Increasing Efficiency In Business by Walter Dill Scott (desktop ebook reader .txt) 📕

loyalty, not only

among the veterans, but also among the newest

recruits for whom it realizes an illustration of

what true co<o:>peration means.

 

_Many Examples of the Loyalty of Executives for

their Men in Danger_

 

This double loyalty—to the chief and to

the organization—is not a plant of slow

growth. Few mine accidents or industrial

disasters occur without bringing to merited,

but fleeting, fame some heroic superintendent

or lesser boss who has risked his own life to

save his men or preserve the company’s

property. The same sense of responsibility

extends to every grade. Give a man the

least touch of authority and he seems to take

on added moral stature. The engineer who

clings to his throttle with collision imminent

has his counterparts in the “handy man”

<p 97>

who braves injury to slip a belt and save

another workman or a costly machine, and in

the elevator conductor who drives his car up

and down through flames and smoke to rescue

his fellows. Such efficiency and organization

spirit is the result of individual growth as well

as the impression of the employer’s personality

upon his machine.

 

_A Disloyal Sales Manager and his Influence on

his Force_

 

On the other hand, lack of loyalty on the

part of employers towards their men is almost

as common as failing devotion on the part of

workers. Too many assume that the mere

providing of work and the payment of wages

give them the right to absolute fidelity, even

when they take advantage of their men. The

sales manager concerned in the following incident

refused to believe that his attitude

towards his men had anything to do with the

lack of enthusiasm and low efficiency in his

force.

 

An experienced salesman who had lost his

<p 98>

position because of the San Francisco fire

applied to the sales manager for a position.

He was informed that there were fifteen applicants

for the Ohio territory, but that the

place would be given to him because of his

better record. The manager laid out an

initial territory in one corner and ordered the

salesman to work it first.

 

Working this territory, the salesman secured

substantial orders, but refrained from

“over-selling” any customer, gave considerable

time to missionary work and to cultivating

the acquaintance of buyers. His campaign

was planned less for immediate results

than for the future and for the effect on the

larger field of the state. Having no instructions

as to pushing his wider campaign, in

about sixty days he asked for instructions.

In answer he was ordered home and discharged

on the ground that business was dull and that

he had been a loss to the house. During the

sixty days he had been working on a losing

commission basis with the expectation of

taking his profits later. Investigation dis-

<p 99>

closed that he was but one of five salesmen to

whom the Ohio territory had been assigned

simultaneously. Of the five, one other also

had made good and had been retained because

he could be secured for less money.

 

This multiple try-out policy is entirely

fair when the applicants know the conditions.

But to lead each applicant to believe that he

has been engaged subject only to his ability

to make good is manifestly unjust. The facts

are bound to come out sooner or later and

create distrust among all employees of the

house. Loyalty is strictly reciprocal. If an

employee feels that he has no assurance of

fair treatment, his attitude towards the firm

is sure to be negative. Even the man who

secures the position will recognize the firm’s

lack of candor and will never give his employers

the full measure of co<o:>peration which produces

maximum efficiency.

 

The “square deal,” indeed, is the indispensable

basis of loyalty and efficiency in an

organization. The spirit as well as the letter

of the bargain must be observed, else the work-

<p 100>

men will contrive to even up matters by loafing,

by slighting the work, or by a minimum production.

This means a loss of possible daily

earnings. On the other hand, employees never

fail to recognize and in time respect the executive

who holds the balance of loyalty and justice

level between them and the business.

 

Fair wages, reasonable hours, working quarters

and conditions of average comfort and

healthfulness, ordinary precautions against

accidents, and continuous employment are

all now regarded as primary requirements

and are not sufficient to create loyalty in the

men. More than this must be done.

 

The chief executive should create such a

spirit that his officers shall turn to him for

help when in perplexity or difficulty. The

superintendent and officers or bosses should

sustain this same sympathetic relationship

toward their men that the executive has toward

his officers. A reputation for taking care of

his men is a thing to be sought in a chief

executive as well as in all underofficers.

 

Personal relationships should be cultivated.

<p 101>

In some large organizations the chief executive

may secure this personal touch with individuals

through an agent or through a department

known as the department of “promotion and

discharge,” “employment,” or “labor.” In

others, occasional meetings on a level of equality

may be brought about through house picnics,

entertainments, vacation camps, and so

on, where employer and employee meet each

other outside their usual business environment.

 

It is not worth while to attempt to develop

loyalty to the house until there has been

developed a loyalty to the personalities

representing the house. Loyalty in business is

in the main a reciprocal relationship. The

way to begin it is for the chief to be loyal to

his subordinates and to see to it that all officers

are loyal to their inferiors. When loyalty

from above has been secured, loyalty from the

ranks may readily be developed.

 

The personality of the worker must be

respected by the employer. “Giving a man

a chance” to develop himself, allowing him

<p 102>

to express his individuality, is the surest way

of enlisting the interest and loyalty of a

creative man.

 

To identify the interests of employees with

the interests of the house, various plans of

profit sharing, sale of stock to employees,

pensions, insurance against sickness and accident,

and so on, have been successfully applied

by many companies.

 

So far as possible, responsibility for the

success of the house should be assumed by

all employees. In some way the workmen

should feel that they are in partnership with

the executives. We easily develop loyalty

for the cause for which we have taken responsibility

or rendered a service.

 

_Creating Loyalty to Firm itself by Educational

Campaign_

 

A perpetual campaign of publicity should be

maintained for the benefit of every man in the

employ of the house. In this there should be

a truthful but emphatic presentation of acts

of loyalty on the part of either employers or

<p 103>

workmen. Everything connected with the

firm which has human interest should be included

in this history. This educational campaign

should change the loyalty to the *men

in the firm into loyalty to the *firm itself. It

should be an attempt to give the firm a personality,

and of such a noble character that it

would win the loyalty of the men. This could

be accomplished at little expense and with

great profit.