On the other hand, the opposition
which comes from certain quarters,--for instance, from some
trade-unions,--may be disregarded, as it is not directed against the
claim that the efficiency can be heightened, but only against some
social features of the scheme, such as the resulting temporary
reduction of the number of workmen. But nobody can deny that this
revolutionary movement has introduced most valuable suggestions which
the industrial world cannot afford to ignore, and that as soon as
exaggerations are avoided and experience has created a broader
foundation, the principles of the new theory will prove of lasting
value. We shall have to discuss, at a later point, various special
features of the system, especially the highly interesting motion
study. Here we have to deal only with those tendencies of the movement
and with those interests which point toward our present problem, the
mental analysis of the individual employees in order to avoid misfits.
The approach to this problem, indeed, seems unavoidable for the
students of scientific management, as its goal is an organization of
economic work by which the waste of energy will be avoided and the
greatest increase in the efficiency of the industrial enterprise will
be reached. The recognition that this can never be effected by a mere
excessive driving of the workingmen belongs to its very
presuppositions. The illusory means of prolongation of the
working-time and similar devices by which the situation of the
individual deteriorates would be out of the question; on the contrary,
the heightening of the individual's joy in the work and of the
personal satisfaction in one's total life development belongs among
the most important, indirect agencies of the new scheme.
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