Most Valuable

Most Valuable

CHAPTER XI

PRACTICE PLUS THEORY

THE demand for trained and experienced men is never supplied. Most business and industrial organizations find their growth impeded by the dearth of such men. To employ men trained by competitors or by inferior organizations is expensive and unsatisfactory. A man trained till he has become valuable to his ``parent'' organization is not likely to be equally valuable to other organizations that might employ him at a later time. In general, the most valuable men in any organization are the men who have grown up in it.

The man who is ``a rolling stone'' secures, in a way, more experience than the man who is developed within a single organization, but his wider experience does not of necessity make him a more valuable man. It is not mere experience that educates, develops, and equips men, but experience of particular sorts, and acquired under very well defined conditions.

``Scientific management'' has taken seriously the problem of providing and utilizing the most valuable experiences. But the viewpoint of the leaders in this modern movement is that of the employer seeking the most valuable experiences for those employees whose work is mainly mechanical, e.g. machine tenders, stenographers, etc. Scientific management has conclusively demonstrated the fact that it is poor economy to depend upon haphazard experiences for the development of those employees whose excellence depends upon the speed and accuracy of their occupation habits. It has thus done great service in demonstrating the kind of experience most valuable in developing men for positions of routine work. But it has done little for men whose welfare depends upon judgment--in making new adjustments and in solving the new problems continually arising in all positions of responsibility. It has left for others to consider the experiences most profitable for developing executives.

The most valuable experience in acquiring an act of skill is frequent repetition in performing the act.

The value of the experience continues till by frequent repetition the act has become so mechanical that it is performed without attention. Further experience has little or no value.

On the other hand it is true that every worthy calling demands forms of activity which could not and should not be mechanized. There are emergencies in every form of occupation that call for new adjustments. The ability to make such new adjustments depends upon richness of experience and width of view as well as upon skill in performing the old processes.

The difference between a machine and a man is that the man is capable of adjusting himself to the changed situation, while a machine cannot do so. The machine may work more accurately and more rapidly than the man in routine work, but it is capable of nothing but routine work. There is a need for much experience to make the man approximate the skill and accuracy obtained by a machine. But there is also need of experience to develop the man in that particular in which he surpasses a machine, i.e. in a broad experience that enables him to form judgments and hence to make a multitude of different adjustments when a need for a change occurs.

A machine is constructed to perform a particular kind of routine work in a stereotyped way, but so soon as there is discovered a better way of performing this work the machine is thrown to the scrap heap because it cannot be adjusted to new requirements.

Experience which renders human activity machine-like is a form of experience that increases the probability that the possessor will be discarded and his work accomplished by the introduction of some new tool or some new method of work.

Experience therefore which merely increases the skill of action without increasing the width of horizon is necessary, but it is inadequate. In addition to skill in routine work the man should secure the broader experience that will enable him to adjust himself to changed conditions in his occupation and that will develop the judgment necessary to enable him to adjust his vocation to new demands. Every form of occupation has many possibilities, a few of which are from time to time discovered to be significant. Advance in any sphere of work depends upon the discovery of these possibilities which the untrained eye of inexperience does not detect. Although a broad experience may enable the man to grasp the possibilities of his occupation, it fails to secure skill in the particulars that have already been found to be important. While a broad experience leaves a man incapable of present competition, the narrow experience jeopardizes his future.

The most valuable experience is therefore one that equips the man to compete with the skillful in the present and to comprehend his task so that he may from time to time adjust it to new relationships. It emphasizes the formation of necessary habits, but does not neglect the development of the judgment. Such an experience is both intensive and extensive; informal and formal; mechanical and theoretical; practical and scientific. Such experience alone meets the demands of the increasing complexity of industrial and commercial life.

HOW MAY THE MOST VALUABLE EXPERIENCE BE SECURED AND UTILIZED

I. Haphazard Experience

But little attention is given to providing those experiences that most adequately prepare one for commercial and industrial life. The boy who is to become a skilled workman is compelled to ``pick up'' his experience as best he can. The same is true of the boy who aspires to a position as salesman, banker, or manufacturer. Every employer seeks only experienced men, and but few places are available where such experience can be economically and honorably secured.

The youth without experience, desiring to become a skilled machinist, may secure some experience with machinery in a second-rate factory during the rush season. Because of his incapacity, he is laid off as soon as the rush is over. Thereupon he applies as an experienced machinist in a better shop. If he is lucky, he may secure a position. If the supervision is inadequate, or the demand for labor unusual, he may retain his position for several hours, or days, or even weeks. After years of such distressing experiences, the youth succeeds in ``stealing his trade.'' In the meantime he has been an economic loss to his many employers, and his experience may have depraved his character.

The condition found in the industrial world is no worse than that in the commercial world. The selling force is recuperated by green hands. In most selling organizations no instruction is given and no experience provided except what is picked up haphazard behind the counter or on the road. Most new men fail, are dismissed, employed by another firm and dismissed again, etc. We have here nothing but a struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest in a crude and destructive form.