The subject will be discussed on the basis of reorganization of work, because here the chief difficulties are met.
The three types of organization that are most clearly defined in the way of discipline, are those of a military nature, railroad work, and factory work.
On construction work, it is not feasible to introduce a military form of discipline. In the first place, the penalties of the military service are not permissible; and in the second place it is not usually practicable to have so thorough a system of distribution of responsibility; while in the third place the same men are not here together for a long enough period to make military discipline practicable.
In railroad work a man is usually employed for a long term of years, on rather small pay, with a large chance of promotion. From the day of his initiation on the work, he is impressed profoundly with the necessity of protecting lives and of keeping trains moving all the time; and, in a short time, he comes to the frame of mind in which his pay, his personal convenience, and his personal prejudice are subordinate interests. The initials of the superintendent on a little slip of paper are sufficient to make him do almost anything within the limit of endurance; and, as a general thing, he does it ungrudgingly (but not uncomplainingly), and with a cheerfulness that is in many respects astonishing.
Such a degree of discipline is entirely feasible on any contract work of long duration, and it should be obtained if economy is desired. It is not possible to institute successfully radical reforms and methods, without first securing good discipline on the work; and when work is badly disorganized, the discipline should be the first point of attack.
It is necessary to have, first, a system of locating responsibility. If a dinkey becomes derailed, if the spacing of drill holes be erroneously made, if a steam shovel be out of line, if the wrong methods of loading be pursued, if a pump be out of order, if necessary material or supplies be wanting, if the pipes freeze up, if, in short, one hundred and one little things happen that cause confusion on the work, it should be possible to find someone who, by some crime of omission or commission, is responsible for the trouble, and who can be made, in some degree at least, to bear the brunt of it. The only man who seems destined to be entirely free from the consequence of his mistakes, is the clerk of the Weather Bureau.
The organization should be laid out from the bottom upward, rather than from the top downward. The laborer is responsible practically for carrying out the instructions of his foreman to the satisfaction of his foreman and of no one else, and for this reason he should not work under the impression that anyone except his own foreman is likely to discharge him, to criticise him, or to praise him. If his foreman be the right sort of man, the laborer, with his dozen associates, will have at heart, besides the interests of the work, a strong feeling of personal loyalty to the foreman; and this feeling will be reciprocated by the foreman. If a foreman be noticed vigorously complaining that the men he has to deal with are inefficient, incompetent, and a disgrace to civilization compared to the men he had to work with some years before, he may as a general thing be put down as a "blow-hard" and of little value to the organization. The most successful are usually the ones who are ordinarily quiet, cool under emergency, and yet of sufficient determination to inspire among the men a wholesome respect for them. A man who loses his temper on the work for any reason, does not, as a general thing, make a good foreman or superintendent.
The relations obtaining between the men and their foreman, should obtain to a more marked degree between the foreman and their superintendent. Briefly stated, every man on the job should have to look for orders from one man and only one man; and he should be responsible to that man for the satisfactory performance of those orders.
Conflicting orders can be avoided only by systematic compliance with the rule just above outlined.