Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

TRADES UNIONS l6l Dr. Taylor believed that if his ideas of manage- ment were fully adopted Labour Unions would be “ unnecessary.” He considered that the Union methods of regulating wages and conditions were " vastly inferior ” to his own. In this context he refers to his own method as “ the plan of stimulating each workman’s ambition by paying him according to his individual work.” This phrase occurs in his essay of 1895 ; but paragraph 13 in this essay is more definite: “ The necessity for the Labour Union, however, disappears when . . . the em- ployers take pains to study the character and performance of each of their employés and pay them accordingly.” 1 This is a curious echo of the opinion of a British employer seventy years before, except that Taylor does not mention an “ agreement ” : “ That which has struck most effectually at the root of all com- bination among workmen is to pay every man according to his merit, and allow him to make his own agreement with his employer.” 2 It seems clear, then, that Dr. Taylor believed in individual rather than collective bargaining. He was able to demonstrate in his many years’ practice that his workmen “ never went on strike,” and this fact alone he regards as satisfactory proof that they 1 See quotation from " A Piece-Rate System,” in “ Shop Management,” on p. 186. The tone of the passage is quite conciliatory to Unions, but gives no indication that they would find any place under his management. « See " Industrial Democracy,” S. & B. Webb, note on p. 319. Alexander Galloway's evidence to Committee on Artizans and Machinery, 1824. M