The Principles of Scientific Management

THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 133 owners of companies in general as to the steps which they should take in making this change. As a warning to those who contemplate adopting scientific management, the following instance is given. Several men who lacked the extended experi- ence which is required to change without danger of strikes, or without interference with the success of the business, from the management of “initia- tive and incentive” to scientific management, at- tempted rapidly to increase the output in quite an elaborate establishment, employing between three thousand and four thousand men. Those who un- dertook to make this change were men of unusual ability, and were at the same time enthusiasts and I think had the interests of the workmen truly at heart. They were, however, warned by the writer, before starting, that they must go exceedingly slowly, and that the work of making the change in this estab- lishment could not be done in less than from three to five years. This warning they entirely disregarded. They evidently believed that by using much of the mechanism of scientific management, in combination with the principles of the management of “initiative and incentive,” instead of with the principles of scientific management, that they could do, in a year or two, what had been proved in the past to require at least double this time. The knowledge obtained from accurate time study, for example, is a powerful implement, and can be used, in one case to promote harmony between the workmen and the management, by gradually educating, training, and