But the experiments which have been carried on in
establishments with scientific management speak decidedly
against such a supposition. A tyrannical demand
for silence would, of course, be felt as cruelty,
and no suggestion of a jail-like discipline would
be wise in the case of industrial labor, for evident
psychological reasons. But various factories in
rearranging their establishments according to the
principles of scientific management have changed the
positions of the workmen so that conversations become
more difficult or impossible. The result reported
seems to be everywhere a significant increase of production.
The individual concentrates his mind on the task with
an intensity which seems beyond his reach as long
as the inner attitude is adjusted to social contact.
The help which is rendered by the feeling of social
cooeperation, on the other hand, is not removed by
the mere abstaining from speaking. Interesting
psychopedagogical experiments have, indeed, demonstrated
that working in a common room produces better results
than isolated activity. This is not true of the
most brilliant, somewhat nervous school children,
who achieve in their own room at home more than in
the classroom. But for the average, which almost
alone is in question for life in the factory, the
consciousness of common effort is a source of psychophysical
reinforcement. This evidently remains effective
when the workingmen can see one another, even if the
arrangement of the seats precludes the possibility
of chatting during the work.
However, by far the more important cause of distraction
of attention lies in those disturbances which come
from without. Here again the chief interest ought
to be attached to those interferences which the workman
himself no longer feels as such. In a great printing-shop
a woman who was occupied with work which demanded
her fullest attention was seated at her task in an
aisle where trucking was done. Removing this
operator to a quiet corner caused an increase of 25
per cent in her work.[40] To be sure there are many
such disturbances in factory life which can hardly
be eliminated with the technical means of to-day.
For instance, the noise of the machines, which in many
factories makes it impossible to communicate except
by shouting, must be classed among the real psychological
interferences in spite of the fact that the laborers
themselves usually feel convinced that they no longer
notice it at all. Still more disturbing are strong
rhythmical sounds, such as heavy hammer blows which
dominate the continuous noises, as they force on every
individual consciousness a psychophysical rhythm of
reaction which may stand in strong contrast to that
of a man’s own work. From the incessant
inner struggle of the two rhythms, the one suggested
by the labor, the other by the external intrusion,
quick exhaustion becomes unavoidable.