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nydus/The Psychology of ManagementPublic
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Table of Contents

STANDARDIZATION

should be standardized and standards only should be used. The instruction card dealing with the action, motions and their sequence should be standard to save time in changing teams from the full to the empty cart and vice versa. While standardized action is necessary with men, it is even more necessary for men in connection with the work of animals, such as horses, mules and oxen. The instruction card for the act of changing of teams from an empty cart to a full cart should state the side that the driver gets down from his seat to the ground, the sequence in which he unhooks the harness and hooks it up again, and the side on which he gets up to his seat in the cart. Even the wording of his orders to his horse should be standardized.

While this book will deal with the human mind only, it is in order to state that a book could be written to advantage on training the horse by means of a standard man-horse language and a standard practice of their combined action.

Animals have not the capacity for forming new habits that they have for remembering the sequence Page 171 of former acts. They have little ability to adapt themselves to a sequence of motions caused by unexpected conditions, unless those conditions suggest the opportunity of revenge, or the necessity of self-preservation, or immediate welfare. This is only touched upon here from the man side.

Naturally, the output earning power of a man working with animals depends largely upon the handling of the animal, and the man can never attain his full output, or the managers get what they might expect to get from the man-horse combination, until the psychology of the horse, or mule, or elephant, or whatever animal is used, is also studied and combined with the other studies on Scientific Management.

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