As will be brought out later under "Incentives," no competition
is approved under Scientific Management which speeds up the men
uselessly, or which brings any ill feeling between the men or any
feeling that the weaker ones have not a fair chance. All of these
things are contrary to Scientific Management, as well as contrary to
common sense, for it goes without saying that no man is capable of
doing his best work permanently if he is worried by the idea that he
will not receive the square deal, that someone stronger than he will
be allowed to cheat or to domineer over him, or that he will be
speeded up to such an extent that while his work will increase for
one day, the next day his work will fall down because of the effect
of the fatigue of the day before.
The field of the contests is widened, as separating of the work
of the individual not only allows for competition between
individuals, but for the competition of the individual with his own
records. This competition is not only a great, constant and helpful
incentive to every worker, but it is also an excellent means of
developing individuality.
ADVANTAGES TO MANAGERS OF SEPARATING OUTPUT.--The advantages to
the managers of separating the work are that there is a chance to
know exactly who is making the high output, and that the spirit of
competition which prevails when men compare their outputs to their
own former records or others, leads to increased effort.
ADVANTAGES TO WORKERS OF SEPARATING OUTPUT.--As for advantages
to the men:
By separation of the individual work, not only is the man's work
itself shown, but at the same time the work of all other people is
separated, cut away and put aside, and he can locate the man who is
delaying him by, for example, not keeping him supplied with
materials. The man has not only an opportunity to concentrate, but
every possible incentive to exercise his will and his desire to do
things. His attention is concentrated on the fact that he as an
individual is expected to do his very best. He has the moral
stimulus of responsibility. He has the emotional stimulus of
competition. He has the mental stimulus of definiteness. He has,
most valuable of all, a chance to be an entity rather than one of an
undiscriminated gang. This chance to be an individual, or
personality, is in great contradistinction to the popular opinion of
Scientific Management, which thinks it turns men into machines. A
very simple example of the effect of the worker's seeing his output
show up separately in response to and in proportion to his effort
and skill is that of boys in the lumber producing districts chopping
edgings for fire wood. Here the chopping is so comparatively light
that the output increased very rapidly, and the boy delights to "see
his pile of fire wood grow."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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