The Principles of Scientific Management

THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 37 Fourth. There is an almost equal division of the work and the responsibility between the management and the workmen. The management take over all work for which they are better fitted than the work- men, while in the past almost all of the work and the greater part of the responsibility were thrown upon the men. It is this combination of the initiative of the work- men, coupled with the new types of work done by the management, that makes scientific management so much more efficient than the old plan. Three of these elements exist in many cases, under the management of “ initiative and incentive,” in a small and rudimentary way, but they are, under this management, of minor importance, whereas under scientific management they form the very essence of the whole system. The fourth of these elements, “an almost equal division of the responsibility between the manage- ment and the workmen,” requires further explana- tion. The philosophy of the management of “initia- tive and incentive” makes it necessary for each workman to bear almost the entire responsibility for the general plan as well as for each detail of his work, and in many cases for his implements as well. In addition to this he must do all of the actual physical labor. The development of a science, on the other hand, involves the establishment of many rules, laws, and formulae which replace the judgment of the individual workman and which can be effect- ively used only after having been systematically