Increasing Human Efficiency in Business Part 3

_Educational trips to other factories were employed by several firms to stimulate mental alertness and the instinct of imitation in their men. These trips usually supplemented some sort of suggestion system for encouraging employees to submit to the management ideas for improving methods, machines, or products_.

Cash payments were made for each suggestion

adopted, quarterly prizes of ten to fifty dollars were awarded for the most valuable suggestions; and finally a dozen or a score of the men submitting the best ideas were sent on a week's tour of observation to other industrial centers and notable plants. In some instances the expense incurred was considerable, but the companies considered the money well spent.

Not only were the men making helpful suggestions the very ones who would observe most wisely and profit most extensively from such educational trips, but they would bring back to their everyday tasks a new perspective, see them from a new angle, and frequently offer new suggestions which would more than save or earn the vacation cost.

Business managers, it was made plain, are coming more and more to depend upon imitation as one of the great forces in securing a maximum of efficiency without risking the rupture or rebellion which might follow if the same efficiency were sought by force or by any method of conscious compulsion. Tactfully suggested, the examples for imitation will

lead men where no amount of argument or reasonable compensation will drive them. I am therefore led to suggest the following uses of imitation for increasing the efficiency of the working force.

In breaking in new recruits they should be set to imitate expert workmen in all the details possible.

Gang foremen and superintendents should always be capable of "showing how" for the sake of the men under them.

The better workmen should, where possible, be located so that they will be observed by the other employees.

Inefficient help should be avoided since the example of the less efficient should become the model for the larger group.

Educational trips or tours of inspection should be regularly encouraged for both workmen and superintendents.

The deeds of successful houses should be brought to the attention of employees.

Where conditions admit, pacemakers should be retained in various groups to key up the other men.

Favorable conditions should be provided for conscious and instinctive imitation for all the members of the plant.

Persons who are sociable and much liked are imitated more than others, and if efficient, are particularly valuable; but if inefficient, are especially detrimental to others.

At the formal and informal meetings of the men of a house or a department, demonstrations of how to do certain definite things are very interesting and helpful to all concerned.

Demonstrations should be more common.

CHAPTER III

COMPEt.i.tION

AS A MEANS OF INCREASING HUMAN EFFICIENCY

THIRTY years ago American steel makers were astonishing the world with new production records. What English ironmasters, intrenched in their supremacy for centuries, had regarded as a standard week's output for Bessemer converters, their young rivals in mills about the Great Lakes were doubling, trebling, and even further increasing. Hardly a month pa.s.sed without a new high mark and a shift in possession of the leadership.

To this remarkable increase in efficiency William R. Jones--"Captain Bill" Jones as he was familiarly known--contributed more than any other operating man. He was a genius among executives as well as an inventor

of resource and initiative--a natural leader and handler of men. When he was asked by the British Iron and Steel Inst.i.tute in 1881, to explain the reasons for the amazing development in the United States, he attributed it to organization spirit of the workmen and the rivalry among the various mills.

"So long as the record made by a mill stands first," he wrote, "its workmen are content to labor at a moderate rate. But let it be known that some other establishment has beaten that record and there is no content until the rival's record is eclipsed."

_It was on this idea of compet.i.tion for efficiency--of production as a game and achievement as a goal--that the wonderful growth of the steel industry was based_.

On the intensive development of this idea by Andrew Carnegie, within his expanding organization, hinged the tremendous progress and profits of the Carnegie Company. "The little boss" matched furnace against furnace, mill against mill, superintendent against superintendent. He scanned his weekly and

monthly reports not merely for records of output, but for comparative consumption of ore, fuel, and other supplies, for time and labor costs in proportion to product.

If a superintendent, foreman, or gang failed to respond to this urging, failed to get into the race for the famous broom which crowned the stack of the champion Carnegie mill or furnace, the parallel showing of the other mills became a club to drive the laggards into line.

So intense was the compet.i.tion, so sharp the verbal goads applied that Jones, after resigning in indignation, parodied in sarcastic notes in this manner the Carnegie fashion of bringing executives to task: "Puppy dog number three, you have been beaten by puppy dog number two on fuel. Puppy dog number two, you are higher on labor than puppy dog number one."

How effective was this system of pitting man against man, plant against plant, was shown by the dominant position of the Carnegie Company in the trade when the Steel Corporation was launched and by the stag-

gering value put upon its business. Indirect testimony of the same fact was given another time by Jones when he refused thousands of dollars in yearly royalties for the use of his inventions by outside companies, this though the men who sought them were personal friends and his contract with the Carnegie Company allowed such licenses. His excuse was eloquent of the power residing in the Carnegie contest for efficiency and results: leadership for his charge, the Edgar Thompson works, in output and costs, meant more to him than money and a chance to help his friends.

_The Carnegie system was one of the most comprehensive applications in business of man's instinct of compet.i.tion to the work of increasing individual and organization efficiency_.

In the handling of executives it was carried to such extremes as few great managers would approve to-day. Undeniably, however, the contest idea was an important influence in the building up of a vast business in relatively brief time, while the influence on the pace of the whole industry gave the United States its

present supremacy in steel and iron. It survives in the parallel comparisons of records with which the Steel Corporation measures the efficiency of its units of production and keeps its mill superintendents to the mark.

It is utilized, in some degree and in varying departments, by hundreds of successful houses.

Let us a.n.a.lyze the facts, the habits of thought, the emotions behind compet.i.tion and determine where and how it may be applied to the task of increasing our own and our employees' efficiency.

The experienced horseman knows that a horse is unable to attain his greatest speed apart from a pacemaker. The horse needs the stimulus of an equal to get under way quickly, to strike his fastest gait and to keep it up.

In this particular an athlete in sprinting is like the horse. He is unable by sheer force of will to run a hundred yards in ten seconds. To achieve it he needs a compet.i.tor who will push him to his utmost effort.

_The struggle for existence, one of the main factors in the evolution of man, has raged most_

_fiercely among equals; without it, development scarcely would have been possible_.

So fundamental has been this struggle that the necessity for it has become firmly established within us. We require it to stimulate us to attain our highest ends.

As is made evident by a consideration of imitation we are eminently social creatures.

We imitate the acts of those about us. Imitation is, however, only the first stage of our social relationship. We first imitate and then compete. I purchase an automobile in imitation of the acts of my friends, but I compete with them by securing a more powerful or swifter car. By erecting a new building because some other banker has done so, the second individual does more than imitate.

He competes with the first by planning to erect a more magnificent structure and on a more commanding site. Or a great retail store, announcing a "February sale" of "white goods" or furniture, invariably tries to surpa.s.s the bargains offered by rival establishments.

We do indeed imitate and compete with all our a.s.sociates, but those whom we recognize as our peers are the ones who stimulate us more to the instinctive acts of imitation and compet.i.tion.

_Our actual equals stimulate us less than those whom we recognize as the peers of our ideal selves--of ourselves as we strive and intend to become. The man on the ladder just above me stirs me irresistibly_.

The effect of one individual upon others, then, is not confined to imitation. There is a constant tendency to vary from and to excel the model. My devotion to golf is mainly due to he example of some of my friends. My ambition is to outplay these same friends.

Imitation and compet.i.tion, apparently antagonistic, are in reality the two expressions for our social relationships. We first imitate and then attempt to differentiate ourselves from our companions.

The manufacturer or merchant imitates his compet.i.tor, but tries also to surpa.s.s him.

Indeed it is a truism that compet.i.tion is the

life of trade. In the shop and in the office, on the road and behind the counter, in all buying and selling, compet.i.tion is essential to the greatest success. Compet.i.tion, the desire to excel, is universal and instinctive.

It gives a zest to our work that would otherwise be lacking. In every sphere of human activity compet.i.tion seems essential for securing the best results.

_We a.s.sume ordinarily that compet.i.tion exists only between individuals. As a matter of fact, a slight degree of compet.i.tion may be aroused between a man's present efforts and his previous records_.

While not so tense or so compelling as is compet.i.tion between individuals, it has the advantage of avoiding the creation of jealousies.

In all the more exciting and stimulating games, rivalry between individuals is a prominent feature. In golf the game is frequently played without this factor, the only compet.i.tion being with previous records or with the mythical Bogy.

Such compet.i.tion adds considerable zest

to the game, and the same principle is applicable to business. The most compelling rivalry is between peers; without this, however, it is possible to pit the possibilities of the present month against the achievements of the previous four weeks or the past year or even against a hypothetical individual "bogy."

This bogy may be fixed by the executive, and the man induced to compete with it. Thus the dangers of compet.i.tion may be minimized and the advantages of the human instinctive desire for compet.i.tion be gained.

In the average well-organized business the carrying out of such a plan would not be difficult.

Studying the previous records of his men, a manager or foreman could determine what each individual bogy should be. The employee should know just what the _*record is_ that he is competing with, and that his success or failure would be recorded to his credit or otherwise. Above all, the bogy must be fair and within the power of the man to accomplish.

_Compet.i.tion need not be confined to individuals._

_Frequently one city finds a stimulus in competing with another. Nations compete with one another.

In any organization one section may compete with another_.

In an army there may be compet.i.tion between regiments. Within the regiment there may be the keenest rivalry between the different companies. We are such social creatures that we easily identify ourselves with our block, our street, our town, our social set, our party, our firm, or our department in the firm.

Like teams in any game or sport, these groups may be rendered self-conscious and thus made units for compet.i.tion.