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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account