Who Is Boss in Your Shop

The European War has developed into a high-powered adver- tisement for community organization, for the scientific in manage- ment and even for capacity in the individual.Notwithstanding much that might be cited to the contrary, our great national desire is to be efficient in both government and industry.Individually and as a people we are almost relentlessly seeking the bases of such Effi- ciency ; and we use the word capitalized as a synonym for the maxi- mum of considered well-being.This can be affirmed notwithstanding what appears to be the most conspicuous fact in our current indus- trial development, i.e., that more and more our people refuse to be efficient beyond their own desires.As the late Robert G. Valentine expressed it-perhaps a bit more emphatically than is warranted by developments to date-&dquo; the days of compulsion-the days of serv- ice without consent-are over.....In all those areas of life wherein man deals with man great breaches have been made in the ranks of compulsion.&dquo; But it would be a great mistake to assume either that this greater liberty of action demanded by the individual necessarily makes for inefficiency or that it acts as a challenge to in- dividual as opposed to group leadership.Apparently the New World has little to gain from any blind copying of foreign models in this matter of industrial organization and control.German efficiency both in government and industry depends on a philosophy absolutely inconsistent not only with Amer- ican traditions but with American ideals.In view of the virtual abandonment &dquo;for the period of the war&dquo; of the fabric of industrial practises and mechanisms built up in Great Britain during two generations largely by the labor unions, we are warranted in viewing what was the British industrial system with something more than sus- picion.Are we not warranted in the belief that there is in the mak- ing in America a scheme of direction and control both for govern- ment and for industry vastly more efficient and at the same time vastly more democratic than has heretofore been deemed possible

Boss · Computer Science · Engineering · Management and Marketing Education · Mechanical Engineering