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Show TH PRINCIPLE O SCIENTIFI MANAGEMEN 6 - for exact scientific experiments. Tt is true that the laws whic result from experiments of this class, owing to the fact that the ver complex organism - the human being - is being experimented with are subject to a larger number of exceptions than is the case wit laws relating to material things And yet laws of this kind, whic apply to a large majority of men, unquestionably exist, and whe clearly defined are of great value as a guide in dealing with men In developing these laws, accurate, carefully planned and execute experiments, extending through a term of years, have been made similar in a general way to the experiments upon various othe elements which have been referred to in this paper Perhaps the most important law belonging to this class, in it relation to scientific management, is the effect which the task ide has upon the efficiency of the workman This, in fact, has becom such an important element of the mechanism of scientific management, that by a great number of people scientific management ha come to be known as ‘task management. There ‘is absolutely nothing new in the task idea KEach one o us will remember that in his own case this idea was applied wit good results in his schoolboy days No efficient teacher woul think of giving a class of students an indefinite lesson to learn Each day a definite, clear-cut task is set by the teacher before eac scholar, stating that he must learn just so much of the subject and it is only by this means that proper, systematic progress can b made by the students The average boy would go very slowly if instead of being given a task, he were told to do as much as he could All of us are grown-up children, and it is equally true that the averag workman will work with the greatest satisfaction, both to himsel and to his employer, when he is given each day a definite task whic he is to perform in a given time, and which constitutes a prope This furnishes the workman wit day's work for a good workman a clear-cut standard, by which he can throughout the day measur his own progress, and the accomplishment of which affords him th greatest satisfaction The writer has described in other papers a series of experiment made upon workmen, which have resulted in demonstrating the fac that it is impossible, through any long period of time, to get workme to work much harder than the average men around them, unles they are assured a large and a permanent increase in their pay This series of experiments, however, also proved that plenty o workmen can be found who are willing to work at their best speed The workprovided they are given this liberal increase in wages |