dual 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."
With the separation of the work comes not only the opportunity
for the men to see their own work, but also to see that of others,
and there comes with this the spirit of imitation, or the spirit of
friendly opposition, either of which, while valuable in itself is
even more valuable as the by-product of being a life-giving thought,
and of putting life into the work such as there never could be when
the men were working together, more or less objectless, because they
could not see plainly either what they were doing themselves, or
what others were doing.
Separation of the output of the men gives them the greatest
opportunity to develop. It gives them a chance to concentrate their
attention at the work on which they are, because it is not necessary
for them to waste any time to find out what that work is. Their work
stands out by itself; they can put their whole minds to that work;
they can become interested in that work and its outcome, and they
can be positive that what they have done will be appreciated and
recognized, and that it will have a good effect, with no possibility
of evil effect, upon their chance for work and their chance for pay
and promotion in the future. Definiteness of the boundaries, then,
is not only good management in that it shows up the work and that it
allows each man to see, and each man over him, or observing him to
see exactly what has been done,--it has also an excellent effect
upon the worker's mind.
INDIVIDUALITY DEVELOPED BY RECORDING OUTPUT SEPARATELY.--The
spirit of individuality is brought out still more clearly by the
fact that under Scientific Management, output is record
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