The Psychology of Management by Lillian Moller Gilbreth

the men why the rules on the instruction card are given. RELATION OF SYSTEMS TO STANDARDS SHOULD BE EMPHASIZED.--The worker is too often not made to understand the relation of Systems to Standards. The average worker does not object to Systems, because he realizes that the System is a collection of his best, least wasteful methods of doing work. When he can be convinced that standards are only efficient elements of his own methods scientifically studied and combined, any opposition to them will disappear. THE PERSONAL NOTE OF THE "SYSTEM" SHOULD BE PRESERVED.--Perhaps one thing that makes the typical "Systems" so attractive is the personal note that they contain. Illustrated with pictures of successful work that the workers themselves have done, often containing pictures of the men themselves that illustrate successful methods, with mention of the names of men who have offered valuable suggestions or inventions, they make the worker feel his part in successful results. They conserve the old spirit of coöperation between the master and his apprentices. The conditions of modern industry make it extremely difficult to conserve this feeling. Scientific Management is successful not only because it makes possible a more effective coöperation than has ever existed since the old "master-and-apprentice" relation died out, but also because it conserves in the Systems the interim channel for personal communication between the various members of the organization. SYSTEMS A VALUABLE ASSISTANCE IN TRANSITION TO SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.--One great problem which those introducing Scientific Management have to face is exactly how to make the worker understand the relation of the new type of management to the old. The usefulness of the written system in use in most places where it is planned to introduce Scientific Management as a means of making the worker understand the transition has, perhaps, not been appreciated. The development of the standard from the system is easy to explain. This being done, all parts of Scientific Management are so closely related that their interrelation can be readily made apparent. It is the worker's right as well as privilege to understand the management under which he works, and he only truly coöperates, with his will and judgment as well as with his hands, when he feels that his mind is a part of the directing mind. STANDARDIZATION UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT ELIMINATES WASTE SCIENTIFICALLY.--Under Scientific Management the elimination of waste by the use of standards becomes a science. Standards are no longer based on opinions, as under Traditional Management, but are based upon scientific investigation of the elements of experience. As James says, in the "Psychology, Briefer Course," page 156, paragraph 4,--"It is obvious and palpable that our state of mind is never precisely the same. Every thought we have of a given fact is, strictly speaking, unique and only bears a resemblance of kind with our other thoughts of the same facts. When the identical fact recurs we must think of it in a fresh manner, see it under a somewhat different angle, apprehend it in different relations from those in which it last appeared." THE STANDARD THE RESULT OF MEASUREMENT.--It is obvious, therefore, that a scientifically derived standard can never be the outcome of an opinion. Whenever the opinion returns, the different thoughts with which it would be accompanied would so color it as to change it, and the standard with it. It is obvious, therefore, that a standard must be the result of definite mathematical and other measured proof, and not of an opinion, and that the standard must be in such physical shape that the subject-matter will always be clearly defined, otherwise the ultimate losses resulting from dependent sequences of the standard schedule and time-tables would be enormous. SUCCESSFUL STANDARDIZATION DEMANDS COMPLETE CONFORMITY TO STANDARDS.--The laws for establishment of standards; the laws of achieving them; the laws for preventing deviations from those paths that will permit of their achievement; the dependent sequences absolutely necessary to perform the complete whole; these have been worked out and given to the world by Dr. Taylor, who recognized, as James has said, page 157, that, "a permanently existing 'Idea' which makes its appearance before the footlights of consciousness at periodic intervals, is as mythological an entity as the Jack of Spades." The entire organization from the highest to the lowest must conform to these standards. It is out of the question to permit the deviations resulting from individual initiative. Individual initiative is quite as objectionable in obtaining the best results,--that is, high wages and low production cost,--as service would be on a railroad if each locomotive engineer were his own train despatcher, determining at what time and to what place he would go. INITIATIVE PROVIDED FOR.--There is a distinct place for initiative in Scientific Management, but that place is not outside of the planning department, until the planning department's method has been proved to be fully understood by achieving it. The standards must be made by the men to whom this work is assigned, and they must be followed absolutely by the worker. He is willing to follow them, under Scientific Management, because he realizes that a place for his suggestions is supplied, and that, if his suggestions are accepted, they will be incorporated into the new standards which must then be followed by all thereafter. STANDARDIZATION APPLIES TO THE WORK OF ALL.--It is important to note that standardizing is applied to the work of all. This, if understood by all, will do away with all question of discrimination or the lack of a "square deal." It will make the worker feel ready to follow his standard exactly, just as he knows the manager is following his. So, also, the worker should be made to realize that the very fact that there is a standardization means, under Scientific Management, that that applies to every man, and that there is no discrimination against him in any possible way. STANDARDIZATION CONSERVES AND DEVELOPS INDIVIDUALITY.-- Standardization conserves individual capacity by doing away with the wasteful process of trial and error of the individual workman. It develops individuality by allowing the worker to concentrate his initiative upon work that has not before been done, and by providing incentive and reward for inventions. WASTE ELIMINATED IS ELIMINATED PERMANENTLY.--Scientific Management not only eliminates waste, but provides that waste shall be eliminated for all time in the future. The standard once written down, there can be no slipping back into the old methods based upon opinions of the facts. STANDARDIZATION UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT RESEMBLES STANDARDIZATION OF SPELLING.--The need for standardization has already been emphasized, but might further be illustrated by the discussions, pro and con, of the question of simplified spelling. Before the days of dictionaries, our spelling was not standardized-- it was the privilege of any good writer to spell much as he desired; but the creation of written standards of spelling, that is to say the making of dictionaries, fixed the forms of spelling at that time, that is, created standards. The Simplified Spelling Board is now endeavoring to make some new standards, their action being based upon sufficient reasons for making a change, and also for not changing the spelling of any word until it is determined that the suggested spelling is more advisable than the old spelling. Just so, under Scientific Management, the best known standards are used continuously until better have been discovered. The planning department, consisting of the best men available, whose special duty it is to create new standards, acts as does the Simplified Spelling Board, as a court of appeals for new standards, which must pass this court before they can hope to succeed the old, and which must, if they are to be accepted, possess many elements of the old and be changed only in such a way that the users can, without difficulty, shift to the new use. UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT NOMENCLATURE IS STANDARDIZED.--Under Standardization in Scientific Management the standardization of the nomenclature, of the names and of the terms used must be noted. The effect of this upon the mind is excellent, because the use of a word very soon becomes a habit--its associations become fixed. If different names are used for the same thing,--that is to say, if different names are used indiscriminately, the thing itself becomes hazy, in just such a degree as it possesses many names. The use of the fixed term, the fixed word, leads to definiteness always. Just so, also, the Mnemonic Symbol system in use by Scientific Management, leads to swift identification of the subdivision of the classification to which it is applied, and to elimination of waste in finding and remembering where to find any particular thing or piece of information desired. By it may be identified "the various articles of manufacture and papers relating to it as well as the operations to be performed on each piece and the various charges of the establishment." MNEMONIC SYMBOLS SAVE TIME AND EFFORT.--These Mnemonic Symbols save actual motions and time in speaking and writing, and save time in that they are so designed as to be readily remembered. They also save time and effort in that the mind accustomed to them works with them as collective groups of ideas, without stopping to elaborate them into their more detailed form. STANDARD PHRASEOLOGY ELIMINATES WASTE.--As typical of the savings effected by standardization, we may cite a lineman talking to the Central Telephone Office:-- "John Doe--1234 L. Placing Extension Station," This signified-- "My name is John Doe, I am telephoning from number 1234, party L. I have finished installing an extension station. Where shall I go next?" In the same way standard signals are remembered best by the man who signals and are understood quickest by the man who receives them, with a direct increase in speed to the work done. STANDARD MAN IS THE MAN UPON WHOM STUDIES ARE MADE.--The standard man is the ideal man to observe and with whom to obtain the best Motion Study and Time Study data. He is the fastest worker, working under the direction of the man best informed in the particular trade as to the motions of best present practice, and being timed by a Time Study Expert. RELATION BETWEEN THE STANDARD MAN, THE FIRST-CLASS MAN, THE GIVEN MAN AND THE TASK.--The "first-class man" under Scientific Management means the man who is best fitted by nature and by training to do the task permanently or until promoted. The "given man" is the man who is actually put to work at the task, whether or not he is well fitted for its performance. The "task" is that percentage of the standard man's achievement that the given man to whom the task is to be assigned can do continuously and thrive, that he can do easily enough to win his bonus without injuring himself, temporarily or permanently, in any way. WRITING THE STANDARD MEANS FOR CONVEYING INFORMATION.--Under Scientific Management, and even in the early stages of Transitory Management, writing is the standard means of conveying information. All orders, without exception, should be in writing. This insures that the "eye workers" get their directions in the most impressive form; does away with the need of constant oral repetition; eliminates confusion; insures a clear impression in the mind of the giver as well as of the receiver of the order as to exactly what is wanted; and provides a record of all orders given. Putting the instructions in writing in no way precludes utilizing the worker's natural aptitude to learn by imitation, for he also always has the opportunity to watch and imitate the workings of the functional teachers as well as his scientifically taught fellow-workers. THE INSTRUCTION CARD THE STANDARD METHOD OF CONVEYING INSTRUCTIONS AS TO THE TASK.--The records of the work of the standard man are contained in data of the Motion Study and Time Study department. These records, in the form in which they are to be used by the man who is to perform the task, are, for the benefit of that man, incorporated in what is known as the instruction card. DEFINITION OF THE INSTRUCTION CARD.--The instruction card is a set of directions for the man, telling him what he is to do, how he is to do it, how long it should take him to do it, and what he will receive for doing it, and giving him an opportunity to call for, and obtain, assistance the instant that he finds he cannot do it, and to report back to the managers as to how he has succeeded in the performance. The Instruction Card has been called "a self-producer of a predetermined product." COMPARATIVE DEFINITION OF INSTRUCTION CARDS, UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.--There are three types of Instruction Cards, which may be described as follows: Type One:--Largely geographical, telling