the standard.
THE STANDARD IS PROGRESSIVE.--A standard remains fixed only
until a more perfect standard displaces it. The data from which the
standard was derived may be reviewed because of some error, because
a further subdivision of the elements studied may prove possible, or
because improvements in some factor of the work, i.e., the worker,
material, tools, equipment, etc., may make a new standard desirable.
The fact that a standard is recognized as not being an ultimate
standard in no wise detracts from its working value. As Captain
Metcalfe has said: "Whatever be the standard of measurement, it
suffices for comparison if it be generally accepted, if it be
impartially applied, and if the results be fully recorded."[3]
CHANGE IN THE STANDARD DEMANDS CHANGE IN THE TASK AND IN THE
INCENTIVE.--Necessarily, with the change in the standard comes a
change in the task and in the reward. All parts of Scientific
Management are so closely related that it is impossible to make a
successful progressive step in one branch without simultaneously
making all the related progressions in other branches that go
with it.
For example,--if the material upon which a standard was based
caused more care or effort, a smaller task must be set, and wages
must be proportionately lowered. _Proportionately_, note, for
determining that change would necessitate a review and a
redistribution of the cost involved.
In the same way, if an improvement in equipment necessitated a
new method, as does the packet in laying brick, a new task would
become imperative, and a reconsideration of the wage. The wage might
remain the same, it might go down, it might go up. In actual
practice, in the case of bricklayers, it has gone up. But the point
is, it _must_ be restudied. This provides effectually against
cutting the rate or increasing the task in any unjust manner.
SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE STANDARD AND THE "JUDGMENT" OF
PSYCHOLOGY.--There are many points of similarity between the
"Standard," of management, and the "judgment" of psychology. Sully
says, in speaking of the judgment,[4]--"This process of judging
illustrates the two fundamental elements in thought activity, viz.,
analysis and synthesis." "To judge is clearly to discern and to mark
off as a special object of thought some connecting relation." "To
begin with, before we can judge we must have the requisite materials
for forming a judgment." "In the second place, to judge is to carry
out a process of reflection on given material." "In addition to
clearness and accuracy, our judgments may have other perfections. So
far as our statements accord with known facts, they should be
adhered to,--at least, till new evidence proves them untrue."
PSYCHOLOGY A FINAL APPEAL AS TO PERMANENT VALUE OF ANY
STANDARD.--The standard under management, even under Scientific
Management, can lay no claim to being perfect. It can never nearly
approach perfection until the elements are so small that it is
practicable to test them psychologically and physiologically. The
time when this can be done in many lines, when the benefit that will
directly accrue will justify the necessary expenditure, may seem far
distant, but every analysis of operations, no matter how
rudimentary, is hastening the day when the underlying, permanently
valuable elements can be determined and their variations studied.
COÖPERATION WILL HASTEN THE DAY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL AND
PHYSIOLOGICAL STUDY OF STANDARDS.--Coöperation in collecting and
comparing the results of motion study and time study everywhere will
do much to assist toward more ultimate determination of elements. At
the present time the problems that management submits to psychology
are too indefinite and cover too large a field to be attacked
successfully. Coöperation between management standardizers
would mean--