Mind and work
the psychological factors in industry and commerce
This book may be regarded as an expansion of part of my Present-day Applications of Psychology, the fourth edition of which is now out of print. It contains the substance of various lectures and addresses, which I have given during the past two years, on the relation of psychology to the well-being and efficiency of industrial and commercial workers.
Of the four main determinants of industrial and commercial efficiency — the mechanical, the physiological, the psychological, and the social and economic — the psychological is by far the most im- portant and fundamental. Intelligence in foreseeing demands and in improving industrial conditions, and a sympathetic understanding of the standpoint of others, are much more " productive " than mere capital or mechanical labour.
The physiological factors involved in purely muscular fatigue are now fast becoming negligible, compared with the effects of mental and nervous fatigue, monotony, want of interest, suspicion, hostility, etc.
The psychological factor must therefore be the main consideration of industry and commerce in the future; and in the following pages I shall endeavour to show its importance in (i) movement study, (ii) fatigue study, (iii) selection study, (iv) incentives study, and in (v) industrial unrest.
In movement study it will prove necessary also to take into consideration mechanical and physiological factors; in fatigue study, certain physiological factors; in describing the methods of selecting workers according to their special aptitudes, the standpoint will be principally psychological; while in considering the incentives towards increased efficiency (in the chapters headed " Restriction of Output " and " Systems of Payment ") and the causes of industrial unrest, social and economic considerations must necessarily be introduced.
