contradistinction to scientific management, or task management, with which it is
to be compared.
The writer hopes that the management of "initiative and incentive" will be
recognized as representing the best type in ordinary use, and in fact he believes
that it will be hard to persuade the average manager that anything better exists in
the whole field than this type. The task which the writer has before him, then, is
the difficult one of trying to prove in a thoroughly convincing way that there is
another type of management which is not only better but overwhelmingly better
than the management of "initiative and incentive."
The universal prejudice in favor of the management of "initiative and
incentive" is so strong that no mere theoretical advantages which can be pointed
out will be likely to convince the average manager that any other system is better.
It will be upon a series of practical illustrations of the actual working of the two
systems that the writer will depend in his efforts to prove that scientific
management is so greatly superior to other types. Certain elementary principles, a
certain philosophy, will however be recognized as the essence of that which is
being illustrated in all of the practical examples which will be given. And the
broad principles in which the scientific system differs from the ordinary or "rule-
of-thumb" system are so simple in their nature that it seems desirable to describe
them before starting with the illustrations.
Under the old type of management success depends almost entirely upon
getting the "initiative" of the workmen, and it is indeed a rare case in which this
initiative is really attained. Under scientific management the "initiative" of the
workmen (that is, their hard work, their good-will, and their ingenuity) is obtained
with absolute uniformity and to a greater extent than is possible under the old
system; and in addition to this improvement on the part of the men, the managers
assume new burdens, new duties, and responsibilities never dreamed of in the past.
The managers assume, for instance, the burden of gathering together all of the
traditional knowledge which in the past has been possessed by the workmen and
then of classifying, tabulating, and reducing this knowledge to rules, laws, and
formulæ which are immensely helpful to the workmen in doing their daily work.
In addition to developing a science in this way, the management take on three
other types of duties which involve new and heavy burdens for themselves.
These new duties are grouped under four heads:
First. They develop a science for each element of a man's work, which
replaces the old rule-of-thumb method.
Second. They scientifically select and then train, teach, and develop the
workman, whereas in the past he chose his own work and trained himself as best
he could.
Third. They heartily cooperate with the men so as to insure all of the work
being done in accordance with the principles of the science which has been
developed.
Fourth. There is an almost equal division of the work and the responsibility
between the management and the workmen. The management take over all work
for which they are better fitted than the workmen, while in the past almost all of
the work and the greater part of the responsibility were thrown upon the men.
It is this combination of the initiative of the workmen, coupled with the
new types of work done by the management, that makes scientific management so
much more efficient than the old plan.
Three of these elements exist in many cases, under the management of
"initiative and incentive," in a small and rudimentary way, but they are, under this
management, of minor importance, whereas under scientific management they
form the very essence of the whole system.
The fourth of these elements, "an almost equal division of the responsibility
between the management and the workmen," requires further explanation. The
philosophy of the management of "initiative and incentive" makes it necessary for
each workman to bear almost the entire responsibility for the general plan as well
as for each detail of his work, and in many cases for his implements as well. In
addition to this he must do all of the actual physical labor. The development of a
science, on the other hand, involves the establishment of many rules, laws, and
formulæ which replace the judgment of the individual workman and which can be
effectively used only after having been systematically recorded, indexed, etc. The
practical use of scientific data also calls for a room in which to keep the books,
records,(2*) etc., and a desk for the planner to work at. Thus all of the planning
which under the old system was done by the workman, as a result of his personal
experience, must of necessity under the new system be done by the management in
accordance with the laws of the science; because even if the workman was well
suited to the development and use of scientific data, it would be physically
impossible for him to work at his machine and at a desk at the same time. It is also
clear that in most cases one type of man is needed to plan ahead and an entirely
different type to execute the work.
The man in the planning room, whose specialty under scientific
management is planning ahead, invariably finds that the work can be done better
and more economically by a subdivision of the labor; each act of each mechanic,
for example, should be preceded by various preparatory acts done by other men.
And all of this involves, as we have said, "an almost equal division of the
responsibility and the work between the management and the workman."
To summarize: Under the management of "initiative and incentive"
practically the whole problem is "up to the workman," while under scientific
management fully one-half of the problem is "up to the management."
Perhaps the most prominent single element in modern scientific
management is the task idea. The work of every workman is fully planned out by
the management at least one day in advance, and each man receives in most cases
complete written instructions, describing in detail the task which he is to
accomplish, as well as the means to be used in doing the work. And the work
planned in advance in this way constitutes a task which is to be solved, as
explained above, not by the workman alone, but in almost all cases by the joint
effort of the workman and the management. This task specifies not only what is to
be done but how it is to be done and the exact time allowed for doing it. And
whenever the workman succeeds in doing his task right, and within the time limit
specified, he receives an addition of from 30 per cent to 100 per cent to his
ordinary wages. These tasks are carefully planned, so that both good and careful
work are called for in their performance, but it should be distinctly understood that
in no case is the workman called upon to work at a pace which would be injurious
to his health. The task is always so regulated that the man who is well suited to his
job will thrive while working at this rate during a long term of years and grow
happier and more prosperous, instead of being overworked. Scientific
management consists very largely in preparing for and carrying out these tasks.
The writer is fully aware that to perhaps most of the readers of this paper
the four elements which differentiate the new management from the old will at
first appear to be merely high-sounding phrases; and he would again repeat that he
has no idea of convincing the reader of their value merely through announcing
their existence. His hope of carrying conviction rests upon demonstrating the
tremendous force and effect of these four elements through a series of practical
illustrations. It will be shown, first, that they can be applied absolutely to all
classes of work, from the most elementary to the most intricate; and second, that
when they are applied, the results must of necessity be overwhelmingly greater
than those which it is possible to attain under the management of initiative and
incentive.
The first illustration is that of handling pig iron, and this work is chosen
because it is typical of perhaps the crudest and most elementary form of labor
which is performed by man. This work is done by men with no other implements
than their hands. The pig-iron handler stoops down, picks up a pig weighing about
92 pounds, walks for a few feet or yards and then drops it on to the ground or upon
a pile. This work is so crude and elementary in its nature that the writer firmly
believes that it would be possible to train an intelligent gorilla so as to become a
more efficient pig-iron handler than any man can be. Yet it will be shown that the
science of handling pig iron is so great and amounts to so much that it is
impossible for the man who is best suited to this type of work to understand the
principles of this science, or even to work in accordance with these principles
without the aid of a man better educated than he is. And the further illustrations to
be given will make it clear that in almost all of the mechanic arts the science
which underlies each workman's act is so great and amounts to so much that the
workman who is best suited actually to do the work is incapable (either through
lack of education or through insufficient mental capacity) of understanding this
science. This is announced as a general principle, the truth of which will become
apparent as one illustration after another is given. After showing these four
elements in the handling of pig iron, several illustrations will be given of their
application to different kinds of work in the field of the mechanic arts, at intervals
in a rising scale, beginning with the simplest and ending with the more intricate
forms of labor.
One of the first pieces of work undertaken by us, when the writer started to
introduce scientific management into the Bethlehem Steel Company, was to
handle pig iron on task work. The opening of the Spanish War found some 80,000
tons of pig iron placed in small piles in an open field adjoining the works. Prices
for pig iron had been so low that it could not be sold at a profit, and it therefore
had been stored. With the opening of the Spanish War the price of pig iron rose,
and this large accumulation of iron was sold. This gave us a good opportunity to
show the workmen, as well as the owners and managers of the works, on a fairly
large scale the advantages of task work over the old-fashioned day work and piece
work, in doing a very elementary class of work.
The Bethlehem Steel Company had five blast furnaces, the product of
which had been handled by a pig-iron gang for many years. This gang, at this time,
consisted of about 75 men. They were good, average pig-iron handlers, were under
an excellent foreman who himself had been a pig-iron handler, and the work was
done, on the whole, about as fast and as cheaply as it was anywhere else at that
time.
A railroad switch was run out into the field, right along the edge of the piles
of pig iron. An inclined plank was placed against the side of a car, and each man
picked up from his pile a pig of iron weighing about 92 pounds, walked up the
inclined plank and dropped it on the end of the car.
We found that this gang were loading on the average about 12 1/2 long tons
per man per day. We were surprised to find, after studying the matter, that a first-
class pig-iron handler ought to handle between 47(3*) and 48 long tons per day,
instead of 12 1/2 tons. This task seemed to us so very large that we were obliged to
go over our work several times before we were absolutely sure that we were right.
Once we were sure, however, that 47 tons was a proper day's work for a first-class
pig-iron handler, the task which faced us as managers under the modern scientific
plan was clearly before us. It was our duty to see that the 80,000 tons of pig iron
was loaded on to the cars at the rate of 47 tons per man per day, in place of 12 1/2
tons, at which rate the work was then being done. And it was further our duty to
see that this work was done without bringing on a strike among the men, without
any quarrel with the men, and to see that the men were happier and better
contented when loading at the new rate of 47 tons than they were when loading at
the old rate of 12 1/2 tons.
Our first step was the scientific selection of the workman. In dealing with
workmen under this type of management, it is an inflexible rule to talk to and deal
with only one man at a time, since each workman has his own special abilities and
limitations, and since we are not dealing with men in masses, but are trying to
develop each individual man to his highest state of efficiency and prosperity. Our
first step was to find the proper workman to begin with. We therefore carefully
watched and studied these 75 men for three or four days, at the end of which time
we had picked out four men who appeared to be physically able to handle pig iron
at the rate of 47 tons per day. A careful study was then made of each of these men.
We looked up their history as far back as practicable and thorough inquiries
were made as to the character, habits, and the ambition of each of them. Finally we
selected one from among the four as the most likely man to start with. He was a
little Pennsylvania Dutchman who had been observed to trot back home for a mile
or so after his work in the evening about as fresh as he was when he came trotting
down to work in the morning. We found that upon wages of $1.15 a day he had
succeeded in buying a small plot of ground, and that he was engaged in putting up
the walls of a little house for himself in the morning before starting to work and at
night after leaving. He also had the reputation of being exceedingly "close," that
is, of placing a very high value on a dollar. As one man whom we talked to about
him said, "A penny looks about the size of a cart-wheel to him." This man we will
call Schmidt. The task before us, then, narrowed itself down to getting Schmidt to
handle 47 tons of pig iron per day and making him glad to do it. This was done as
follows. Schmidt was called out from among the gang of pig-iron handlers and
talked to somewhat in this way:
"Schmidt, are you a high-priced man?"
"Vell, I don't know vat you mean."
"Oh yes, you do. What I want to know is whether you are a high-priced
man or not."
"Vell, I don't know vat you mean."
"Oh, come now, you answer my questions. what I want to find out is
whether you are a high-priced man or one of these cheap fellows here. What I
want to find out is whether you want to earn $1.85 a day or whether you are
satisfied with $1.15, just the same as all those cheap fellows are getting."
"Did I vant $1.85 a day? Vas dot a high-priced man? Vell, yes, I vas a high-
priced man."
"Oh, you're aggravating me. Of course you want $1.85 a day every one
wants it! You know perfectly well that that has very little to do with your being a
high-priced man. For goodness' sake answer my questions, and don't waste any
more of my time. Now come over here. You see that pile of pig iron?"
"Yes."
"You see that car?"
"Yes."
"Well, if you are a high-priced man, you will load that pig iron on that car
to-morrow for $1.85. Now do wake up and answer my question. Tell me whether
you are a high-priced man or not."
"Vell did I got $1.85 for loading dot pig iron on dot car to-morrow?"
"Yes, of course you do, and you get $1.85 for loading a pile like that every
day right through the year. That is what a high-priced man does, and you know it
just as well as I do."
"Vell, dot's all right. I could load dot pig iron on the car to-morrow for
$1.85, and I get it every day, don't I?"
"Certainly you do certainly you do."
"Vell, den, I vas a high-priced man."
"Now, hold on, hold on. You know just as well as I do that a high-priced
man has to do exactly as he's told from morning till night. You have seen this man
here before, haven't you?"
"No, I never saw him."
"Well, if you are a high-priced man, you will do exactly as this man tells
you to-morrow, from morning till night. When he tells you to pick up a pig and
walk, you pick it up and you walk, and when he tells you to sit down and rest, you
sit down. You do that right straight through the day. And what's more, no back
talk. Now a high-priced man does just what he's told to do, and no back talk. Do
you understand that? When this man tells you to walk, you walk; when he tells
you to sit down, you sit down, and you don't talk back at him. Now you come on
to work here to-morrow morning and I'll know before night whether you are really
a high-priced man or not."
This seems to be rather rough talk. And indeed it would be if applied to an
educated mechanic, or even an intelligent laborer. With a man of the mentally
sluggish type of Schmidt it is appropriate and not unkind, since it is effective in
fixing his attention on the high wages which he wants and away from what, if it
were called to his attention, he probably would consider impossibly hard work.
What would Schmidt's answer be if he were talked to in a manner which is
usual under the management of "initiative and incentive"? say, as follows:
"Now, Schmidt, you are a first-class pig-iron handler and know your
business well. You have been handling at the rate of 12 1/2 tons per day. I have
given considerable study to handling pig iron, and feel sure that you could do a
much larger day's work than you have been doing. Now don't you think that if you
really tried you could handle 47 tons of pig iron per day, instead of 12 1/2 tons?"
What do you think Schmidt's answer would be to this?
Schmidt started to work, and all day long, and at regular intervals, was told
by the man who stood over him with a watch, "Now pick up a pig and walk. Now
sit down and rest. Now walk now rest," etc. He worked when he was told to
work, and rested when he was told to rest, and at half-past five in the afternoon
had his 47 1/2 tons loaded on the car. And he practically never failed to work at
this pace and do the task that was set him during the three years that the writer was
at Bethlehem. And throughout this time he averaged a little more than $1.85 per
day, whereas before he had never received over $1.15 per day, which was the
ruling rate of wages at that time in Bethlehem. That is, he received 60 per cent
higher wages than were paid to other men who were not working on task work.
One man after another was picked out and trained to handle pig iron at the rate of
47 1/2 tons per day until all of the pig iron was handled at this rate, and the men
were receiving 60 per cent more wages than other workmen around them.
The writer has given above a brief description of three of the four elements
which constitute the essence of scientific management: first, the careful selection
of the workman, and, second and third, the method of first inducing and then
training and helping the workman to work according to the scientific method.
Nothing has as yet been said about the science of handling pig iron. The writer
trusts, however, that before leaving this illustration the reader will be
thoroughlyconvinced that there is a science of handling pig iron, and further that
this science amounts to so much that the man who is suited to handle pig iron
cannot possibly understand it, nor even work in accordance with the laws of this
science, without the help of those who are over him.
The writer came into the machine-shop of the Midvale Steel Company in
1878, after having served an apprenticeship as a pattern-maker and as a machinist.
This was close to the end of the long period of depression following the panic of
1873, and business was so poor that it was impossible for many mechanics to get
work at their trades. For this reason he was obliged to start as a day laborer instead
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