The ordinary system of management, owing to the lack of exact
information and precise methods, can only approximate to the desired
standard of high wages accompanied by low labor cost and then only
slowly, with marked irregularity in results, with continued opposition,
and, in many cases, with danger from strikes. Modern management, on the
other hand, proceeds slowly at first, but with directness and precision,
step by step, and, after the first few object lessons, almost without
opposition on the part of the men, to high wages and low labor cost; and
as is of great importance, it assigns wages to the men which are
uniformly fair. They are not demoralized, and their sense of justice
offended by receiving wages which are sometimes too low and at other
times entirely too high.
One of the marked advantages of scientific management lies in its
freedom from strikes. The writer has never been opposed by a strike,
although he has been engaged for a great part of his time since 1883 in
introducing this type of management in different parts of the country
and in a great variety of industries. The only case of which the writer
management in different parts of the country and in a great variety of
industries. The only case of which the writer can think in which a
strike under this system might be unavoidable would be that in which
most of the employees were members of a labor union, and of a union
whose rules were so inflexible and whose members were so stubborn that
they were unwilling to try any other system, even though it assured them
larger wages than their own.
Pages:
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66