OBJECTIONS TO THIS PLAN.--We note here the objection to this
plan: First,--"The workmen are given a share in what they do not
earn; second, the workmen share regardless of individual deserts;
third, the promised rewards are remote; fourth, the plan makes no
provision for bad years; fifth, the workmen have no means of knowing
if the agreement is carried out." Without discussing any farther
whether these are worded exactly as all who have tried the plan
might have found them, we may take these on Mr. Halsey's authority
and discuss the psychology of them. If the workmen are given a share
in what they do not earn, they have absolutely no feeling that they
are being treated justly. This extra reward which is given to them,
if in the nature of a present, might much better be a present out
and out. If it has no scientific relation to what they have gotten,
if the workmen share regardless of individual deserts, this, as Dr.
Taylor says, paragraph 27 in the "Piece Rate System," is the most
serious defect of all, in that it does not allow for recognition of
the personal merits of each workman. If the rewards are remote, the
interest is diminished. If the plan makes no provision for bad
years, it cannot be self-perpetuating. If the workmen have no means
of knowing if the agreement will be carried out or not, they will be
constantly wondering whether it is being carried out or not, and
their attention will wander.
THE PREMIUM PLAN.--The Premium Plan is thus described by Mr.
Halsey--"The time required to do a given piece of work is determined
from previous experience, and the workman, in addition to his usual
daily wages, is offered a premium for every hour by which he reduces
that time on future work, the amount of the premium being less than
his rate of wages. Making the hourly premium less than the hourly
wages is the foundation stone upon which rest all the merits of
the system."
DR. TAYLOR'S DESCRIPTION OF THIS PLAN.--Dr. Taylor comments upon
this plan as follows:
"The Towne-Halsey plan consists in recording the quickest time
in which a job has been done, and fixing this as a standard. If the
workman succeeds in doing the job in a shorter time, he is still
paid his same wages per hour for the time he works on the job, and,
in addition, is given a premium for having worked faster, consisting
of from one-quarter to one-half the difference between the wages
earned and the wages originally paid when the job was done in
standard time," Dr. Taylor's discussion of this plan will be found
in "Shop Management," paragraphs 79 to 91.
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