The Psychology of Management by Lillian Moller Gilbreth

hours away from work to enjoy ownership, and more money with which to acquire those things that he desires to own. The teacher must make clear to him both these opportunities, as he readily can, since the instinct of ownership is conserved in him in an identical manner. CONSTRUCTIVENESS A PART OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.--Every act that the worker performs is constructive, because waste has been eliminated, and everything that is done is upbuilding. Teaching makes this clear to the worker. Constructiveness is also utilized in that exercise of initiative is provided for. Thus the instinct, instead of being weakened, is strengthened and directed. PROGRESS IN UTILIZING INSTINCTS DEMANDS PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY.--Teaching under Scientific Management can never hope fully to understand and utilize native reactions, until more assistance has been given by psychology. At the present time, Scientific Management labors under disadvantages that must, ultimately, be removed. Psychologists must, by experiments, determine more accurately the reactions and their controlability. More thorough study must be made of children that Scientific Management may understand more of the nature of the reactions of the young workers who come for industrial training. Psychology must give its help in this training. Then only, can teaching under Scientific Management become truly efficient. SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT REALIZES THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING THE WILL.--The most necessary, and most complex and difficult part of Scientific Management, is the training of the will of all members of the organization. Prof. Read states in his "Psychology" five means of training or influencing the will. These are[59] "1. The first important feature in training the will is the help furnished by supplying the mind with a useful body of ideas. "2. The second great feature of the training of the will is the building up in the mind of the proper interests, and the habit of giving the attention to useful and worthy purposes. "3. Another important feature of the training of the will is the establishing of a firm association between ideas and actions, or, in other words, the forming of a good set of habits. "4. Another very important feature of the training of the will has reference to its strength of purpose or power of imitation. "5. The matter of discipline." Teaching under Scientific Management does supply these five functions, and thus provide for the strengthening and development of the will. VARIATIONS IN TEACHING OF APPRENTICES AND JOURNEYMEN.--Scientific Management must not only be prepared to teach apprentices, as must all types of management, it must also teach journeymen who have not acquired standard methods. APPRENTICES ARE EASILY HANDLED.--Teaching apprentices is a comparatively simple proposition, far simpler than under any other type of management. Standard methods enable the apprentice to become proficient long before his brother could, under the old type of teaching. The length of training required depends largely on how fingerwise the apprentice is. OLDER WORKERS MUST BE HANDLED WITH TACT.--With adult workers, the problem is not so simple. Old wrong habits, such as the use of ineffective motions, must be eliminated. Physically, it is difficult for the adult worker to alter his methods. Moreover, it may be most difficult to change his mental attitude, to convince him that the methods of Scientific Management are correct. A successful worker under Traditional Management, who is proud of his work, will often be extremely sensitive to what he is prone to regard as the "criticism" of Scientific Management with regard to him. APPRECIATION OF VARYING VIEWPOINTS NECESSARY.--No management can consider itself adequate that does not try to enter into the mental attitude of its workers. Actual practice shows that, with time and tact, almost any worker can be convinced that all criticism of him is constructive, and that for him to conform to the new standards is a mark of added proficiency, not an acknowledgment of ill-preparedness. The "Systems" do much toward this work of reconciling the older workers to the new methods, but most of all can be done by such teachers as can demonstrate their own change from old to standard methods, and the consequent promotion and success. This is, again, an opportunity for the exercise of personality. SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT PROVIDES PLACES FOR SUCH TEACHING.--Under the methods of teaching employed by Scientific Management,--right motions first, next speed, with quality as a resultant product,--it is most necessary to provide a place where learners can work. The standard planning of quality provides such a place. The plus and minus signs automatically divide labor so that the worker can be taught by degrees, being set at first where great accuracy is not demanded by the work, and being shifted to work requiring more accuracy as he becomes more proficient. In this way even the most untrained worker becomes efficient, and is engaged in actual productive work. MEASUREMENT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING.--Under Scientific Management the results of teaching and learning become apparent automatically in records of output. The learner's record of output of proper prescribed quality determines what pay he shall receive, and also has a proportionate effect on the teacher's pay. Such a system of measurement may not be accurate as a report of the learner's gain,--for he doubtless gains mental results that cannot be seen in his output,--but it certainly does serve as an incentive to teaching and to learning. RELATION OF TEACHING IN SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT TO ACADEMIC TRAINING AND VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE.[60]--Teaching under Scientific Management can never be most efficient until the field of such teaching is restricted to training learners who are properly prepared to receive industrial training.[61] This preparedness implies fitting school and academic training, and Vocational Guidance. LEARNER SHOULD BE MANUALLY ADEPT.--The learner should, before entering the industrial world, be taught to be manually adept, or fingerwise, to have such control over his trained muscles that they will respond quickly and accurately to orders. Such training should be started in infancy,[62] in the form of guided play, as, for example, whittling, sewing, knitting, handling mechanical toys and tools, and playing musical instruments, and continued up to, and into, the period of entering a trade. SCHOOLS SHOULD PROVIDE MENTAL PREPAREDNESS.--The schools should render every student capable of filling some place worthily in the industries. The longer the student remains in school, the higher the position for which he should be prepared. The amount and nature of the training in the schools depends largely on the industrial work to be done, and will be possible of more accurate estimation constantly, as Scientific Management standardizes work and shows what the worker must be to be most efficient. VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE MUST PROVIDE DIRECTION.--As made most clear in Mr. Meyer Bloomfield's book, "Vocational Guidance,"[63] bureaus of competent directors stand ready to help the youth find that line of activity which he can follow best and with greatest satisfaction to himself. At present, such bureaus are seriously handicapped by the fact that little data of the industries are at hand, but this lack the bureaus are rapidly supplying by gathering such data as are available. Most valuable data will not be available until Scientific Management has been introduced into all lines. PROGRESS DEMANDS COÖPERATION.--Progress here, as everywhere, demands coöperation.[64] The three sets of educators,--the teachers in the school, in the Vocational Guidance Bureaus, and in Scientific Management, must recognize their common work, and must coöperate to do it. There is absolutely no cause for conflict between the three; their fields are distinct, but supplementary. Vocational Guidance is the intermediary between the other two. SUMMARY RESULTS TO THE WORK.--Under the teaching of Traditional Management, the learner may or may not improve the quantity and quality of his work. This depends almost entirely on the particular teacher whom the learner happens to have. There is no standard improvement to the work. Under the teaching of Transitory Management, the work gains in quantity as the methods become standardized, and quality is maintained or improved. Under the teaching of Scientific Management, work, the quantity of work, increases enormously through the use of standards of all kinds; quantity is oftentimes tripled. Under the teaching of Scientific Management, when the schools and Vocational Guidance movement coöperate, high output of required quality will be obtained at a far earlier stage of the worker's industrial life than is now possible, even under Scientific Management. RESULTS TO THE WORKER.--Under Traditional Management, the worker gains a knowledge of how his work can be done, but the method by which he is taught is seldom, of itself, helpful to him. Not being sure that he has learned the best way to do his work, he gains no method of attack. The result of the teaching is a habit of doing work which is good, or bad, as chance may direct. Under Transitory Management, with the use of Systems as teachers, the worker gains a better method of attack, as he knows the reason why the prescribed method is prescribed. He begins to appreciate the possibilities and benefits of standardized teaching. The method laid down under Scientific Management is devised to further the forming of an accurate accumulation of concepts, which results in a proper method of attack. The method of instruction under Scientific Management is devised to furnish two things: