Science and Common Sense IN Working With Men By WALTER DILL SCOTT President of Northwestern University; President of The Scott Company, Philadelphia; Formerly Director of The Committee on Classification of Personnel in the Army, and President of the American Psychological Associa- tion ; Author of "Influencing Men in Business," etc. And M. H. S. HAYES Member of The Scott Company, Philadelphia; Forrnerly Associate Psychologist, Laboratory of Social Hygiene; Joint author of "Delinquent Women in New York State" NEW YORK THE RONALD PRESS COMPANY 1921 Copyright, 192 1, by The Ronald Press Company All Rights Reserved PREFACE It has been the intention of the authors to offer in these pages a plea for the recognition of a new point of view in deahng with men in industry. The old idea of thinking of men as so many kilograms of muscular energy, to be bought, ex- ploited, and scrapped when occasion demands, is reaping the harvest it richly deserves. Burst, likewise, is the bubble of paternalism which sought to determine for labor what was good for it and feed it accordingly. Executives are now coming to realize that their workers are not a bulk mass but a group of individuals. They are recognizing that these workers differ in the things they are fitted to do and capable of doing; that they differ, likewise, in their interests, ambitions, and the things that seem to them desirable; and that as men of differ- ing capacities and desires they require individual adjustment to the opportunities offered them in the field of industry. In Chapters I-VIII we have attempted to de- scribe how men vary in capacities of one sort and another and how science may be pressed into serv- ice to assist in discovering these variations. In Chapters IX and X we have treated of some of 492r > i I IV PREFACE the motives which have been operative in the in- dustrial Hves of men. In Chapter XI we have endeavored to point out how it is possible to turn a job into an opportunity, provided due recogni- tion has been given to the first two factors. And in the final chapter we have tried to show that in the constant flux of changing conditions and developing personalities today's inspirations are tomorrow's platitudes, and the process of adjust- ment of men to jobs is not fixed and static but subject to constant change. Walter Dill Scott M. H. S. Hayes New York City September 15, 1921 CONTENTS Chapter Page I Introduction 3 Modern Personnel Work Knowing the Employees Employer and Employee Disadvantage of Personal Contact Qualities of Personnel Executive Former Method of Selecting Men The Modern Plans II Measuring Physical Capacities ... 15 Physical Examinations — Advantages Objections Special Disabilities The Physically Handicapped Placing Disabled Workers Special Physical Abilities III Mental Tests 24 Mental Fitness Psychology Misunderstood Correct Attitude Kinds of Mental Tests The Miinsterberg Test Mental Alertness Tests Binet-Simon Test Modifications Abnormal Cases Mental Tests in Schools Above and Below Par Grading School Children Mental Tests in the Army Testing by Groups vi CONTENTS Chapter Page IV Mental Tests in Industry 47 Special Alertness Tests for Industry Objections Advantages Classification and Adjustment Selection and Rejection Occupational Groups Failure to Meet the Standard Incapacity Establishing an Average Grade V Various Uses and Results of Mental Tests 61 Mental Alertness — Group Differences Applicants and Employees Tests of Men and Women Reasons for Different Results "Learning on the Job" Classification by Education Mental Tests as a Basis of Classification Mental Alertness and Stability Stability in Various Departments Necessity for Two Sets of Facts Benefits of Mental Alertness Tests Not Universally Applicable VI Testing Technical Ability .... 81 i Technical Ability | Standardized Trade Tests • I The Three Requirements of the Trade Tests ' Results of Trade Test VII Rating Character Qualities .... 89 Difficulty of Judging Personality Selecting a Department Head Different Opinions of Executive Qualities Method of Rating Executive Qualities Advantages of Rating Scale CONTENTS vii | Chapter Page | VIII Judging a Man by His History .... 102 1 General Factors j Previous Experience | Education ', Personal History I General Conclusions 1 I IX Ascertaining Desires no ] Motives for Work _ \ Necessity for Occupation , The Economic Motive , The Creative Instinct ' How the Creative Instinct Works ; Thwarted Instincts | X Other Desires and Instincts .... 121 ] The Desire for Authority ; The Competitive Appeal j The Social Instinct 1 Prestige of Certain Kinds of W^ork | Loyalty, Pride, Justice, Sympathy, etc. i Justice versus Benefaction Importance of Right Incentive ^ The Industrial Army ] XI Creating Opportunities 134 Studying the Job Fitting the Job to the Worker The Worker's Viewpoint Jobs Lacking Opportunity XII Adjustment a Continuous Process . . 140 .| Classifying Men in the War . ; The Labor Inventory i The Round Peg in the Round Hole Rounding the Hole or Squaring the Peg Holding the Worker Down Helping the Worker Changing the Old Order ' Every Man an Industrial Problem CHARTS Figure Page 1. Chart Showing Relation Between Known AbiHty of Men in a Factory School and Mental Alert- ness Test Score 71 2. Chart Showing Desire for Change of Job and Status at Leaving Public School 74 3. Graphic Rating Scale for Gauging Foremen and Other Executives 96, 97 IX SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE IN WORKING WITH MEN CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Modern Personnel Work There may be those who will feel a certain contradiction in the title of this book. The word ''science" is for some surrounded by an aura of academic pedantry that awakens an immediate antagonism in the so-called practical man. For his benefit, then, we have added the words "com- mon sense," since this is his slogan, his war-cry, and the standby of his mental mechanisms. When now we turn to Father Noah for justification, we find him defining science as ''knowledge, compre- hension, and understanding of the truths or facts of any subject" and common sense as "sound, practical judgment." If, then, we can combine the two and strive for a knowledge of the truths or facts of personnel administration and on the basis of these render a sound, practical judgment, we will consider the job well done. Huxley has said that the benefits of science are derived more from the ijiethods than the piroducts thereof, and this statement applies with considerable force to personnel work. The data with which we are dealing here are not novel. 3 4 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE The problem of the relations between employers and workers has existed as long as industry has existed. It existed when the industrial concern consisted of a boss and five workmen and as such it was recognized and dealt with, but the way of dealing with it was the rule-of -thumb method which the size of the organization and the close relationship of employer and employee made possible. The problems which confront present- day industry are essentially the same problems, but so infinitely magnified and complicated that the old methods of dealing with them are no longer possible. It is therefore necessary to have recourse to some other means in order adequately "to know, comprehend, and understand the truths or facts of the situation" that a ''wise and prac- tical judgment" may be made. Knowing the Employees The idea of modern personnel administration can be summed up in four words : Know your men better. When this suggestion was made to the president of a large automobile factory he replied with considerable heat, "Know my men better ? I can go out into the plant and call every man there by his first name." Perhaps he could, but he had nevertheless failed to grasp the idea. Knowing a man by his first name and knowing INTRODUCTION 5 his history, his education, his special training, his particular machine or tool aptitude, his ability to supervise and train others, the ease with which he learns this kind of work as against that, his interests and motives — these are two entirely dif- ferent things. They are different because one is superficial and the other is fundamental. Knowing the name of every man in your plant is a remark- able feat of memory. It is a valuable social asset. But it is not knowing a man — it is knowing his name. Employer and Employee Those of us who are interested in this sub- ject are fond of harking back to the time when the little factory was the productive unit. In this little factory of fifty years ago, which consisted of anywhere from five to thirty men, the owner was also the resident manager and often worked with, as well as directed the men under him. For this reason, then, he knew his men personally, intimately, by daily contact; he had known many of them from boyhood, had even perhaps had his eye on them as likely youngsters while they were still in school. He knew their practical qualifications, their strength and weakness, their better fitness for this work as against that ; some- thing, as well, of what they wanted and hoped to 6 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE do. Because he knew them thus, at first hand and not indirectly through foremen and superinten- dent, he could place each man where he best be- longed and direct and develop him into a more and more valuable worker. Let us jump fifty years. The small factory has given place to the large factory. The com- pany of ten employees is now a company of from two hundred to twenty thousand. The old per- sonal contact has dissolved — although often the desire to retain it, on the part of both manage- ment and employee, remains. Ordinarily the em- ployer knows little more about his men than what he learns from references regarding their previous experience and the ability displayed in their pres- ent work. Disadvantage of Personal Contact Over and above having tired our readers with reference to our little old factory of 1870, we have sometimes been accused of idealizing it, of hold- ing it out as the Golden Age of industry when capital and labor sat at meat together — labor, of course, always below the salt — and adjusted their problems in peace and harmony. We have been asked: Is the restoration of the personal touch all that labor is asking for today ? Isn't it rather a more intangible thing that the worker is seek- INTRODUCTION 7 ing, a sort of vague groping toward the establish- ment of principles of justice and fair dealing? Was it true, certain questioners have queried, that in that Age of Pericles the worker always benefited from the close personal contact between himself and his boss? (If a low form of wit may be permitted, the peon system exhibits ''the per- sonal touch" par excellence, and yet one would hesitate to recommend it as good personnel prac- tice.) Didn't it sometimes happen that the em- ployer made unsportsmanlike use of the informa- tion that his daily contact with the worker en- abled him to obtain? Didn't he know, for exam- ple, that Bill Smith had to hold his job because he had a family and was buying a house ''on time," so, when it w^as a question of somebody's doing an especially disagreeable job, didn't he wish it on Bill rather than on Pat O'Toole whom he knew to be foot-loose and fancy free? We are willing to acknowledge that it sometimes did hap- pen this w'ay. There were many employers for whom no method was too small, no means too low to assist them in securing the last atom of profit which could be extracted from a worker. Moreover, we are not so optimistic as to believe that human nature has entirely altered in a half century. The efforts of modern personnel admin- istration to restore the personal touch between the 8 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE employer and his workers will conceivably even do harm if such an employer be assumed. Edu- cation is effective only where it has something to build on, and the time spent in teaching an entirely selfish employer the principles of modern personnel practice stands as so many wasted hours in one's "Book of Days." We do not mean to imply thereby that for an employer adequately to grasp the principles of personnel administration it is necessary that he steep his soul in the sort of sentimental twaddle that attends some of the so-called social or wel- fare work. This kind of pabulum oftentimes serves simply to gratify that curiosity which per- vades the souls of **old women of both sexes." There is a line of demarkation, clearly visible to the right sort of individual — and no other should be permitted to handle men — between finding out what you need to know about a man for his bene- fit and yours and prying into personal affairs which are his own concern. Qualities of Personnel Executive This line varies with every man you deal with, and it is for this reason that we cannot empha- size too strongly here the prime necessity of choosing your personnel executive with care. He should be at one and the same time a frank and INTRODUCTION 9 outspoken diplomat, a statesman for whom no problem is too trivial, a good fellow and a mixer without losing thereby one iota of his dignity, an unimpeachable judge with a broad charity for human frailties, a scholar with a full recognition of the attainments of his humblest trucker — in short, a two-fisted man with the instincts of a gentleman. With such a man in the saddle, a recognition of the principles of justice and fair dealing are fairly w^ell assured, and the tools of personnel administration serve simply to provide him with ''the truths or facts about the subject," on the basis of which he can formulate the labor policies of his organization in accordance with such principles. If this sounds like a plea for the establishment of a beneficent despotism rather than the laying down of inflexible laws, we reply that in the last analysis all matters of contro- versy are dependent on human judgment. In their most extreme instance, the decisions of the justices of our Supreme Court are dependent upon their interpretation of the written, estab- lished, unvarying laws. So, whether you are operating under union agreement, with organization committees, or by the open-shop system, much of the success of your negotiations depends upon the personality of the man or men to whom you have delegated 10 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE the function of dealing with your workers. The assigning of the job of selecting, hiring, placing, training, transferring, promoting, and firing men, to any Tom, Dick, or Harry that wasn't needed anywhere else in your organization has been re- sponsible for much of the stupidity as well as the crying injustice that has marked the relations of labor and capital in the past. If, then, we say "Know your men better," and suggest that you let that man or group of men to whom the in- formation is brought be someone who is inter- ested more in men than in things, we have given you at the start-off our idea of the function of personnel administration. Let us also at the outset make it clear that in this book we are dealing with the function rather than the field of personnel. We have en- deavored to present some ideas on the relationship between men and management and to discuss the modern methods of furthering this relationship. We have dealt with the tools of personnel admin- istration only in so far as they illustrate the methods of restoring the personal relation be- tween the worker and his boss. Specific treat- ment of such matters as safety, medical research, occupational hazards, fatigue, welfare, industrial education, working conditions, labor turnover, etc.. as well as the whole fundamental issue of INTRODUCTION n collective bargaining or other group relationships has been purposely reserved for discussion else- where. Former Method of Selecting Men In the "good old days," when the queue of waiting applicants stretched half way across the factory yard, the method of selection and place- ment was a hail from the door, **Hey, you with the black cap, get on the job in building 2 !" If one could find no more profitable employment than delving into the mental processes of the man who spoke — be he foreman, employment clerk, or what not — one would most likely find that the man with the black cap was selected from the ranks of his fellows because he was big, or be- cause he was young, or because he looked strong, or, maybe, because he didn't look lazy. The criterion of bulk was, perhaps, the most common guide for selection. Strength, youth, and activ- ity ! What more could one ask of a worker ? The method of assignment, too, was simple. There were jobs to be filled in building 2. They want work, we have jobs. Put them together and the problem is solved. Maybe it happens that the man can't do the work. Maybe, for all his beef, he is slow and stupid. Maybe he doesn't like the job, or the 12 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE working conditions, or his fellow-workmen, or the foreman. Let him go, then. There are plenty more where he came from. In the ''good old days" the ranks of the unemployed were self- replenishing. Jobs were fewer, workers were ne- gotiating as individual units, immigration was on the boom, and sources of labor supply were the least of the employer's problems. If a man looked good, you hired him for the job that was open, and if he failed to succeed, or if he didn't like the work, or when that particular job was finished, you fired him. ''Thus was the thing accom- plished." Three factors — and many more — have contrib- uted to the decline of the "good old days." One was an appeal close to the heart of the "hard- boiled boss" — money. Figures were beginning to be kept on the expense of maintaining this stream of short-time men — the cost involved in wasted material, damaged machinery, and de- creased production. The factory manager was beginning to turn a speculative eye on the item of labor turnover. Another influence was making itself manifest from the worker himself. He was coming to realize that as a single unit he could make no stand against an unscrupulous employer, could offer no opposition to unfair conditions, but that, INTRODUCTION 13 taken as an aggregate, labor presented a force that must be reckoned with. The worker was beginning to demand consideration through the principle of collective bargaining. The third factor is, however, the most hope- ful from a social point of view. It is the gradual recognition of the idea that the relation between capital and labor involves a mutual obligation, that even as it is no more of a concession for Mr. A to sell a house to Mr. B than it is for Mr. B to buy a house from Mr. A, so the qualified worker is no more beholden to the employer for giving him a job than the employer is in his debt for taking it. The «nployer must resign the role of "Lady Bountiful," and the worker must cease to be an object of charity and take his place as a citizen, capable of assuming the responsibility of making and keeping a contract. The Modern Plans It must not be assumed that these factors have already completely functioned, that their work is accomplished and that the ''good old days" are fast sinking into the mists of oblivion. The hard- boiled employer, like the poor, we have always with us. Labor legislation, popular sentiment, and union activities are trimming his claws, but in his heart and in his thinking his word is still 14 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE an ipse dixit, and he submits with a poor grace to these new-fangled notions and prophesies a bad end for the new industrial generation. Yet the best of our progressive employers are today coming to realize that in the careful study of men and jobs there is commercial benefit to be derived in the way of increased produc- tion, decreased turnover, and heightened morale. Moreover, the progressive employer is coming to realize that in dealing with men there is involved, as well, a certain ethical obligation which requires that every man who contracts to work for him shall be afforded an opportunity to make the most of himself, given a chance to go as far as his capacities enable him, his interests impel him, and the opportunities of the organization permit. This means studying the capacities and desires of the man and the opportunities of the organiza- tion in order to co-ordinate the three into a har- monious whole, for the mutual benefit of the man and the organization. CHAPTER II MEASURING PHYSICAL CAPACITIES Physical Examinations — Advantages -^ Justification for the physical examination of workers has been a moot point for a long time, but the desirability of such examination does not admit of question among progressive employers of labor. From a purely selfish point of view, its advantage to the employer lies in providing against putting men on jobs at which, because of physical disability, they will be unable to produce the standard amount. It is, moreover, desirable from the point of view of the worker himself, both as an individual and as a member of a social group. It removes the possibility of assigning the physically handicapped man to the kind of job in the performance of which he might do him- self further injury. Instances of such possibilities come readily to mind. Such are the putting of workers with weak eyes on jobs which involve continuous eye- strain; the assigning of a man having a hernia to a job requiring heavy trucking or lifting; the employment of cases of incipient tuberculosis in occupations where working conditions involve 15 l6 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE possible breathing of dust or lint; or the assign- ing of persons afflicted with nephritis to jobs where they would be exposed to cold, dampness, or fluctuation of temperature. Moreover, such an examination often serves as a warning for the worker of impending trouble. By calling his attention to a slight ailment which might otherwise pass unnoticed, it enables him to take measures to prevent serious consequences. For the consideration of the working group as a whole, the desirability of physical examination is seen in the safeguarding of the group from cases of communicable diseases, such as trachoma, syphilis, or tuberculosis. It helps also to protect against injury in certain gang operations where the collapse of an individual engaged in the opera- tion of dangerous machinery would have disas- trous consequences for all. Objections But, however desirable such a proceeding is when properly and legitimately applied, the prac- tice of making physical examinations has infinite possibilities of misuse in the hands of unscrupu- lous employers. Labor unions have almost uni- versally gone on record as opposing it. They claim that it has been used as a form of legiti- matized black list, whereby workers distasteful MEASURING PHYSICAL CAPACITIES 17 to the management can be prevented from obtain- ^ing employment on the basis of some sHght or even invented ailment. There is still another factor which militates against the universal adoption of such a practice, and this lies in a certain sentiment which exists, especially among women, that makes this proce- dure extremely distasteful. How much this sen- timent involves the habit of modesty and how much it is concerned with the emotion of fear — the dread of learning that you are not well, that you may be subject to the pain of an operation or the isolation of a hospital commitment — it is impossible to say. But anyone who has had first- hand dealings with ignorant people, especially with recent immigrants for whom our medical practices have the additional horror of complete unfamiliarity, knows how very difficult it is to get them to submit to any sort of modern medical or surgical attention. Certain it is that factory nurses will tell you many stories of the struggles they encountered, in the early days of industrial medicine, in the effort to persuade the workers to make use of the facilities offered them. When you combine with this the taboo which has existed for generations regarding the men- tion of certain diseases, such as tuberculosis, epilepsy, syphilis, and cancer, it is easy to see l8 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE that the road toward the establishment of a uni- versal practice of physical examination is not a smooth one. From a purely social point of view, also, there is room for argument against a too narrow appli- cation of this procedure. One cannot, with logic, scorn the crippled beggar on the street and still refuse him an opportunity to earn his livelihood in industry. Surveys of the two cities of New York and Cleveland show the number of cripples to follow the ratios of 6.9 and 6.2 per thousand. If American business and manufacture are not to countenance the survival of pauperism, the obligation rests squarely upon them to make some place for these men in industry. Indeed, if this obligation did not exist a decade ago, at least to- day the patriotic obligation of providing occupa- tions for men disabled in the war points the way in no uncertain manner. Special Disabilities Under the auspices of the Red Cross and simi- lar organizations, studies have been made of the opportunities for crippled and otherwise disabled men in particular industries. One method of making these studies has been to send investigators to the company in question, and with its co-operation make a careful study of MEASURING PHYSICAL CAPACITIES 19 all jobs, in order to find out what physical quali- fications it is essential for the worker to possess in order adequately to perform the necessary operations. In one such study that was carried out by the Red Cross in one ot the large packing houses in Chicago, the jobs were studied from the standpoint of eleven general types of disability, as follows : L. Legs: 0, I, 2 S. Skin A. Arms : 0, i, 2 N. Normal I. Irritated H. Hands: 0, i, 2 D. Diseased F. Fingers: o-io R. Rupture N. Nerves N. Normal N. Normal H. Hernia R. Reliable K. Kidneys and other S. Shell Shock trunk organs N. Normal V. Vision F. Fair N. Normal W. Weak P. Poor U. Unfit B. Blind P. Pulmonary E. Ears N. Normal N. Normal P. Poor P. Poor A. Arrested tuber- D. Deaf culosis The Physically Handicapped If, for example, we take the job of driving in cattle to the killing floor, we get the following 20 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE chart, which is understandable by reference to the preceding table. L A H F N V E S R K P 2 2 2 8 R N N D H N N Driving in Cattle From this chart we see that in order to per- form the operations required on this job, a man must have both legs, both arms, and both hands. He may, however, be lacking two fingers and still be able to manipulate successfully. Again, this operation is not one that demands calm nervous adjustment or absolute poise, so there is no reason for his nervous system being absolutely normal, but he must not be a victim of that disturbed con- dition known as shell shock. The job demands normal functioning both of vision and of hearing. In the matter of skin condition, since the work is performed in relative isolation and since the oper- ation is in no way concerned with handling the finished food product, there is no reason why a diseased skin condition should disqualify the worker. Likewise it is possible to employ here a man who is suffering from hernia, since the job does not involve any operation which brings MEASURING PHYSICAL CAPACITIES 21 severe strain on the trunk muscles. Because the work is largely performed out of doors and the worker is therefore exposed to all sorts of weather, it is not expedient to employ a man whose lungs and kidneys are not in good condi- tion. We see, then, that this job of driving in cattle is one which can be satisfactorily performed by a man who is handicapped by a hernia, by a diseased skin condition, by the loss of two fingers, or by a less than normal nervous condition. In a like manner we find that the job of roll- ing and folding hides can be handled by a man who is deaf and whose vision is poor, that a scaler may successfully perform his duties with one arm missing, and that the job of washing fat for the oleo department can be done by a man who has lost both legs. In this same study an effort was made to ascertain the length of time required to learn the job, the piece-rate, and a rough approximation of the amount of schooling necessary. Placing Disabled Workers With these facts in mind, then, we can pro- vide for the handicapped worker a safe and profit- able berth wherein he can maintain himself as a useful and self-respecting individual. From a purely selfish point of view, the employer may 22 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE bear in mind, also, that these handicapped work- ers, once satisfactorily adjusted, form a highly stable and dependable group; the very difficulty of securing such adjustment pathetically serves to bring this about. It is evident, then, that cer- tain physical disabilities are a bar to certain jobs, but that these same disabilities in no way dis- qualify a man for certain other jobs. When, in 191 8, the reconstruction service was first getting under way, one of its officials circulated a general appeal to handicapped per- sons asking that they send in accounts of their types of disablement and what means they had employed to overcome their economic handicaps. The replies convinced him that there was no physical handicap which an ambitious man could not overcome provid'ed he was given a chance. It is perhaps, then, not expecting too much al- truism on the part of the employer to ask him to meet the disabled worker half way and to search his organization for niches, or even to so modify conditions as to make niches, wherein the halt, the lame, and the blind may find a place. Special Physical Abilities Besides providing a means of adjustment for men handicapped by physical disabilities, the pro- cedure of making physical examination of all ap- MEASURING PHYSICAL CAPACITIES 23 plicants affords a means of discovering those men possessing the special physical abilities which are demanded by certain particular jobs; such work, for example, as demands exceptional strength, unusual rapidity or special nicety of motor co- ordination, the ability to resist extremes of tem- perature, or a hypersensitivity of some one of the special senses. These individuals, when dis- covered, are of immense value to the organization and are themselves enabled to capitalize on their \ exceptional abilities. CHAPTER III MENTAL TESTS Mental Fitness ^ We have earlier said that in the days when the labor supply exceeded the industrial demand, the most common criterion of selection was physi- cal size. To the arduous labor of making this judgment we sometimes find the employment man of a decade ago telling us that he has added still another chore to his already burdened brain. *T picked him," he says, "because he was a bright- looking fellow," By what God-given faculty our old-time employers claimed ability to do this thing we do not know. That occasionally there exists a man who seems to have an almost uncanny success in sizing up men is an undeniable fact. That there are legions who jeel that they have this faculty is a regrettable circumstance. Perhaps what followed came about as a result of the ac- claim which attended these talented individuals. Perhaps it was the result of the general awaken- ing interest of business men in the application of the facts and methods of the sciences to the prac- tical problems of production. ^ At all events, beginning some eight or ten 24 MENTAL TESTS 25 years ago, there spread over the country a veri- table epidemic of "infalHble systems" of judg- ing men, wherein the appHcant was subjected to a most severe scrutiny as regards his facial angle, anthropometric index, the caliber of his hair, the bumps on his head, or the linings of his cal- lous palms. With a conscientious thoroughness worthy of a better cause, he was — and is — exam- ined and tested and scrutinized in every conceiv- able unimportant detail. Like a swarm of biblical locusts these systems have swept over our coun- try, and, to a more limited extent, have invaded populations less eagerly gullible. This scourge has consumed with scorn the old accredited judger of men who operated by the combined method of extensive trial and error and his 'Svomanly intui- tion." It has likewise laid waste much of the fair field of open-mindedness which was the legiti- mate testing ground for the reputable science of psychology. Psychology Misunderstood What, then, is this reputable science of psy- chology? It has been said that psychology is the most abused word in the English language. Whenever an appeal to facts is impossible, when- ever one finds oneself unable to quote chapter and verse to substantiate a statement, when one 26 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE is confronted with that vague, intangible impres- sion that is most adequately expressed as "a hunch," then the layman plunges the mental thumb into his cherished mass of pseudoscientific terms and triumphantly extracts therefrom ''psy- chology." He will talk to you of the "psycho- logical moment," of the "psychology" of interior decorations, or the "psychological effect" of a situation. He will, in short, apply the term indis- criminately to time, space, and action. And the really distressing phase of the situation lies in the readiness with which he is understood by the larger part of his audience. But, should the speaker go about among his hearers and say, frankly, "I am asking for information! What did I mean when I said that?" he would find that their bright nod of comprehension was but the cordial recognition of a mutual vagueness. No small number of the vendors of so-called infallible systems style themselves "psycholo- gists." The magic word has so firm a hold on the popular fancy that the mere use of the term pro- vides, often in the most unexpected quarters, a ready sale for their wares. In fact, it is often not a question of selling, but rather of avoiding an insistent buyer. We will venture to say that there is not a psychological laboratory — ^be it ever so staidly reputed — connected with any one of MENTAL TESTS 27 our universities that does not receive each year a goodly number of requests to analyze character, estimate efficiency, or explain and advise upon mental experiences of one sort or another. Although it is against these professional fakers who seek to capitalize the term that every reput- able psychologist chiefly revolts, the credit for the deplorable confusion which surrounds the word "psychology" is not all to be laid at their door. Our neighbor who happens in for a friendly chat must needs employ the abused term to explain why his children break windows or why he feels blue after dining on his wife's biscuits. Half of the works of fiction are termed ''psychological novels," and every edition of our daily press adds its quota — -"by cryptic reference to the "psy- chology''* of the political situation or the "psychic importance" of some event — to the confused vagueness in which our poor, strangling concept swims wild-eyed and distracted like a goldfish in an ever-congealing bowl of jelly. Correct Attitude Psychology is still the youngest science and like the youngest in all families stands in danger of being "spoiled.'* She may be spoiled by over- enthusiasm or she may be spoiled by cold derision. And the latter is often a reaction against the 28 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE former. Psychology has done much in the years of her existence. Her potentiahties are even greater than her accompHshments. Some of the products of her laboratories are now established facts and available for practical use; some are still in the testing stage, and yet others are mere hypotheses. If the layman will allow the psy- chologists to decide which of their wares are in salable condition and which are as yet unfit for the market, he will find thereby less to satisfy his love of the fantastic but more that will be of service to him in his daily life. Kinds of Mental Tests During the last decade there has grown up in industry an increasing demand for means that would assist the manager to select men better suited, both from the point of view of the men themselves and of the management, to the work they have to do. To this end an ever-increasing interest has come to be manifested in one such factor, namely, so-called mental tests. We will later attempt to tell something of the historical development of the science of mental testing. Suf- fice it to say here that it took its practical incen- tive from an educational source, as a means of classifying and adjusting educational misfits. It will, perhaps, clarify the field somewhat if we MENTAL TESTS 29 note at the outset that there are several sorts of mental tests, intended to perform different func- tions and limited in their scope to those functions^ There are many people today who believe that a mental test is a device by which it is possible to tell people at what job they would succeed best — a sort of scientific horoscope that would infallibly predict that John Smith would make a better law- yer than a doctor and Henry Jones a better car- penter than a plumber. This kind of what has been technically termed a ''differential diagnostic test for occupations" is the type of test which the vocational guidance people are endeavoring to set up. It will undoubtedly be of incalculable value both to the individual and to industry, but it is a most difficult sort of test to work out and least progress of a reliable kind has been made along this line. A kind of test that might conceivably be con- fused with this differential diagnostic test is known as a ''trade test." ^ A trade test is a method of measuring a man's present ability at his job. It tells you how good a carpenter or a plumber a man now is — or if he isn't one at all. It gives you the kind of information that a man's fore- man can ordinarily give you after he has super- vised him at work on the job for a certain number of months, or weeks, or days, depending on how 30 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE intelligent a foreman he is and how much time he has to devote to individual men. One point should, however, be kept clear. A trade test shows you how good a craftsman a man now is in his line ; it throws no light on his future possi- bilities. It shows you what his past experience and efforts have done for him, but not what poten- tialities his mental make-up may contain. Such tests are described in a later section. The Munsterberg Test Another type of test — and this was one of the earliest sort of tests applied to industry — consists in first analyzing the job to discover the particu- lar mental or physical qualifications which such work demands of its doer, and then testing the worker for these particular qualifications. An example of such a test is reported by Thompson. The occupation was concerned with the inspect- ing of bicycle bearings, and the process was to allow the balls to roll between the fingers on the back of the left hand and to extract those that were defective by means of a magnet held in the right hand. Thompson analyzed this process as being primarily dependent on speed of reaction time, i.e., the ability to lessen the interval between the time of perceiving a defective bearing and the MENTAL TESTS 31 muscular reaction of extracting the same with the magnet. Instruments for measuring reaction time are part of the standard equipment of any psychological laboratory, and it was a simple mat- ter to test the girls employed at this work. As a result of his experiment, it was found that by selecting the girls whose reaction times were shortest it was eventually possible for 35 girls to accomplish the work previously assigned to 120, and to increase the accuracy of the work by two- thirds. This sort of test shades over of course, into the physical tests of visual and auditory keen- ness, color-blindness, etc., all of which have their proper and obvious place in certain lines of industry. This is the type of test which Miinsterberg, in 1910, first brought forward. His method was to devise tests which counterfeited in miniature the operations of the given job, and then try out the applicants on these models. He devised tests for such dissimiliar jobs as motorman, tele- phone operator, and ship captain. The latest exponent of this sort of testing is Henry C. Link,^ who has prepared a series of tests especially appropriate to the jobs of a small-parts metal- trade industry. I Henry C. Link, Employment Psychology, New York. The Macmil- Ian Co., I9I9' 32 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE Mental Alertness Tests The fourth type of mental test is the one, how- ever, on which the most extensive work has been done. The tests belonging to this type are the so-called tests of general intelligence, or, as we prefer to call them, tests of mental alertness. The principle on which these tests are based is that put forward by the British psychologist. Spearman. He explains the fact that people who are good in one type of intellectual response are generally — not universally, but generally — good also in another, by saying that they are drawing on a common fund of general intelligence. If, there- fore, we can measure a man's mental alertness and find that he ranks high, we can feel reasonably safe in steering him into a line of work which calls for a high degree of mental ability, trusting in his innate potentialities to see him through. This type of test saw its widest application in connec- tion with the testing of the United States Army. (See page 42.) Binet-Simon Test The science of mental testing made its first substantial beginning some fifteen years ago. In 1905 an attempt was being made in Paris to pro- vide special instruction for abnormal children, and the new arrangement provided that a mental ex- MENTAL TESTS 33 amination of each child must be made before assigning him to a special school. To meet this emergency, Messieurs Alfred Binet and Th. Simon, brought forward a series of tests adapted for children of different ages. This series consisted of some thirty tests, simple, and easily understood. They had been given to large numbers of children of each of the ages from three to eleven and were arranged in groups of those which the average five-year-old child would pass, those which a seven-year-old child could master, etc. The retardation of sub- normal children could then be estimated by a com- parison with the standards thus established. These tests were designed to measure a child's native ability rather than his erudition or the amount of his scholastic attainments. They were given individually and were for the most part de- pendent on an oral response. Binet and Simon revised these tests in 1908 and again in 191 1. The series was adapted and given to school groups of various sizes in England, Germany, and Belgium. In 19 12, Dr. H. H. Goddard, then on the staff of the Vineland School for the Feeble-Minded, translated the work of these authors and was the first to make extensive use of it in America. His work was done on a large number of cases and has attracted much 34 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE popular interest. Goddard's results were very- spectacular and were purposely used as a method of propaganda for directing attention to the prob- lem of the feeble-minded and the necessity of providing means for dealing with them. Modifications Numerous modifications and extensions have since been made of the original scale. Two of these, appearing in print almost simultaneously, are of fundamental importance and have been ex- tensively used. One was a revision made by Dr. R. M. Yerkes, then professor at Harvard, and two of his assistants. The other was made by Dr. Lewis M. Terman, of Leland Stanford University, and is generally known as the Stan- ford revision. In 1 9 14, Dr. Helen Thompson Woolley pub- lished a series of tests which she had then applied to between seven and eight hundred children of fourteen and fifteen years of age who made appli- cation for work certificates in Cincinnati. It is generally agreed among psychologists that the Binet tests have been most satisfactorily applied on younger children. As a supplement to the Binet tests for the younger years, Dr. Woolley's tests have proved a highly useful series of mental measurements. MENTAL TESTS 35 Abnormal Cases Aside from Dr. Woolley's work it may be said that up to the year 191 7, when the Yerkes and Terman modifications came into general use, mental tests had been applied largely upon aber- rant groups, i.e., upon individuals whose mental, social, or physical characteristics varied in some measure from the normal. They had been used in institutions for the feeble-minded, in orphan- ages, in juvenile and adult courts, in reformatories and prisons, and in hospitals and clinics. They were used also in surveys of selected districts or particular groups, such as that segregated colony of persons known as the Pinies, which exists in northern New Jersey, or the group of hookworm victims in North Carolina studied by the Rocke- feller Foundation. The chief practical function which the tests served in these cases was as a means of selecting and classifying the feeble-minded. As such the work of these earlier experimenters has been of enormous value. The study of delinquents, for example, has shown that in different institutions a goodly number of the prison population were feeble-minded. By means of these figures public opinion is being awakened to the gravity of the situation. Society is coming to realize the necessity of 36 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE making some provision whereby these incompe- tents will not be restored to their old environments after their varying terms of imprisonment, there to be again subjected to the very conditions that experience has shown they were unable to con- tend with. The feeble-minded have formed an endless chain going in and out, and again in and out, of our penal institutions, trailing behind them an ever-increasing collection of offenses against society. The data which psychologists have ob- tained have pointed the necessity for some ade- quate way of providing, for these individuals, means of permanent custodial care. Mental Tests in Schools With the advent of the Yerkes and Terman modifications, however, mental tests came into extensive use for another purpose. Attention was being directed to the enormous waste, both in time and money, that had resulted from malad- justment in our educational systems. Terman has stated that in our city schools from oAe-third to one-half of the children failed to progress through the grades at the expected rate and that over lo per cent of the $400,000,000 appropriated in this country for educational instruction is spent in "reteaching children what they have already been taught but failed to learn." At first, MENTAL TESTS 37 educators jumped to the conclusion that the fault lay in the school system and in the mode of teaching. While their suspicions were not with- out foundation, it has been shown that this was not the only operating factor. The fundamental error of the school system has been the idea that with properly individualized instruction children are capable of progressing at the same rate. One of the greatest, perhaps the greatest benefit that has been derived from psychological examining, has been to show that intelligence, like most other measurable factors, follows the line of the normal probability curve. While, for practic- able purposes, we can class some persons as "men- tally incapable of maintaining themselves as inde- pendent economic units," we are not able to divide men on the basis of their mental ability into those who are feeble-minded and those who are not feeble-minded. Rather, intelligence tests have shown us that intelligence varies by small grada- tions all the way from the helpless idiot who can- not learn to talk, walk, or feed himself, to the mental acumen of intellectual genius. Above and Below Par Intelligence tests have shown that there is a dangerous border-land peopled with persons too intelligent for their mental defects to be readily 38 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE recognized, but not sufficiently clever to ade- quately adjust themselves to our present educa- tional, economic, and social standards. For such an unfortunate laggard, life is one endless effort to "catch up." By the time he has learned the multiplication table the class is at long division, and when he has mastered fractions his fellows are well embarked on decimals. Or, maybe, even his limit is fractions; maybe the concept of the decimal system is one stage beyond that to which his mental capacity will carry him. When these same individuals attain working age and go out seeking employment, they again find themselves under the same handicap. Again they experience the same inability to grasp the details of an intricate job, to remember instruc- tions, and to profit by experience as readily as the average. Furthermore, there is here not even the expedient such as the schools afforded of re- peating the grade. Industry is not in business for its health, and few second chances are given. A failure is fired, and "that's that." Mental tests have demonstrated that there is, as well, a class of superior individuals whose mental equipment would enable them to progress faster than the established school system permits, and whose superior intellectual capacity fits them for something better than the routine employment MENTAL TESTS 39 at which they may be engaged. For these individ- uals the mental suffering may be quite as great as for our other group. They are faced with an intellectual obstruction, a kind of damming up of potentialities against which they can make no progress. Tradition at once rushes in here with a flood of platitudes about true merit being able to overcome all obstacles, that genius will find a way, and all the ''office boy to president" anec- dotes. This exemplifies what Terman classes as ''one of those dangerous half-truths on which most people rest content." Truly, history does show us many cases of merit triumphing over seemingly insuperable ob- stacles, of genius blooming in a garret, and of plowboys studying law by the light of one dim candle. Many of our successful men of affairs today really regard this form of early struggle as a sine qua non for ultimate success. 'T started as a foot-skinner at 5 cents an hour, and now look at me!" says the superintendent of a big packing plant. "Why should we have to pamper the boys nowadays and see to it that they have a chance for study and the job that best suits them? If a boy has the guts to succeed, he will!" Gladly we will concede that the boys who suc- ceeded under these conditions did have the guts. But how are our captains of industry so certain 40 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE that there were not boys with guts who fell by the wayside? Like most lovers of generalities, they take account only of the positive factors and neglect entirely to look upon the negative side of the question. Even though this recognition of differences in mental capacity is most spectacular as applied to the groups far above and below the average in mental capacity, it holds true nevertheless all along the line. Grading School Children Against the effort to employ intelligence tests for grading school children we are frequently met by the statement ''It's a stupid teacher that needs mental tests to tell her which children are bright." That may be true, but have we no stupid teachers ? And if stupid teachers, why not stupid foremen, and indifferent foremen, and foremen who are too busy with production to observe the men who work under them as anything other than so many hands to do their bidding. But one, of course, is merely begging the question by this answer, because there are many intelligent teachers and many intelligent foremen. Therefore our oppo- nents have only to hypothesize such and repeat their query, ''Why isn't an intelligent teacher or foreman capable of making a judgment on the MENTAL TESTS 41 mental ability of those under him, reliable enough to render a mental test superfluous?" A little experiment made by Binet gives an interesting answer. Binet selected three teachers of recognized ability, had them each interview five children whom they had never before seen, and pass judgment on the intelligence of each. He sat in a remote corner and observed the method. The amusing result was that in every case the teachers had recourse to some crude form of the much maligned test method, some form of question and answer on the basis of which they made their judgment. The difference between his method and theirs was purely one of technique. That is to say, in applying the method the teachers made numerous errors which a more scientific procedure would have avoided. Their questions, for example, necessitated needlessly long responses, or allowed ambiguous answers, or they were sometimes such as could be answered by "Yes" or "No," thus giving a 50 per cent chance of success by guessing. Some were dependent purely upon school knowl- edge. Again, the questions were not asked all the children in exactly the same way. Sometimes the child was helped a little in his answer, and sometimes not. Nor was the same response always given the same credit, the teachers explain- 42 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE ing that in some cases they feh the child ''knew better." Moreover, once the interview was fin- ished, the standards of comparison by which the judgments of bright or stupid were made were vague and shifting. Thus we see that these mental tests, about which a sort of mysterious cloak has been cast by the uninitiated, are but a standardized form of the very procedure which intelligent persons com- monly apply in making their judgments. We note that their value lies not so much in the originality of the method as in the technique of its operation. Mental tests are, in fact, nothing more than com- mon-sense judgments, refined and standardized by a uniform procedure and scoring so as to rule out as far as possible the personal equation. Mental Tests in the Army The next big step was made in connection with the testing of the United States Army in 191 7- 1918. This step was unquestionably the longest and most important one yet taken. The most significant variation in mental test procedure which occurred in connection with this work was the change from individual to group testing. It is this change that, more than anything else, has rendered the use of mental tests a practical pro- cedure for industry. MENTAL TESTS 43 The early intelligence tests of Binet and his followers were given strictly individually. In fact the necessity of this was a point strongly empha- sized. The examiner was specifically instructed to sit down with the subject in splendid isolation, and, cheerfully mendacious, to welcome all his utterances with a word of praise. When one is testing young children or adults suspected of de- fective or psychopathic mentality, it will probably always be necessary to employ this individual method. Such subjects are characterized by an instabil- ity of attention which makes it necessary for the examiner to be always on the qui vive to spur the subject on to renewed effort or to prevent his peripatetic mind from wandering far afield. When one is dealing likewise with groups of de- linquents or others not readily amenable to dis- cipline, this method may often be found desirable. When, however, we are dealing with a relatively homogeneous group of normal individuals, the practice of testing in groups has come to be of service. This method has now largely superseded the individual method. The impetus for testing men on a large scale was provided by the World War, although psy- chologists even before this time had begun to realize the enormous expenditure of time involved 44 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE in individual examining. Thirty minutes was the shortest time that was recognized as adequate for an individual examination. At best, even work- ing union hours, and assuming a perfect mechan- ism in the arrival and departure of subjects, an examiner was able to complete but sixteen exam- inations in a day. It will be readily seen, then, that if one is seeking to amass data which shall provide norms for a given age, sex, or occupation, there stretched before the scientific psychologist an appalling vista of preliminary work which must be accom- plished before the practical job could be under- taken of diagnosing a man as above or below the average for his group, as committable to an insti- tution for permanent care, or as suitable for recommendation to some form of advancement or promotion. Testing by Groups In the summer of 191 7, shortly after our entrance into the war, American psychologists came together and pooled the results and methods of their individual studies to offer such means as were in their power toward facilitating the pro- gress of making an army. The service which they were able to render has been recorded in prelimi- nary form in a small book written by Majors MENTAL TESTS 45 Yoakum and Yerkes,^ and is fully described in a government publication. By the method used, the number of individuals who could be tested at one time was limited only by the capacity of the room and the lungs of the examiner. By this means, and by a system of scoring simplified by the use of stencils, it was possible to take on a rush order whereby the camp psychologist could test 500 men, score the results, and present a report to the proper authority in- side of three hours. The method thus worked out has now come into general application wherever large numbers of normal adult or semiadult groups are to be tested. Its two main fields are at present the schools and colleges, and the industrial concerns. In both these groups the underlying motive is the same. It is an effort to try to find out for the benefit of the student as well as the school authorities, for the employee as well as for the management, something of the inborn mental capacity of the individual, in order that proper advantage may be taken thereof in adjusting him to the educational or industrial situation. The Kentucky farmer, when told by the agricultural expert that he would save time by I Yoakum, C. S., and Yerkes, R. M., Army Mental Tests, New York, Henry Holt & Co.. 1920. 46 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE feeding his razorbacks on corn instead of grass, replied "What's time to a hog?" One feels, when diagnosing the mentality of a moron or a lesser weak-wit, that neither the individual nor society as a whole will greatly benefit by his being more quickly restored to the procedure of his usual activities. But the slogan of the production manager is "Time is money," just as the cry of the army training authorities was "Hurry"; and it is evident that one of the prime requisites of a mental alertness test which shall be useful to an industrial concern is that it shall take as little time as possible away from the business of making brick. CHAPTER IV MENTAL TESTS IN INDUSTRY Special Alertness Tests for Industry A number of excellent mental tests for use in industry have been recently devised and are apparently giving satisfactory results. The tests which the organization with which the authors are connected has devised and put into operation in many industrial and business con- cerns have the virtue that they can be given com- plete in fourteen minutes. Recently the entire force of an organization in Chicago comprising nearly five hundred persons was tested, and the time consumed by the entire operation was less than three hours. The principles of army mental testing, mod- ified to meet industrial and commercial needs, were utilized in the preparation of these tests. The time limits were made so short that the most alert person could not make a perfect score. Each test was made easy enough so that those less mentally alert would be able to score something. The tests are so designed that they can be given either to individuals or to groups. They can be given by an intelligent clerk after a few hours of 47 48 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE instruction. The mental alertness rating of as many as a hundred employees in an office or de- partment can be secured simultaneously if a large enough room, provided with facilities for writing, is available. Scoring the papers is a mechanical process, involving the use of simple stencils. Three minutes is a conservative estimate of the length of time required to score a paper. Objections The employer considering the installation of mental tests is faced with the same fundamental query that attends the justification of the practice of giving physical examinations. Are the benefits to be derived from it, for the worker and for the employer, sufficiently great to counterbalance the disadvantages? For the worker, these tests in- volve the ordeal of the examination with its attendant nervous strain, the possible ridicule from others not subject to such requirements, and his humiliation in case of a poor showing. For the employer, there is to be considered the time taken from production or consumed by examiners of applicants, and the possible cutting down of labor supply due to objections to the process on the part of applicants. We encounter at once the same objection that was argued against physical examining. Isn't it MENTAL TESTS IN INDUSTRY 49 simply putting into the hands of unscrupulous employers another tool whereby they can dis- criminate against a worker on a basis other than the real one ? And this, too, is a very wicked tool, for while you may frighten a man by falsely tell- ing him that he has incipient tuberculosis, you can cut his pride to the quick by refusing him employment on the ground that he is stupid. Advantages Let us try to meet this point. Yes, if you are assuming an unscrupulous employer, who is ready to go to any length for his own selfish ends, the more tools that you make available for him, the more damage he can do. But the more specific and definite you can make these tools, the greater will be the reckoning when it comes to a show- down. The chief advantage of records of all sorts is that they afford concrete evidence that later can be verified. Suppose, for example, an employer turns down a man because in his judgment he ''looks sickly and seems stupid." What come-back has your applicant? He can go elsewhere and prove that he is neither, but how does that reflect back on the man who deprived him of the job? All that can be said is that the employment man made a poor judgment, and an error of judgment 50 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE is something so common with all of us frail mortals that it would hardly be held against him. But suppose, instead, a candidate has been put through a physical examination, and his chest sounds, his blood pressure, etc., entered on the record sheet. Suppose he has been given a mental alertness test, and the amount that he has been able to accomplish reported in black and white. If, now, your unscrupulous employer sees fit to lie about the results, the worker is able to demand the proof, or, if the employer has attempted to falsify the record, the worker has recourse to other physical and mental examinations to prove the facts. From the point of view of the employee, the ^present writers contend that being forced to spend eight hours a day on work which is so difficult as to be a constant stram or so easy as to be dull and tiresome is an especially refined form of tor- ture. We feel, therefore, that any means which will enable a man to get himself adjusted to the work which he is mentally capable of handling, without going through the discouragement of try- ing jobs and failing either to be satisfied or to make good, is clearly justifiable. From the employer's standpoint such advan- tages may be instanced as the increased production which results from a proper balance between the MENTAL TESTS IN INDUSTRY 51 ability of the workers and the requirements of the work, the increased morale which results when men are successful, and the decreased turnover which follows a man's being satisfied with his joh.j 7 Classification and Adjustment It has been objected by some employers that the problem is not which man to select from a line of applicants, but how to secure a line to choose from — not to pick applicants but to get applicants to pick. The employer will say to us, ''What good does it do me to know that one ap- plicant is brighter than another, or that one girl can finger a typewriter twice as rapidly as an- other ? I've got to take 'em all. I'm way under- manned now, and I'm taking every man that can walk or talk and every girl that can wiggle her fingers over a keyboard." In answer to this point we want most em- phatically to reply I'^Iental tests serve their great- est purpose not as a method for selection and elimination, but as a means of classification and adjustment. / You may have the "Welcome" sign out for all applicants that call at your door, but you do not put them all on the same job. A large industrial organization is a miniature world ; there are mountain peaks and lowly valleys, and long stretches of level prairies. There are jobs that 52 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE call for keenness of intellect, rapidity of judg- ment, and originality of thinking. There are other jobs where the everlasting monotony of a repetitive process meets and adequately satisfies the needs of a mind that fails in panic before the necessity of constructive thinking. And as there are jobs of all sorts, so mental alertness tests have demonstrated that there are individuals of all grades of mental capacity. They range from the brilliancy of the genius whose in- tellectual acumen demands adequate expression, if not in his work, then elsewhere, to those whose mental powers hold them in the ranks of hewers of wood and drawers of water, but who once prop- erly placed may become satisfied, self-supporting, economically useful citizens. In this maladjust- ment of the mind of the worker to the job at which he spends 50 per cent of his waking hours, we see much that is harmful. On the one hand may be seen the eternal discouragement of capa- bilities that are held in check by the economic necessity of taking an inferior job, and on the other hand the infinite pathos of a mind set to a task beyond its capacity. It is the old blunder of trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear or a sow's ear out of a silk purse. Lack of proper placing is responsible for a large percentage of the failures to "make good." MENTAL TESTS IN INDUSTRY 53 Selection and Rejection There may occur, in rare instances, the kind of organization that contains nothing but monot- onous repetitive jobs, or on the contrary, the sort of business where all workers must be of high- grade mentality. Here, then, is the occasional place where mental tests would serve the function of selection and rejection. Employers are gen- erally quite willing to see one-half of this point. They are entirely hospitable to the idea of turning away the stupid applicant as unfit for employment, but only ''once in a blue moon" will you find an employer who rejects a worker on the ground that he is too good for the job. The contention always is: If a stupid man can do this job all right, a bright man can do it 50 per cent better. If you really believe this statement, try it out on yourself. After you have spent Monday working out a new sales policy or arguing before your board of directors your pet scheme for improved distribution, you go home to dinner with that warm glow of satisfaction that comes from a hard day well spent. Now, on Tuesday, give one of your minor clerks a vacation and spend the day copying figures from sales slips into a ledger. Just that ! How many times will you consult your Ingersoll? How many times will you look up when a door slams or a 54 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE bell rings? How many times will you stop to sharpen an unnecessary lead pencil, or chat with another clerk? How many mistakes will you make after you have been at it a bit? And how many times will you curse yourself for trying a fool experiment that you read about in a book? Maybe, though, after you have stopped curs- ing, you will be a little more ready to realize that different minds work best on different jobs, that it is both mistaken charity and poor business to put too stupid a man on too good a job, or too clever a man on too poor a job. So, after you have learned something of the mental ability of one of your men, go through your organization with a fine-tooth comb and see if there isn't some spot where he will fit in and then — and only then — if you can find none, send him on to another employer who may have the proper opening. Occupational Groups Of course, the next question is : "How do I know how much intelligence my different jobs re- quire? Surely I know that a bookkeeper has to have more brains than a trucker, but how can I grade the steps between, and how much intelli- gence does a man have to have to be a bookkeeper, and how stupid must he be before I recommend that he take up trucking for a life work?" Here MENTAL TESTS IN INDUSTRY 55 we can get some help from psychologists who are working on industrial problems. Their procedure would be along these lines. Suppose we take all the men in an organization who are working on the following jobs : stenogra- phy, bookkeeping, general clerking, and messenger work, and give them mental tests. Then we arrange the scores by occupations and find, say, that the averages are respectively these : men stenographers 59, bookkeepers 50, clerks 47, and messenger boys 33. There is thus a clear hierarchy in the average intelligence of the men in these different occupa- tions. Assuming that each group is giving satis- factory service, there is, then, a clear gradation in the intelligence required to do these jobs. We can say that a man has to be more mentally alert to fill satisfactorily the job of stenographer than that of bookkeeper, but that bookkeeping calls for more intelligence than clerkmg, while those doing messenger work are on an average less intelligent than clerks. Failure to Meet the Standard Suppose, now, we take any one department, bookkeeping, for example. You will find that the head bookkeeper will be the first to admit that those working under him are not equally efficient. 56 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE In fact, he will probably tell you that some of them are distinctly inferior. If you should plot the scores of all bookkeepers in your organization you would probably find that they group them- selves fairly well around the score of 50, but that you might have occasional cases that scattered far out from the main group at either end. Let us consider first those men to whom the head bookkeeper referred, those who were not doing satisfactory work. You may find an occasional man reported unsatisfactory whose score is up to the average or even above. This rare exception is at once a case for study. Here is a man, mentally capable of doing the work to which he is assigned, but for some reason he has fallen down on the job. The task for the personnel executive is, then, to find out the cause for this failure. Maybe the man isn't interested in bookkeeping. Perhaps there are outside influences that are keeping him from giving his best efforts to his work. Possibly he doesn't get along with his department head and his failures are a trifle magnified and his virtues a bit overlooked. This has happened, you know, even with a thoroughly well-intentioned executive. Maybe, again, the fault lies in certain character qualities entirely apart from his mental capacity, but showing up in his total efliciency on the job. MENTAL TESTS IN INDUSTRY 57 Study this man and find out. That's a job in itself, but it isn't in the picture here — it isn't con- cerned with his mental fitness for the particular work he is doing. Incapacity Let us now look at the more frequent cases of failure, the men who trail off with scores of 19, 24, and 30. Your department head will generally tell you that those men don't seem to catch on readily, that he has sweat blood trying to bring them up to standard. Some of them, he will tell you, are conscientious and try hard, but they just can't seem to make it. These are the real capacity misfits, where the "spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." These are the men who should be trans- ferred into another department or given a differ- ent type of work. These are the men who are sweating blood even redder than that of the department head. They are trailing their job, they are like a dog chasing his own tail — the head on the front legs running like mad to accomplish an impossible task, because the tail on the back legs moves just as fast. Your department head may also indicate one of these low scorers and tell you that he has no sympathy for that fellow, that he is indifferent, that he doesn't seem to try to do better. We are 58 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE inclined to believe that this case is as often a capacity failure as the other. If we are not capable of doing a job, if we are not making progress, how long can many of us retain sufficient interest to keep steadily trying ? Ask the non-musical son of an ambitious mother how conscientiously in his youth he practiced on his fiddle. It is poor charity to let a man stay a failure in one sphere when he might be a success in another, and it is up to the personnel executive to transfer these stragglers to jobs where their mental alertness scores rank up with the average of the workers thereon. Establishing an Average Grade By study of a sufficient number of cases, you will be enabled to establish a critical score below which it is inadvisable to hire a man for the job of bookkeeping unless (and this point must always be kept in mind) there are other unusual circum- stances that render it advisable in a particular case. The fact must not be lost sight of that critical scores in a mental alertness test, as well as all the other guides in personnel administra- tion, constitute simply general rules to go by and not hard-and-fast laws that are unvarying and inviolable. The action of ammonium chloride on calcium MENTAL TESTS IN INDUSTRY 59 hydrate is always to liberate ammonia gas. Here we are dealing with stable and unvarying causes, whose resultant action we can predict with abso- lute certainty. But the behavior of the human being is subject to so many unpredictable varia- tions, coming from such unexpected sources, that when one is trying to formulate the rules which govern his reaction, the most you can say is that this is the way it will probably occur. So, then, occasionally it may be a wise procedure for your organization to hire as a bookkeeper a man scor- ing less than 35 on a mental alertness test. But generally you will find that this is a mistake. Before we leave this subject, let us for a mo- ment consider that man who jumps out of his class at the other end and scores 76. What are we going to do about him? Your department head will raise a most unholy howl when you sug- gest that this man's mental abilities fit him for a job in another department. The same depart- ment head who will smilingly acquiesce when you suggest lopping off his failures is not going to be so willing to let you take also his prize per- former. If, however, there is no future for this man as a bookkeeper, if he isn't being groomed for an assistant head or some other promotion in that department, it most assuredly is the duty of 6o SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE the department head, much as he should regret his loss, to give him a chance at something more suited to his ability. We will go a step further and say that even if this chance lies outside of the organization, the executive has no right to hold the man back just because he hates to let him go. In a standardized job, the mental abilities needed for success on that job should group them- selves around an average score and fall within a limited range of scores. These ranges will over- lap on either side with higher and lower grade jobs of the same general type, so that a man scor- ing 50 points might be either a bookkeeper or an invoice taker or a draftsman, depending on the vacancy open at the time. But it would be a clear mistake to give him a job as messenger boy, even if you had a crying need for such and he were willing to take it. It is, however, the stragglers at both ends that are out of place, that need to be transferred to other fields where the soil is more suited to their particular abilities. CHAPTER V VARIOUS USES AND RESULTS OF MENTAL TESTS Mental Alertness — Group Differences We have said that by taking the average scores of employees on different occupations we see that different jobs require different degrees of in- telligence. We have assumed that these different departments, such as bookkeeping, for example, v^ere functioning successfully. This is generally a reasonable hypothesis, for the competition of modern business is such that a v^hoUy inefficient department is soon self-eliminating. It is not, however, always safe to assume (the data which we have collected show the contrary) that the same departments of different organizations have an equally intelligent personnel. On one occasion, for example, we compared the women office employees of four companies on their scores in mental alertness tests. In Com- pany A the average score was 29, in Company B 38, in Company C 42, and in Company D 46. It is evident at once that there is a clear difference in mental grade between the employees of Com- pany A and Company D. Now there are two 61 62 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE explanations that might account for this apparent poor showing of Company A. One of them shows a real recognition of good personnel prac- tice; the other indicates poor business efficiency. The first explanation may be that the needs of the particular business in which Company A is engaged are such that the majority of their office jobs do not demand a high degree of mental alertness. Company A, therefore, is doing exactly what it should do in employing workers whose mental alertness scores center around 29 instead of 46, as we find in Company D where the office positions may call for a higher type of work and a consequent higher grade personnel. In the second place, it may be that the office work of Company A is as high grade in nature as is that of Company D, and that the failure to secure workers who are mentally capable of ade- quately handling it is a real failure in selection. This might be due to a poor type of labor supply or to a lack of effort or judgment in picking em- ployees, but it would result in a lowering of the efficiency of that department and a clear business loss to that particular company. Applicants and Employees In line with this last section comes the ques- tion of how mental alertness tests can be of service RESULTS OF MENTAL TESTS 63 in giving an employer some knowledge of how his personnel is changing in the matter of men- tally high, mediocre, or low-grade men. This knowledge is equally important to him if, after an analysis of his jobs, he is seeking to get more mentally capable persons into his employ, or if he has decided that he is now wasting good material where mediocre would do as well and is, in con- sequence, seeking that type of employee. This is, of course, assuming an extensive supply of applicants of all grades. It is fully as important for the employer to learn how his labor supply is running; whether for some reason his particular organization is no longer drawing high- grade people or is, on the other hand, increasingly attractive to them. Once having ascertained this fact he can concentrate his efforts on developing the sources of labor supply that cater to his par- ticular need. In a study of this problem we have made a comparison between the woman office employees and applicants of two companies. In the first company, the average score of employees was 30 and the average score of the women who had applied for employment during a period of six months was 38. This company had, then, either consciously or unconsciously, begun to attract a high class of employees. In the second com- 64 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE pany, the average of the applicants was almost the same, 39. But the average score of the em- ployees was 46. Here, then, the situation was reversed. The type of women coming into the second company was lower than that already there. By these comparisons the managers of the two companies were enabled to get a line on the trend of their labor supply as regards its men- tal capacity and to make the necessary effort to mould it to their needs. Tests of Men and Women One of the first questions always asked a psy- chologist is whether there is any difference in the general intelligence of men and women. It is asked sometimes with calm assurance of the an- swer, sometimes with bated breath, and sometimes with a belligerent gleam that bodes ill for the maker of the wrong response. Various opinions have been expressed con- cerning the relative mental alertness of men and women. A mass of experimental evidence has been accumulated by psychologists that seems to indicate that in general there is little, if any, sex difference in mental alertness. These opinions and this evidence have, how- ever, no bearing on the specific question concern- ing the mental alertness scores of men and women RESULTS OF MENTAL TESTS 65 office employees. There may be and probably are a number of selective factors operating to bring about a real difference in the scores of such men and women. At present the facts at our dis- posal on this point are rather meager. Whenever we have had sufficient data for both men and women to warrant the setting up of occupational standards, we have found that men on the aver- age make higher mental alertness scores than do women in the same occupation — that is, men sten- ographers score higher than women stenogra- phers, men clerks score higher than women clerks, etc. Reasons for Different Results It is not surprising that such is the case. In most offices we find a considerable number of men securing office work with the sole ambition of winning promotion to higher executive positions. Such men, without question, are above the aver- age in mental alertness. We find, also, that there are a considerable number of men holding minor executive positions in offices, although they are classified as clerks or stenographers. On the other hand, women found in office positions ordin- arily have less chance for continuous advance- ment. They are confined to the more routine clerical positions. In all probability many of 66 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE those of unusual mental alertness enter such fields as teaching or social work instead of office work. In two companies where we have tested men and women office employees, we found in Com- pany B that the average score of women is 38 and of men 45. In Company D, the average score of women is 42 and of men 56. We have further combined the scores of office employees of a num- ber of companies and have found the results to bear out the same point. The average of the women office employees was 38 and of the men in the same occupations 49. In comparison with this data may be cited the results obtained from testing (by the same method) the men and women of a coeducational college of liberal arts. Here we found that the average of men and women showed very little difference, the average score for men being 58 and for women 55. This serves again to indicate that the difference in mental ability is not dependent upon sex but upon the type of men and women who seek jobs in certain occupations. In view of the suggestions given above this seems entirely natural. "Learning on the Job" The application of mental alertness tests to the problem of training is, as has been earlier RESULTS OF MENTAL TESTS 67 mentioned, one of the fundamental functions of tests in the educational field. The grouping of school children, not on the basis of age or the number of years they have been in school, but on the basis of the rapidity with which they can learn, has been one of the great benefits which psychology has afforded education. By this means the slow learners are allowed to set their own pace and the fast learners are not held back for the rest of the group, but can progress as rapidly as their abilities warrant. The problem of training in industry is a phase of education which is of quite recent de- velopment, but it is one that has come to stay. The old method of letting an employee "learn on the job" is being supplanted by some form or other of systematic instruction. Employers have come to this because their attention has been at- tracted to the waste of material and the length of time consumed before a new worker becomes effi- cient. Less generally recognized is the fact that, by being forced to get his information and ac- quire his skill piecemeal and haphazard from the more or less efficient workmen around him, the beginner acquires habits of manipulation and maintains gaps in his knowledge that it may take him years to overcome. Some form, then, of systematic training is recognized among progres- 68 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE sive employers as both necessary and, in the long run, economical. How, then, can mental tests assist the em- ployer in this matter? The analogy is so close as to be self-evident. The factory school, be it of the intensive vestibule sort or the more all-round apprentice type, receives pupils of all grades of mental alertness. Some will learn one operation rapidly and be ready to progress to the next while others are still trying to grasp its first steps. After the instructor has labored with a group for a certain time, he will, of course, realize this fact, but a mental alertness test given beforehand would have saved him much valuable time. It would serve likewise to give the worker a satisfactory start-off without necessitating discouraging re- adjustment. By this means it is possible, before beginning instruction, to group your employees into classes in accordance with their ability to learn. The instruction in each class can then be modeled to conform to the ability of the pupils, both as regards content and rapidity of progress. Classification by Education As illustrative of the way mental alertness tests can be utilized in carrying out this modern educational principle of classification according to ability to learn, the results of an experiment RESULTS OF MENTAL TESTS 69 conducted under our direction by the educational department of a large industrial concern are here presented. There was a three-year course in this plant designed to train a group of factory employees for minor executive positions. This course was designed to provide instruction in all the major production operations of the plant and in the prin- ciples of management. An attempt had been made to classify these student employees into three groups, according to their ability. The first basis for this classification was the public school record of each man. High school graduates, or men of equal ability, were placed in section A. Grammar school graduates, or men of equal ability, were placed in section B. Men having less than eight years of schooling were placed in section C. As time went on, it became apparent that this system of classification was unsatisfactory. It was found, for example, that after considerable time some C men (with only 5th grade schooling) were really able to do the work of the men in section B. It was then necessary to transfer them to section B. Some in section B were found at a later date to be really qualified to do section A work. It was also discovered that some with a high school education were able to do only B 70 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE work, although they had previously been placed in section A. Some who had been placed in sec- tion B, because of previous schooling, needed to be placed in section C. Such shifting and trans- ferring from one section to another after the course was under way was undesirable, because it wasted the time of both instructors and students and caused unnecessary discouragement to those who had to be demoted Mental Tests as a Basis of Classification The instructors desired to determine if mental alertness tests would provide a more satisfactory basis of classification. The results are shown in the accompanying chart (Figure i). The score of each student employee is represented by a dot. The students were classified by the instructors into classes A, B, or C according to the progress they had made in the course. From this it is seen that the test scores divide the students with remarkable exactness, in ac- cordance with the instructor's classification. All class A students scored over 41 points in the tests. Only one class B student scored more than 41 points, and the instructors stated that he might be a class A man if he applied himself. All but three class C students scored less than 23^ points. The highest scoring C man, according — g • — v9 • • — 0! • • • • S $? •• • ^ tf) J\ •• U •• z • •• • 5 • • «^ • •~- • • • < • •• h 3 Z u •• ^ • • 0^ •• ~~ N • • • • • iil < ( ) I 5 - J o d) >. 1- o o X5 C/5 < a; ^ H o en w c Ui ri i^ - ( 12 : '*Q ("U C{J If." J r S ? 8 g 8 ? 1 « S 2 c t \\% \ Sl8 > 8 I S ^ S S. I ^ °l '- 1 o . ."' ^2 : / \^ . K ;SS . ^5 X ^ ^ N t 't \ Cr . 4 ^ § g 2 8 S & ? « 8 2 c t ti? « «• bo '> 1) bO C '5 Els UttZ SS5 bo c o C/3 74 RESULTS OF MENTAL TESTS 75 worker, to be successful, must make many inde- pendent decisions in doing this work. Here the greatest proportion of dissatisfaction occurs among the workers who were most retarded in school. The stability increases as amount of re- tardation lessens, and then decreases slightly among those who made normal, or better than normal, progress in school. Clearly those who are more than four years retarded are more likely to be dissatisfied with tool department work than the group less than two years retarded. By contrast with the work of the tool depart- ment, the work of the inspection department is largely *' fool-proof," repetitive, and monotonous. (In this particular industry it consisted simply in passing crude castings through a set gauge and throwing aside those that were too large. ) Here the amount of dissatisfaction is low for those men who were very retarded in school. The percentage of dissatisfaction increases markedly, until, for those men whose progress in school was normal, 90 per cent expressed a wish for some other kind of work. It is a significant fact that in the inspection department there were found both the highest per- centage of satisfaction and the highest percentage of dissatisfaction. This means that in this de- partment there is opportunity, through the right ^6 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE adjustment of mental ability to the job, to secure the highest stability; and there is also danger, through maladjustment, of producing the great- est instability. From the point of view of job- satisfaction, this single occupation is both the best and worst in the plant — depending on the extent to which selection and assignment of workers is based on a consideration of the men- tal alertness of the applicant. In both the foundry and the gear and lathe de- partments, the men who are most retarded are the most satisfied with their work; the men who are least retarded are almost equally content. The greatest instability is found among those who occupy a middle ground in the matter of retarda- tion. This curious fact may be understood when it is realized that in these two departments there are both very low-grade and very high-grade jobs. Low-grade workers on low-grade jobs, e.g., chip- ping and cleaning, are satisfied, and they are in- capable of the high-grade work. High-grade workers on high-grade jobs, e.g., moulding and gear-cutting, are satisfied, and they refuse the low- grade work. The result is that in these depart- ments the low-grade and high-grade men gradu- ally gravitate to the type of work for which they are fitted. Men of middle grade, however, find the low-grade work dull and uninteresting; the RESULTS OF MENTAL TESTS 11 high-grade work is beyond their capacity. Con- sequently, it is in this group that misplacement is most common and desire for change of work is most pronounced. Necessity for Two Sets of Facts The curve based on the combined figures of seven departments (the five shown and two smaller ones) is unlike that of any one depart- ment, illustrating the danger of interpreting mass data without proper analysis. From the total curve alone, it appears that the more retarded a man was in school the less likely he is to desire change of work. This generalization is quite at variance with both the tool department and the assembly department. The total curve also seems to show that there is little difference in job-dis- satisfaction among those ranging from three years retarded to two years advanced. This gen- eralization is contradicted by the facts in the in- spection department and in the foundry. The results presented here show clearly that a man's intelligence must be considered in selec- tion and placement, not only because it may de- termine his ability to do the work assigned, but because, in addition, it is a determining factor in whether or not he will like his work and will stay on the job. yS SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE The personnel manager needs two sets of facts in using mental alertness as an aid in assignment. For each occupation he must know what grades of mental alertness are best able to perform cer- tain classes of work. He must also know what grades of mental alertness are most satisfied in that kind of work. In cases of unrest and in- stability in particular departments, the personnel manager will be on the lookout for an unsatis- factory adjustment of job-responsibility and mental alertness as one of the determining factors in the situation. Benefits of Mental Alertness Tests ' These, then, are some of the ways in which a study of the mental alertness of workers can be of assistance in maintaining a stable, contented, and efficient working force. It will help the em- ployer to pick men. Taken in consideration with a study of the jobs in his organization, it will help him to place men. It will help him in training men, and after training, in adjusting them in ac- cordance with their increased efficiency. Finally, as a result of this adequate placement and ad- justment, it will help him to keep men in his organization, because of the fact that they are doing work that is within the range of their men- tal capacities. RESULTS OF MENTAL TESTS 79 Just a word of warning here. Don't let the idea be gathered that this process is something that is now complete and perfected, and that all that remains to do is to ''place an order," in order to have it arrive, signed, sealed, and delivered in a sanitary wrapping. We have been trying to **star" the point that every individual is different from every other, and quite as emphatically we assert that every organization, even if it be of the same size, make the same product, and be spon- sored by the same board of directors, differs from its brother organization in points too many to enumerate. There must be individual study of each organization, for things that can be done in one may be impossible in another. Moreover, reliable mental testing, properly administered, means time expended and money spent before results will be secured. But, in terms of a ''stable, efficient working force," can this means to its accomplishment be neglected? Not Universally Applicable Now, having done our best to make a case for the science of mental testing, we hasten to show evidence for the other side. There is a very real danger in a too ready acceptance and a too general application of the procedure. Mental testing is not infallible. It is open to many mistakes. There 8o SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE are many places where it couldn't be used and many places where it shouldn't be used. It is no universal panacea, as some of its advocates would have us believe. In fact, the conservative psy- chologist has to steer a careful course, lest, in escaping ridicule, he finds himself engulfed in credulity. The science of mental testing is still in its in- fancy — or, perhaps better, in its adolescence — but even in its full maturity it is not fitted to serve as more than one of a number of instru- ments that may help to allay the restlessness and discontent in present-day industry. Although in- telligence is probably the most important factor in determining success, used alone it would be entirely misleading and dangerous. It touches only one phase of the conscious life of the worker. It tells you nothing of his desires and aspirations ; it gives you no hint of the emotional forces that may be driving him in one direction or another; but it does throw a sidelight on the most pathetic figure that the imperfections of a civilized evolu- tion have allowed to survive — the man who is at outs with his environment. As such it is worth while. CHAPTER VI TESTING TECHNICAL ABILITY Technical Ability There is another type of test which is some- times confused with a mental test. This is what is known as a ''trade test," and it is a method for determining a man's proficiency in a given line of work. Let us, for a moment, suppose ourselves an applicant at the door of a machine shop. We want a job. We want it rather badly. The em- ployment clerk, or whoever receives us, says, 'All we need today are first-class lathe hands. Can you run a turret lathe?" Now, in our last job we worked for a few weeks on a lathe and we think maybe we can get by for a time, and anyhow we want a job, so we say, ''Sure !" The man who em- ploys us has dealt with many men and he knows that as long as humanity is "four-fifths human" there will be men who will lie in order to get what they want. But what is his method of veri- fying our statement? He says, "Well, I'll try you!" He takes us over to a lathe and gives us some stock and instructions for machining the same. After a few hours, or at the end of the « 8i 82 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE day or the week, depending upon just how long it takes us to meet our Waterloo, he has found out. And his means of finding out are in terms of ruined tools, damaged machinery, wasted mate- rial, and lost production. This is a common method of testing a man's trade ability — ^to give him a work-out on the job. The first step toward economy in these mat- ters is made where the foreman of the depart- ment interviews each applicant and questions him regarding the work in which he is claiming pro- ficiency. These questions are many or few, de- pending upon the length of time the foreman has to spare that morning; and are significant or trivial, depending upon how adequately his think- ing apparatus is functioning at the moment. We see here again, as we earlier saw in the de- velopment of mental testing, the beginnings of what has later emerged as a standardized trade test. Standardized Trade Tests It is again to the army experience that we owe the great impetus for the establishment of stan- dardized trade tests. The table of occupational needs for the army listed 751 different jobs which demanded men trained in these occupations, and the army was faced with the problem of finding TESTING TECHNICAL ABILITY 83 these men and finding them quickly. In industry, we have said, the foreman often encounters an obstacle in the fact that a man stating his qualifi- cations for a job will sometimes exaggerate his skill. The army had to meet that obstacle and the even greater one that in order to detect ex- aggeration it would be necessary to have, in every encampment where assignments were being made, men who were skilled in one or more of these 751 occupations. This was, of course, impossible; and the Trade-Test Section of the Committee on Classification of Personnel was established, under the joint direction of Mr. L. B. Hopkins and Dr. Beardsley Ruml, to evolve some method of meet- ing the situation. There is not enough space here adequately to describe the work of this section, and what was accomplished can be only briefly summarized. A trade test that would fit the army needs must meet three requirements, namely : 1. It must give a definite and reliable state- ment of the grade of skill possessed by the craftsman. 2. It must be sufficiently simple and standard for any intelligent man, knowing nothing of the craftsman's particular trade, to use it satisfactorily after only a little special training. 84 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE 3. It must be as short and easily given as is consistent with accurate results. The method of procedure followed was, briefly, first to analyze the particular trade in question, then to select the essential elements of information, judgment, and skill, peculiar to that trade and assemble them into the form of ques- tions and answers such as could be given and scored by an examiner entirely unskilled in that trade. Next, armed with a blanket order from the Adjutant-General, the members of the Trade- Test Section went out into industry and tried these preliminary questions on apprentices, journey- men, and experts actually on the job. Novices (men with no knowledge of the trade) were also examined to make sure that a score could not be made in the absence of trade skill. As a result of this trial, those parts of the test most valuable in detecting trade ability were selected and put in the form of an army trade test. This, then, briefly and inadequately describes the making of a standardized trade test for the army. The method and technique thus developed constitute the great contribution which the Trade- Test Section has rendered to industry. It is now known that the actual army trade tests are not always the best tests for these same occupations in industry. This is due to the fact that the army TESTING TECHNICAL ABILITY 85 trade tests were purposely developed to cover general trades, while successful tests for industry must cover subdivisions of trades and must test trade proficiency for particular occupations. The army test must accordingly be widely supple- mented by tests for workers in the specialized processes of industry. The Three Requirements of the Trade Tests Let us, for a moment, go back and consider more specifically the three requirements of the trade test. 1. To define the grade of skill possessed by a craftsman. While there are all degrees of trade ability among the men in any trade, for conven- ience a classification into a few grades may be adopted. The terms novice, apprentice, journey- man, and expert are used. Novices are men with litfte~of no trade ability. Apprentices are those who have acquired some of the elements of a trade but have not become sufficiently skilled to work without supervision, or to be entrusted with any important task. Journeymen are qualified to perform almost any work of the trade. Experts can perform quickly and with superior skill any work of the trade and are able to lay out and plan work. 2. It must be sufficiently simple and standard 86 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE for an intelligent man, unskilled in the trade, to make satisfactory use of it. The feature of the trade-test method that makes possible this rating of a man's abihty by an interviewer unfamiliar with the trade is the fact that the tests are stan- dardized. Standardization of a test means the test- ing of the test by a thorough tryout among men actually in the trade. By finding out how well these craftsmen of known ability meet the test, it is possible to set standards by which unknown men can afterwards be rated. 3. It must be short and easily given. Trade tests are of three sorts : oral, picture, and perform- ance. The first two are given in short interviews during which the candidate answers a specified list of standardized questions relating to his trade. The responses may be verbal or by the identification of pictures or samples. Each an- swer is scored as correct or incorrect. Depending upon the total score made on the list of questions, the candidate is rated as a novice, apprentice, journeyman, or expert in that trade. In such occupations as store salesperson, trade tests, or, as they are more generally termed, de- partment interviews, serve to test the trade knowledge which is one of the essentials of good salesmanship. Performance tests are less useful where the TESTING TECHNICAL ABILITY 87 quick measurement of a man's ability is desired, but they are the only sort possible in some occu- pations. They consist of a trial performance under standardized conditions. Results of Trade Test The purpose of the trade test is to measure di- rectly or indirectly these various degrees of trade skill. The test makes no attempt to show a man's general ability in all lines of work; it is limited to the one trade for which it was made. More- over, the test is not at all for the purpose of telling how well a man can learn the trade or what his future progress will be in the trade. It measures the trade ability the man has now, the skill he has actually acquired in the trade at the time of the test. Hence the test cannot be used under any circumstances as a means of determining aptitude for a trade, or for deciding what trade a novice should try to learn. Trade tests answer this oneV question: Is the man a tradesman or is he not, and if he is, how good is he in his trade? Trade tests differ essentially from mental tests in that they tell only what a man's proficiency in a specific trade now is. They take no account of how long it may have taken him to acquire that proficiency or what his possibilities are for be- coming more expert. In short, they give his trade 88 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE standing at the moment, but they prophesy nothing of his future development. What then, is the service that trade tests can render to industry? Summarized briefly, trade tests are of value in three phases of personnel work : in hiring and assigning, in transferring and promoting, and in training. In the selection of new employees the tests show whether the appli- cant really has the skill claimed or the ability that his age, experience, and wage would seem to in- dicate. When there is a question of transfer of workers, the tests give a knowledge of each man's ability — a means of determining which workers are competent to do other work, which ones should be laid off if circumstances enforce lay-offs, and which ones are of greatest technical value for a high-class work force. Information gained from tests is also closely connected with the educational program. Lack of skill or knowledge in particu- lar phases of a tradesman's ability may be de- tected and remedied, and the tests may be used as standards by which to estimate the results of training courses for the various jobs. CHAPTER VII RATING CHARACTER QUALITIES Difficulty of Judging Personality At a meeting of a certain scientific society an astronomer was introduced as speaking on "The Movements of Fixed Stars," and the geologist who followed him announced that he would talk on "The Sloughing Away of the Everlasting Hills." The present writers feel a similar diffi- culty in trying to describe for you the rating of unmeasurable qualities. You can count a man's pulse and in terms of his age and weight ascertain that it is too fast or too slow, and how much too fast or too slow. You can measure in thousandths of a second the length of time that it takes him to make a muscu- lar response to a sensory stimulus. You can give him a simple set of mental alertness tests, and by counting the number he is able to solve in a given time, get a line on his mental alertness. You can ask him questions about his trade which have been so standardized that the number of correct responses will indicate his grade of skill in that trade. But after you have done all these things you do not yet "know your man." You do not 89 90 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE yet know all the things you need to know about him for your advantage and his. / Earlier in this book we have said that mental capacity — pure intellectual acumen — is generally the most important factor in attaining success^ but this is not always the case and it is by no means the only factor. There are other qualities^ that come into your judgment of a man, qualities that make you say, *'He's a brilliant fellow, but he doesn't get along with people," or, "He's a dear old chap, even if he hasn't got a thought in his head." There are such things as initiative, leaderA ship, co-operation, personal appearance — all quali- ] ties that are generally of value to a man in win- I ning success, and the possession of which by a( man makes him of value to an organization. But i how are you going to measure these qualities? How can you say that John Jones has 50 per cent more initiative than Bill Smith, especially if Bill Smith is the ash man and John Jones is your wife's brother? We are probably safe in saying that every one of these qualities that go to help make up that vague thing called ''personality," which is so hard to define but so readily understood by all of us, is of moment to some of a man's associates. They are not all, however, a matter of concern between the worker and his employer. Here, perhaps, RATING CHARACTER QUALITIES 91 the line of demarkation between honest inter- est and prying curiosity is most fine-drawn. The qualities of personality that affect a man's private life only are not the concern of his employer. But there are other qualities that do function in his life as an industrial unit of which the thinking employer needs to know, in order that he may make due recognition of them. Selecting a Department Head Suppose you have in your organization a de- partment consisting of twenty girls who are typ- ing letters. They are all doing satisfactory work. Now, suppose you want to appoint from among them a head stenographer who shall have super- vision over the group. How do you do it? Maybe you pick the one who has been with your organization longest. Perhaps you choose the one who turns out the greatest number of letters per day. Possibly you feel the necessity of select- ing the sister of one of your lieutenants, or the wife of an influential foreman who has been threatening to make trouble for you. There is even a chance you are so frail a mortal that you choose the prettiest blonde. Is your selection always a success? Seniority, it is true, is a factor that com- mands some sort of recognition, but the army's 92 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE exclusive dependence on it as a method of pro- motion has recently demonstrated its inefficiency. Proficiency on a specific job, too, deserves some reward, but it does not always follow that it carries with it the qualities that merit executive authority. And as for the others, if you must curry favor with your lieutenant, let your wife ask his sister to a bridge party, or even send a box of Huyler's to the blonde, rather than give authority to an individual who has not the per- sonal qualities that command such leadership. The qualities that make an employee stay twenty years with the same organization, or the capacity that makes a worker capable of maximum production on a given task, or the particular pigmentation that characterizes Titian tresses are all valuable in their sphere, but they are not necessarily the qualities that go to make up a successful executive. What, then, are those qualities which we are claiming as essential for leadership, or salesman- ship, or any other occupation ? And how, in the next place, does one determine to what degree they are present in a given individual ? Different Opinions of Executive Qualities In 191 7 the following question was submitted to dozens of army officers of high rank and other RATING CHARACTER QUALITIES 93 executives in the government departments : **What qualities are essential to the making of a successful officer?" After many consultations and much study, a list of five qualities was drawn up which seemed to embody the essential quali- fications. On these five qualities the junior officers and candidate officers were then ranked by their superiors when promotions and commissions were being considered. During the last two years the present wTiters have submitted this question to scores of em- ployers in industry : ''What qualities do you consider essential in promoting men to' foreman- ship, or other executive positions?" The lists of answers received in return have varied all the way from the man who said that the only essential quality was 'loyalty" to one w^ho gave us a list covering two typewritten pages. After much corfsultation, it was found possible to bring some order out of chaos by asking these executives to analyze the opinions they had expressed. The greatest evil about language is that words sound so nice. After we have formulated a neat little phrase that expresses in a succinct, pithy fashion a clear and definite opinion on a given matter, we look back upon this snappy little brain- child with a real paternal affection. This, com- bined with a certain mental inertia from which 94 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE few of us are exempt, makes us loath to modify his trim Httle shape by any unsightly exceptions that subsequent experience might seem to demand. It is only a really big brain that can reason in the conditional mode. The scientist says, 'Tt might be so, and if it should be, such will happen." Whereupon if ''such" does not result, his ideas on the subject are still fluid and capable of being reshaped. The practical man of affairs, on the contrary, can get no peace in his mental household with things thus unsettled. He says, 'This is so, and that will happen." If he is going to have an idea on a subject he must have a definite idea, and when it is necessary to change this idea it is a clear case of annihilation and rebirth. If you ask him what sort of foreman Bill Jones makes, he will tell you, "He's rotten" and that "Henry Adams is a corker," and if you try to find but what makes Bill rotten and Henry a corker, he will probably mention some quality that one excels in and the other falls down on. And if you seek further for Bill's possible virtues and Henry's conceivable vices, sooner than take a chance on muddling his thinking, he'll probably cut the argument short by telling you that the one partic- ular quality he has specified is all that matters. Now, one of the real virtues in this attempt RATING CHARACTER QUALITIES 95 to estimate unmeasurable qualities is to force the man who is judging men to analyze his cut-and- dried opinions. Make the employer you are questioning consider the A No. i foremen he has known and see what it is in them that has con- tributed to their success. See if it is always the same quality that has turned the trick. See if, perhaps, one man doesn't shine because of excel- lence in one particular, while a second owes his success to a different factor that was only moder- ately developed in the first. Let the employer force himself to get together these qualities and decide which of them are essential for successful foremanship in his plant. Method of Rating Executive Qualities Here, for example (Figure 3), is a rating scale which we devised for judging foremen and other executives in a number of industrial con- cerns. There are seven qualities in this particular rating scale. Now suppose that you are trying to select the supervisor of stenographers before mentioned. Discard the four earlier criteria of seniority, proficiency, expediency, and complex- ion, and analyze each one of these twenty girls in terms of these seven essential qualities. Con- sider, first, the ability to inspire confidence and hJ -I < O 0) o z [Z c < •«. o i Q. < o "S 5 J' § I -I 3 t, >. a 5 "^ i » £ II £ llsl O » B « e » ^ H5§ § ill! M It 2 O B e aA Jlll 1 1 n 1 1 B 111 to. s 1 ql = 1 D ^aa H '£ Q s 1 1 1 e 3 1 *7 1^ e 9 o Sg 1 <2 H 1 J Hi 5 — sp '- XU " J a • -o i § win- his to a king • nj * w . T! C *• 2 success in tice and re appearance success in i and better pting imp IS own work a e ^ 1 r his >nfidei hit r his ti new ada 1 to hi r hi. e co- weld nd e; 0* y. '-ss il--j :§■£.£- JlJfJill Cons ning men. loyal unit. - C 96 Qo 25 III in a! !--j Ui 6-65 .5 o a a £ O :3 2 « * »» •" - 2 s £1 O r5 S £ o G "5) 3 oj O 97 98 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE respect by her appearance and manner. Abstract this one quaUty from everything else you know about her and consider it alone. Perhaps her twenty years of service have lent a dignity and importance to this oldest employee that would cause you to make a check mark over ''Inspiring." Maybe, on the contrary, for all she is loyal and faithful, she is what the other girls term "an old freak," so her check mark on this line must go far to the right. Again, perhaps your best worker excels also in her ability to inspire respect by her appearance and manner, and on the other hand, she may have neglected this quality in her desire for proficiency. Con- sider only this one factor. Harden your heart to all other virtues, and coldly and impersonally put the check mark where it belongs. Next take up the second quality: ''Success in doing things in new and better ways and in adapting improved methods to his own work." Study each girl in the light of this quality alone and put the check mark in its proper place. And so on down the scale, considering one quality at a time until you have rated all the candidates upon all of those seven qualities that exemplify the chief things you are looking for in an executive. After you have finished this analysis of the twenty girls, two of your associates RATING CHARACTER QUALITIES 99 independently repeat the process and the results of the three judgments are compared. When the individuals have thus been rated separately on each of these qualities, it is possible by a simple procedure to give a standard numer- ical value to each place on the scale where the check mark may fall, and by summing the whole, to obtain a value for each individual on the sum total of his capacity in those qualities that go to make up a successful foreman. The essential qualities will, of course, vary with the individual job, so that the rating scale which serves to measure foremen would contain different qualities from one used to rate salesmen, etc. In this way, then, we get a fair total estimate, by forcing the superior to take into account all the qualities that should be considered, and not to allow his judgment to be warped by over- attention to one particular quality in which the candidate is markedly deficient or notably excel- lent. At the same time, by this means, we can analyze a man and see just how he stands on these different qualities, so that we have some idea of his especially strong and weak points. Advantages of Rating Scale The method of applying a quantitative rating scale to these seemingly unmeasurable qualities 100 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE serves, first, to force superiors really to analyze their candidates in terms of the qualities that are essential to success in the position, and to record their judgments in black and white. This serves to keep the man doing the rating from making snap judgments without proper study or knowl- edge of the person he is rating. It serves, also, to lessen the effect of personal prejudice which unconsciously often so distorts a man's opinion of another that he is willing to call him a ''rotten foreman" when all he really has against him is that he lacks initiative or has a pug nose. The necessity of putting our judgments of men down in cold figures, which may then be compared with the opinions of our colleagues on these same men, is an experience that must be tried to be appreciated. In most of our social intercourse we trust in two things : the shortness of human memory, and the belief that our asso- ciates will take what we say with some grains of allowance. When, however, we record our state- ments in black and white we close these two avenues of escape for an unbridled tongue. We are forced, then, to act less in the mood of the moment and to weigh our judgments with care and nicety. This is the first value of the rating scale — to secure opinions on a candidate wherein the essential qualities are separately considered RATING CHARACTER QUALITIES loi and due recognition given to each, so that the effect of snap judgments and personal prejudice may be largely eliminated. The second advantage of this method is from the standpoint of the candidate. When you can tell a man fairly and impersonally the opinion that is held concerning him by three persons who have the facts whereby to judge him, you are doing that man a valuable service. There are, of course, certain * 'shut-in personalities" to whom the opinions of their fellows are of very little concern, but such men are distinctly pathological. The normal man is a ''social animal" and the great bulk of his joys and sorrows are conditioned by the attitude of his associates toward him. If, then, we can show him, always impersonally, that in the judgment of his superiors he is falling down on this or that personal quality, w^e may stimulate him to improvement so that he may grow in the estimate of his fellows and thereby minister to his own personal satisfaction. CHAPTER VIII JUDGING A MAN BY HIS HISTORY General Factors When you have learned something of a man's physical and mental ability, hi s trade skill , and thos e personal quahties that are of importance for his industrial success, what other data do you need in order to make sure that he is being given the best opportunity that his capacity merits? Overlapping and underrunning the specific items we have been considering are certain general factors which influence and help to determine them. They may be divided under three general headings : ( i ) information about a man's indus- trial history, (2) information about a man's edu- cational history, and (3) information about a man's personal history. Previous Experience The first of these generally has had the biggest influence on a man's trade skill. The number of men coming into industry from trade schools is still so small that we are safe in saying that most men are indebted to their industrial experience for the amount of trade skill they possess. If, 102 JUDGING A MAN BY HIS HISTORY 103 however, you study the record of a worker in terms of this industrial experience, you will often find a discrepancy between the nature of his pre- vious work and the job on which he is now engaged. You may find that a man has worked for five years at a carpenter's trade but is registered in your organization as a plumber. It may be that he voluntarily took up plumbing and is entirely satisfied with his choice. It may be, however, that on the day when he stood at your gate the only job you had open was a plumber's and the eco- nomic urge demanded that he secure employment at once. It may be that during all the time he has worked for you the landlord and the butcher and the shoemaker have seen to it that the economic urge did not lessen, and he has never been able to get far enough ahead to risk throwing up a plumber's job to seek a possible opening in carpentry. This, then, is valuable information for the employer as well as valuable information for the employee to have the employer have. Here is a man with two dififerent lines of industrial capacity. Why not take advantage of it? It would not be an uncommon thing in industry to see this man laid off as a plumber on the same day that the employment department was advertising for 104 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE carpenters. Clearly, then, it is of value for the management as well as for the worker to have some record available both of his industrial experi- ence previous to his entrance and his progress to date in your organization, i.e., his jobs, transfers, promotions, wage changes, etc. Education A second general factor that influences a man's progress through industry is the amount of education which he has had. This is seen in the fact that some jobs have certain educational pre- requisites; that is to say, over and above the actual manual manipulation of tools and material, over and above the practical knowledge that you pull this lever to start the machinery and press that pedal to speed it up, a man, in order to meet successfully the requirements of certain jobs, must possess varying amounts of general knowl- edge. He must be able, for example, to under- stand written instructions or to make certain arithmetical calculations. There is, moreover, another way in which education plays a part in a man's industrial ad- justment which is less directly evident but is, nevertheless, effective. That is the fact that a part of what we mean by an individual's social status is dependent upon the amount of education JUDGING A MAN BY HIS HISTORY 105 he has received. It seems rather absurd to advo- cate the recognition of "social sets" in industry. The popular conception has been that one's business and social life were distinct entities, and that the modern hostess deplores the occasion when it is necessary to ask her husband's business friends to dinner. This is doubtless a hang-over from the days when being in trade was a sign of low breeding, when inherited wealth was the only sort recognized as creditable, and when a "gentle- man" was expected to starve in idleness rather than stain his escutcheon with the blot of labor. With the change that is fast coming, that is, in fact, already here in our conception of the dig- nity of work, we find that the personnel of in- dustry is becoming much more varied. The old social distinction between the working and the non-working classes is being broken down, and a man's life in the shop and at home are coming to have more common connections. This does not mean, however, that social distinctions are ceasing to exist. They are still present, perhaps not so markedly, as in the previous generation, but sufficiently clearly to demand recognition. The case now is that instead of the difference lying between those who work and those who don't work, the distinctions are, as it were, intra mural. That is to say, there have come to be I06 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE social distinctions according to the sort of work done, the kind of people who engage in a partic- ular form of work, the conditions under which the work is performed, etc. There is, for example, the social distinction between women who are engaged in domestic service and those employed in other occupations. There is the social distinc- tion between men who are willing to work at certain slaughtering and butchering jobs and those who will refuse to do such work. There is the social distinction, especially among women, be- tween those engaged in factory work and those employed in the offices of the same organization. Personal History This same social consideration overlaps with the third general factor we have mentioned, namely, the information to be derived from a man's personal history, and is, in fact, one of our chief reasons for gathering such information. Without it you would, perhaps, be sometimes at a loss to explain to a carping critic — and a sus- picious worker is your most carping critic — for just what reason you are recording facts about his nationality, living conditions, marital status, and dependents. From the employer's viewpoint it is not diffi- cult to see how such material would be useful. By JUDGING A MAN BY HIS HISTORY 107 means of it percentages can be calculated which will help to decide, on a basis of fact and not of surmise, such things as whether men of one nationality are especially valuable or worthless for a particular kind of work, whether the turnover is less among workers who are property owners than among those who live in boarding houses, whether single men are more adaptable to changes in work than those who are married. All these facts are of value in an effort to make a satis- factory adjustment between men and jobs, and as a basis for meeting unforeseen changes that may occur. That it is of value to the worker to have a record of these facts in the possession of the management is evident to one who watches the process from the outside. But unless this infor- mation is collected with extreme tact, the process savors of an unwarranted intrusion into personal affairs which is calculated to arouse suspicion in the mind of the ignorant worker and resentment on the part of the intelligent. General Conclusions The authors of this book feel, then, that the direct value which the worker receives in return for the information he gives his employer about these matters is most evident in terms of the social I08 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE adjustment just mentioned. Such facts as nation- ality, living conditions, marital status, citizenship, education, kind of recreation, outside interests, etc., all combine to place your individual at some point on the sliding scale of social distinction. That the scale, in this country, is a gradual incline and not a series of separate steps, that the son of today's street sweeper may be tomorrow's senator, that, in short, labor will not stay put, is a source of present-day irritation and a cause for future congratulations. That this inclined slope will ever become a plane surface, as our friends on the extreme left would have us believe, is, we are inclined to think, highly improbable. A Soviet regime may elim- inate birthrights, property distinctions, educa- tional advantages, and occupational grades, but, as fast as it does, other forms of snobbery will spring up in their stead. This is so because humanity is not an aggregate of simple, uniform masses of protoplasm. Men are not like those cell colonies of the biologists, where each individ- ual is identical with every other and all are re- sponsive to the same stimulus and indifferent to the same forces. We can communize to the nth power our institutions and our social forces, but we cannot control the individual's reaction to these forces JUDGING A MAN BY HIS HISTORY 109 nor the varying amounts of sustenance that he will derive from them. It may be the most com- munistic, the most democratic, the most free-for- all of primroses by the river's brim, but between the dreamer who sees therein some symbol of the eternal verities and the "man of the street" who knows only that it is yellow and a primrose, there will arise grades of distinction that will serve to construct a new hierarchy as rigid as any based on breeding or financial resources. CHAPTER IX ASCERTAINING DESIRES Motives for Work In earlier chapters we have contended that men are different in capacity, mental and physical ; in attainments, scholastic and technical; and in those innate tendencies which, crystallized by habit, have come to represent what we call char- acter qualities. But these are not the only ways in which men differ. They differ not only in what they can do, but in what they want to do ; not only in things that they can accomplish, but in things that appeal to them as worth striving for. They differ not only in the ability to perform a given act — whether it be a physical feat, a mental achieve- ment, or the meeting of a social or ethical obliga- tion — but in whether or not the act is for them attended with pleasure or displeasure. You may conceive two men absolutely iden- tical in physical prowess, mental capacity, and character qualifications, each of whom is being driven toward success by an entirely different stimulus. The goal which beckons is not the same no ASCERTAINING DESIRES 1 1 1 for both. The joy of Hfe Hes here for one and there for the other. As this is true for men in general, so it is true for men in industry since, in fact, the great bulk of civilized mankind is in industry. If then we want to "know our men" we must take into account other factors than the things they are capable of doing. We must get some notion of the things that they want to do and why. It would be a mistaken attempt for us to urge that a worker be considered only in the light of his wishes, his ambitions, his esthetic apprecia- tions and the things that appeal to him as pleasant or unpleasant. They are all tangled up with and mutually dependent upon his capacities, his habits — racial and individual — his economic advantages, his emotional experiences, etc. ; on everything, in fact, that has gone to make up his life to the present moment, combined with that heritage handed down to him from his forebears. In an effort, then, to present some of the motives that operate to make an individual a successful workman, some of the incentives in a job that appeal to Bill and not to Henry, some of the industrial experiences that are pleasing for John and distasteful to Patrick, we are consciously creating an artificial situation in that we are des- cribing only one element of the compound. 112 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE Necessity for Occupation With this apology, then, let us ask: "Why does a man work?" We approach that question with considerable curiosity, like tired dog Dingo who wondered, "What in the world and out of it made Old Man Kangaroo hop." The answer is simple, like the reason for Old Man Kangaroo's mode of locomotion, "He had to !" So man your brother, so man yourself, works because he has to, because there is a pressure coming from the outside or coming from the inside that leaves him no alternative. Nine out of ten persons, ninety-nine out of a hundred, will add the supple- ment, "I wouldn't work if I didn't have to." One wonders how many of them are telling the truth. One of the authors of the present book has had opportunity to make extensive observation of women confined in penal institutions, and an interesting thing to witness is the almost universal plea for work that is made after a woman has experienced a week or two of real inaction. Such jobs as scrubbing stairs, polishing floors, or cleaning pots and pans, are then looked upon as special privileges and eagerly contended for. We recall a woman who had been for years a professional beggar and who had, as well, a "flair" for petty larceny which eventually landed ASCERTAINING DESIRES 113 her in the state reformatory. Her economic history showed that she had held no jobs for years; that she would, in fact, go to any lengths to avoid work; that she had lived in squalid quarters which she made no effort to improve; that she had woefully neglected her four children; and that she had eventually sold three of them to provide herself with funds and was making de- plorable use of the fourth to add an additional appeal in begging. Her general reputation for indolence was well summed up in the close of a letter, received after her incarceration, from a dearly beloved enemy: "I hope you get enough sleep now, you bum." And yet this woman, after a period of several weeks of enforced idleness, on being offered a job as assistant dish-washer, accepted it with joyous acclaim and went at it with an energy and enthusiasm that threatened the crockery. The Economic Motive One wonders, then, what makes us work. Nine out of ten, again, will answer "Money," the economic urge that requires a day's toil for a day's bread. Even when one gets above the mere sub- sistence level, it is still the need of money that urges on, money that will buy comforts as well as provide sustenance; and, still further up the 114 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE economic scale, money that will supply luxuries, that will allow us to indulge our whims, that will enable us to gratify our ambitions, that will sat- isfy our esthetic or intellectual cravings, that will, in short, provide the things which, over and above allowing us to live, make it worth while to con- tinue the process. When the worker is operating at what the economists call ''the bare subsistence level," we are willing to grant that, as in the case of Old Man Kangaroo, the push is from behind. The yellow dog is yapping at his heels, the wolf is whining on his doorstep, the handwriting on the wall says, "No work, no eat," and a man labors for the money that will buy him food. But while we are willing to grant that the most frequent appeal to which the worker responds is an economic one, we feel that employers in general have made the mistake of thinking that appeal the only one. The war tapped sources of response that in- dustry never dreamed of. Stimulated by the national appeal of patriotism, workers speeded up production far beyond normal limits. Labor unions made concessions. A spirit of co-opera- tion was manifested that enabled industry to triple its output. The war spirit was, of course, an emergency measure, and it was not to be ex- ASCERTAINING DESIRES 115 pected that it would persist once the emergency was over. Such are the limitations of our ethical nature that we cannot maintain these high levels beyond the time that necessity compels — often not that long. After a hundred yards of running we must drop back into our normal stride, and it is not to be wondered at if an occasional one of us sits down. We have all felt the "let down" after a great emotional experience, and it was clearly to be anticipated that industry would undergo the same phenomenon. It is not the intention to dis- cuss here this particular phase of industrial life, but merely to quote it as one of the instances to prove that "man does not live by bread alone." Even in normal times, however, we maintain that there is, for some men, something in the job besides a meal ticket. Let us try now to see what other incentives we may find that tend to spur a man to his daily round of toil. The Creative Instinct We have heard a great deal about the creative instinct, that desire which is born in a man to accomplish something, not for the monetary re- turn therefrom, not for the personal recognition which it may bring, but for and of itself. It is what Kipling tells of in that millennium : •116 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE When no one shall work for money, And no one shall work for fame, But each for the joy of the working And each in his separate star Shall draw the Thing as he Sees it For the God of Things as they Are. It is that instinct, perhaps, that accounts for the little houses in bottles which we see in the windows of small shoe-repair shops, built with such infinite care by cobblers in their off moments. (Why this particular sort of cabinet making should appeal as a pastime to cobblers is one of the mysteries still to be solved.) The instinct is a very real one — the desire to accomplish a fin- ished product, to see it complete before you and be able to say, "This is mine, the fruit of my hands, the child of my brain, 'a poor thing but mine own.' " Modern industry, with its quantity-production methods, has resulted in an almost complete lack of opportunity for the gratification of this in- stinct. Who, indeed, can spend his eight hours running stock through a punch-press and chant the while "This is the fruit of my hands"; or look upon the completed baking-powder tin and murmur, "This is mine own." He must indeed murmur softly because there is the solderer and the stamper and the riveter and a host of others ASCERTAINING DESIRES 117 to dispute his claim to the ownership of the fin- ished product. Although modern production rules out this appeal as an incentive, it is none the less a real one, and a clever manufacturer will do well to devote both time and energy to the job of making his workers feel an interest in the finished prod- uct, to some obscure detail of which they are de- voting one-half of their waking hours. Some of the thinking managers of industry are beginning to understand this. They are coming to realize that they have had men working in their organiza- tion for months and even years who still have no knowledge of what becomes of the parts which they are machining in such quantities; no idea of what operations preceded theirs in the process; no notion of how their particular job fits into the scheme of things entire; how the complete whole functions, or even how it looks. Lacking this knowledge, what wonder that men see no reason to follow specifications exactly, to be on the look- out for inaccuracies, or to feel pride in careful workmanship. Thinking managers are here and there begin- ning to realize this state of affairs, and are deliber- ately trying to cultivate in their men an interest in the manufacture of their product by talks and moving pictures of the processes, by factory tours Il8 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE for the workers, by awarding prizes for suggested improvements, and by other similar devices. One of the most encouraging remarks we have ever heard made in industry was when an assistant forelady in a men's shirt factory inveighed thus against her passing foreman: ''Now look at El- mer. He's got his shirt on crooked. What's the use of trying to get the seams straight when the men don't know how to wear 'em." Here was a real manifestation of the creative instinct, a protest against the profanation of the work of her hands. How the Creative Instinct Works Taussig ^ in his study of "Inventors and Money-Makers" records excellent instances of the functioning of this instinct where one would ex- pect to find it in its purest form. He describes the "incidental inventions" of men like Watt, Cartwright, and Ericsson, which were performed "sometimes with money-making intent, some- times in a spirit of scientific research and some- times merely in sport," and from all of which they appeared to derive an almost equal enjoy- ment. He quotes Edison, who, after the failure of an elaborate project by which the magnetite I Frank W. Taussig, Inventors and Money- Making. New York, Th« Macmillan Co., 1915. ASCERTAINING DESIRES 119 ores of New Jersey were to be the basis of a great steel and iron industry, said, on being told of what the venture had cost him, ''Well it's all gone, but we had a hell of a good time spending it." As a matter of fact, modern production is quite unable to keep pace with the creative in- stincts of our great inventors. We have good reason to believe that many serviceable devices are passed by undeveloped, and that many of our manufactured products function less perfectly on the market than do their corrected models in the workshop of their inventors. This creative instinct, sometimes called the instinct of workmanship, or, more technically, the instinct of construction or contrivance, is a true instinct. If, as we have said, "psychology" is one of the most abused words in the language, that one of its children which suffers most at the hands of a garrulous public is the term ''instinct." MacDougal says it has been used so loosely as almost to spoil it for scientific purposes and that it "is commonly used as a cloak for ignorance, when the writer attempts to explain any individual or collective action which he fails or has not tried to understand." However much they differ in a final definition of this term, nevertheless all psychologists would agree that instinct is a tendency to act character- I20 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE istically in the presence of certain stimuli, a ten- dency which we share in common with our brother, the coursing hound, and our sister, the broody hen. It is in the lower animals — most perfectly exemplified in the insects — ^that we see instincts displayed in their purest form. Many of them, by the time they are manifest in the adult human, are so weakened and so modified by per- sonal and racial habits as to be almost unrecog- nized. However much the term has been abused by popular writers, the instinct of construction is a true instinct, demonstrable in the beaver build- ing its dam, in the child with its mud pie, in the cobbler with his little bottled house, and in the philosopher with his metaphysical system. Thwarted Instincts A point sustained from animal experimenta- tion should serve, too, as a warning to industry. This is the fact that instincts thwarted and un- realized tend to atrophy and disappear. Just as a young squirrel raised in a cage will in time cease trying to bury his nuts in the wooden floor, so the industrial worker, deprived of all stimulus for taking an interest in the work of his hands, will come to regard his eight hours in the factory as merely so much time to be disposed of with the least effort and the greatest financial profit. CHAPTER X OTHER DESIRES AND INSTINCTS The Desire for Authority Another appeal that is often made much of in industry is concerned with the desire for au- thority. One would suppose that such an appeal was quite universal in its extent, that no man would willingly remain a subordinate if he could be a master. Here, also, we see the functioning of a primitive instinct — the instinct of domina- tion, sometimes called the instinct of pugnacity or predacity. It differs from the more strict defini- tion of an instinct in that the stimulus is more general, being called forth by any obstruction to the free play of an impulse. It is this instinct that arouses in some of us such a strong desire to open the door that says "No Admittance." We once saw a pathetic appeal against it in a sign, ''Wet paint, believe the painter." In its most obvious form it is often accompanied by the emo- tion of anger directed against the obstructing object, be it an offending individual, an unjust demand, a stupid convention, or a short-sighted policy. The desire for authority, for power pure and 121 122 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE simple uncomplicated with a desire for the pe- cuniary benefit that generally attends it, is plainly manifest in certain types of politicians. Many of our city-hall monarchs, of course, are as much concerned with the money to be derived from power as with the power itself. Occasionally, however, you encounter a man who seems to have very little concern for the material benefits of authority, whose sole ambition is to have his word recognized as law by his henchmen. We have in mind the political boss of a sec- tion of one of the middle eastern states who exem- plifies this type. He lives simply and without os- tentation, controls no industries, and has appar- ently amassed no wealth to leave to his heirs. He is, however, the ''lone wolf" of that particular section, and his word is as truly law with the body politic as ever was the command of an Asiatic monarch. The sole manifestation which he per- mits himself is that on January i every citizen, reputable or otherwise, who wants a political office or a city franchise, or a municipal contract — who has, in short, an axe to grind where politi- cal influence may whet its edge — must pay a New Year's call on "Uncle George." This yearly pilgrimage represents for him that for which he labors through the remaining three hundred and sixty-four days. OTHER DESIRES AND INSTINCTS 123 In industry you find some manifestations of this instinct. The privilege of giving orders is the only additional value that is accorded a ''straw" boss, and yet we find it an opportunity much coveted by some men. The desire for au- thority and responsibility is clearly to be recog- nized as one of the incentives that spurs work- men to action ; but it remained for Whiting Wil- Hams ^ graphically to demonstrate that this desire is not universal, that ''every man does not want to be a foreman," that what the great bulk of unskilled and semiskilled labor seeks is only "a steady job and a good boss." The Competitive Appeal Not unallied to the desire for power, and per- haps a derivative from the same instinct of pug- nacity, is the appeal of rivalry or competition which plays its part in industry. Its most evident manifestation is, of course, found in the realm of sport. You can, however, see it cropping up among the workers in industry, not only in the competition of business organizations, but in the race between gangs or even individuals for maxi- mum production, or in competition for a desired promotion. I Whiting Williams, What's on the Worker's Mind, New York, Chas. Scribner's Sons, 1920. 124 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE The Social Instinct If we seek further for motives to labor which may be inspiring our workers, we come upon the function of what has been termed ''the instinct of gregariousness" ; the social pull it is sometimes termed — the tendency to herd with our fellows, to be one of a group. This is a true instinct, clearly manifested in the lower animals. Galton's^ quaint description of the South African ox, al- though it has been quoted to the point of exhaus- tion, is again offered here. *'He displays no affec- tion for his fellows, and hardly seems to notice their existence, as long as he is among them ; but, if he becomes separated from the herd, he dis- plays an extreme distress that will not let him rest until he succeeds in rejoining it, when he hastens to bury himself in the midst of it, seeking the closest possible contact with the bodies of his fellows." With this crude instinct as a basis, this simple positive tendency towards oneness with a crowd, habit and sentiment have built up such innumer- able reactions that we have come to regard as distinctly abnormal a man who shuns human re- lationships. The strength of this tendency towards social companionship is demonstrable by 2 Francis Galton, Inquiries into the Human Faculty and its Develop- ment, New York, The Macmillan Co., 1883. OTHER DESIRES AND INSTINCTS 125 the nature of punishment which human society has devised. Ostracism was the penalty imposed by the church for grave ofifenses. Sending to Coventry is the extreme torment which school boys deal out to an offender against their code. And in penal institutions, solitary confinement has come to be recognized as so severe a punish- ment that it is warranted only in extreme cases. The manifestations of the gregarious instinct in play and other recreational activities are evidenced in the tendency to form gangs, teams, clubs, or societies — social, political, or religious — and fra- ternal organizations of one sort and another. In industry we find it functioning in the dis- like shown by most workers for solitary jobs. It may have played its part in the formation of labor unions, or at least, in the tendency of men to join such organizations. It doubtless accounts in large measure for the presence in industry of girls whose economic position would allow them to "stay at home." Prestige of Certain Kinds of Work Earlier in this book the factor of social pres- tige as an incentive in industry has been men- tioned. This social approval may be conditioned by the nature of the work. It may involve the contrast between head work and hand work — ^the 126 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE « distinction which is often fallaciously made be- tween office and factory jobs. This distinction is probably more real among women workers than men. In the factory itself the cleanness of the job has a distinctive appeal for some workers. Many women will work harder for less money at a job which does not necessitate the wearing of aprons or other working costumes. The prestige attached to the nature of the work may be dependent on the hazards involved or the extreme strength or resistance required. The sheet-metal workers in a rolling-mill, for ex- ample, are the aristocrats of that industry. Again, it may be the recognized skill involved which gives a job the dignity that makes it desirable — as the tool jig- and die-makers constitute the gen- try of the machine industries. Or it may be the responsibility for life, property, or firm secrets, such as is held by the locomotive engineer, the bank messenger, the watchman, or the confiden- tial clerk, which lends the desired dignity to the task. Again, this social factor may be concerned with the conditions that surround a job or the type of persons that supply a particular occupa- tion. One of the contentions of organized labor was that certain types of foreigners were willing to work under conditions which a self-respecting OTHER DESIRES AND INSTINCTS 127 American would not tolerate. Many workers also will refuse to accept a job where the great bulk of the other employees are 'Tolacks," ''dagoes," or "coons," or where the moral tone of the work- ers is notoriously low. The lure of the high- class department store or telephone exchange for many working girls is likewise more conditioned by the nature of the surroundings than by the wages paid. The matter of social approval is then clearly an incentive that cannot be overlooked. Loyalty, Pride, Justice, Sympathy, etc. Not the least of the incentives that affect workers are those conditioned by sentiment : the appeal of loyalty, pride, love of justice, sympa- thy, etc. Employers have perhaps overstrained the loyalty appeal, not so much on its positive as on its negative side. They speak with pride, it is true, of the faithful service of their twenty- year employees, but are overly quick to brand as disloyal the man who refuses to remain indefi- nitely in a blind-alley job, who accepts a better offer than their organization is able to provide him, or, worst of all, who goes out on strike. Likewise employers in general are slow to recognize that pride is a sentiment not always conditioned by the possession of a bank account. They inveigh loudly against a man who refuses a 128 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE particular job as beneath his dignity. They see no reason why a clerk should not be "bawled out" in public, even though they are careful to close the door before reprimanding an executive. Perhaps the hardest lesson for the old-school employer to learn is that working men are be- ginning to acquire a feeling for the abstract prin- ciples of justice and fair play. When you thrashed your small son for breaking the best tea- pot and later evidence disclosed that the crime should have been attributed to the cat, you could dry his childish tears with a ginger cookie. So, likewise, when labor was a childish, unthinking aggregate, dependent on its daily toil to keep out of the bread-line, when the worker lived in daily fear of the words, ''We won't need you any more," and accepted insults and indignities as part of the game, you could remedy a flagrant injus- tice by a Christmas bonus. To prove that times have changed in this respect, let us cite an inci- dent that recently occurred. Justice versus Benefaction The workers in the men's clothing industry in Chicago were discontented because of various conditions in the industry. To reduce this discon- tent, some of the companies increased wages lo per cent. Company X posted a notice that on July OTHER DESIRES AND INSTINCTS 129 I each worker who had remained loyal to the firm until June 13 would receive "a special extra-pay envelope." This promise failed to change the atti- tude of the workers. A few weeks after the post- ing of this notice the drive was on for the sale of Liberty bonds and the president of Company X purchased $34,000 worth of the bonds as a gift to his employees. Each worker was given a coupon good for his share of the $34,000 worth of bonds. The workmen manifested no appreciation of this gift. On July I each worker received a special extra-pay envelope containing a sum of money equal to that which he had received on the second week in May — a typical week. This generosity re- sulted in expression of discontent among the rank and file of the workers. The president of the company was much disappointed by the failure of his program and called into conference on the subject the local labor leader. The following is the substance of the con- versation between the president of Company X and the labor leader : President X : I can't understand the lack of appre- ciation of my men. I gave them $34,000 worth of Liberty bonds and a special extra-pay envelope of a full v^^eek's wages. The union agreement has now put all the firms on an equal wage basis. Although I did not increase wages 10 per cent for the period preced- 130 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE ing the union agreement, I have given my men more than any other company by the extra-pay envelope and also the Liberty bonds. I can't see what more they want. Labor Leader: Yes, Mr. X, you have done all you say and your people are not contented as the people are at the other houses. They wanted the lo per cent and felt that they had deserved it. President X: No, I did not give them the lo per cent but I did give the extra-pay envelope and the Liberty bonds which amounted to much more than the 10 per cent. Labor Leader: Yes, I have figured it up and you gave them in extra pay and bonds somewhat Over $10,000 more than they would have received by the increase they ask. But that is not what they wanted. They do not want the gift of the extra-pay envelope and of the bonds, but they do want the lo per cent, even if it is less than the extra pay and the bonds. I believe they would be willing to refund the $34,000 worth of bonds if you would give them the $24,000 in what they regard as earned wages. President X : Very well. I will gladly make the exchange, for I shall thereby gain $10,000. Labor Leader : I think the discontent will be greatly reduced by the exchange. I will take it up with the people at once. The proposition was presented to the work- ers and was accepted enthusiastically, even though it entailed a recognized monetary loss to them of $10,000. OTHER DESIRES AND INSTINCTS 131 Importance of Right Incentive Incidents can be multiplied indefinitely to point the importance of applying the right incen- tive. We can go through the whole category of instincts, emotions, sentiments, and habits that are discussed in a textbook of social psychology and match the greater part of them with incidents where they functioned as incentives. Let us tell you, for example, a story told by Colonel John- son, who was connected with that combat divi- sion in France which included Sergeant York in its ranks. A boy from the mountains appeared in a southern camp during the war. He was a ''con- scientious objector." The procedure for hand- ling these offenders was expressible in the phrase, **Treat 'em rough." In fact, the commanding officer in this case said, ''Give him hell." Under that treatment this mountaineer would in a few days have been sent to Leavenworth as incorri- gible. "Treat 'em rough" worked in many cases for the conscientious objector, but it would not work in this case. Then a new officer was put in charge, one who tried new tactics. He ap- pealed to this conscientious objector on the ground of duty and loyalty. He argued that it was his duty to advance the Kingdom of God on earth and to fight against the enemy of truth, and 132 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE the red-haired York yielded to that treatment and went to the front. In a single day with his own rifle and revolver he shot 60 officers and privates in the German army and brought home 183 prisoners. The motive applied was the motive which ap- pealed in that particular case. A shift of mo- tives changed that man from a criminal to an American idol and one of the greatest heroes of the American army. In industry today we have a lot of trouble-makers, agitators, loafers, people who are not interested in the job, but some of them are as they are because of the treatment they are receiving. There are some who could be converted into Sergeant Yorks of industry if they were handled as wisely. The Industrial Army These, then, are some of the stimuli to action and some of the goals that beckon men in industry. These are some of the incen- tives that make sleepy souls the slaves of the alarm-clock; that make baseball fans turn their backs on the open window ; that deny the lure of the after-dinner nap; that drive the tired man, and the lazy man, and the pleasure-loving man, and the man-that-wants-to-do-something-else to pick up his dinner bucket and join the ranks of OTHER DESIRES AND INSTINCTS 133 that procession which daily wends its way from the home to the job. It is a long procession and it has been march- ing for a long time. There is very little glamour or sparkle about it. There are wolves, too, of poverty and unemployment that snap at the heels of the rear ranks. Here and there is one who won't keep step. But it is a glorious procession for all that — laborers worthy of their task. The obligation rests with the employer to see that the task is worthy — not too good, not too bad, but worthy — of its laborer. CHAPTER XI CREATING OPPORTUNITIES Studying the Job When the employer has learned what his em- ployee is able to do and what he wants to do, or perhaps even better, before he attempts to ascer- tain these facts, he must know something of the opportunities he has to offer him. To this end he will turn the searchlight of modern personnel administration on his own organization, and by its aid it is safe to assert that there will be un- covered, even in a "model industry," blind-alley jobs and hazardous and distasteful occupations which the employer had no idea existed there. One of the tools with which the progressive employer goes about this task is what is known as a job analysis or occupational description. The method of procedure is slow and painstaking, but it is none the less necessary. We cannot properly place people in positions until we know what these positions are. We must know the exact requirements of the job as well as the quali- fications of the worker in order that the two may dovetail into a harmonious adjustment. Let us, accordingly, consider the jobs from the point of 134 CREATING OPPORTUNITIES 135 view of the capacities and desires of the men who must do them. If, first, we look at a job with respect to the physical qualifications of the worker, we must know whether the work is light or heavy. We must consider that a standing job is unsuited to a man with weak arches, and that work that in- volves constant stooping or lifting is hard on a rheumatic back. We must realize that very fine work calls for strong eyes or especially delicate muscular co-ordination, and that jobs performed under wet or humid conditions or which necessi- tate working in a dusty atmosphere are unsuited to men predisposed to kidney or pulmonary trou- bles. As we have earlier analyzed our workers under this heading, so now we must analyze our jobs. Fitting the Job to the Worker ^*The importance of obtaining some sort of standard for the mental alertness required on various job^has been described in an earlier chap- ter. With these obtained, we will be able to re- cord for each job* a minimum point below which it is ordinarily inadvisable to employ persons on that particular work.* We will also know some- thing of the range and the^average mental alert- ness of the workers in that occupation, and thus 136 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE be in a position to fill in the gaps so as to obtain a well-balanced department. In the matter of technical requirements, we must ascertain for each job the amount of trade skill that is required to do the work satisfactorily, i.e., some jobs necessitate an expert tradesman and others demand only a journeyman's skill, or even less. We can do this either in terms of trade tests or on the basis of previous industrial ex- perience. In line with this we must ascertain the amount of education, technical or general, that is required for the job. We must know if the ability to read, write, or speak English is a necessary quali- fication, or if the ability to handle some foreign language is of value. We must study the job in terms of so-called character qualifications. We must take into con- sideration whether the occupation is one in which the worker comes in contact with the public. For example, a pleasing appearance and manner is of importance for a salesman but of little value to a trucker. We must discover if the job is an administrative one, so that we may check this with the worker's qualifications as an executive. Some jobs require that their workers should be especially apt in developing and training the men under them, and other jobs have no such CREATING OPPORTUNITIES 137 requirements or opportunities for utilizing such ability. Some jobs demand that the workers possess a high degree of initiative or willingness to go ahead on their own responsibility, and other jobs, on the contrary, are supervised in every minute detail. Again, some jobs necessitate a high degree of co-operation with other workers in the organization, and others allow a man to work in relative independence. We must study the jobs in the light of all these and many other requirements. The Worker*s Viewpoint We must consider the job in relation to the general economic and social status of the worker. We must know if the particular job is one adapted especially to men or to women; whether the work in question is the kind that can be handled by negroes or foreigners, or must be done by native whites. We must know something of the age limits above and below which we would hesitate to employ people for that particular work. We must know whether the job is permanent or temporary, is on a day or night shift, or calls for overtime or emergency work. We must know, too, whether it is clean work, or work where the employee must expect to become grimy and dirty during his working hours, that is, whether it is 138 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE what we speak of as an ''overall" or a "white-col- lar" job. We must look at the job from the point of view of the worker's preferences and desires. We must consider whether the job is solitary, or one where the employee works with others; whether it is a purely routine, repetitive occupa- tion, or one which contains some element of variety. We must know whether it is a job recognized as socially ''high class," important, and responsible, or one in which these factors are not involved. Furthermore, by the use of a systematic study of relative wages and wage increases, we must ascertain such information as the starting wage, the average earning capacity, and the ultimate sum that a man can hope to earn at that particu- lar work. We must consider the length of time that is required to attain proficiency on a job, and see to it that there is an adequate adjustment between that and the other two factors of start- ing wage and ultimate earnings. It is not un- common, for example, for an employer to quote to an applicant the wages made by experts in a trade without giving him any idea of the length of time required before he can hope to approxi- mate that sum, through normal diligence and progression. CREATING OPPORTUNITIES 139 Jobs Lacking Opportunity By means of organization and promotion charts based on these occupational descriptions, we can discover whether a particular job has prospects of successive promotions, into what lines these promotions lead, and how soon, under ordinary conditions, such advancements could be expected to occur. We must recognize and re- cord the fact that there are some jobs that hold very limited promise of promotion, that are, in fact, blind-alley jobs. The fewer of these your organization need contain, the greater your pros- pects of retaining a high-class personnel. But it must, nevertheless, be admitted that under modern industrial conditions there are such jobs, and the employer's obligation is to recognize that fact and to know where they occur. When this work has been accomplished and is submitted to a fair-minded, well-intentioned employer, we are certain that he will be surprised (and we hope shocked) to discover the lack of opportunity, the unfair wage conditions, and the monotonous futility of some of the work which he is offering to applicants as "a good job.'* CHAPTER XII ADJUSTMENT A CONTINUOUS PROCESS Classifying Men in the War Industry is indebted, to a considerable extent, for the present conception of proper selection and placement of men to the experience of the war. In 1914 Great Britain sacrificed scores of thous- ands of skilled men in the trenches because she had neither time nor means for selecting and making proper assignments. In a war of special- ization, such as this turned out to be, these men would have been of infinitely greater value if assigned to service where their special abilities could have been utilized. When America entered the war, in 191 7, she was able to profit by England's experience, and through the Committee on Classification of Per- sonnel, she established ^'living records" for all soldiers (except the first two overseas divisions) in the form of so-called qualification cards. On these were recorded all those factors of a man's past experience and future possibilities which it was of value for the army to know. These rec- ords detailed each man's age and physical condi- 140 ADJUSTMENT CONTINUOUS 141 tion, his education, both general and special, his industrial experience and his trade skill, his men- tal alertness and consequent ease of learning, as well as his special aptitudes and interests. With these data and with tables compiled of the occupational needs of its various branches, the army officials were enabled to assign skilled men to fill skilled gaps. And where the number ran short, they could assign for training in dif- ferent fields those men whose ability and interests made it possible to attain proficiency with a mini- mum of time and effort. This resulted in con- servation of skill, reduction of the period of train- ing, and that increase of general morale which attends a more adequate functioning. The Labor Inventory This, then, is the lesson for the leaders of modern industry, viz., to make a labor inventory of their respective organizations. By so doing they have a chance to discover concealed talents and secret abilities that have been hiding under bushels in unsuspected regions of their plants — talents and abilities that may be badly needed and of great value in other parts of the organization — and by proper assignment to make use of these; in other words, to select men for jobs that are suited to their capacities and in harmony with 142 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE their desires, and thus to secure a more contented and effective working force. But this is not all. One of the great dangers in personnel work is that the job should be con- sidered finished when this state has been attained. What has just been described is placement, pure and simple. Such placement was the finished product for a war-time army because there the entire emphasis lay, and properly so, in perfect- ing the organization. The units that made up the army organization were but parts of the whole. The entire obliga- tion was to evolve the most effective organization possible, in order to meet the immediate emer- gency — and the future development of the indi- vidual elements thereof was rightly not a matter of moment. Industry, however, is no immedi- ate emergency to be encountered, dealt with, and dismissed. Industry is an age-long proposition. The individuals that make it up are not recruited for a specified term to accomplish a specific task. They are recruited for the entire span of their working years and for the general task of earn- ing a livelihood. The Round Peg in the Round Hole The slogan of the Committee on Classification of Personnel was, 'The Right Man in the Right ADJUSTMENT CONTINUOUS 143 Place," and its problem was to secure the proper adjustment of round and square pegs in round and square holes. For industry, however, this concept is a very sterile and mechanical affair. The army's needs were specific and definite. Their round holes were exactly spherical, the angles of their squares all of 90 degrees, and from the hundreds of thousands that the drafts were continually bringing in it was possible to select exact fits. Rounding the Hole or Squaring the Peg It seems a bit of a pity to discard so euphoni- ous a slogan, but modern industry must do so be- cause its obligation is not simple, like the army's, but twofold. It must, like the army, look to the perfecting of the organization. But it must also take account of the individuals that compose it as something other than so many fixed, static units which, once put in proper place, will continue to function unchanged until ready for the scrap heap. Human beings are not static. They are like all protoplasm, dynamic, ever changing, growing, or shrinking, putting out new tentacles here and discarding old structures there. A man who this year fitted with nicety into a particular job may, by next year, be suited to another. This may be a matter of steady devel- 144 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE opment such as would call for straight-line pro- motion, or it may be a change to an entirely dif- ferent line for which he has been fitting himself in his off hours. He may have lost interest in his old job, either from lack of incentive or for some wholly extraneous reason. He may have acquired a distaste for some of its attendant conditions. Your man, in short, is no longer exactly square. He has worn down one of his corners, or his sides have bulged a little, and he is no longer a perfect fit. What, then, is there to do ? Fire him and seek another perfect square? Here also industry en- counters an obstacle not present in the army situa- tion. Men poured into the army from the draft boards in a seemingly inexhaustible stream. But the source of labor supply is limited, even in times of industrial depression, and the employer must put up with many elongated squares and elliptical circles. How, then, to secure the perfect fit? Let us take a hint from the clothing industry. No reputable house nowadays but provides for alterations. Few of us are perfect 36's and most of us carry our right shoulders a little high. We would be less a thing of beauty in our spring suits if it were not for this wise provision. Aside from a certain pleasing symmetry, there is nothing sacred about an exact geometrical con- ADJUSTMENT CONTINUOUS 145 tour. Why, therefore, isn't it sometimes possible to shave a corner off a job — say a personally ob- noxious detail — or to bulge a side here with an added responsibility? If, however, the demands of production re- quire that a job stay fixed and immutable, it is sometimes possible to make alterations on the worker. Thinking employers are realizing this and are already starting factory schools and mak- ing contracts with outside institutions whereby the worker may be enabled to bring his acute angles up to 90 degrees, or perhaps, by the aid of wise counsel wisely administered, to trim an unlovely bulge from an otherwise perfect shape. Holding the Worker Down In fact, we would go farther and affirm that the socially minded employer is even obligated to encourage the worker to outgrow his job. Here, now, is where we strike fire with the old-time em- ployer. "Why," he shouts, in frenzied exaspera- tion, "why should I encourage a good lathe hand to become an inefficient draftsman?" "Why," we counter, "do you take your son out of the knickerbockers that are still unimpaired and put him into long pants ? Why do you stop ordering roast beef which you know is edible and take a chance on chicken a la king?" 10 146 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE Perhaps you don't do these things. It may- be that from mistaken motives of economy you force your son to wear the despised knicker- bockers until they merit the rag bag. Does he love you for it ? Does he treat the article in ques- tion with that respect that its three-quarters- wool quality deserves? Or does he slide down every cellar door in the neighborhood in an under- standable effort to hasten the day of their discard? Maybe, again, you are one of those individuals whose gastronomic imaginings are so limited in scope that your inner man craves no deviation from an endless affinity with the bovine, and ^'Gargon, roshif," is your regular six o'clock slo- gan. Lucky you, you are indeed the most fortu- nate of mortals. You are the perfect square whose sides will never bulge; you are the man who has found his sphere, has realized his destiny. Go on and eat your daily beef. You profit the restaurateur and the packer and the stock raiser and the farmer. You are a boon to humanity. There are many like you in every department of your organization, men who have reached the limits of their industrial capacity, who have attained the height of their desires ; men who are contented and happy in working at routine, repeti- tive, monotonous tasks, supervised in every detail of their operation, satisfied with that pittance of ADJUSTMENT CONTINUOUS 147 "a steady job and a good boss." They were the salvation of the old-time employer who bought his labor in bulk as he bought his pig iron. But don't make the mistake of thinking that the stomachs of all men can rest content with a uniform diet, and don't overlook the fact that workers are no longer labor, a unit, but laborers, a group of individuals. By all means go on eating beef if it agrees with you and if your appetite craves no change, and by all means make no effort to convert a sub- normal machine operative into a cost accountant. If the limitations of his capacity match the limi- tations of his job, if the latter meets the satisfac- tion of his hankerings and all he asks is some guarantee of its permanence and a kindly attitude on the part of his superior, by all means leave him alone. He, like your beef-eater, is that favored of the gods, the man who has attained his ideal. But, and this is the point we are trying to make here, recognize that he wants no better, not because he knows no better, but because he can know no better. A trip through an asylum for the feeble-mind- ed leaves the thinking man appalled, perhaps, by the degradation of the human intellect, but he does not come away with any feeling of pity for the inmates as individuals. Their wants are few 148 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE because their capacities are limited; and they, again, are the fortunate mortals who can sustain happiness on a minimum. Anyone who has witnessed the almost unholy joy on the face of an imbecile as he twists a bit of string or strikes one little piece of metal on another, cannot but feel that the epithet "cheerful idiot" is well chosen. If, then, you could be assured that all workers on stupid jobs were themselves proportionately stupid, you would be entirely justified in fitting them into the proper niches in your organization and in turning your attention to other matters, secure in the conviction that the little jig-saw pieces of your puzzle had made satisfactory adjustment with their proper openings, and that the picture was now, once and forever, finished and complete. Helping the Worker Assume, then, that you have placed the worker in the job for which he was best suited at the time you placed him there. You have examined his physical capacity, you have learned his educa- tional status, you have tested his trade skill or lack of it, you have measured his mental alertness and his consequent possibility of future development, you have estimated certain of his character ADJUSTMENT CONTINUOUS 149 qualities, and you have ascertained something of his desires, aspirations, and motives to action. With these data in hand let us set about seeing what can be done to develop this man industrially. Maybe his physical handicap, if he has one, is such that it cannot be remedied. Again, possibly by medicinal or surgical treatment you can so improve his condition that he will be able to take on the job which before was impossible for him. Perhaps his mental capacity is of such low order that he has already attained the maximum develop- ment possible, and his poor educational status and his lack of trade skill are thus understandable. On the other hand, his reason for leaving school at the third grade and his inability to handle a high-grade production job may instead be accounted for by lack of opportunity. For this man some means of acquiring further education or training might result in bringing him up to the required standard of a better job. In this connection, also, it must not be forgotten that mental capacity is not monolinear but multi- linear, and that the same course of study or the same method of training does not meet the re- quirements of all men. Some of our great inven- tors would probably be unsuccessful as stenog- raphers, and some of our corporation lawyers utter failures as tool-makers. 150 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE Again, you may have found that your man has not the character quahfications necessary for leadership, or for doing exact and accurate work, or for meeting the pubHc with diplomacy and tact. But here, again, you may do something to help him. It has sometimes happened that the use of a rating scale whereby the man is judged by a number of his superiors — not on the spur of the moment and under the influence of a temporary emotion, but after calm, cold deliberation and recording the results in black and white — has accomplished much. If, for example, a fore- man is told that not one but four of his super- visors regard him as possessing less initiative than any of his fellow-foremen, it may serve as a stimulus to make him shake off habits of inertia into which he had fallen because he was doing well enough to get by without complaint. And, last of all, when by patient study of that complex matrix which constitutes what, for want of a better term, we call the ''personality" of a man, we may be vouchsafed some light on his dear ambitions and his inchoate, inarticulate desires, we may glean some notion of the motives that are spurring him to careful work or are urging him to loaf on the job; that are inciting him to insubordination or are driving him to whispered criticism; that are slowly impelling him to hope- ADJUSTMENT CONTINUOUS 151 less apathy or forcing him to throw down his tools in disgust. Changing the Old Order Frankly it may be admitted here that even if industry could rightly interpret all these problems, it cannot hope entirely to solve them. It has been said that a certain amount of unrest is a good thing; that it is a proof of life and that without life there is no progress. When the arch-torturer prods a nerve that makes you leap shrieking from his chair, he will smilingly assure you that the tooth is not dead and that you need have no fear of an abscess at the root. Cold comfort, this, for your throbbing molar. And cold comfort for the employer to be told that labor's old attitude of patient submission was a diseased condition, and that homeopathic doses of T. N. T. are neces- sary to restore it to health. But such a statement would not be without its modicum of truth. For still waters run deep and history has proved that the most repressed peoples stage the bloodiest revolutions. And the abscess at the root leads to more far-reaching complications and more deadly torments than the most diabolical of dentists can accomplish with his probe and his buzz-saw. Moreover, to continue with the gruesome analogy, just as the dentist, 152 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE once he has ascertained the facts, can do much to alleviate your distress and prevent future trouble, so the thinking employer can, once he has conscientiously studied the problem, do much to relieve and better bad conditions, and by the method of prophylaxis, help to prevent their recurrence. So, not satisfied with the job that has been done of studying, examining, and testing out the workers, and the task that has been accomplished of inventorying the jobs and possible opportuni- ties of an organization, and of bringing these two factors into harmonious adjustment, we are now deliberately suggesting that you take steps to disturb this perfect harmony. We are asking you to remember that as a boy grows you must provide new garments for him, and that as a man develops physically, mentally, or in character qualities, so you must provide him with new industrial opportunities. Throughout the entire history of industry, employers have been willing enough to recognize the other side of the picture. They will readily admit that the job has outgrown the man or that the man has shrunk and shriveled until he can no longer fill the job, and their solution of the problem has been immediate and unvarying. Finally, even as you seek to provide your boy ADJUSTMENT CONTINUOUS 153 with the vitamines that stimulate growth, so you must encourage the worker to develop his capac- ities and ambitions and bring to bear every incentive for such development that the limits of your organization and your own ingenuity will permit. Every Man an Industrial Problem When Thomas Jefferson wrote the words **A11 men are created equal" he penned the world's greatest document of democracy, and one of the most fallacious statements on record. In just two ways men are equal : in the sight of God and in the eyes of the law — ^and one of these is at times markedly myopic. No two men are alike. Men differ from one another in every conceivable particular. They differ in appearance and physical strength, in agility of movement, in speed of reflex, and in keenness of sense-organs. They differ in mental ability, and in ease and rapidity of learning. They differ in their esthetic appreciation, and in the things which appeal to their sentiments and emo- tions. By the time they have attained maturity, they differ in education and experience, in trade knowledge, and in skill of manipulation. They differ in the relative strength of different instincts, in their desires and aspirations, and in the 154 SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE response they make to varying incentives. They run the whole gamut of possible variations. When management comes to realize that labor is not a compact mass from which it indiscrimi- nately chips off blocks to fill its gaps, but that it is rather an aggregate of disparate, distinct, and ever-changing individuals, it may come to devote the time and effort necessary for an adequate adjustment, and for its own ultimate salvation! RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT TOh^ 202 Main Library 642-3403 LOAN PERIOD 1 HOME USE 2 3 4 5 6 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS i 1 -month loons may be renewed by calling 642-3405 ' 6-month loons may be recharged by bringing books to Circulotion De Renewals and recharges may be mode 4 days prior to due dote DUE AS STAMPED BELOW Spp r *A«3t Mm -- ■'e -■ r. •■>, HiOi rtEC. CIK.JOL 2( 77 GEC 1 3 1977 ftHC'O W 29 ■on RECCItlitW 16 77 vU - APR 2 01984 -' ree'dcirc. MftY 9 B84 ^■^^ ^ ^198? AUTO DfScOEC 5 •?: ^ FORM NO. DD 6, 40m, 6V6 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELE BERKELEY, CA 94720