SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT USES BOTH SPONTANEOUS AND DELIBERATE IMITATION.—­Teaching under Scientific Management induces both spontaneous and deliberate imitation.  The standardization prevalent, and the conformity to standards exacted, provide that this imitation shall follow directed lines.

SPONTANEOUS IMITATION UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT HAS VALUABLE RESULTS.—­Under Scientific Management, the worker will spontaneously imitate the teacher, when the latter has been demonstrating.  This leads to desired results.  So, also, the worker imitates, more or less spontaneously, his own past methods of doing work.  The right habits early formed by Scientific Management insure that the results of such imitation shall be profitable.

DELIBERATE IMITATION CONSTANTLY ENCOURAGED.—­Deliberate imitation is caused more than anything else by the fact that the man knows, if he does the thing in the way directed, his pay will be increased.

Such imitation is also encouraged by the fact that the worker is made to believe that he is capable, and has the will to overcome obstacles.  He knows that the management believes he can do the work, or the instruction card would not have been issued to him.  Moreover, he sees that the teacher and demonstrator is a man promoted from his rank, and he is convinced, therefore, that what the teacher can do he also can do.[58]

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT PROVIDES STANDARDS FOR IMITATION.—­It is of immense value in obtaining valuable results from imitation, that Scientific Management provides standards.  Under Traditional Management, it was almost impossible for a worker to decide which man he should imitate.  Even though he might come to determine, by constant observation, after a time, which man he desired to imitate, he would not know in how far he would do well to copy any particular method.  Recording individually measured output under Transitory Management allows of determining the man of high score, and either using him as a model, or formulating his method into rules.  Under Scientific Management, the instruction card furnishes a method which the worker knows that he can imitate exactly, with predetermined results.

IMITATION IS EXPECTED OF ALL.—­As standardization applies to the work of all, so imitation of standards is expected of all.  This fact the teacher under Scientific Management can use to advantage, as an added incentive to imitation.  Any dislike of imitation is further decreased, by making clear to every worker that those who are under him are expected to imitate him,—­and that he must, himself, imitate his teachers, in order to set a worthy example.

IMITATION LEADS TO EMULATION.—­Imitation, as provided for by teaching under Scientific Management, and admiration for the skillful teacher, or the standard imitated, naturally stimulate emulation.  This emulation takes three forms: 

    1.  Competition with the records of others.
    2.  Competition with one’s own record.
    3.  Competition with the standard record.