Limitations of Military Organization. Most industrial organizations to-day resemble military organizations, with their generals and intermediate officers, down to sergeants, each man reporting to but one man higher in rank. There is little doubt that the present tendency in industrial organizations is to abandon the military system to a very large extent, and for the following reasons:
A soldier has certain duties to perform, few in number, and simple in kind. Hence the man directly in command can control the actions of his subordinates easily and effectively. Control, moreover, should come invariably from the same officer, to avoid any possibility of disastrous confusion, and to insure the instant action of a body of men as one single mass.
On the other hand, industrial operations do not possess the same simplicity, particularly where men are using machines; nor is there the necessity of action in mass. The military organization, therefore, should be modified to suit the conditions; and one of these modifications is the introduction of two or more foremen in charge of certain functions or duties of the same men or groups of men, as explained in the paragraph on Subdivision of Duties.
Opposition to Change. All men have a certain mental inertia which makes them resist any change of their methods and habits. Foremen are particularly resistant to change, because of their custom of giving orders more frequently than receiving orders. Hence the Cost-Analysis Engineer who is trying to introduce modern methods is sure to meet with violent opposition from foremen; and the older the foreman, the more violent the opposition. When the Cost-Analysis Engineer introduces a new method, he must personally attend to every detail, or it will surely "go wrong." The old foreman will see to it that it does "go wrong," just to show that the "new-fangled ideas" are worthless.
Opposition may also develop among labor unions, particularly if it is proposed to pay on the piece-rate plan—that is, to pay so and so much for each unit of work performed. The bonus plan and the premium plan (to be described later) are schemes to overcome this opposition to the piece-rate plan, but in essence they are all the same.
No manager of men can attain great success unless he has grit enough and tact enough to overcome the opposition to change which he will encounter from all quarters. If he realizes in advance that such opposition is as certain to manifest itself as it is certain that it takes power to change the direction or speed of motion of a heavy body, he will have possessed himself of one of the laws of successful management.
A man cannot impart motion to a very heavy rock by violent impact of his own body against it; but he can separate it into fragments, and move each fragment by itself. In like manner, no attempt should be made to change all the methods of an industrial organization at one stroke. Separate it into elements, and take one element at a time, beginning with the simplest. Apply your cost-keeping system to that element—it may be only the hauling of materials with teams—and effect the change desired. Then take another element of the organization, and apply the system to it. Continue thus, fragment by fragment, and you will overcome the opposition that would otherwise resist your greatest effort.
Respect Your Own Ability. One of the most common mistakes made by managers lies in assuming that a skilled workman necessarily knows better how to perform work than does the manager himself. A manager should first aim to familiarize himself with the methods used by the best workmen, and then, by an itemized time study, he should set his own wits to work to improve the methods. Workmen, for the most part, do their work just as robins build their nests—by the pattern of precedent. They put little or no brains into improving the process, because it usually means no money in their pockets to effect an improvement, and because they reason that an improvement that effects a saving in time may actually result in the discharge of some of their fellow workmen. It should be a cardinal law of management to give very little weight to the claims that workmen make as to their own skill or knowledge; and the same holds true as to foremen. Because a man has blasted rock for twenty years, should not make his opinion of such force as to prevent a manager from undertaking to show that man how to do rock-blasting more economically. We have frequently effected great economies in rock-blasting after a time study occupying fewer weeks than the blaster had occupied of years in the same sort of work. The trained mind of the Cost-Analysis Engineer enables him to analyze costs and methods, and to develop improvements which no amount of so-called "practical experience" can effect.
Weigh carefully every reason against any proposed change in method, and act accordingly; but pay no attention whatsoever to predictions of failure that are bare of reasons. Do not be influenced even by many positive statements that your proposed method has been tried and has failed; for its failure may have been purposely brought about, or some small condition essential to its success may have been absent.