ADVANTAGES TO WORKERS OF SEPARATING OUTPUT.—­As for advantages to the men: 

By separation of the individual work, not only is the man’s work itself shown, but at the same time the work of all other people is separated, cut away and put aside, and he can locate the man who is delaying him by, for example, not keeping him supplied with materials.  The man has not only an opportunity to concentrate, but every possible incentive to exercise his will and his desire to do things.  His attention is concentrated on the fact that he as an individual is expected to do his very best.  He has the moral stimulus of responsibility.  He has the emotional stimulus of competition.  He has the mental stimulus of definiteness.  He has, most valuable of all, a chance to be an entity rather than one of an undiscriminated gang.  This chance to be an individual, or personality, is in great contradistinction to the popular opinion of Scientific Management, which thinks it turns men into machines.  A very simple example of the effect of the worker’s seeing his output show up separately in response to and in proportion to his effort and skill is that of boys in the lumber producing districts chopping edgings for fire wood.  Here the chopping is so comparatively light that the output increased very rapidly, and the boy delights to “see his pile of fire wood grow.”

With the separation of the work comes not only the opportunity for the men to see their own work, but also to see that of others, and there comes with this the spirit of imitation, or the spirit of friendly opposition, either of which, while valuable in itself is even more valuable as the by-product of being a life-giving thought, and of putting life into the work such as there never could be when the men were working together, more or less objectless, because they could not see plainly either what they were doing themselves, or what others were doing.

Separation of the output of the men gives them the greatest opportunity to develop.  It gives them a chance to concentrate their attention at the work on which they are, because it is not necessary for them to waste any time to find out what that work is.  Their work stands out by itself; they can put their whole minds to that work; they can become interested in that work and its outcome, and they can be positive that what they have done will be appreciated and recognized, and that it will have a good effect, with no possibility of evil effect, upon their chance for work and their chance for pay and promotion in the future.  Definiteness of the boundaries, then, is not only good management in that it shows up the work and that it allows each man to see, and each man over him, or observing him to see exactly what has been done,—­it has also an excellent effect upon the worker’s mind.