OFFICE ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT 557 



Office work is one of the first of his duties which he leaves for a "rainy 

 day." The "rainy day" does not come as often as he anticipated it would, 

 with a result that office records in many cases are poorly kept or not kept 

 at all. The park executive himself sooner or later realizes this fact and 

 feels he must have an office assistant. In the smallest departments this 

 is often someone who is expected to answer office calls, both personal and 

 telephone, probably type a letter or two and otherwise "just be there" if 

 something happens. As the department business increases, personality 

 becomes a more important factor, calls are more frequent, letters more 

 numerous and "books" become necessary. A combination bookkeeper and 

 stenographer is the person best suited for the job until the business is great 

 enough to justify and demand the services of both a stenographer and a 

 bookkeeper. 



The first division of labor has now occurred in the office organization. 

 The development of the office is now just a continual repetition of this same 

 process, and the only criterion of the stage at which this division should take 

 place is determined by the amount of work to be done as revealed by expe- 

 rience and careful investigation of each individual case. Where we had 

 one stenographer, we now have several of somewhat different capacities - 

 the typist, the true stenographer, the secretarial assistant, the expert short- 

 hand reporter as well as the dictaphone and mimeographer experts and the 

 like. Our one bookkeeper has become chief bookkeeper, auditing clerk, 

 timekeeper, cost accountant, statistician, bookkeeper on this set of books, 

 bookkeeper on that set of books, etc. And we also have telephone operators, 

 information clerks, file clerks and miscellaneous clerks of all kinds. Not 

 only has the personnel become larger and more varied but we at last reach 

 a point where it is more economical to supplant manual methods with 

 machine methods. Adding machines make their appearance early, but later 

 on the manager is confronted with the economical necessity of adopting one 

 of many possible bookkeeping and statistical systems. This introduces the 

 various appliance operators. Filing becomes complicated and special labor- 

 saving filing equipment makes its appearance. Stock records become neces- 

 sary, and we have a stock room and stock shelving and similar equipment. 



The stranger entering this office does not recognize any similarity 

 between it and the little stenographer and bookkeeper office pictured above. 

 It is absolutely necessary, however, that the manager of the complex office 

 does recognize the resemblance between the two; that his mind be broad 

 enough to see in his ramified departments the work as of one man aiming 

 at one goal. One of the first duties of a new manager is to chart his organ- 

 ization to see that the greatest division of labor is possible, that the proper 

 promotion possibilities are available to all employees, that the work itself 



