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Taylor, Frederick Winslow, 1856-1915

"Shop Management"

They should be
informed of the leading objects which the new system aims at, such, for
instance, as rendering mutual the interests of employer and employee
through "high wages and low labor cost," the gradual selection and
development of a body of first class picked workmen who will work extra
hard and receive extra high wages and be dealt with individually instead
of in masses. They should thoroughly understand that this can only be
accomplished through the adoption of precise and exact methods, and
having each smallest detail, both as to methods and appliances,
carefully selected so as to be the best of its kind. They should
understand the general philosophy of the system and should see that, as
a whole, it must be in harmony with its few leading ideas, and that
principles and details which are admirable in one type of management
have no place whatever in another. They should be shown that it pays to
employ an especial corps to introduce a new system just as it pays to
employ especial designers and workmen to build a new plant; that, while
a new system is being introduced, almost twice the number of foremen are
required as are needed to run it after it is in; that all of this costs
money, but that, unlike a new plant, returns begin to come in almost
from the start from improved methods and appliances as they are
introduced, and that in most cases the new system more than pays for
itself as it goes along; that time, and a great deal of time, is
involved in a radical change in management, and that in the case of a
large works if they are incapable of looking ahead and patiently waiting
for from two to four years, they had better leave things just as they
are, since a change of system involves a change in the ideas, point of
view and habits of many men with strong convictions and prejudices, and
that this can only be brought about slowly and chiefly through a series
of object lessons, each of which takes time, and through continued
reasoning; and that for this reason, after deciding to adopt a given
type, the necessary steps should be taken as fast as possible, one after
another, for its introduction.


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