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Abilities Overview |
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Clubs International Reprint: Work Abilities
Chapter 8
"Industrial Significance and
Effect"
Intro | Prelim | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
9 | 10 | 11 |
Comment
Note: Not recommended
reading. Contains Rahn's musings about what could be achieved by widespread
application of his Man Power Specification approach. |
p. 79 |
CHAPTER VIII
INDUSTRIAL SIGNIFICANCE AND EFFECT
CAUSE and effect have been mentioned a number of times as they
affect the working out of Man Power Specifications for individual use. A brief discussion
of the broader significance of the Rahn Plan and the effect it may well have on American
industry as a whole should not be out of place. A realization that individual effort in
the definition of abilities can and should affect industrial prosperity should be an
inspiration to us all.
The widespread discussion of Technocracy not long ago focussed attention
on the extraordinary progress made in developing machinery for the most complex
operations. As in the first days of the cotton gin the argument was that our mechanical
advance had caused unemployment. The cotton gin brought an enormously increased use of
cotton giving employment to hordes of people in a rapidly expanding industry. Invention
after invention ... |
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p. 80 |
| reduced the amount of manual labor required for a given
operation and increased total employment by enlarging markets through lowered costs. In so
far as mechanical improvements are concerned the same principles are true today.
The saying that every excuse is a lie is just as correct in group application as it is in
single cases. In our haste we may have grasped at so-called Technocracy as an excuse,
without thinking the problem through.
Time and money have been spent in enormous amounts on the development and
perfecting of plant and equipment. It is a matter for justifiable pride when an inventor
can lower costs in an entire industry; nor is decrease in cost in a single operation to be
spurned. To these developments can be attributed the advantages and conveniences we now
enjoy. They have come about through the use of intelligence and study by individuals or
small groups. The force that has created them is Man Power - ability of such high degree
and intense application that it has had to be recognized and given an opportunity to show
what it can accomplish. The manufacturer is always willing to ... |
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p. 81 |
| spend money for machinery and equipment if the gain to him
warrants the expense. We are a mechanically minded nation and have surpassed all others in
our manufacturing processes. The stories of inventors who died poor are
legion. They had ability and a power for industrial good, but there was no way to force
recognition of what they possessed to such an unusual degree. Their Man Power lacked
definition and focus. They were not "beef on the hoof," yet how many of them
were treated as such.
It is self-evident that everything the country has accomplished has been
through Man Power. How much study and thought has been given to its use and development?
Not too much. True we have been classified as unskilled or skilled labor, mechanics of
various general classes, bookkeepers, accountants, bakers, and engineers, again with
general classifications. A laborer or mechanic - and plenty of other classes - are to all
intents picked off the street, put on the job and the boss prays that they will be able to
handle the task set them. If they cannot, turnover is increased and so much money has been
wasted. So often it is said ... |
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p. 82 |
| that a ditch digger cannot be defined, his type of labor
does not require anything but brawn. Experience proves otherwise, but we are slow to
learn, so firmly entrenched is the idea that nothing can be done about it.
The head of a concern, a man familiar with and believing in the Rahn Plan, was asked what
the effect on his business would be if he had available the Man Power Specifications for
every worker earning $50 a week or over. A dreamy look came into his eyes and he finally
said softly "We could afford to pay high for that, we would be unbeatable in our
line."
Industry can be improved through intelligent application of Man Power. As
long as there is loss there is the incentive to eliminate it. Where there is profit the
opportunity exists to improve it. When any man says that there is no room for improvement
in the operation of his business ask him to let you spend an hour or two looking around.
What you will be able to tell him will shock him. There is no such thing as perfection in
this world nor can we look forward to reaching it. It does pay to set up standards as near
perfection as we ... |
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p. 83 |
| can make them and then see how close we can come to those
standards. Imagine an organization, whether business, manufacturing, or
wholesaling, in which each man had been picked for his task because of his known ability
to handle it to the best advantage of the business and everyone in it. Imagine that each
worker from top to bottom liked his work because it was the work he knew he could do and
the work he wanted to do. Imagine that there was practically no labor turnover because,
before hiring, there had been both available and used full knowledge of the applicants
capabilities. Then imagine what an organization built on such lines could accomplish in
profit and results. Perhaps it does sound like an impossible or futuristic picture. Yet we
can strive towards such a goal.
Experience over a period of years has shown that the bigger the executive
the more he is interested in finding some passably sure way of selecting men to fit the
task. Moreover, it has been surprising to see how satisfactorily Man Power Specifications
meet their needs. Sometimes the Specifications have put men to work because they ... |
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p. 84 |
| filled an existing need; other times the simple
description of "Functions I Can Perform" has put in motion a train of thought
that resulted in the starting of work not envisioned till the Functions had been read. One
of the reasons for this latter effect lies in our failure to express what we want in
easily understood terms. While it is not possible to set up job specifications that will
hold true during decrease and increase in volume of business, logical thought will enable
a sufficiently ac- curate description to be given of any work needing to be done, so that
accurate Man Power Specifications will show who will fit that need. In such a meeting of
minds there is both progress and profit. There are therefore two ways in
which Man Power Specifications can be used advantageously. The first, and most obvious, is
that covered by the first part of this book; the putting of individuals to work. The
second is the improving of conditions for those who are at present working, including both
workers and executives.
The gain to the individual is self-evident when he finds something to do
at a profit to himself and ... |
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p. 85 |
| his employer. The gain to the employer in such a case is
twofold; he saves time in selecting the man for the job and he gains a new perspective of
the possibilities in finding men for specific tasks. In order to meet intelligently the
opportunities for advancement it will repay every man to keep his Man Power Specifications
up-to-date, checking them and adding to them every one or two years as may be necessary.
When the chance comes for a higher position he is ready with the facts to en- able his
superior to make an intelligent selection in so far as he is concerned. An
intelligent executive after he has seen and benefited from some Man Power Specifications
is going to wonder whether there is not a broader application. If they are good for the
men he has employed who have presented them to him, would it not help him if he had at
hand the same data in regard to all his important men? He is beginning to see the
futuristic picture we drew a few paragraphs back. Is it not reasonable that the more you
know about what you have to utilize for profit, the more profit you can make from what you
have available? |
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p. 86 |
| It is time that we gave as much thought and
study to humanity as we have for many years to machinery - our inhuman tools of
production. The depression with its consequent condition of "men hunting jobs,"
has emphasized a condition that has been with us for a long time, quietly awaiting the
moment when it would have to be taken into account. Now that that time has arrived it has
caught us unprepared. The need for such study and thought is evident at the moment, but
for the greatest gain we must change our prevailing point of view, realize that our
greatest asset is man power and continue in good times, as well as in bad, to give it the
consideration that it deserves. In so doing we will help ourselves as well as our
neighbors. Granted that it requires a new approach to an age-old question,
if it were a matter of redesigning a machine or tool that had remained the same for a long
time, we would not hesitate; so why stop because the factor of man power has not been the
subject of logical thought? It has been shown that definition and definement is both
possible and profitable. Group application will be even more satisfactory. |
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p. 87 |
| Individual use of Man Power Specifications
will have their educational effect on industry. Their value will gradually be appreciated
and thus they will furnish a slow means of education. Their value to the unemployed man
has been proven in the hard school of experience. Their use in industry will tend to
remove the veil of mystery that has shrouded any exact definition of human abilities.
Every bit of science and knowledge that has been or will be applied to the study of human
nature has its value. That value would be increased if some of the reasoning and
conclusions were more understandable to the industrialist. As long as a person is compared
with people as a mass, and rated by such a comparison, so long will the average man be at
a loss to use the results. Our minds do not work that way. We want to know that this
building or that machine will meet our needs, not how it compares with the average rating
of a mass of buildings or a number of machines of different types.
When industry learns that human capabilities are just as susceptible of
definition as any mechanical aid to production, then will it set up the .... |
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p. 88 |
| Utopian standards already described and strive for their
attainment, then will it study man as a person, then will it be ready to broaden the
duties of the Personnel Manager so that he can fulfill his destiny. |
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