The Psychology of Management by L. M. Gilbreth (best large ebook reader .txt) 📕

Programmes Become Records. — Under Traditional Management the record that follows a programme may appear very different from the programme. Under Scientific Management the record that follows a programme most closely resembles the programme. Improvements are not made between the programme and the following record, — they find their place between the record and the following programme. Thus programmes and records may be grouped in pairs, by similarity, with a likelihood of difference between any one pair (one programme plus one record) and other pairs.

Result on the Worker. — The greatest effect, on the worker, of these relations of record to programme under Scientific Management is the confidence that he gains in the judgment that is an outcome of Scientific Management. When the worker sees that Scientific Management makes possible accurate predictions of times, schedules, tasks, and performance; that the methods prescribed invariably enable him to achieve prescribed results, his confidence in Scientific Management grows. So also does the manager's confidence in Scientific Management grow, — and in this mutual confidence in the system of management is another bond of sympathy.

The place left for suggestions and improvements, in the ever-present opportunities to better standards, fulfills that longing for a greater efficiency that is the cause of progress.

 1. Gillette and Dana, Cost Keeping and Management Engineering, p. 65.

 2. H.L. Gantt, Paper No. 1002, A.S.M.E., page 2.

 3. Gillette and Dana, Cost Keeping and Management Engineering, p. VII.

 4. H.L. Gantt, Paper No. 1002, A.S.M.E., p. 1336.

 5. William James, Psychology, Briefer Course, p. 179.

Definition of Teaching. — The Century Dictionary defines "teaching" as "the act or business of instructing," with synonyms: "training" and "education;" and "to teach" is defined: —

1. "to point out, direct, show;" "to tell, inform, instruct, explain;"

2. "to show how (to do something); hence, to train;"

3. "to impart knowledge or practical skill to;" "to guide in learning, educate."

"Educate," we find meaning "to instruct, to teach methodically, to prescribe to; to indoctrinate;" and by "indoctrinate" is meant "to cause to hold as a doctrine or belief." "To educate," says the same authority, "is to develop mentally or morally by instruction; to qualify by instruction and training for the business and duty of life."

Under Traditional Management No Definite Plan of Teaching. — Under Traditional Management there is either no definite scheme of teaching by the management itself, or practically none; at least, this is usually the condition under the most elementary types of Traditional Management. In the very highest examples of the traditional plan the learner may be shown how, but this showing is not usually done in a systematic way, and under so-called Traditional Management is seldom in the form of written instructions.

No Specified Time for or Source of the Teaching. — Under Traditional Management there is no particular time in which this teaching goes on, no particular time allowed for the worker to ask for the instruction, nor is there any particular source from which he obtains the instructions. There is, moreover, almost every hindrance against his getting any more instruction than he absolutely must have in order to get the work done. The persons to whom he can possibly appeal for further information might discharge him for not already knowing. These persons are, if he is an apprentice, an older worker; if he is a journeyman, the worker next to him, or the foreman, or someone over him. An important fact bearing on this subject is that it is not to the pecuniary advantage of any particular person to give this teaching. In the first place, if the man be a fellow-worker, he will want to do his own work without interruption, he will not want to take the time off; moreover, he regards his particular skill as more or less of a trade secret, and desires to educate no more people than necessary, to be as clever as he is. In the third place, there is no possible reward for giving this instruction. Of course, the worker necessarily improves under any sort of teaching, and if he has a receptive mind, or an inventive mind, he must progress constantly, either by teaching himself or by the instruction, no matter how haphazard.

Great Variation Under Traditional Management. — Only discussion of teaching under this type of management with many men who have learned under it, can sufficiently emphasize the variations to be found. But the consensus of opinion would seem to prove that an apprentice of only a generation ago was too often hazed, was discouraged from appealing for assistance or advice to the workers near him, or to his foreman; was unable to find valuable literature for home-study on the subject of his trade. The experience of many an apprentice was, doubtless, different from this, but surely the mental attitude of the journeymen who were the only teachers must have tended toward some such resulting attitude of doubt or hesitancy in the apprentice.

Mental Attitude of the Worker-Teacher. — Under the old plan of management, the apprentice must appear to the journeyman more or less of a supplanter. From the employee's standpoint it was most desirable that the number of apprentices be kept down, as an oversupply of labor almost invariably resulted in a lowering of wages. The quicker and better the apprentice was taught, the sooner he became an active competitor. There seldom existed under this type of management many staff positions to which the workers could hope to be promoted, certainly none where they could utilize to the fullest extent their teaching ability. There was thus every reason for a journeyman to regard the teaching of apprentices as unremunerative, irksome, and annoying.

Worker Not to Blame for This. — The worker is not to be blamed for this attitude. The conditions under which he worked made it almost inevitable. Not only could he gain little or nothing by being a successful teacher, but also the bullying instinct was appealed to constantly, and the desire of the upper classmen in hazing days to make the next class "pay up" for the hazing that they were obliged to endure in their Freshman year.

Attitude of the Learner. — The attitude of the typical learner must frequently be one of hesitancy and self-distrust if not of fear, though conditions were so varied as almost to defy classification. One type of apprentice was expected to learn merely by observation and imitation. Another was practically the chore boy of the worker who was assigned to teach him. A third was under no direct supervision at all, but was expected to "keep busy," finding his work by himself. A fourth was put through a severe and valuable training by a martinet teacher, — and so on.

Teaching Often Painstaking. — It is greatly to the credit of the worker under this type of management that he was, in spite of all drawbacks, occasionally a painstaking teacher, to the best of his lights. He insisted on application, and especially on quality of work. He unselfishly gave of his own time and skill to help the apprentice under him.

Methods of Teaching Usually Wrong. — Unfortunately, through no fault of the worker-teacher the teaching was usually done according to wrong methods. Quality of resulting output was so emphasized that neither speed nor correct motions were given proper consideration.

Teacher Not Trained to Teach. — The reason for this was that the worker had no training to be a teacher. In the first place, he had no adequate idea of his own capabilities, and of which parts of his own method were fit to be taught. In the second place, he did not know that right motions must be insisted on first, speed next, and quality of output third; or in other words that if the motions were precise enough, the quality would be first. In the fourth place he had no pedagogical training.

Lack of Standards an Underlying Lack. — All shortcoming in the old time teaching may be traced to lack of standards. The worker had never been measured, hence had no idea of his efficiency, or of possible efficiency. No standard methods made plain the manner in which the work should be done. Moreover, no standard division and assignment of work allowed of placing apprentices at such parts of the work that quality could be given third place. No standard requirements had determined his fitness as a teacher, nor the specialty that he should teach, and no incentive held his interest to the teaching. These standards the worker-teacher could not provide for himself, and the wonder is that the teaching was of such a high character as it was.

Very Little Teaching of Adults. — Under Traditional Management, teaching of adults was slight, — there being little incentive either to teacher or to learner, and it being always difficult for an adult to change his method. 1 Moreover, it would be difficult for a worker using one method to persuade one using another that his was the better, there being no standard. Even if the user of the better did persuade the other to follow his method, the final result might be the loss of some valuable elements of the poorer method that did not appear in the better.

Failure to Appreciate the Importance of Teaching. — An underestimation of the importance of teaching lay at the root of the lack of progress. This is so directly connected with all the other lacks of Traditional Management, — provision for adequate promotion and pay, standards, and the other underlying principles of Scientific Management, especially the appreciation of coöperation, — that it is almost impossible to disentangle the reasons for it. Nor would it be profitable to attempt to do so here. In considering teaching under Scientific Management we shall show the influence of the appreciation of teaching, — and may deduce the lacks from its non-appreciation, from that discussion.

Under Transitory System Teaching Becomes More Important. — Under Transitory Management the importance of teaching becomes at once more apparent. This, both by providing for the teaching of foremen and journeymen as well as apprentices, and by the providing of written systems of instructions as to best practice. The worker has access to all the sources of information of Traditional Management, and has, besides these, in effect, unsystematically derived standards to direct him.

Systems Make Instruction Always Available. — The use of written systems enables every worker to receive instruction at any time, to feel free to ask it, and to follow it without feeling in any way humiliated.

The result of the teaching of these systems is a decided improvement in methods. If the written systems are used exclusively as a source of teaching, except for the indefinite teachers of the Traditional Management, the improvement becomes definitely proportioned to the time which the man spends upon the studying and to the amount of receptive power which he naturally has.

Incentives to Conform to System. — The worker has incentives to follow the systems —

1. In that he is required to render reasons in writing for permanent filing, for every disobedience of system.

2. That, as soon as work is placed on the bonus basis, the first bonus that is given is for doing work in accordance with the prescribed method.

Even before the bonus is paid, the worker will not vary for any slight reasons, if he positively knows at the time that he must account for so doing, and that he will be considered to have "stacked his judgment" against that of the manager. Being called to account for deviations gives the man a feeling of responsibility for his act, and also makes him feel his close relationship with the managers.

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