INDIVIDUALITY SELDOM RECOGNIZED UNDER TRADITIONAL
MANAGEMENT.--Under Traditional Management there was little or no
systematized method for the recognition of individuality or
individual fitness.[6] The worker usually was, in the mind of the
manager, one of a crowd, his only distinguishing mark being the
amount of work which he was capable of performing.
SELECTING WORKERS UNDER TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT.--In selecting
men to do work, there was little or no attempt to study the
individuals who applied for work. The matter of selection was more
of a process of "guess work" than of exact measurement, and the
highest form of test was considered to be that of having the man
actually tried out by being given a chance at the work itself. There
was not only a great waste of time on the work, because men unfitted
to it could not turn it out so successfully, but there also was a
waste of the worker, and many times a positive injury to the worker,
by his being put at work which he was unfitted either to perform, to
work at continuously, or both.
In the most progressive type of Traditional Management there was
usually a feeling, however, that if the labor market offered even
temporarily a greater supply than the work in hand demanded, it was
wise to choose those men to do the work who were best fitted for it,
or who were willing to work for less wages. It is surprising to find
in the traditional type, even up to the present day, how often men
were selected for their strength and physique, rather than for any
special capabilities fitting them for working in, or at, the
particular line of work to be done.
OUTPUT SELDOM SEPARATED UNDER TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT.--Under
Traditional Management especially on day work the output of the men
was not usually separated, nor was the output recorded separately,
as can be done even with the work of gangs.
FEW INDIVIDUAL TASKS UNDER TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT.--Seldom, if
ever, was an individual task set for a worker on day work, or piece
work, and even if one were set, it was not scientifically
determined. The men were simply set to work alone or in gangs, _as
the work demanded_, and if the foreman was overworked or lazy,
allowed to take practically their own time to do the work. If, on
the other hand, the foreman was a "good driver," the men might be
pushed to their utmost limit of their individual undirected speed,
regardless of their welfare.
LITTLE INDIVIDUAL TEACHING UNDER TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT.--Not
having a clear idea either of the present fitness and the future
possibilities of the worker, or the requirements of the work, no
intelligent attempt could be made at efficient individual teaching.
What teaching was done was in the form of directions for all,
concerning the work in general, the directions being given by an
overworked foreman, the holding of whose position often depended
more upon whether his employer made money than upon the way his men
were taught, or worked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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