Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

192 EFFICIENCY METHODS motion-study has been taken up, differences between workers in their powers of observation and manipula- tion will come out very strongly, and there will be consequent selection of certain workers and elimina- tion of others. And the qualifications for which workers are chosen will often be extremely special- ized. One has only to read the very interesting chapters in Muensterberg’s “ Psychology and In- dustrial Efficiency ” to realize how much specialized. The aim of psychologists in education, according to these recent theories, is to classify children at school according to the occupation for which they are best adapted. It is agreed that the attainment of this aim will entail years of study to elaborate the proper methods and experiments. The old classifi- cations and generalizations, as to “ memory,” or “ powers of observation,” are much too vague; each individual has his strong memory for one set of details, his weak memory for another set. His very attitude towards monotony in occupation has to be ascertained and diagnosed carefully.1 It is this new type of psychological investigation which makes the American movement called “ voca- tional guidance ” really new in its scope and aim. Otherwise much of the work done under this high- sounding title would be very much like the work of the English Juvenile Advisory Committees. The “ guidance ” has, it is true, been put into more systematic and orderly form, and the information 1 See Muensterberg’s chapter on this subject in the book mentioned.