FEEBLE MANAGEMEN1
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Produce.
ineruty Labour• Vacillation, and Indecision by Executives of State Undertakings are Causing Labour to Slacken. Trade Unions Exploit Weaknesses Of Nationalization to Gain Easier Conditions. A Call for Resolute
Action is Made
By RALPH CROPPER,
B.A., A.M,Inst.T., M.Sc.(Econ.)
F. diVEN an official report can he .i,lelightfully naïve on occasions. The British Transport Commission's annual report, published recently, dealing with the question of staff relations, declared that the responsibility for decisions can rest only on the management.
As a statement of principle, this is something which it should not be necessary to say. Nevertheless, the history of recent months probably justifies the Commission in issuing this reassurance to the public. The disastrous troubles of the Railway Executive in regard to lodging turns and the applications for increases in wages may well be causing the public to take the view that the responsibility for decisions rests anywhere bpt upon the management. In such matters as these, it appears that the staff decides. It votes at its meetings and, whatever its decision, the management is powerless to do anything but accept.
Many passages in the report indicate a keen concern for the welfare of the staff. This is all to the good. Modern industry should take an enlightened view and adopt as liberal an attitude as possible towards its employees, and this applies particularly to an industry taken over in the name of the public. What appears to be forgotten is that the welfare of the staff is dependent upon the well-being of the undertaking as a whole. When the staff pulls its weight and properly performs its duties, only then can the revenues be earned so that the undertaking will pay its way.
No Inceptive for Management
The fault with any nationalized industry is that there is no incentive on the part of the management to see that the undertaking does pay its way. Any businessman knows that to make certain his company will not lose money requires constant vigilance, determination and resourcefulness. The odds are against him unless he. is prepared to devote great energies in asserting his position. If he does so satisfactorily, he draws his reward, which is usually described by that muchmisunderstood term, "profits."
There is no such -attraction to stimulate the management of the nationalized undertakings. The members of the Commission, or the Executives, have a security of tenure in their employment and, for reasons which will be shown later, they are easily led into adopting a less resolute course. The result is that few nationalized undertakings can ever be expected to pay their way, but will invariably fall back upon some form of subsidy.
The biggest single cost in most industries, certainly in transport, is wages. Consequently, the employment of labour, including the method of its use, must be the first item. to be carefully watched by the management. In a small undertaking, such as we have been accustomed to in road transport, the watch which is kept on the employees by the manager is personal and intimate.
He can closely supervise the work of the employees and see that use is made of every man-hour. The employee can see for himself that the revenues of the company are directly dependent upon the efforts which he puts into his work. Without his work there would be less revenue for the firm, and with less revenue there would be nothing to pay his own wages, With a large-scale undertaking there is a complete c 1 0 change in the spirit of the relationship between eniployer and worker. The worker must be treated as one of a group. He cannot be shown personal favours, because favouritism amongst a group of workers must cause unrest and dissatisfaction The whole matter must be governedby rules. This means that there is much less scope for using any individual's particular aptitudes to the best advantage, for the rules must allow for the slowest and the least efficient worker.
In consequence, the general effect is to reduce the level of output to that of the worst worker in the group, although to some extent these disadvantages can be offset in the larger companies by specialization and the use of power-operated equipment and tools.
When that large-scale undertaking takes the form of a nationalized concern, this loss of efficiency is _accentuated by the lack of determination of the management. It is easy to see this at work in transport at the present time. The irresponsible attitude of the railway employees is well in the public mind. It is inconceivable that a determined management, such as that of the Ford organization or any other big industrial house, would tolerate such gross breaches of duty. There could be only one answer—strong disciplinary action.
The Railway Executive, however, cannot 'take such action on its own accord There must first be consultations with the Ministry of Labour, and then it must hold back to obtain Cabinet guidance. Not only does this mean that rarely will there ever be any strong action taken, because the Cabinet would be too much afraid of angering the working classes and losing votes at elections, but also there is bound to be vacillation and uncertainty because of the multiplicity of employers, none of whom has clear-cut responsibility in the matter.
Restrictive Practices in Haulage
With this in mind, let us now consider some of the happenings in road transport. It is reported that some overnight drivers from Manchester to London have decided that they cannot reach London within their permitted spell of duty, and consequently they are terminating their journey at London Colney. For many years it has been the accepted practice for the complete journey to be undertaken overnight. This is a new restrictive practice introduced so that less work is performed and the drivers have more free time within their period of employment.
Recently a full load of whale meat was brought down from Glasgow to London in under 23 hrs., the operation being effected by means of a change of drivers at Manchester. That can be done when the drivers put their backs into the job, but there can be little doubt that steps will be taken among the drivers themselves to see that that is stopped in the near future.
The whole trend of trade-union applications in the past few years has been to protect the worker, but the real object has been to give the worker an easy time. The course of the negotiations on the 30-m.p.h. speedlimit proposal gives ample support to this statement. Although an average speed of 24 m.p.h. would appear to be reasonable enough as the basis on which to calculate the running schedules for the more normal journeys, the trade unions were .quite dissatisfied, and felt that a much lower figure should be taken.
When, . under pressure from the Ministry of Transport, the employers substituted a figure of 22 m.p.h., they were still not satisfied and contended that many drivers would not be able to achieve that without infringing the law. There is no doubt that many skilful drivers would easily be able to achieve and maintain 24 m.p.h. as their average speed, but the whole tone is to bring the level of work to be performed down to that of the laziest worker.
The System is to Blame • Frankly, I do not think that this is so much the fault of the workers themselves or the trade union officers. "Rather is it the result of the system in force to-day. By bringing in large numbers of employees in the same grade and trying to treat them all on the same level, the result is that the organization representing those workers must take the line of wanting to protect its weakestmember. All workers are brought down to that level and the better workers receive no encouragement to put forth their best efforts, A recent report by P.E.P. (Political and Economic .Planning) on the mining industry is appropriate to mention in this connection. It affirms that the small increase in coal production, despite more mechanization
in the pits,. is due partly to lack of incentive amongst miners.
:` Formerly, mining was generally carried out by teams of four to six men," it states. "Division of labour was left to the men and payment was clearly related to effort. In the new system, the cycle of operations is often divided amongst three teams of, perhaps, 30 men, each team operating a separate shift. Working groups. . are too large for the team spirit to be preserved. The work is more monotonous. The team is denied the satisfaction of completing a task for which it alone is responsible, and the size of its pay packets is less clearly related to the efforts it makes."
Advantage of Free Enterprise Road transport, which was made up of small undertakings, has hitherto found its own natural methods of relating reward to output. Various bonus schemes, small gratuities or special concessions were commonly . granted to encourage the good worker, whilst the less. efficient worker was goaded on to do his best, if in no other way,by the fear of discharge. That statement is not meant to be brutal, but the fact to be faced is that it is human nature to shirk_ work if possible, and constant work by mankind is essential to produce the physical wealth that we desire.
By contrast, the large-scale undertaking cannot so perfectly align its rewards to output. The worker loses his individuality and becomes one of the crowd. Indirectly he says to himself: "if I ease off a bit, what is there to show for it? How are they to tell? What does it matter anyway? What difference does that easing-off make to revenues amounting to millions of pounds?"
When one man slackens off, other workers think that they are equally entitled to do so. Here the situation becomes serious, unless there is a vigilant management
ready to take disciplinary action. As we have seen, that is not one of the strong assets of a 'nationalized undertaking.
It may be suggested that bonus or incentive schemes should be devised. That is certainly a subject that will warrant much forthei exploration. But the trade unions. have a trump card to play against the introduction of bonus schemes in road transport. They will argue, and with some measure of justification, that any such scheme must encourage speeding and dangerous driving "to the detriment of public safety on the highways. At least it can be expected that nationalized road transport will produce a body of inspectors to try to check the most gross forms of slacking and unauthorized actions. From the point of view of producing the food, clothing and other items that the community desires, these inspectors will do nothing. They will be a few more " unproductives just put there to see that the -productives are working.
It all seems such a pity when we recall that there was never any real need to change the system as we have known it. Whichever way one studies the labour• prospects, one is confronted with falling productivity. The new system discourages the better worker and brings the dutput of all workers down to the lowest common level. It requires many administrators to draw up the rule's, both from the side of the management and from the side of the workers as represented by the trade unions, and it results in a new army of unproductive inspectors.
The only solution of the problem i.s increased output.
This does not always mean an extension of working hours. It requires a fuller and more honest use of the hours.al.ready being paid for . Instead of the increasing growth of restrictive practices, .a new spirit amongst the workers is needed to provide a day's work for a day's , pay, and a new keenness by the workers to see how much work each man can perform. in his working period. The bid methods of the stick and the carrot may not
always have been attractive to the worker. An. attempt has been made to clear them away in the setting-up of the nationalized undertalings. Unfortunately, .nothing satisfactory has been produced to replace them.. In any event, there is no doubt that the British Transport Commission struck a true note when it affirmed that the management held the responsibility for decisions. It must be encouraged in that line of thought, even if the whole progress of affairs tends to act in the opposite direction and nullifies any possibility of the manage