The Psychology of Management by Lillian Moller Gilbreth

actual capacity to be. IGNORANCE OF REAL CAPACITY.--Dr. Taylor has emphasized the fact that the average workman does not know either his true efficiency or his true capacity.[7] The experience of others has also gone to show that even the skilled workman has little or inaccurate knowledge of the amount of output that a good worker can achieve at his chosen vocation in a given time.[8] For example,--until a bricklayer has seen his output counted for several days, he has little idea of how many bricks he can lay, or has laid, in a day.[9] The average manager is usually even more ignorant of the capacity of the workers than are the men themselves.[10] This is because of the prevalence of, and the actual necessity for the worker's best interest, under some forms of management, of "soldiering." Even when the manager realizes that soldiering is going on, he has no way, especially under ordinary management, of determining its extent. LITTLE MEASUREMENT IN TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT.--Under Traditional Management there was little measurement of a man's capacity. The emphasis was entirely on the results. There was, it is true, in everything beyond the most elementary of Traditional Management, a measurement of the result. The manager did know, at the end of certain periods of time, how much work had been done, and how much it had cost him. This was a very important thing for him to know. If his cost ran too high, and his output fell too low, he investigated. If he found a defect, he tried to remedy it; but much time had to be wasted in this investigation, because often he had no idea where to start in to look for the defects. The result of the defects was usually the cause for the inquiry as to their presence. He might investigate the men, he might investigate the methods, he might investigate the equipment, he might investigate the surroundings, and so on,--and very often in the mind of the Traditional manager, there was not even this most elementary division. If things went wrong he simply knew,--"Something is wrong somewhere," and it was the work of the foremen to find out where the place was, or so to speed up the men that the output should be increased and the cost lowered. Whether the defects were really remedied, or simply concealed by temporarily speeding up, was not seriously questioned. Moreover, until measuring devices are secured, the only standard is what someone thinks about things, and the pity of it is that even this condition does not remain staple. TRANSITORY MANAGEMENT REALIZES VALUE OF MEASUREMENT.--One of the first improvements introduced when Traditional Management gives place to the Transitory stage is the measurement of the separated output of individual workers. These outputs are measured and recorded. The records for extra high outputs are presented to the worker promptly, so that he may have a keen idea constantly of the relation of effort to output, while the fatigue and the effort of doing the work is still fresh in his mind. The psychology of the prompt reward will be considered later at length, but it cannot be emphasized too often that the prompter the reward, the greater the stimulus. The reward will become associated with the fatigue in such a way that the worker will really get, at the time, more satisfaction out of his fatigue than he will discomfort; at the least, any dissatisfaction over his fatigue will be eliminated, by the constant and first thought of the reward which he has gotten through his efforts. This record of efficiency is often so presented to the workers that they get an excellent idea of the numerical measure of their efficiency and its trend. This is best done by a graphical chart. The records of the outputs of others on the same kind of work done concurrently, or a corresponding record on work done previously, will show the relative efficiency of any worker as compared with the rest. These standards of comparison are a strong incentive and, if they are shown at the time that such work is done, they also become so closely associated not only with the mental but the bodily feeling of the man that the next time the work is repeated, the thoughts that the same effort will probably bring greater results, and that it has done so in the past with others, will be immediately present in the mind. MEASUREMENT IS BASIC UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.--Under Scientific Management measurement is basic. Measurement is of the work, of outputs, of the methods, the tools, and of the worker, with the individual as a unit, and motion study, time study and micro-motion study and the chrono-cyclegraph as the methods of measurement. Measurement is a most necessary adjunct to selecting the workers and the managers and to assigning them to the proper functions and work. They cannot be selected to the greatest advantage and set to functionalized work until-- (a) the unit of measurement that will of itself tend to reduce costs has been determined. (b) methods of measurement have been determined. (c) measurement has been applied. (d) standards for measurement have been derived. (e) devices for cheapening the cost of measuring have been installed. UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT MEASUREMENT DETERMINES THE TASK.--An important aim of measurement under Scientific Management is to determine the Task, or the standard amount of any kind of work that a first class man can do in a certain period of time. The "standard amount" is the largest amount that a first class man can do and continuously thrive. The "first-class" man is the man who can eventually become best fitted, by means of natural and acquired capabilities, to do the work. The "certain period of time" is that which best suits the work and the man's thriving under the work. The amount of time allowed for a task consists of three parts--