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

PLEASURE

AS A MEANS OF INCREASING HUMAN EFFICIENCY

TO prevent the usual ``summer slump''

in output, the manager of a factory

employing a hundred or more sewing

girls on piecework tried various methods.

He began with closer individual supervision

by the forewomen. He set up a bulletin

board and posted daily the names of the five

highest operators. He added small cash prizes

weekly. He adopted a modified bonus system

framed so as not to interfere with the

established average of winter tasks. With

each his success was only partial. Ten or a

dozen of the more energetic girls responded to

the stimulus; on the majority the effect was

slight.

The problem was serious. June, July, and

August comprised the season when his prod-

ucts were at a premium, when future orders

were frequently lost because partial deliveries

could not be made immediately. Studying

the question, he noted specifically, what he

already knew, that the output dropped as the

temperature rose. A cool day sandwiched

into a week of hot weather frequently equaled

the best winter records. This fact, coupled

with the observation that the spirit of his

working force seemed to change with the

change of temperature from warm to cold,

helped him to arrive at the right solution.

He made the discovery sitting in the draught

of an electric fan. He looked up, made a

mental note; and next morning he moved his

office ``comforter'' out to the head of one file of

machines. The draught tangled the goods

under the seamstresses' hands at times, but

the half dozen girls within range showed a

decided increase in production over the day

before and over operators at other tables.

He had found his remedy for the summer

slump. Within a week he had installed a

system of large overhead fans and an exhaust

blower and saw his production figures mount

to the winter's best average. From careless,

indifferent workers, on edge at trifles and difficult

to hold, his force developed steadiness

and efficiency. Not only was the output

increased twenty per cent over previous

summers, but the proportion of spoiled work

was considerably reduced.

One of the women who had been a subject

of the first day's experiment struck close to

the reason of her greater efficiency in her

off-hand answer to his inquiry.

``It was a pleasure to work to-day. It was

so comfortable after yesterday you just forgot

the other girls, forgot you wanted to rest,

forgot everything but the seams you were

running and the fact that it was a big day.

I'm not near so tired as usual either.''

_A successful day is likely to be a restful one,

an unsuccessful day an exhausting one. The

man who is greatly interested in his work and

who finds delight in overcoming the difficulties

of his calling is not likely to become so tired as

the man for whom the work is a burden_.

The experience related summarizes the

experience of every worker who has studied,

either on his own initiative or at some other's

instance, the effect upon output secured by

the removal of distressing or displeasing conditions

from the workroom.

The man who has been engaged in intellectual

or manual labor finds himself more or less

exhausted when the day's work is done. The

degree of exhaustion varies greatly from day

to day and is not in direct proportion to the

amount of energy expended or the results

attained. A comparatively busy day may

leave him feeling fresh, while at the end of a

day much less occupied he may be utterly

``dragged out'' and weary.

Some men habitually find themselves fatigued,

while others ordinarily end the day

with a feeling of vigor. These contrary

effects are not necessarily due primarily

to disparity in the amount of energy spent

or to unequal stores of energy available.

The discrepancy in many instances is due to

diverse attitudes toward the work or varying

degrees of success which has attended the

work.

Pleasure secured in and from work is the

best preventive and balm for tired muscles

and jaded brains. Dislike or discomfort, on

the other hand, adds to toil by sapping the

strength of the worker.

Victory in intercollegiate athletic events

depends on will power and physical endurance.

This is particularly apparent in football.

Frequently it is not the team with the

greater muscular development or speed of

foot that wins the victory, but the one with the

more grit and perseverance. At the conclusion

of a game players are often unable to walk from

the field and need to be carried. Occasionally

the winning team has actually worked the

harder and received the more serious injuries.

Regardless of this fact, it is usually

true that the victorious team leaves the

field less jaded than the conquered team.

Furthermore the winners will report next day

refreshed and ready for further training,

while the losers may require several days to

overcome the shock and exhaustion of their

defeat.

Recently I had a very hard contest at tennis.

Some hours after the game I was still too tired

to do effective work. I wondered why, until

I remembered that I had been thoroughly

beaten, and that, too, by an opponent whom I

felt I outclassed. I had been in the habit of

playing even harder contests and ordinarily

with no discomfort--especially when successful

in winning the match.

What I have found so apparent in physical

exertion is equally true in intellectual labor.

Writing or research work which progresses

satisfactorily leaves me relatively fresh;

unsuccessful efforts bring their aftermath of

weariness.

_Intellectual work which is pleasant is stimulating

and does not fag one, while intellectual

work which is uninteresting or displeasing is

depressing and exhausting_.

We can readily trace the source of energy

in mechanical devices. The hands of a clock

continue in their course because of the energy

locked up in a compressed spring or elevated

weight. The gun projects the bullet because

of the sudden chemical union of carbon with

saltpeter and sulphur. The steam engine

takes its energy from the steam secured by

combustion of coal or other fuel.

The work of the human organism is usually

classified as muscular or intellectual. In

either the expenditure of energy is as dependent

upon known causes as is the activity

of the mechanical devices mentioned

above.

Every muscular activity is dependent upon

muscular cells ready for combustion; without

such combustion no muscular work is

performed.

Every intellectual process is likewise dependent

upon brain cells ready for combustion,

and no intellectual work can be performed

without combustion of these brain cells.

To secure continued activity the clock must

be rewound, the gun must be recharged, more

coal must be supplied to the engine. In like

manner the continuation of muscular and in-

tellectual activity depends upon the restoration

of muscle and brain cells. The necessity

for renewal is greater or less according to the

amount stored in reserve and the rapidity of

consumption. A maximum head of steam

may keep the engine running for a long time

unless the load is too heavy or the speed too

great. Though under certain conditions the

amount of muscle and brain energy stored in

reserve is large, continuous or rapid activity of

necessity expends the reserve and leads to

exhaustion.

It is a simple process to rewind the clock,

to reload the gun, and to replenish the fuel.

To restore muscular and nerve cells is a very

delicate process. So wonderful is the human

organism, however, that the process is carried

on perfectly without our consciousness or

volition except under abnormal conditions.

Food and air are the first essentials of this

restoration. Indirectly the perfect working of

all the bodily organs contribute to the process

--especially deepened breathing, heightened

pulse, and increase of bodily volume due

to the expansion of the blood vessels running

just beneath the skin.

_Here pleasure enters. Its effect on the expenditure

of energy is to make muscle and brain

cells more available for consumption, and particularly

to hasten the process of restoration or

recuperation_.

The deepened breathing supplies more air

for the oxidation of body wastes. The heightened

pulse carries nourishment more rapidly

to the depleted tissues and relieves the tissues

more rapidly from the poisonous wastes

produced by work. The body, the machine,

runs more smoothly, and fewer stops for repairs

are made necessary.

In addition to these specific functions,

pleasure hastens all the bodily processes which

are of advantage to the organism. The hastening

may be so great that recuperation keeps

pace with the consumption consequent on

efficient labor, with the result that there is

little or no exhaustion. This is in physiological

terms the reason why a person can do more

when he ``enjoys'' his work or play, and can

continue his efforts for a longer period without

fatigue. The man who enjoys his work requires

less time for recreation and exercise, for

his enjoyment recharges the storage battery of

energy.

Not only can I endure more and achieve

more when I take pleasure in the task, but I

can also secure better results from others by

providing for their interest and for their pleasure

in what they are doing. This is a fact

which wise merchants and employers have

felt intuitively, but in most instances the

principle has not been consciously formulated.

High-grade stores do much to add to the pleasure

of their customers. Every resource of art

and architecture is employed to make store

rooms appeal to the <ae>sthetic sense and the

appreciation of customers. Clerks are instructed

to be obliging and courteous. Employees

are not allowed to dress in a style

likely to offend a customer and they are

schooled in manners and in speech. Space

is devoted to the convenience and comfort

of customers.

_The most successful establishments in the

world are the ones which do most to please their

patrons--not by cutting prices or simply by

supplying better goods, but by expediting and

making more pleasant the purchase of goods_.

They have discovered that customers inducted

into a beautiful shop and surrounded

by tactful obliging clerks are more willing to

buy and are more likely to be satisfied with

what they purchase. By adding to their patrons'

comfort and pleasure they are able to

accomplish more than by any other selling

argument. In like manner, restaurants and

hotels have learned that splendid rooms, flowers,

spotless linen, well-dressed and courteous

waiters, good furniture, and so on, all attract

customers and induce them to order more

generously.

Lawyers find in trying cases that it is quite

essential to regard the mood of clients, juries,

and judges. The pleased man is not suspicious;

he does not hesitate in coming to a conclusion,

and he is not likely to impute evil

motives to the actions of others. As has been

well said by Dickens, when speaking from the

viewpoint of the defendant, ``A good, contented,

well-breakfasted juryman is a capital

thing to get hold of. Discontented or hungry

jurymen always find for the plaintiff.''

The salesman with a pleasing personality

is able to sell more goods than others less

happily endowed. Some salesmen try to supplement

this power--or supply the lack of a

pleasing personality--by ``jollying'' the possible

customer in various ways. Dinners,

theaters, cigars, and various other devices

are thus used, and in many instances with success.

Modern business employs such methods less

and less, chiefly because the customer recognizes

the purpose of the attempt, and either

refuses to accept the ``hospitality'' or is on

his guard to resist the effect. A pleasing

personality, however, inspires confidence, tends

to put the customer in a good humor and optimistic

mood, and results in sales.

A cold, formal manner, ill temper, or a

pessimistic outlook, on the contrary, will

handicap the sale of the best merchandise

made.

A man is said to be suggestible when he

comes to conclusions or acts without due

deliberation. Suggestion, then, is nothing but

the mental condition which causes us to believe

and respond without the normal amount

of weighing of evidence. While in a suggestible

condition we are credulous, responsive,

and impulsive. Such a mental condition is

favored and induced by pleasure. Discomfort

or dissatisfaction with the conditions or

surroundings prompts the opposing attitude;

we become suspicious and slow to act or believe.

While in a suggestible condition, we

place our orders freely and promptly. The

merchant who can please his customers and

bring them to a suggestible mood before he

displays his wares, therefore, has done much to

secure generous sales.

Advantageous results from suggestion are

not limited to the relationship between buyer

and seller.

_The pleased and satisfied employee is open_

_to the suggestions of foreman and manager and

responds with an enthusiasm impossible of

generation in one dissatisfied from any cause_.

Methods of insuring this pleasure in work

for employees are yet in the formative stage.

Until recently the want of such methods, indeed,

was not felt. The slave driver with the

most profane vocabulary and the greatest

recklessness in the use of fist and foot was

supposed to be the most effective type of boss.

The task system set an irreducible minimum

for the day's work; the employer exacted the

task and assumed that no better way of handling

men could be devised. Piecework rates

provided a better and more reasonable basis

for securing something like a maximum day's

work; bonus and premium systems have carried

the incentive of the wage in increasing efficiency

to the last point short of co<o:>perative

organization. But all of these systems fall

short in assuming that men are machines;

that their powers and capacities are fixed quantities;

that the efficiency of a well-disposed and

industrious employee ought to be proof against

varying conditions or environment; that a

man can achieve the desired standard, if only

he has the will to achieve it.

_Discipline has become less brutal if not less

strict. The laborer works, not alone to avoid

poverty and hunger, but to secure the means of

pleasure_.

It is not so long since harsh discipline was

common both in homes and in business. The

boy worked hard because he was afraid not to.

The man labored because poverty threatened

him if idle. We were in what might be called

a ``pain economy''; we worked to escape pain.

To-day this has largely been changed.

Employers, too, are experimenting boldly

with the idea of creating pleasure in work.

The first step has been taken in the very

general elimination of the old wasteful, neglectful

elements of factory and office environment.

Comfort, the first neutral element

of pleasure, is provided for employees just as

solid foundations are provided for the factory

buildings. There is light, heat, and ventilation

where a generation ago there were tiny windows,

shadows, lonely stoves, and foul air. Cleanliness

is provided and preserved; not a few of

the larger industries employ a regular corps of

janitors to keep floors, walls, and windows clean.

The walls are tinted; the lights are arranged

so as to provide the right illumination without

straining the workers' eyes. The departments

are symmetrically arranged; the aisles are

wide; the working space is ample; there is

no fear to haunt machine tenders that a mis-

step or a moment of forgetfulness will entangle

them in a neighboring machine. The factory

buildings themselves, without being pretentious,

have pleasing, simple lines and unobtrusive

ornamentation. They look like, and

are, when the human equation does not interfere,

_*pleasant_ places to work in.

This is the typical modern factory; thousands

can be found in America. On this

foundation of good working conditions and

pleasant environment, many companies have

built more or less elaborate systems of welfare

work, whose effectiveness in creating

pleasure and efficiency seem to depend on the

purpose and spirit of the men behind them.

These systems frequently begin with beautification

of the factory premises and workrooms

--window boxes, factory lawns, ivied walls,

trees, and shrubs--and advance by various

stages to lunch rooms for workers, factory

libraries, rest rooms for women workers, factory

nurses and physicians, and sometimes the

development of a social life among employees

through picnics, lectures, dances, night schools,

and like activities. The methods employed

are too diverse and too recent to permit an accurate

estimate of their work or a true analysis

of the elements of their success. It is incumbent

on the employer to find or work out for

himself the method best suited to his individual

needs.

_To understand how pleasure heightens the

suggestibility of the individual it is but necessary

to consider the well-known effects which pleasure

has on the various bodily and mental processes_.

The action of pleasure and displeasure upon

the muscles of the body is most apparent.

With displeasure the muscles of the forehead

contract; folds and wrinkles appear. The

corners of the mouth are drawn down; the

head bowed; the shoulders stoop and draw

together over the breast; the chest is contracted;

the fingers of the hand close, and there

is also a tendency to bend the arms so as to

protect the fore part of the body. In displeasure

the body is thus seen to contract and

to put itself on the defensive. It closes itself

to outside influences and attempts to ``withdraw

within its shell.''

With pleasure the forehead is smoothed

out; the corners of the mouth are lifted; the

head is held erect; the shoulders are thrown

back; the chest is expanded; the fingers of

the hand are opened, and the arm is ready to

go out to grasp any object. The whole body

is thrown into a receptive attitude. It is prepared

to be affected by outside stimulations

and is ready to profit by them.

That these characteristic bodily attitudes

of pleasure and displeasure have an effect

on the mind is evident. Bodily and mental attitudes

have developed together in the history

of the race. The conditions which cause a

receptive attitude of body cause also a suggestible

state of mind. The conditions which

call for bodily protection also demand a suspicious

and non-responsive attitude of mind.

The bodily and the mental attitudes have become

so intimately associated that the presence

of one assures the presence of the other.

_Pleasure and a particular attitude of body are

indissolubly united, and when these two are

present, a suggestible condition of mind seems of

necessity to follow_.

Thus by the subtle working of pleasant

impressions the customer is disarmed of his

suspicion and made ready to respond to the

suggestions of the merchant.

The effect of the suggestible attitude of the

body, as produced by pleasure, is increased

by certain other effects which pleasure produces

on the body.

Muscular strength is frequently measured

by finding the maximum grip on a recording

instrument. The amount of the grip varies

from time to time and is affected by various

conditions. One of the phenomena which has

been thoroughly investigated is the effect of

pleasure and of pain on the intensity of the

grip. It is well established that pleasure

increases the grip or the available amount of

energy. Displeasure reduces the strength.

The total volume of the body would seem

to be constant for any particular short interval

of time. Such, however, is not the case.

_With pleasure the lungs are filled with air

from deepened breathing; the volume of the

limbs is increased by the increased flow of blood.

Pleasure thus actually makes us larger and displeasure

smaller_.

This increase in muscular strength and bodily

volume due to pleasure has a very decided

effect upon the mind. The increase of muscular

strength gives us a feeling of power and

assurance, the increase in volume gives us a

feeling of expansion and importance. These

conditions produced by increase of muscular

strength and bodily volume contribute to the

general suggestible condition described above.

If I am in a suggestible condition and if I

also feel an unusual degree of assurance in my

own powers and importance, I shall have such

confidence in the wisdom of my intended acts

that there will seem to be no ground for delay.

Furthermore the increased action of the heart,

due to the effect of pleasure, gives me a feeling

of buoyancy and invigoration which adds appreciably

to the tendency to action.

We thus see why pleasure renders us more

suggestible and hence makes us more apt to

purchase proffered merchandise or to respond

to the suggestions of our foreman or our executive.

We also see why it is that a man may

increase his efficiency by pleasing those with

whom he has to work, whether they be customers

or employees.

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