SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—F*. 345 
The question, then, is not really one of resolving its conflicts so much as 
to prevent their occurrence by means of a convenient circulation of the 
forces which should be capable of combination instead of opposition. If, 
then, we cease to regard the business as a bloc for which there could only 
be an en bloc solution, we can, by directing our attention successively 
upon its subdivisions only, proceed with smaller risk along lines of experi- 
mental research. For example, profit-sharing applied to the total personnel 
of a business is a form of en bloc attempt at the solution of the problem 
of remuneration of labour. If we reduce this problem to the dimensions 
of a technological group, we also reduce the extent of the difficulty: it 
becomes a question of resolving the problem of digestion by means of the 
stomach, and that of respiration, by the lungs. Then we shall begin to 
build a business in the image of those organic beings that nature has evolved. 
The imitation of natural organisms should lead to the subdivision of 
businesses into autonomous groups. 
Prof. F. MEYENBERG.—Improvements in industrial relations arising 
from the intervention of the management consultant. 
The process of ‘ division of labour’ that is economically necessary in 
every industrial concern is liable to give rise to various forms of internal 
friction which, whether traceable mainly to material facts or to personalities, 
must be removed, or at least diminished, by those responsible for 
organisation. 
For this task the independent management consultant is often better 
placed than an employee of the concern in that : 
(1) Being free from preoccupation with day-to-day detail he can give his 
whole time to questions of organisation. 
(2) Being free from departmental bias he can envisage the harmonious 
organisation of the concern as a whole. 
(3) Through his experience in investigating different branches of industry 
he recognises the underlying principles common to all, and thus is less 
prone to overrate non-essential details. 
(4) He is free from that workshop blindness which so often results 
from a man’s having worked many years in the same factory. 
If the best possible results are to be obtained the following requirements 
must be fulfilled : 
(1) On the part of the management consultant—He must have long 
acquaintance with the theory and, more important still, of the practice of 
the main managerial functions such as purchasing and selling, storage and 
transport, production, methods of payment of personnel, cost-accounting, 
book-keeping, inspection and finance. He must possess a high degree of 
discretion, tact and knowledge of human nature if he is to gain influence by 
consultation rather than by command. Apart from his work as a consultant 
he must be entirely independent and disinterested, both materially and 
morally. 
(2) On the part of the directors of the concern.—They must give the 
consultant free access to all the facts of the business and require their 
employees to do likewise. Criticism, even when adverse, of measures 
taken by the managing director must be regarded as in the interests of the 
concern as a whole so long as it is offered in an objective and inoffensive 
manner. The managing director, however, must never forget that he 
alone is responsible for the success of the business, and should therefore 
follow the consultant’s advice only if he is personally convinced that it 
points in the right direction. 
