Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

EDUCATION I9I workers who possess it will form a body with dis- tinctive status and a natural pride in their efficiency. We hear from Mr. Gantt1 of societies of these skilled people who showed great exclusiveness. Dr. Taylor himself took the greatest pride in his “ body of picked labourers,”2 though perhaps we hardly follow him in calling it “ virtually a labour union of first-class men.” 3 Still, they doubtless did command the “ admiration and respect of all classes.” This state of things forms the defence for the severity of his task, for which he has been so bitterly blamed—that “ one in five ” which his opponents never allowed him to forget. The reverse of this plan, setting the standard task very low, brings a different danger which threatens the skilled worker very much in the same way that under-skilled, under-trained workers have always threatened him. If the task is made too easy any “ man in the street ” becomes a competitor for his job. Hoxie says there are shop departments where he has been told that he could become a bonus worker in two weeks,4 though this statement has been received with incredulity in various quarters. However, it was made clear in chap. xi. that the training may be quite slight in certain con- ditions, and the amount of selection or specialization equally slight, in vivid contrast to Taylor’s much- anathematized methods. But when rather elaborate i " Work, Wages, and Profits,” p. 166. 3 " Principles of Scientific Management,” p. 72. 4 " Shop Management,” pp. 56-7. 5 Loc. cit., p. 129.