not only good management in that it shows up the work and that it allows each man to see, and each man over him, or observing him to see exactly what has been done, — it has also an excellent effect upon the worker's mind.
Individuality Developed by Recording Output Separately. — The spirit of individuality is brought out still more clearly by the fact that under Scientific Management, output is recorded separately. This recording of the outputs separately is, usually, and very successfully, one of the first features installed in Transitory Management, and a feature very seldom introduced, even unconscious of its worth, in day work under Traditional Management. It is one of the great disadvantages of many kinds of work, especially in this day, that the worker does only a small part of the finished article and that he has a feeling that what he does is not identified permanently with the success of the completed whole. We may note that one of the great unsatisfying features to such arts as acting and music, is that no matter how wonderful the performer's efforts, there was no permanent record of them; that the work of the day dies with the day. He can expect to live only in the minds and hearts of the hearers, in the accounts of spectators, or in histories of the stage.
It is, therefore, not strange that the world's best actors and singers are now grasping the opportunity to make their best efforts permanent through the instrumentality of the motion picture films and the talking machine records. This same feeling, minus the glow of enthusiasm that at least attends the actor
during the work, is present in more or less degree in the mind of the worker.
Records Make Work Seem Worth While. — With the feeling that his work is recorded comes the feeling that the work is really worth while, for even if the work itself does not last, the records of it are such as can go on.
Records Give Individuals a Feeling of Permanence. — With recorded individual output comes also the feeling of permanence, of credit for good performance. This desire for permanence shows itself all through the work of men in Traditional Management, for example — in the stone cutter's art where the man who had successfully dressed the stone from the rough block was delighted to put his own individual mark on it, even though he knew that that mark probably would seldom, if ever, be noticed again by anyone after the stone was set in the wall. It is an underlying trait of the human mind to desire this permanence of record of successful effort, and fulfilling and utilizing this desire is a great gain of Scientific Management.
Mental Development of Worker Through Records. — It is not only for his satisfaction that the worker should see his records and realize that his work has permanence, but also for comparison of his work not only with his own record, but with the work of others. The value of these comparisons, not only to the management but to the worker himself, must not be underestimated. The worker gains mental development and physical skill by studying these comparisons.
Advantages to Worker of Making his Own Records. — These possibilities of mental development are still further increased when the man makes his own records. This leads to closer attention, to more interest in the work, and to a realization of the man as to what the record really means, and what value it represents. Though even a record that is made for him and is posted where he can see it will probably result in a difference in his pay envelope, no such progress is likely to occur as when the man makes his own record, and must be conscious every moment of the time exactly where he stands.
Possibilities of Making Individual Records. — Records of individual efficiency are comparatively easy to make when output is separated. But even when work must be done by gangs or teams of men, there is provision made in Scientific Management for recording this gang work in such a way that either the output or the efficiency, or both, of each man shows up separately. This may be done in several ways, such as, for example, by recording the total time of delays avoidable and unavoidable, caused by each man, and from this computing individual records. This method of recording is psychologically right, because the recording of the delay will serve as a warning to the man, and as a spur to him not to cause delay to others again.
The forcefulness of the "don't" and the "never" have been investigated by education. Undoubtedly the "do" is far stronger, but in this particular case the command deduced from the records of delay to others is, necessarily, in the negative form, and a