2. The difficulty of the study, and the necessity for great care, not only in the study itself, but in deducing laws from it.
3. The necessity of considering any one individual trait as modified by all the other traits of the individual.
4. The importance of the individual as distinct from the type.
Many students are so interested in studying types and deducing laws which apply to types in general, that they lose sight of the fact that the individual is the basis of the study, — that individuality is that for which they must seek and for which they must constantly account. As Sully says, we must not emphasize "typical developments in a new individual," at the expense of "typical development in a new individual." [5] It is the fact that the development
occurs in an individual, and not that the development is typical, that we should emphasize.
Individuality Seldom Recognized Under Traditional Management. — Under Traditional Management there was little or no systematized method for the recognition of individuality or individual fitness. [6] The worker usually was, in the mind of the manager, one of a crowd, his only distinguishing mark being the amount of work which he was capable of performing.
Selecting Workers Under Traditional Management. — In selecting men to do work, there was little or no attempt to study the individuals who applied for work. The matter of selection was more of a process of "guess work" than of exact measurement, and the highest form of test was considered to be that of having the man actually tried out by being given a chance at the work itself. There was not only a great waste of time on the work, because men unfitted to it could not turn it out so successfully, but there also was a waste of the worker, and many times a positive injury to the worker, by his being put at work which he was unfitted either to perform, to work at continuously, or both.
In the most progressive type of Traditional Management there was usually a feeling, however, that if the labor market offered even temporarily a greater supply than the work in hand demanded, it was wise to choose those men to do the work who were best fitted for it, or who were willing to work for less wages. It is surprising to find in the traditional type,
even up to the present day, how often men were selected for their strength and physique, rather than for any special capabilities fitting them for working in, or at, the particular line of work to be done.
Output Seldom Separated Under Traditional Management. — Under Traditional Management especially on day work the output of the men was not usually separated, nor was the output recorded separately, as can be done even with the work of gangs.