DEFECTS OF DISCIPLINING UNDER TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT.—­Under Traditional Management, the disciplining is done by the foreman; that is, the punishment is meted out by the man who has charge of all activities of the men under him.  This is actually, in practice and in theory, psychologically wrong.  If there is one man who should be in a state of mind that would enable him to judge dispassionately, it is the disciplinarian.  The man to be disciplined is usually guilty of one of six offenses: 

    1. an offense against an employe of a grade above him.
    2. an offense against an employe of the same grade.
    3. an offense against an employe of a grade below him.
    4. falling short in the quality of his work.
    5. falling short in the quantity of his work.
    6. an offense against the system (disobeying orders), falling
       down on schedule, or intentionally not cooeperating.

The employe over him, or the foreman, to whom he is supposed to have done some injustice, would be in no state of mind to judge as to the man’s culpability.  In the case of an offense against an employe of the same grade, the best that the injured employe could do would be to appeal to his foreman, who oftentimes is not an unprejudiced judge, and the multiplicity of whose duties give him little time to give attention to the subject of disciplining.

If the offense is against quantity or quality of work, again the old fashioned foreman, for lack of time, and for lack of training and proper standards of measurement, will find it almost impossible to know how guilty the man is, and what form of punishment and what amount of punishment or loss of opportunity for progress will be appropriate.

CHANGES IN DISCIPLINARIAN’S FUNCTION UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.—­All this is changed under Scientific Management.  The disciplinarian is a specially appointed functional foreman, and has few other duties except those that are directly or indirectly connected with disciplining.  He is in touch with the requirements of the work, because he is in the Planning Department; he is in touch with the employment bureau, and knows which men should be employed; he has a determining voice in deciding elementary rate fixing and should always be consulted before wages are changed or a reassignment of duties is determined.  All of these are great advantages to him in deciding justly and appropriately punishments and promotion, not for the workers alone but also for the foremen and the managers.

DUTIES OF THE DISCIPLINARIAN.—­The Disciplinarian keeps a record of each man’s virtues and defects; he is in position to know all about the man; where he comes from; what his natural and acquired qualifications are; what his good points, possibilities and special fitness are; what his wages are, and his need for them.  All that it is possible for the managers to know of the men is to be concentrated in this disciplinarian.  He is, in practice, more the counsel and advocate of the worker than an unsympathetic judge, as is indicated by the fact that his chief function is that of “diplomat” and “peacemaker.”  His greatest duty is to see that the “square deal” is meted out without fear or favor to employer or to employe.