6 



4 Humanitarian ' arguments, based upon the effect of Scientific Manage- 

 ment upon the ' welfare ' of the workers, may be important, but th'-y 

 are secondary. 



I cannot attempt to define Scientific Management in any more 

 concrete terms than I have employed in speaking of the general principle 

 behind it. As soon as we pass from its theoretical position to the 

 practical applications of that principle, we are confronted with a vast 

 and heterogeneous mass of proposals. From these I must merely 

 select those with which I propose to deal. In its application to Labour, 

 Scientific Management is based upon a ' scientific ' investigation of 

 the conditions under which work is carried on. By elaborate studies 

 of the time taken on particular jobs or parts of jobs, and of the motions 

 made in and necessary for the execution of such jobs, the ' scientific 

 manager ' seeks to arrive at an accurate knowledge of the ' best ' 

 conditions to be adopted in his factory. He seeks to equip himself 

 with information in respect of every job bearing on the following, 

 among other, points : 



(a) The method and amount of payment necessary to secure the 



lowest labour cost per unit of the product ; 

 (6) The method of production, the hours and conditions of labour, 



the rest pauses, the amount of supervision, etc., necessary 



to secure the same ends. 



Now, this description of the methods and aims of Scientific Manage- 

 ment includes what many of its advocates will regard as a misrepre- 

 sentation. Our object, they will say, is not fundamentally that of 

 securing ' the lowest labour cost per unit of the product ' ; it is that 

 of finding the ' best ' and ' most scientific ' methods of payment, 

 hours and conditions of labour, rest pauses, amount of supervision, 

 methods of production, etc. It is the fundamental doctrine at least 

 of Mr. Taylor, the founder of the system, that these things go together. 

 The ' best ' and most scientific adjustments do also secure the lowest 

 labour costs, and also make for the common advantage of all parties 

 concerned the profiteer, the manager, the worker, and the public. 



For this claim we should not, I think, be prepared to take Mr. Taylor's 

 word, even if those who have to apply Scientific Management in practice 

 were purely disinterested persons. Still less can we be content to do 

 so when we consider the conditions under which the system has to be 

 applied. Industry to-day is owned and controlled by persons who are 

 not, and cannot be, ' in business for their health.' Self-interest and, 

 failing that, competition, impel them to seek the lowest labour cost 

 without too much regard for the effect upon others. Where it pays 

 them to manage ' scientifically,' they will do so if they have the 

 intelligence ; where it does not pay them, or they are unintelligent, 

 they will persist with unscientific management. If all managers were 

 perfectly intelligent, and further if Scientific Management always paid 

 its promoters, it would no doubt be universally adopted ; but this 

 would be no proof of its beneficent effect upon the workers or the 

 community. The ' best ' for Capitalism is not necessarily the best for 



