Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

i82 EFFICIENCY METHODS an event ? By a mere chance a few of their mem- bers would be earning far higher wages than any of the rest, with no real title to them. The manage- ment’s endeavour to abide by their word about rates would hardly meet with general approval. In the same way a bonus system that brought the wages of a semi-skilled, little-trained worker higher than that of a skilled man with a record behind him would not be popular. Although we are treating of relations between employers and Unions, it should be noted that there can be collective bargaining with workers, about a standard rate for minimum or about bonus, where there is no actual Trades Union; and it will be found that bargaining of the kind is generally conducive to smooth working of the new methods. The Union certainly provides a ready means for negotiations and shortens the process of “ getting the workers’ co-operation.” What many workers dread is instability in position and fluctuating wage, both of which conditions prevent their having any reasonably secure life or tranquil leisure. And after the war more than ever some permanence in conditions and outlook will be part of their ideal, rather than any excitement as to what their weekly wage will add up to each time it is paid. It may very possibly turn out that scientific management will have to modify its schemes of remuneration—never prescribed in any quite definite form, we must remember—quite anew to meet this new desire for stability.