Under
ordinary piece work, or the Towne-Halsey plan, the men are likely at any
time to slide back a considerable distance without having it
particularly noticed either by them or the management. With the task
idea, the first falling off is instantly felt by the workman through the
loss of his day's bonus, or his differential rate, and is thereby also
forcibly brought to the attention of the management.
There is one rather natural difficulty which arises when the functional
foremanship is first introduced. Men who were formerly either gang
bosses, or foremen, are usually chosen as functional foremen, and these
men, when they find their duties restricted to their particular
functions, while they formerly were called upon to do everything, at
first feel dissatisfied. They think that their field of usefulness is
being greatly contracted. This is, however, a theoretical difficulty,
which disappears when they really get into the full swing of their new
positions. In fact the new position demands an amount of special
information, forethought, and a clear-cut, definite responsibility that
they have never even approximated in the past, and which is amply
sufficient to keep all of their best faculties and energies alive and
fully occupied. It is the experience of the writer that there is a great
commercial demand for men with this sort of definite knowledge, who are
used to accepting real responsibility and getting results; so that the
training in their new duties renders them more instead of less valuable.
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