PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY. 445 



Indaistrij. 



A good deal of the matter in this section is from the conver- 

 sations and lectures of Dr. C. S. Mjers, of Cambridge, and much 

 of it is contained in his " Mind and Work " published 

 subsequently. 



The managers of large factories continually complain about 

 the number of men who wander from one department of the 

 works to another, or ivom one factory to another. Statistics on 

 this migration were first taken in America, where it was found 

 that, at one factory, only 10 per cent, of the 10,000 men who 

 left the works during a certain period did so for reasons known 

 to the emploj'ers. Obviously very many of the other 90 per cent, 

 migrated to find more suitable or congenial work. Wastage to 

 both employers and employed is therefore enormous. The same 

 complaint is heard, not only in America, but also in the Midlands 

 and the iron and steel centres of the north of England. As we 

 have said, the chief cause of this is that so many men do not 

 know the kind of occupation to which they are best suited, nor 

 in what their interests lie. Other factors causing men to be 

 dissatisfied with their work, such as unhealthy conditions of 

 labour, " rushing," etc., need not trouble us here; for in England 

 these matters are under the careful eye of H.M. Inspector of 

 Factories; but it is the chief cause — the wastage of talent and 

 the unsuitability of many employees for their particular occupa- 

 tion — which we are considering, and the right methods by which 

 to find the right man for the right place. 



If we might adapt the old motto, we should say that the 

 employers' aim should be to have " a place for every man, and 

 every man in his place." In each type of occupation it is seen 

 that some men succeed much more than others ; and this is 

 because the abilities and tendencies of men differ. " In some 

 the constructive instinct predominates, in others the acquisitive, 

 in others the meekly submissive." Again, the hunting, agricul- 

 tural and aesthetic types are all different; and their concomitant 

 instincts and tendencies are the outstanding marks of the respec- 

 tive type. It is also seen by experimental study that there are 

 great differences of apprehension-span and memory-span, manual 

 dexterity, acuity of hearing, numerical memory-span, etc., all of 

 which have their part to play in different occupations. For 

 example, in a pencil factory, manual dexterity is necessary to 

 pick up exactly a dozen pencils at a time ; and only those should 

 therefore be employed at this who can readily be trained to 

 pick up the requisite number without having to count them every 

 time. Telephone operators, machinists, typists, moulders, 

 builders, and all other kinds of wox-kers are called upon to use 

 some snecial ability or other in their work, and these characteris- 

 tics and abilities are measurable by means of experimental tests 

 such as are now employed in the National Institute of Psychology 

 and Physiology' in Britain. The condition of having a round peg 

 in a square hole could easily be avoided if such tests were used 

 in judging the individual capacity of each applicant for each type 



