Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

19° EFFICIENCY METHODS of apprentices in his trade, or to the introduction of “ illegal ” men, i.e., men not properly trained.1 Nevertheless, he has to remember that the rapid changes in industrial technique due to new machinery press hard on him, tending to make his skill out of date. He is by no means in the position of the old- fashioned worker who could guard and preserve his technique over many decades. He will in many cases be well-advised to sell it, by transferring it to the management at the moment when it is most valuable. Scientific management must differentiate itself from other management by offering him good terms. Turning to the second part of the programme, the training of the worker, the student interested in its educational aspect will find that, until lately, efficiency engineers mostly take on workers to train rather irrespective of their age and previous experience. We find, however, that younger people are some- times classed apart as needing a longer period of training, and a different method of remuneration or incentive. Before we discuss further the treatment of learners, we must note that the exact effect of the training on all workers depends essentially on how the standard task is fixed. If it is high, the result will be a small band of workers highly competent in their specialized line. A skill, of a much narrower kind, it is true, than that of the skilled craftsman, has been created, and the 1 See “ Industrial Democracy ” ; The Entrance to a Trade.