It is well within the mark to state that in nineteen out of twenty
industrial establishments the workmen believe it to be directly against
their interests to give their employers their best initiative, and that
instead of working hard to do the largest possible amount of work and
the best quality of work for their employers, they deliberately work as
slowly as they dare while they at the same time try to make those over
them believe that they are working fast. *

[*Footnote: The writer has tried to make the reason for this unfortunate
state of things clear in a paper entitled "Shop Management," read before
the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.]

The writer repeats, therefore, that in order to have any hope of
obtaining the initiative of his workmen the manager must give some
special incentive to his men beyond that which is given to the average
of the trade. This incentive can be given in several different ways, as,
for example, the hope of rapid promotion or advancement; higher wages,
either in the form of generous piece-work prices or of a premium or
bonus of some kind for good and rapid work; shorter hours of labor;
better surroundings and working conditions than are ordinarily given,
etc., and, above all, this special incentive should be accompanied by
that personal consideration for, and friendly contact with, his workmen
which comes only from a genuine and kindly interest in the welfare of
those under him. It is only by giving a special inducement or
"incentive" of this kind that the employer can hope even approximately
to get the "initiative" of his workmen. Under the ordinary type of
management the necessity for offering the workman a special inducement
has come to be so generally recognized that a large proportion of those
most interested in the subject look upon the adoption of some one of the
modern schemes for paying men (such as piece work, the premium plan, or