What may be called the "exception principle" in management is coming
more and more into use, although, like many of the other elements of
this art, it is used in isolated cases, and in most instances without
recognizing it as a principle which should extend throughout the entire
field. It is not an uncommon sight, though a sad one, to see the manager
of a large business fairly swamped at his desk with an ocean of letters
and reports, on each of which he thinks that he should put his initial
or stamp. He feels that by having this mass of detail pass over his desk
he is keeping in close touch with the entire business. The exception
principle is directly the reverse of this. Under it the manager should
receive only condensed, summarized, and invariably comparative reports,
covering, however, all of the elements entering into the management, and
even these summaries should all be carefully gone over by an assistant
before they reach the manager, and have all of the exceptions to the
past averages or to the standards pointed out, both the especially good
and especially bad exceptions, thus giving him in a few minutes a full
view of progress which is being made, or the reverse, and leaving him
free to consider the broader lines of policy and to study the character
and fitness of the important men under him. The exception principle can
be applied in many ways, and the writer will endeavor to give some
further illustrations of it later.
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