Value of Personality Not Eliminated. — It is a great mistake to think that Scientific Management underestimates the value of personality. 56 Rather, Scientific Management enhances the value of an admirable personality. This is well exemplified in the Link-Belt Co., 57 and in the Tabor Manufacturing Co. of Philadelphia, as well as on other work where Scientific Management has been installed a period of several years.
Curiosity Aroused by Scientific Management. —
Scientific Management arouses the curiosity of the worker, by showing, through its teaching, glimpses of the possibilities that exist for further scientific investigation. The insistence on standard methods of less waste arouses a curiosity as to whether still less wasteful methods cannot be found.
Curiosity Utilized by Scientific Management. — This curiosity is very useful as a trait of the learner, the planner and the investigator. It can be well utilized by the teacher who recognizes it in the learner, by an adaptation of methods of interpreting the instruction card, that will allow of partially satisfying, Page 256 and at the same time further exciting, the curiosity.
In selecting men for higher positions, and for special work, curiosity as to the work, with the interest that is its result, may serve as an admirable indication of one sort of fitness. This curiosity, or general interest, is usually associated with a personal interest that makes it more intense, and more easy to utilize.
Scientific Management Places a High Value on Imitation.
— It was a popular custom of the past to look down with scorn on the individual or organization that imitated others. Scientific Management believes that to imitate with great precision the best, is a work of high intelligence and industrial efficiency.
Scientific Management Uses Both Spontaneous and Deliberate Imitation. — Teaching under Scientific Management induces both spontaneous and deliberate imitation. The standardization prevalent, and the conformity to standards exacted, provide that this imitation shall follow directed lines.
Spontaneous Imitation Under Scientific Management Has Valuable Results. — Under Scientific Management, the worker will spontaneously imitate the teacher, when the latter has been demonstrating. This leads to desired results. So, also, the worker imitates, more or less spontaneously, his own past methods of doing work. The right habits early formed by Scientific Management insure that the results of such imitation shall be profitable.
Deliberate Imitation Constantly Encouraged. —
Deliberate imitation is caused more than anything Page 257 else by the fact that the man knows, if he does the thing in the way directed, his pay will be increased.
Such imitation is also encouraged by the fact that the worker is made to believe that he is capable, and has the will to overcome obstacles. He knows that the management believes he can do the work, or the instruction card would not have been issued to him. Moreover, he sees that the teacher and demonstrator is a man promoted from his rank, and he is convinced, therefore, that what the teacher can do he also can do. 58
Scientific Management Provides Standards for Imitation. — It is of immense value in