The Psychology of Management by Lillian Moller Gilbreth

SEPARATING THE PLANNING FROM THE PERFORMING.--The emphasis on separating the planning from the performing in Scientific Management cannot be over-estimated. It is a part of Dr. Taylor's fourth principle of Scientific Management, "Almost equal division of the work and the responsibility between the management and the workmen."[10] The greatest outputs can be achieved to the greatest benefit to managers and men when the work is divided, the management undertaking that part of the work that it is best fitted to do, the workmen performing that part which they are best fitted to do. THE WORK OF THE PLANNING DEPARTMENT.--It has been determined by actual experience that the line of division most agreeable to the managers and the workmen and most productive of coöperation by both, as well as most efficient in producing low costs, is that which separates the planning from the performing. Under Scientific Management the Planning Department relieves the man of determining--