — The suggestion must be followed at the time it is given, or its value as a suggestion is impaired. This is provided for by the underlying idea of coöperation on which Scientific Management rests, which molds the mental attitude of the worker into that form where suggestions are quickest grasped and followed. 48

"Native Reactions" Enumerated by Prof. James. — Prof. James enumerates the "native reactions" as (1) fear, (2) love, (3) curiosity, (4) imitation, (5) emulation, (6) ambition, (7) pugnacity, (8) pride, (9) ownership, (10) constructiveness.49 These are all considered by Scientific Management. Such as might have a harmful effect are supplanted, others are utilized.

Fear Utilized by Ancient Managers. — The native reaction most utilized by the first managers of armies and ancient works of construction was that of fear. This is shown by the ancient rock carvings, which portray what happened to those who disobeyed.50

Fear Still Used by Traditional Management. — Fear of personal bodily injury is not usual under modern Traditional Management, but fear of less progress, less promotion, less remuneration, or of discharge, or of other penalties for inferior effort or efficiency is still prevalent.

Fear Transformed Under Scientific Management. — Under Scientific Management the worker may still fear that he will incur a penalty, or fail to deserve a reward, but the honest, industrious worker experiences no such horror as the old-time fear included. This is removed by his knowledge

1. that his task is achievable.

2. that his work will not injure his health.

3. that he may be sure of advancement with age and experience.

4. that he is sure of the "square deal."

Thus such fear as he has, has a good and not an evil effect upon him. It is an incentive to coöperate willingly. Its immediate and ultimate effects are advantageous.

Love, or Loyalty, Fostered by Scientific Management. — The worker's knowledge that the management plans to maintain such conditions as will enable him to have the four assurances enumerated above leads to love, or loyalty, between workers and employers.51

Far from Scientific Management abolishing the old personal and sympathetic relations between employers and workers, it gives opportunities for such relations as have not existed since the days of the guilds, and the old apprenticeship. 52

The coöperation upon which Scientific Management rests does away with the traditional "warfare" between employer and workers that made permanent friendliness almost impossible. Coöperation induces friendliness and loyalty of each member in the organization to all the others.

Mr. Wilfred Lewis says, in describing the installation of Scientific Management in his plant, "We had, in effect, been installing at great expense a new and wonderful means for increasing the efficiency of labor, in the benefits of which the workman himself shared, and we have today an organization second, I believe, to none in its loyalty, efficiency and steadfastness of purpose."53 This same loyalty of the workers is plain in an article in Industrial Engineering, on "Scientific Management as Viewed from the Workman's Standpoint," where various men in a shop having Scientific Management were interviewed.54 After quoting various workers' opinions of Scientific Management and their own particular shop, the writer says: "Conversations with other men brought out practically the same facts. They are all contented. They took pride in their work, and seemed to be especially proud of the fact that they were employed in the Link-Belt shops." 55

Teaching Under Scientific Management Develops Such Loyalty. — The manner of teaching under Scientific Management fosters such loyalty. Only through friendly aid can both teacher and taught prosper. Also, the perfection of the actual workings of this plan of management inspires regard as well as respect for the employer.

Value of Personality Not Eliminated. — It is a great mistake to think that Scientific Management underestimates the value of personality. 56 Rather, Scientific Management enhances the value of an admirable personality. This is well exemplified in the Link-Belt Co., 57 and in the Tabor Manufacturing Co. of Philadelphia, as well as on other work where Scientific Management has been installed a period of several years.

Curiosity Aroused by Scientific Management. — Scientific Management arouses the curiosity of the worker, by showing, through its teaching, glimpses of the possibilities that exist for further scientific investigation. The insistence on standard methods of less waste arouses a curiosity as to whether still less wasteful methods cannot be found.

Curiosity Utilized by Scientific Management. — This curiosity is very useful as a trait of the learner, the planner and the investigator. It can be well utilized by the teacher who recognizes it in the learner, by an adaptation of methods of interpreting the instruction card, that will allow of partially satisfying, and at the same time further exciting, the curiosity.

In selecting men for higher positions, and for special work, curiosity as to the work, with the interest that is its result, may serve as an admirable indication of one sort of fitness. This curiosity, or general interest, is usually associated with a personal interest that makes it more intense, and more easy to utilize.

Scientific Management Places a High Value on Imitation. — It was a popular custom of the past to look down with scorn on the individual or organization that imitated others. Scientific Management believes that to imitate with great precision the best, is a work of high intelligence and industrial efficiency.

Scientific Management Uses Both Spontaneous and Deliberate Imitation. — Teaching under Scientific Management induces both spontaneous and deliberate imitation. The standardization prevalent, and the conformity to standards exacted, provide that this imitation shall follow directed lines.

Spontaneous Imitation Under Scientific Management Has Valuable Results. — Under Scientific Management, the worker will spontaneously imitate the teacher, when the latter has been demonstrating. This leads to desired results. So, also, the worker imitates, more or less spontaneously, his own past methods of doing work. The right habits early formed by Scientific Management insure that the results of such imitation shall be profitable.

Deliberate Imitation Constantly Encouraged. — Deliberate imitation is caused more than anything else by the fact that the man knows, if he does the thing in the way