¶ … factory owners during the Industrial Revolution. You are having trouble recruiting and retaining workers, and getting them to do what you want them to do. What techniques would you use to accomplish your goals of achieving efficient and profitable production?
Today, because of the apparently unjust conditions of workers during the early days of industrialization, modern sympathies tend to lie with the factory workers in their efforts to unionize and secure their rights during the early days of the Industrial Revolution. However, even from the capitalist's perspective, unmotivated employees were not as productive as loyal and motivated laborers, thus it was perhaps mistaken to be blatantly unconcerned about workers rights. In fact, at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the capitalist factory owners were often frustrated by the need to impose discipline upon workers who were used to agricultural methods and rhythms of labor. This began, initially, by paying workers by the completed piece to motivate workers to work harder, a technique...
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Gradually, modern industry has learned that by encouraging company loyalty to an organization and by stressing the need for a specific method and pace of work, workers can be both loyal efficient. The assembly line encouraged the reenactment of standard operating procedures in a factory operation. But by paying workers higher salaries than competitor companies, and by giving workers a regular and consistent wage, as well rewarding excellent employees with additional benefits, bonuses, and recognition, workers became more motivated and were more willing to stay at a particular company. Thus, encouraging loyalty through monetary and promotional recognition combined consistent training is superior than merely paying workers by the piece or merely working laborers as hard as they are willing to work for lower wages. Scientific management offered additional ways of creating standardized operating procedures in factory organizations, although it did not take into consideration the human elements of…
