L. M. Gilbreth - The Psychology of Management

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Again, even if it were possible to plan best by individual
planning, there is a further waste in changing from one kind of work
to another. This waste is so great and so obvious that it was
noticed and recognized by the earliest manufacturers and economists.

HARDSHIP TO THE WORKER OF INDIVIDUAL PLANNING.--To obtain the
most wages and profits there must be the most savings to divide.
These cannot be obtained when each man plans for himself (except in
the home trades), because all large modern operations have the
quantity of output dependent upon the amount of blockades, stoppages
and interferences caused by dependent sequences. It is not,
therefore, possible to obtain the most profit or most wages by
individual planning. Planning is a general function, and the only
way to obtain the best results is by organized planning, and by
seeing that no planning is done for one worker without proper
consideration of its bearing and effect upon any or all the other
men's outputs.

THE MAN WHO DESIRES TO BE A PLANNER CAN BE ONE.--If the worker
is the sort of a man who can observe and plan, or who desires to
plan, even though he is not at first employed in the planning
department, he is sure to get there finally, as the system provides
that each man shall go where he is best fitted. Positions in
planning departments are hard to fill, because of the scarcity of
men equipped to do this work. The difficulty of teaching men to
become highly efficient planners is one of the reasons for the slow
advance of the general adoption of Scientific Management.

THE MAN WHO DISLIKES PLANNING CAN BE RELIEVED.--It must not be
forgotten that many people dislike the planning responsibility in
connection with their work. For such, relief from planning makes the
performance of the planned work more interesting and desirable.

PROVISION FOR PLANNING BY ALL UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.--Much
has been said about the worker's "God-given rights to think," and
about the necessity for providing every worker with an opportunity
to think.

Scientific Management provides the fullest opportunities for
every man to think, to exercise his mental faculties, and to plan

1. in doing the work itself, as will be shown at length in
chapters that follow.
2. outside of the regular working hours, but in connection
with promotion in his regular work.

Scientific Management provides always, and most emphatically,
that the man shall have hours free from his work in such a state
that he will not be too fatigued to do anything. Furthermore, if he
work as directed, his number of working hours per day will be so
reduced that he will have more time each day for his chosen form of
mental stimulus and improvement.

Our friend John Brashear is a most excellent example of what one
can do in after hours away from his work. He was a laborer in a
steel mill. His duties were not such as resemble in any way planning
or research work, yet he became one of the world's most prominent
astronomical thinkers and an Honorary member of the American Society
of Mechanical Engineers, because he had the desire to be a student.
Under Scientific Management such a desire receives added impetus
from the method of attack provided for through its teaching.

FUNCTIONALIZING THE WORK ITSELF.--The work of each part of the
planning and performing departments may be functionalized, or
subdivided, as the result of motion study and time study. The
elementary timed units are combined or synthesized into tasks, made
to fit the capabilities of specialized workers. It is then necessary
to:--

1. List the duties and requirements of the work.
2. Decide whether the place can be best handled as one, or
subdivided into several further subdivisions, or functions,
or even sub-functions, for two or more function specialists.

For the sake of analysis, all work may be considered as of
one of two classes:--

1. the short time job.
2. the long time job.

These two divisions are handled differently, as follows:

THE SHORT TIME JOB.--On the short time job that probably will
never be repeated, there is little opportunity and no economic
reason for specially training a man for its performance. The
available man best suited to do the work with little or no help
should be chosen to do it. The suitability of the man for the work
should be determined only by applying simple tests, or, if even
these will cause costly delay or more expense than the work
warrants, the man who appears suitable and who most desires the
opportunity to do the work can be assigned to it.

If the job is connected with a new art, a man whose habits will
help him can be chosen.

For example:--in selecting a man to fly, it has been found
advantageous to give a trick bicycle rider the preference.

There is no other reason why the man for the short job should
not be fitted as well to his work as the man for the long job,
except the all-important reason of cost for special preparation. Any
expense for study of the workers must be borne ultimately both by
worker and management, and it is undesirable to both that expense
should be incurred which will not be ultimately repaid.

THE LONG TIME JOB.--The long time job allows of teaching,
therefore applicants for it may be carefully studied. Usually that
man should be chosen who, with all the natural qualifications and
capabilities for the job, except practical skill, requires the most
teaching to raise him from the lower plane to that highest mental
and manual plane which he is able to fill successfully continuously.
In this way each man will be developed into a worker of great value
to the management and to himself.

The man who is capable and already skilled at some work is thus
available for a still higher job, for which he can be taught. Thus
the long job affords the greatest opportunity for promotion. The
long job justifies the expenditure of money, effort and time by
management and men, and is the ideal field for the application of
scientific selection and functionalization.

SUMMARY

EFFECT OF FUNCTIONALIZATION UPON THE WORK.--Under Traditional
Management, there was little or no definite functionalization. If
the quantity of output did increase, as the result of putting a man
at that work for which he seemed best fitted, there was seldom
provision made for seeing that the quality of product was maintained
by a method of constructive inspection that prevented downward
deviations from standard quality, instead of condemning large
quantities of the finished product.

Under Transitory Management, the Department of Inspection is one
of the first Functions installed. This assures maintained quality,
and provides that all increase in output shall be actual gain.

Under Scientific Management, functionalization results in
increased quantity of output,[16] with maintained and usually
increased quality.[17] This results in decreased cost. The cost is
sufficiently lower to allow of increased wages to the employes, a
further profit to the employer, and a maintained, or lowered,
selling price. This means a benefit to the consumer.

It may be objected that costs cannot be lowered, because of the
number of so-called "non-producers" provided for by Scientific
Management.

In answer to this it may be said that there are no non-producers
under Scientific Management. Corresponding work that, under
Scientific Management, is done in the planning department must all
be done somewhere, in a less systematic manner, even under
Traditional Management.[18] The planning department, simply does
this work more efficiently,--with less waste. Moreover, much work of
the planning department, being founded on elementary units, is
available for constant use. Here results an enormous saving by the
conservation and utilization of planning effort.

Also, standard methods are more apt to result in standard
quality, and with less occasion for rejecting output that is below
the requisite standards than is the case under Traditional
Management.

EFFECT OF FUNCTIONALIZATION UPON THE WORKER.--Under Traditional
Management, even if the worker often becomes functionalized, he
seldom has assurance that he will be able to reap the harvest from
remaining so, and even so, neither data nor teaching are provided to
enable him to fulfill his function most successfully.

Under Transitory Management the worker becomes more and more
functionalized, as the results of motion study and time study make
clear the advantages of specializing the worker.

EFFECTS UPON THE SCIENTIFICALLY MANAGED WORKER.--Under
Scientific Management the effects of Functionalization are so
universal and so far reaching that it is necessary to enumerate them
in detail.

WORKER RELIEVED OF EVERYTHING BUT HIS SPECIAL FUNCTIONS.--
Functionalization, in providing that every man is assigned a special
function, also provides that he be called upon to do work in that
function only, relieving him of all other work and responsibility.
Realization of this elimination has a psychological effect on action
and habits of thinking.[19]

PLACES ARE PROVIDED FOR SPECIALISTS.--Functionalization utilizes
men with decided bents, and allows each man to occupy that place for
which he is fitted.[20] Assignment to functions is done according to
the capabilities and desires of those who are to fill them.

SPECIALIZING IS ENCOURAGED.--It is most important to remember
that the man with any special talent or talents, individuality or
special fitness is much more likely, under Scientific Management, to
obtain and retain the place that he is fitted for than he ever could
have been under Traditional Management, for, while many fairly
efficient men can be found who can fill a general position, a man
with the marked desirable trait necessary to fill a distinct
position requiring that trait, will be one of few, and will have his
place waiting for him.

ONE-TALENT MEN UTILIZED--.With Functionalization, men who lack
qualifications for the position which they may, at the start,
endeavor to fill, may be transferred to other positions, where the
qualities they lack are not required. If a man has one talent,
Scientific Management provides a place where that can be utilized.

For example:--

Men who cannot produce the prescribed output constantly, are
placed on other work. The slow, unskilled worker who has difficulty
to learn, may be put upon work requiring less skill, or where speed
is not required so much as watchfulness and faithfulness. The worker
who is slow, but exceptionally skilled, has the opportunity to rise
to the position of the functional foreman, especially in the
planning department, where knowledge, experience and resourcefulness,
and especially ability to teach, are much more desired than
speed and endurance. Thus there are places provided, below and
above, that can utilize all kinds of abilities.

"ALL ROUND" MEN ARE UTILIZED.--The exceptional man who possesses
executive ability in all lines, and balance between them all, is the
ideal man for a manager, and his special "all round" ability would
be wasted in any position below that of a manager.

STABILITY PROVIDED FOR.--Every man is maintained in his place by
his interresponsibility with other men. If he is a worker, every
man's work is held to standard quality by the inspector, while the
requirements and rewards of his function are kept before him by the
instruction card man, rate fixer and the disciplinarian.

PROMOTION AND DEVELOPMENT PROVIDED FOR.--Functionalization
provides for promotion by showing every man not only the clearly
circumscribed place where he is to work, but also by showing him the
definite place above him to which he may be promoted and its path,
and by teaching him how he can fill it. This allows him to develop
the possibilities of his best self by using and specially training
those talents which are most marked in him.

Functional Foremanship allows many more people, to become
foremen, and to develop the will and judgment which foremanship
implies.

MEN IN THE ORGANIZATION PREFERRED TO OUTSIDERS.--Men in the
organization are preferable to outsiders as functional foremen and
for promotion. Not only does a worker's knowledge of his work help
him to become more efficient when he is promoted to the position of
foreman,--but his efficiency as a teacher is also increased by the
fact that he knows and understands the workers whom he is there
to teach.

ALL MEN ARE PUSHED UP.--Scientific Management raises every man
as high as he is capable of being raised. It does not speed him up,
but pushes him up to the highest notch which he can fill. Actual
practice has shown that there is a greater demand for efficient men
in the planning department than there is supply; also, that men in
the planning department who fit themselves for higher work can be
readily promoted to positions of greater responsibility, either
inside or outside the organization.

YEARS OF PRODUCTIVITY PROLONGED.--Under Functionalization the
number of years of productivity of all, workers and foremen alike,
are increased. The specialty to which the man is assigned is his
natural specialty, thus his possible and profitable working years
are prolonged, because he is at that work for which he is naturally
fitted.

Moreover, the work of teaching is one at which the teacher
becomes more clever and more valuable as time goes on, the
functional foreman has that much more chance to become valuable as
years go by.

CHANGE IN THE WORKER'S MENTAL ATTITUDE.--The work under
functionalization is such as to arouse the worker's attention and to
hold his interest.[21] But the most important and valuable change in
the worker's feelings is the change in his attitude towards the
foremen and the employer. From "natural enemies" as sometimes
considered under typical Traditional Management, these all now
become friends, with the common aim, cooeperation, for the purpose of
increasing output and wages, and lowering costs. This change of
feeling results in an appreciation of the value of teaching, and
also in promoting industrial peace.

CHAPTER III FOOTNOTES: =============================================

1. Mary Whiton Calkins, _A First Book in Psychology_, p. 273.
2. Sully, _The Teacher's Handbook of Psychology_, p. 1.
3. _Ibid._, p. 54.
4. Hugo Muensterberg, _American Problems_, p. 35.
5. Gillette and Dana, _Cost Keeping and Management Engineering_,
p. 1.
6. F.W. Taylor, _Shop Management_, para. 221. Harper Ed., p. 96.
7. F.W. Taylor, _Shop Management_, para. 221-231. Harper Ed.,
pp. 96-98.
8. Compare H.L. Gantt, No. 1002, A.S.M.E., para. 9.
9. Compare H.P. Gillette, _Cost Analysis Engineering_, pp. 1-2.
10. F.W. Taylor, _Principles of Scientific Management_, p. 37.
11. F.W. Taylor, _Shop Management_, para. 245. Harper Ed., p. 104.
12. For excellent example of special routing see: Charles Day,
_Industrial Plants_, chap. VII.
13. C. Babbage, _Economy of Manufacturers_. p. 172. "The constant
repetition of the same process necessarily produces in the
workman a degree of excellence and rapidity in his particular
department, which is never possessed by a person who is obliged
to execute many different processes."
14. F.W. Taylor, _On the Art of Cutting Metals_, Paper No. 1119,
A.S.M.E.
15. C.G. Barth, _Slide Rules for Machine Shops and Taylor System_.
Paper No. 1010, A.S.M.E.
16. H.L. Gantt, _Work, Wages and Profits_, p. 19.
17. Adam Smith, _Wealth of Nations_, p. 2. "The greatest improvement
in the productive powers of labor, and the greater part of the
skill, dexterity, and judgment, with which it is anywhere
directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the
division of labor." Also p. 4.
18. H.K. Hathaway, _The Value of "Non-Producers" in Manufacturing
Plants. Machinery_, Nov., 1906, p. 134.
19. Gillette and Dana, _Cost Keeping and Management Engineering_,
p. 11.
20. Morris Llewellyn Cooke, _Bulletin No. 5, Carnegie Foundation for
the Advancement of Teaching_, p. 15.
21. H.L. Gantt, _Work, Wages and Profits_, p. 120.

====================================================================

CHAPTER IV

MEASUREMENT

DEFINITION OF MEASUREMENT.--"Measurement," according to the
Century Dictionary,--"is the act of measuring," and to measure
is--"to ascertain the length, extent, dimensions, quantity or
capacity of, by comparison with a standard; ascertain or determine a
quantity by exact observation," or, again, "to estimate or determine
the relative extent, greatness or value of, appraise by comparison
with something else."

MEASUREMENT IMPORTANT IN PSYCHOLOGY.--Measurement has always
been of importance in psychology; but it is only with the
development of experimental psychology and its special apparatus,
that methods of accurate measurements are available which make
possible the measurement of extremely short periods of time, or
measurements "quick as thought," These enable us to measure the
variations of different workers as to their abilities and their
mental and physical fatigue;[1] to study mental processes at
different stages of mental and physical growth; to compare different
people under the same conditions, and the same person under
different conditions; to determine the personal coefficient of
different workers, specialists and foremen, and to formulate
resultant standards. As in all other branches of science, the
progress comes with the development of measurement.

METHODS OF MEASUREMENT IN PSYCHOLOGY.--No student of management,
and of measurement in the field of management, can afford not to
study, carefully and at length, methods of measurement under
psychology. This, for at least two most important reasons, which
will actually improve him as a measurer, i.e.--

1. The student will discover, in the books on experimental
psychology and in the "Psychological Review," a marvelous array of
results of scientific laboratory experiments in psychology, which
will be of immediate use to him in his work.

2. He will receive priceless instruction in methods of
measuring. No where better than in the field of psychology, can one
learn to realize the importance of measurements, the necessity for
determination of elements for study, and the necessity for accurate
apparatus and accuracy in observation.

Prof. George M. Stratton, in his book "Experimental Psychology
and Culture,"--says "In mental measurements, therefore, there is no
pretense of taking the mind's measure as a whole, nor is there
usually any immediate intention of testing even some special faculty
or capacity of the individual. What is aimed at is the measurement
of a limited event in consciousness, such as a particular perception
or feeling. The experiments are addressed, of course, not to the
weight or size of such phenomena, but usually to their duration and
intensity."[2]

The emphasis laid on a study of elements is further shown in the
same book by the following,--"The actual laboratory work in
time-measurement, however, has been narrowed down to determining,
not the time in general that is occupied by some mental action, but
rather the shortest possible time in which a particular operation,
like discrimination or choice or association or recognition, can be
performed under the simplest and most favorable circumstances.[3]
The experimental results here are something like speed or racing
records, made under the best conditions of track and training. A
delicate chronograph or chronoscope is used, which marks the time in
thousandths of a second."

MEASUREMENT IN PSYCHOLOGY RELATED TO MEASUREMENT IN
MANAGEMENT.--Measurement in psychology is of importance to
measurement in management not only as a source of information and
instruction, but also as a justification and support. Scientific
Management has suffered from being called absurd, impractical,
impossible, over-exact, because of the emphasis which it lays on
measurement. Yet, to the psychologist, all present measurement in
Scientific Management must appear coarse, inaccurate and of
immediate and passing value only. With the knowledge that
psychologists endorse accurate measurement, and will cooeperate in
discovering elements for study, instruments of precision and methods
of investigation, the investigator in industrial fields must persist
in his work with a new interest and confidence.[4]

Scientific Management cannot hope to furnish psychology with
either data or methods of measurement. It can and does, however,
open a new field for study to experimental psychology, and shows
itself willing to furnish the actual working difficulties or
problems, to do the preliminary investigation, and to utilize
results as fast as they can be obtained.

PSYCHOLOGISTS APPRECIATE SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.--The
appreciation which psychologists have shown of work done by
Scientific Management must be not only a matter of gratification,
but of inspiration to all workers in Scientific Management.

So, also, must the new divisions of the Index to the
Psychological Review relating to Activity and Fatigue, and the work
being so extensively done in these lines by French, German, Italian
and other nations, as well as by English and American psychologists.

MEASUREMENT IMPORTANT IN MANAGEMENT.--The study of individuality
and of functionalization have made plain the necessity of
measurement for successful management. Measurement furnishes the
means for obtaining that accurate knowledge upon which the science
of management rests, as do all sciences--exact and inexact.[5]
Through measurement, methods of less waste are determined, standards
are made possible, and management becomes a science, as it derives
standards, and progressively makes and improves them, and the
comparisons from them, accurate.

PROBLEM OF MEASUREMENT IN MANAGEMENT--One of the important
problems of measurement in management is determining how many hours
should constitute the working day in each different kind of work and
at what gait the men can work for greatest output and continuously
thrive. The solution of this problem involves the study of the men,
the work, and the methods, which study must become more and more
specialized; but the underlying aim is to determine standards and
individual capacity as exactly as is possible.[6]

CAPACITY.--There are at least four views of a worker's
capacity.

1. What he thinks his capacity is.
2. What his associates think his capacity is.
3. What those over him think his capacity is.
4. What accurate measurement determines his
actual capacity to be.

IGNORANCE OF REAL CAPACITY.--Dr. Taylor has emphasized the fact
that the average workman does not know either his true efficiency or
his true capacity.[7] The experience of others has also gone to show
that even the skilled workman has little or inaccurate knowledge of
the amount of output that a good worker can achieve at his chosen
vocation in a given time.[8]

For example,--until a bricklayer has seen his output counted for
several days, he has little idea of how many bricks he can lay, or
has laid, in a day.[9]

The average manager is usually even more ignorant of the
capacity of the workers than are the men themselves.[10] This is
because of the prevalence of, and the actual necessity for the
worker's best interest, under some forms of management, of
"soldiering." Even when the manager realizes that soldiering is
going on, he has no way, especially under ordinary management, of
determining its extent.

LITTLE MEASUREMENT IN TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT.--Under Traditional
Management there was little measurement of a man's capacity. The
emphasis was entirely on the results. There was, it is true, in
everything beyond the most elementary of Traditional Management, a
measurement of the result. The manager did know, at the end of
certain periods of time, how much work had been done, and how much
it had cost him. This was a very important thing for him to know. If
his cost ran too high, and his output fell too low, he investigated.
If he found a defect, he tried to remedy it; but much time had to be
wasted in this investigation, because often he had no idea where to
start in to look for the defects. The result of the defects was
usually the cause for the inquiry as to their presence.

He might investigate the men, he might investigate the methods,
he might investigate the equipment, he might investigate the
surroundings, and so on,--and very often in the mind of the
Traditional manager, there was not even this most elementary
division. If things went wrong he simply knew,--"Something is wrong
somewhere," and it was the work of the foremen to find out where the
place was, or so to speed up the men that the output should be
increased and the cost lowered. Whether the defects were really
remedied, or simply concealed by temporarily speeding up, was not
seriously questioned.

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