PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY. 447 



erratic work. Thus by inverse presentation the workmens' 

 troubles seem to be perpetual slighting and unfair treatment. 

 But it is really because he has a sub-conscious distrust of himself 

 that he distrusts his employers — and his own union represen- 

 tatives I 



The psychological studies of which we have been thinking 

 are not very favourably received by either employers or employed 

 in England at present ; and the reason for this is the same as for 

 the distrust mentioned above. Motion- and fatigue-studies are 

 complex, and take time; and even psychologists have to be paid. 

 The employers are often too short-sighted to see the advantages 

 which will acci"iie to them; and they are often conservative. 

 Especially is this the case with the " self-made " man. Having 

 passed through those w^orkshops himself as a boy, w^orking from 

 early morn to late at night for a quarter of the w^ages he has to 

 pay his men, he will not willingly consider new proposals which 

 demand even the slightest additional expense. Science is to him 

 as it was when he was a boy in the same workshops — a closed 

 book — the study of cranks. On the other side the men believe 

 that the motion-studies will restrict their reviving instincts and 

 reduce them to mere machines." They again are also very 

 conservative. It is going to take more than a scientist to teach 

 a man, who has been doing the same job all his life, a simpler 

 and quicker way of doing it. But there are a few places in Eng- 

 land where the value of such studies has been proved, as well as 

 in many of the large factories in America ; but in order to institute 

 such studies, laboratories and testing-offices are necessary in con- 

 nection with factories and works. 



Since the aim of rearrangement and reorganisation of work 

 is to increase the satisfaction of the woi'kmen as well as to 

 increase and develop industry, then the processes must be 

 earned out gradually, with the full knowledge of the men, and 

 with the endeavour to gain their sympathy and help. A tactful 

 psychological adviser will not meet with great difficulty in getting 

 the confidence of the men, and he wall leam much from their 

 behaviour and experience. The first thing he will do is to seek 

 to arouse interest in the work generally and lead the men to 

 desire improvements. But in this he will have to be supported 

 by the employers and foremen. The first essential in industry, 

 as in any study, is the personal interest taken therein by the 

 individual worker; and this we believe can best be ensured by 

 giving the men an interest in the works as a whole; for example, 

 by having as their administrators and foremen men duly elected 

 by themselves and the employers, together with their own repre- 

 sentatives on the Directorial Board. This would possibly do away 

 with the type of foremen, appointed for his " push " and what 

 passes for " authority," w^ho is often a cause of niuch dissatis- 

 faction in the workshops. 



I hope that sufficient has been said in this introductory 

 outline to show the value of practical psychological methods and 

 to emphasise the need for renewed efforts in the building up of 



