measuring. No where better than in the field of psychology, can one
learn to realize the importance of measurements, the necessity for
determination of elements for study, and the necessity for accurate
apparatus and accuracy in observation.
Prof. George M. Stratton, in his book "Experimental Psychology
and Culture,"--says "In mental measurements, therefore, there is no
pretense of taking the mind's measure as a whole, nor is there
usually any immediate intention of testing even some special faculty
or capacity of the individual. What is aimed at is the measurement
of a limited event in consciousness, such as a particular perception
or feeling. The experiments are addressed, of course, not to the
weight or size of such phenomena, but usually to their duration and
intensity."[2]
The emphasis laid on a study of elements is further shown in the
same book by the following,--"The actual laboratory work in
time-measurement, however, has been narrowed down to determining,
not the time in general that is occupied by some mental action, but
rather the shortest possible time in which a particular operation,
like discrimination or choice or association or recognition, can be
performed under the simplest and most favorable circumstances.[3]
The experimental results here are something like speed or racing
records, made under the best conditions of track and training. A
delicate chronograph or chronoscope is used, which marks the time in
thousandths of a second."
MEASUREMENT IN PSYCHOLOGY RELATED TO MEASUREMENT IN
MANAGEMENT.--Measurement in psychology is of importance to
measurement in management not only as a source of information and
instruction, but also as a justification and support. Scientific
Management has suffered from being called absurd, impractical,
impossible, over-exact, because of the emphasis which it lays on
measurement. Yet, to the psychologist, all present measurement in
Scientific Management must appear coarse, inaccurate and of
immediate and passing value only. With the knowledge that
psychologists endorse accurate measurement, and will coöperate in
discovering elements for study, instruments of precision and methods
of investigation, the investigator in industrial fields must persist
in his work with a new interest and confidence.[4]
Scientific Management cannot hope to furnish psychology with
either data or methods of measurement. It can and does, however,
open a new field for study to experimental psychology, and shows
itself willing to furnish the actual working difficulties or
problems, to do the preliminary investigation, and to utilize
results as fast as they can be obtained.
PSYCHOLOGISTS APPRECIATE SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.--The
appreciation which psychologists have shown of work done by
Scientific Management must be not only a matter of gratification,
but of inspiration to all workers in Scientific Management.
So, also, must the new divisions of the Index to the
Psychological Review relating to Activity and Fatigue, and the work
being so extensively done in these lines by French, German, Italian
and other nations, as well as by English and American psychologists.
MEASUREMENT IMPORTANT IN MANAGEMENT.--The study of individuality
and of functionalization have made plain the necessity of
measurement for successful management. Measurement furnishes the
means for obtaining that accurate knowledge upon which the science
of management rests, as do all sciences--exact and inexact.[5]
Through measurement, methods of less waste are determined, standards
are made possible, and management becomes a science, as it derives
standards, and progressively makes and improves them, and the
comparisons from them, accurate.
PROBLEM OF MEASUREMENT IN MANAGEMENT--One of the important
problems of measurement in management is determining how many hours
should constitute the working day in each different kind of work and
at what gait the men can work for greatest output and continuously
thrive. The solution of this problem involves the study of the men,
the work, and the methods, which study must become more and more
specialized; but the underlying aim is to determine standards and
individual capacity as exactly as is possible.[6]
CAPACITY.--There are at least four views of a worker's
capacity.