The Psychology of Management by Lillian Moller Gilbreth

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 directed, his pay will be increased. Such imitation is also encouraged by the fact that the worker is made to believe that he is capable, and has the will to overcome obstacles. He knows that the management believes he can do the work, or the instruction card would not have been issued to him. Moreover, he sees that the teacher and demonstrator is a man promoted from his rank, and he is convinced, therefore, that what the teacher can do he also can do.[58] SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT PROVIDES STANDARDS FOR IMITATION.--It is of immense value in obtaining valuable results from imitation, that Scientific Management provides standards. Under Traditional Management, it was almost impossible for a worker to decide which man he should imitate. Even though he might come to determine, by constant observation, after a time, which man he desired to imitate, he would not know in how far he would do well to copy any particular method. Recording individually measured output under Transitory Management allows of determining the man of high score, and either using him as a model, or formulating his method into rules. Under Scientific Management, the instruction card furnishes a method which the worker knows that he can imitate exactly, with predetermined results. IMITATION IS EXPECTED OF ALL.--As standardization applies to the work of all, so imitation of standards is expected of all. This fact the teacher under Scientific Management can use to advantage, as an added incentive to imitation. Any dislike of imitation is further decreased, by making clear to every worker that those who are under him are expected to imitate him,--and that he must, himself, imitate his teachers, in order to set a worthy example. IMITATION LEADS TO EMULATION.--Imitation, as provided for by teaching under Scientific Management, and admiration for the skillful teacher, or the standard imitated, naturally stimulate emulation. This emulation takes three forms: