Under Scientific Management No Loss from Quality During Learning. — As will be shown later, Scientific Management provides that there shall be little or no loss from the quality of the work during the learning period. The delay in time before the learner can be said to produce such work as could a learner taught where quality was insisted upon first of all, is more than compensated for by the ultimate combination of speed and quality gained.
Results of Teaching the Right Motions First Are Far-reaching. — There is no more important subject in this book on the Psychology of Management than this of teaching right motions first. The most important results of Scientific Management can all, in the last analysis, be formulated in terms of habits, even to the underlying spirit of coöperation which, as we shall show in "Welfare," is one of the most important ideas of Scientific Management. These right habits of Scientific Management are the cause, as well as the result, of progress, and the right habits, which have such a tremendous psychological importance, are the result of insisting that right motions be used from the very beginning of the first day.
From Right Habits of Motion Comes Speed of Motions. — Concentrating the mind on the next motion causes speed of motion. Under Scientific Management, the underlying thought of sequence of motions
is so presented that the worker can remember them, and make them in the shortest time possible.
Response to Standards Becomes Almost Automatic. — The standard methods, being associated from the start with right habits of motions only, cause an almost automatic response. There are no discarded habits to delay response.
Steady Nerves Result. — Oftentimes the power to refrain from action is quite as much a sign of education and training as the power to react quickly from a sensation. Such conduct is called, in some cases, "steady nerves." The forming of right habits is a great aid toward these steady nerves. The man who knows that he is taught the right way, is able almost automatically to resist any suggestions which come to him to carry out wrong ways. So the man who is absolutely sure of his method, for example, in laying brick, will not be tempted to make those extra motions which, after all, are merely an exhibition in his hand of the vacillation that is going on in his brain, as to whether he really is handling that brick in exactly the most efficient manner, or not.
Reason and Will Are Educated. — "The education of hand and muscle implies a corresponding training of reasoning and will; and the coördination of movements accompanies the coördination of thoughts." [26]
The standards of Scientific Management educate hand and muscle; the education of hand and muscle train the mind; the mind improves the standards. Thus we have a continuous cycle.
Judgment Results with No Waste of Time. — Judgment is the outcome of learning the right way, and knowing that it is the right way. There is none of the lost time of "trying out" various methods that exists under Traditional Management.
This power of judgment will not only enable the possessor to decide correctly as to the relative merits of different methods, but also somewhat as to the past history and possibilities of different workers.