CHAPTER IV_Increasing Human Efficiency in Business A Contribution to the Psychology of Business

LOYALTY

AS A MEANS OF INCREASING HUMAN EFFICIENCY

DELAYED by a train of accidents, a

big contractor faced forfeiture of his

bond on a city tunnel costing millions

of dollars. He had exhausted his ingenuity

and his resources to comply with the terms of

his contract, but had failed. Because public

opinion had been condemning concessions on

other jobs on flimsy grounds, the authorities

refused to extend the time allowed for completing

the work. By canceling the contract,

collecting the penalty, and reletting the task,

the city would profit without exceeding its

legal rights.

In his dilemma, he called his foremen

together and explained the situation to them.

``Tell the men,'' he said. Many of these

had been members of his organization for

years, moving with him from one undertaking

to the next, looking to him for employment,

for help in dull seasons or in times of misfortune,

repaying him with interest in their

tasks and a certain rough attachment.

He had been unusually considerate, adopting

every possible safeguard for their protection,

recognizing their union, employing three shifts

of men, paying more than the required scale

when conditions were hard or dangerous.

A score of unions were represented in the

organization: miners, masons, carpenters,

plasterers, engineers, electricians, and many

grades of helpers. Learning his plight, they

rallied promptly to his aid. They appealed

to their trades and to the central body of

unions to intervene in his behalf with the city

officials.

_How One Considerate Employer was protected

by his Men_

As taxpayers, voters, and members of an

organization potentially effective in politics,

they approached the mayor and the department

heads concerned. They pointed out--

what was true--that the city's negligence in

prospecting and charting the course of the

tunnel was partly responsible for the contractor's

failure. They pleaded that the city

should make allowances rather than interrupt

their employment, and that the delay in the

work would counterbalance any advantage

contingent on forfeiture. They promised also

that if three additional months were given the

contractor, they would _*do all in their power to

push construction_.

The mayor yielded; the extension was

granted. And the men made their promise

good literally, waiving jealously guarded rights

and sparing no effort to forward the undertaking.

The miners, masons, carpenters, and

specialists in other lines in which additional

skilled men could not be secured labored frequently

in twelve-hour shifts and accepted

only the regular hourly rate for the overtime.

With such zeal animating them, only one conclusion

was possible. The tunnel was entirely

completed before the ninety days of grace had

expired.

Here was loyalty as stanch and effective

as that which wins battlefields and creates

nations. It increased the efficiency of the

individual workers; it greatly augmented the

effectiveness of the organization as a whole.

It was developed, without appeal to sentiment,

under conditions which make for division

rather than co<o:>peration between employer

and employee. The men were unionists;

wages, hours, and so on, were contract matters

with the boss. Yet in an emergency, the tie

between the tunnel builder and his men was

strong enough to stand the strain of the fatiguing

and long-continued effort necessary

to complete the job and save the former from

ruin. Like incidents, on perhaps a smaller

and less dramatic scale, are not uncommon;

but the historian of business has not yet risen

to make them known.

_Loyalty, to Nation or Organization, shows itself

in an Emergency_

As with patriotism, business loyalty needs

some such crisis as this to evoke its expression.

In peace the patriotism of citizens is

rarely evident and is frequently called in

question. In America we sometimes assume

that it is a virtue belonging only to past

generations. But every time the honor or

integrity of the country is threatened, a multitude

of eager citizens volunteer in its defense.

Likewise, many a business man who has

come to think his workmen interested only in

the wages he pays them, discovers in his hour

of need an unsuspected asset in their devotion

to the welfare of the business, and their willingness

to make sacrifices to bring it past the

cape of storms.

Study of any field, of any single house, or

of any of the periods of depression which have

afflicted and corrected our industrial progress,

will convince one of the unfailing and genuine

loyalty of men to able and considerate em-

ployers. So generally true is this, indeed, that

``house patriotism,'' ``organization spirit,'' or

``loyalty to the management'' is accepted

by all great executives as one of the essential

elements in the day-by-day conduct of their

enterprises.

Striking exhibitions of this loyalty may wait

for an emergency. Unless it exists, however,

unless it is apparent in the daily routine, there

is immediate and relentless search for the

antagonistic condition or method, which is

robbing the force of present efficiency and

future power. Co<o:>peration of employees is

the first purpose of organization. Without

loyalty and team work the higher levels in

output, quality, and service are impossible.

_Loyalty on Part of Employer begets Loyalty in

his Workers_

The importance of loyalty in business could

not readily be overestimated, even though its

sole function were to secure united action on

the part of the officers and men. Where no

two men or groups of men were working to

counter purposes, but all are united in a common

purpose, the gain would be enormous, even

though the amount of energy put forth by the

individuals was not increased in the least.

When to this fact of value in organized effort

we add the accompanying psychological facts

of increased efficiency by means of loyalty,

we then begin to comprehend what it means

to have or to lack loyalty.

The amount of work accomplished by an

individual is subject to various conditions.

The whole intellect, feeling, and will must work

in unity to secure the best results. Where

there is no heart in the work (absence of

feeling) relatively little can be accomplished,

even though the intellect be convinced and the

will strained to the utmost. The employee

who lacks loyalty to his employer can at least

render but half-hearted service even though

he strive to his utmost and though he be convinced

that his financial salvation is dependent

upon efficient service. _The employer who

secures the loyalty of his men not only secures

better service, but he enables his men to accomplish_

_more with less effort and less exhaustion_. The

creator of loyalty is a public benefactor.

Such loyalty is always reciprocal. The

feeling which workmen entertain for their

employer is usually a reflection of his attitude

towards them. Fair wages, reasonable hours,

working quarters and conditions of average

comfort and healthfulness, and a measure of

protection against accident are now no more

than primary requirements in a factory or

store. Without them labor of the better,

more energetic types cannot be secured in the

first place or held for any length of time.

And the employer who expects, in return for

these, any more than the average of uninspired

service is sure to be disappointed.

If he treats his men like machines, looks

at them merely as cogs in the mechanism

of his affairs, they will function like machines

or find other places. If he wishes to stir

the larger, latent powers of their brains and

bodies, thereby increasing their efficiency

as thinkers and workers, he must recognize

them as men and individuals and give in

some measure what he asks. He must identify

them with the business, and make them

feel that they have a stake in its success and

that the organization has an interest in the

welfare of its men. The boss to whom his

employees turn in any serious perplexity or

private difficulty for advice and aid is pretty

apt to receive more than the contract minimum

of effort every day and is sure of devoted

service in any time of need.

_The Effect of Personal Relations in creating

Loyalty in a Force_

It is on this personal relationship, this platform

of mutual interests and helpfulness, that

the success and fighting strength of many one-

man houses are built. As in the contractor's

dilemma already cited, it bears fruit in the

fighting zeal, the keener interest, and the extra

speed and effort which workers bring to bear

on their individual and collective tasks. All

the knowledge and skill they possess are

thrown into the scale; their quickened intelligences

reach out for new methods and short

cuts; when the crisis has passed, there may be

a temporary reaction, but there is likely to be

a permanent advance both in individual efficiency

and organization spirit.

On the employer's side, this feeling is expressed

in the surrender of profits to provide

work in dull seasons; in the retention of

aged mechanics, laborers, or clerks on the

payroll after their usefulness has passed;

in pensions; in a score of neighborly and

friendly offices to those who are sick, injured,

or in trouble. A reputation for ``taking care

of his men'' has frequently been a bulwark of

defense to the small manufacturer or trader

assailed by a greedy larger rival.

Personality is, beyond doubt, the primitive

wellspring of loyalty. Most men are capable

of devotion to a worthy leader; few are

ever zealots for the sake of a cause, a principle,

a party, or a firm. All these are too abstract

to win the affection of the average man. It is

only when they become embodied in an individual,

a concrete personality which stirs our

human interest, that they become moving

powers. The soldiers of the Revolution fought

for Washington rather than for freedom;

Christians are loyal to Christ rather than to

his teachings; the voter cheers his candidate

and not his party; the employee is loyal to the

head of the house or his immediate foreman

and not to the generality known as the House.

Loyalty to the individuals constituting the

firm may ultimately develop into house loyalty.

To attempt to create the latter sentiment,

however, except by first creating it for

the men higher up is to go contrary to human

nature--always an unwise expenditure of

energy.

_Human Sympathy as a Factor in developing

Loyalty in Men_

In developing loyalty, human sympathy is

the greatest factor. If an executive of a

company is confident that his directors approve

his policies, appreciate his obstacles,

and are ready to back him up in any crisis,

his energy and enthusiasm for the common

object never flag. If department heads and

foremen are assured that the manager is

watching their efforts with attention and regard,

approving, supporting, and sparing them

wherever possible, they will anticipate orders,

assume extra burdens, and fling themselves

and their forces into any breach which may

threaten their chief's program.

If a workman, clerk, or salesman knows that

his immediate chief is interested in him personally,

that he understands what service is

being rendered and is anxious to forward his

welfare as well as that of the house, there is

no effort, inconvenience, or discomfort which

he will not undertake to complete a task which

the boss has undertaken. Throughout the

entire organization, the sympathy and co<o:>peration

of the men above with the men below

is essential for securing the highest degree of

loyalty. No assumed or manufactured sympathy,

however, will take the place of the genuine

article.

_Personal Relationship with Workers as Basis

for creating Loyalty_

The effectiveness of human sympathy in

creating loyalty is most apparent in one-man

businesses where the head of the house is in

personal contact with all or many of his employees.

This personal touch, however, is

not necessarily limited to the small organization.

Many men have employed thousands

and secured it. Others have succeeded in impressing

their personalities, and demonstrating

their sympathy upon large forces, though

their actual relations were with a few. The

impression made upon these and the loyalty

created in them were sufficient to permeate and

influence the entire body. Potter Palmer, the

elder Armour, Marshall Field, and Andrew Carnegie

were among the hundreds of captains

who made acquaintance with the men in the

ranks the cornerstone on which they raised

their trade or industrial citadels.

When the size of the organization precludes

personal contact, or when conditions remove

the executive to a distance, the task of maintaining

touch is frequently and successfully

intrusted to a lieutenant in sympathy with

the chief's ideals and purposes. He may

be the head of a department variously styled,

--adjustments, promotion and discharge,

employment, labor,--but his express function

is to restore to an organization the simple

but powerful human relation without which

higher efficiency cannot be maintained. In

factories and stores employing many women

this understudy to the manager is usually a

woman, who is given plenary authority in the

handling of her charges, in reviewing disputes

with foremen, and in finding the right position

for the misplaced worker. Whether man

or woman, this representative of the manager

hears all grievances, reviews all discharges,

reductions, and the like, and makes sure that

the employee receives a little more than absolute

justice.

Many successful merchants and manufacturers,

however, disdain agents and intermediaries

in this relation and are always ac-

cessible to every man in their organizations;

holding that, since the co<o:>peration of employees

is the most important single element in

business, the time given to securing it is time

well spent.

Even though human sympathy may well

be regarded as the most important consideration

in increasing loyalty, it is not sufficient

in and of itself. The most patriotic citizens

are those who have, served the state. They

are made loyal by the very act of service.

They have assumed the responsibility of promoting

the welfare of the state, and their

patriotism is thereby stimulated and given

concrete outlet. A paternalistic government

in which the citizens had every right but no

responsibility would develop beggars rather

than patriots.

Similarly in a business house ideally organized

to create loyalty, each employee not

only feels that his rights are protected, but

also feels a degree of responsibility for the

success and for the good name of the house.

He feels that his task or process is an essen-

tial part of the firm's activity; and hence is

important and worthy of his best efforts. To

cement this bond and make closer the identification

of the employee with the house many

firms encourage their employees to purchase

stock in the company. Others have worked

out profit-sharing plans by which their men

share in the dividends of the good years and

are given a powerful incentive to promote

teamwork and the practice of the economies

from which the overplus of profit is produced.

_Loyalty may be developed by Education in House

History and Policies_

The stability of a nation depends on the

patriotism of its citizens. Among methods

for developing this patriotism, _*education_ ranks

as the most effective. In the public schools

history is taught for the purpose of awakening

the love and loyalty of the rising generations.

The founders, builders, and saviors of the country,

the great men of peace and war who have

contributed to its advancement, are held up

for admiration. From the recital of what

country and patriotism meant to Washington,

Jefferson, Lincoln, Grant, and a host of lesser

heroes, the pupils come to realize what country

should, and does, mean to them. They

become patriotic citizens.

_Grounding the New Employee in Company

Traditions and Ideals_

In like manner the history of any house can

be used to inspire loyalty and enthusiasm

among its employees. Business has not been

slow to borrow the methods and ideals of

education, but the writer has been unable to

discover any company which makes adequate

use of this principle. That this loyalty may

be directed to the house as a whole, and not

merely to immediate superiors, every employee

should be acquainted with the purposes and

policies of the company and should understand

that the sympathy which he discovers in

his foreman is a common characteristic of the

whole organization, clear up to the president.

The best way to teach this is by example--

by incidents drawn from the past, or by a

review of the development of the company's

policy.

To identify one's self with a winning cause,

party, or leader, also, is infinitely easier than

to be loyal to a loser. For this reason the

study of the history of the firm may well include

its trade triumphs, past and present;

the remarkable or interesting uses to which its

products have been put; the honor or prestige

which its executives or members of the

organization have attained; and the hundred

other items of human interest which can be

marshaled to give it house personality. All

this would arouse admiration and appreciation

in employees, would stir enthusiasm and

a desire to contribute to future achievements,

and would foster an unwillingness to leave the

organization.

Some companies have begun in this direction.

New employees, by way of introduction,

listen to lectures, either with or without

the accompaniment of pictures, which review

what the house has accomplished, define its

standing in the trade, analyze its products and

their qualities or functions, sketch the plan and

purpose of its organization, and touch upon the

other points of chief human interest. Other

companies put this information in booklets.

Still others employ their house organs to recall

and do honor to the interesting traditions of

the company as well as to exploit the successful

deeds and men of the moment. An organized

and continuous campaign of education

along this line should prove an inexpensive

means of increasing loyalty and efficiency

among the men. To the mind of the writer, it

seems clear that the future will see pronounced

advances in this particular.

Personality can be overdone, however.

Workers instinctively give allegiance to strong,

balanced men, but resent and combat egotism

unchecked by regard for others' rights.

Exploitation of the employer's or foreman's

personality will do more harm than good unless

attended by consideration for the personality

of the employee. The service of more than

one important company has been made intolerable

for men of spirit and creative ability

by the arrogant and dominating spirit of the

management. The men who continue to

sacrifice their individuality to the whim or the

arbitrary rule of their superiors, in time lose

their ambition and initiative; and the organization

declines to a level of routine, mechanical

efficiency only one remove from dry-

rot.

_How Efficiency and Loyalty of Workers may be

Capitalized_

Conservation and development of individuality

in workers may be made an important

factor in creating loyalty as well as in directly

increasing efficiency. Great retail stores put

many department heads into business for

themselves, giving them space, light, buying

facilities, clerks, and purchasing and advertising

credit as a basis of their merchandising;

then requiring a certain percentage of profit

on the amount allowed them. The more successful

of Marshall Field's lieutenants were

taken into partnership and, as in the case of

Andrew Carnegie and his ``cabinet of young

geniuses,'' were given substantial shares of the

wealth they helped to create.

Some industries and stores carry this practice

to the point of making specialized departments

entirely independent of the general

buying, production, and selling organizations

whenever these fall short of the service offered

outside; while the principle of stock distribution

or other forms of profit sharing has

been adopted by so many companies that it

has come to be a recognized method of promoting

loyalty.

Regard for the employee's personality must

be carried down in an unbroken chain through

all the ranks. It may be broken at any step

in the descent by an executive or foreman

who has not himself learned the lesson that

loyalty to the house includes loyalty to the

men under him.

It is not uncommon, in some American

houses, to find three generations of workers

--grandfather, father, and apprentice son--

rendering faithful and friendly service; or to

discover a score of bosses and men who have

spent thirty or forty years--their entire

productive lives--in the one organization.

Where such a bond exists between employer

and employees, it becomes an active, unfailing

force in the development of 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''

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

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-

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-

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.

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

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

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.

Increasing Human Efficiency in Business A Contribution to the Psychology of Business · 第 4 / 13 章