Labour or the best for the community. Indeed, in practice, the 

 capitalist's criterion of what is ' best ' lies in the profit he can secure 

 from it. This does not mean that it is necessarily bad for Labour ; 

 but it does not mean either that it is necessarily good. 



We are driven back, therefore, upon a further study of the practical 

 proposals of the advocates of Scientific Management, and upon these 

 we must endeavour to pass judgment. 



The ' scientific method ' of the system, as we have seen, is based 

 primarily upon time and motion study. The object of time-study is, 

 by long series of experiments, to find out how long a job ought to 

 take that is, to establish a scientific standard time for the job or task 

 for the worker. The object of motion-study is, by similar experiments, 

 to find out the method of doing the job in the shortest possible time, 

 or, to a less extent, with the least possible effort. Speaking broadly, 

 motion-study is to determine the method to be adopted by the worker 

 in performing the job : time-study is to determine how much he or 

 she is to be paid for it. 



Motion-study naturally takes different forms, and assumes varying 

 degrees of importance, according to the nature of the operation. It has 

 reached the largest proportions in purely manual operations, such as the 

 classic instance of loading pig-iron on to a truck, or the laying of bricks, 

 or sewing by hand in a tailoring establishment. In such cases an attempt 

 is made to standardise the operation, so that it is performed in the least 

 possible number of motions, or in the shortest possible time, or with the 

 minimum of effort. These, obviously may not be compatible. The 

 speeding-up of an operation by the elimination of useless motions may 

 involve either more or less effort, or the number of motions may be 

 increased while the time is diminished. The accusation has been made 

 that in many such cases the employer gets a greater output by placing 

 a far greater strain on the worker, who may even be worn out by 

 overdrive and thrown on the scrap-heap like an old machine. The object 

 of motion-study is indeed largely that of making the worker into a 

 machine. 



In the case of machine operations, the effect of motion-study may 

 be rather different. In such a case, the machine itself, in proportion to 

 its automatic character, dictates the actual motions to be used in 

 working it, and motion-study is therefore likely to suggest an alteration 

 or adaptation of the machine, sometimes such an alteration as to remove 

 work from a skilled to a semi-skilled or unskilled category. Apart 

 from this, however, some ' scientific managers ' carefully prescribe even 

 for skilled craftsmen the motions and methods to be employed on 

 complex machines and operations. Here, again, then, the tendency 

 of Scientific Management is towards standardisation of both machines 

 and men. To this point I shall return later. 



Time-study has reference mainly, though not exclusively, to methods 

 of payment. In endeavouring to discover by experiment the standard 

 time for a job, what the manager mainly wants to find out is how much 

 the job will cost him in payment to the worker for doing it. Upon 



