FACTORY MANAGEMENT. There are two accepted uses of the word ufactory,s the meaning in any given case depending largely on the context, and the term ((Factory manage mene similarly partakes of this usage. As commonly used the term afactoryo is under stood to mean a group of elements made up of land and buildings, capital and credit, equip ment and men, comprising what is known as the modern factory or establishment for the conversion of raw materials into goods for sale. Factory management in this sense is, therefore, the organizing and directing of men and materials for the production of goods through the medium of the factory.
The broader use of the term, however, in dudes any group of non-self-directing em ployees under the control of their employer, and it is so used particularly in reference to the series of problems arising wherever condi tions of grouped labor obtain — in the rail road gang, the army, the construction crew conditions reaching their climax in what we are familiar with as the modern factory. We may, therefore, encounter factory conditions and factory problems in fighting forest fires, for instance, though in no sense would a group of fire fighters be termed a factory. But it is just this broader use of the term which must not be overlooked, for it implies considera tions of peculiarly far-reaching importance to the factory manager of to-day. For under present day factory conditions we encounter a complexity of relations and problems undreamed of a few years ago, and in order that the aims, and the ends, and the methods of modern in dustrial or factory management may be the more readily appreciated, it is necessary first to consider some of the fundamental problems which must be faced by those engaged in in dustry to-day. The massing of workers, the specialization of processes and the minute sub division of labor, the economic dependence of the employee on the employer, the aggregation of capital and plant, and the keen competition in a world market — all conditions brought on directly by the industrial revolution and its succeeding developments — and finally with the more general dissemination of education among the workers themselves the growing in sistence that labor have an increased participa tion in the operation and fruits of industry— the problems presented through these factors are all distinctly modern problems requiring distinctly modern methods of attack and solu tion. Some of the broader aspects of each of
these factors will be briefly discussed.
The Massing of Workers.—The very act of bringing together a large number of em ployees brings with it entirely new problems. With a group of half a dozen workers we en counter certain problems; multiply this number by hundreds or even thousands, and our prob lems immeasurably increase not only in degree but also in kind. With any aggregation of persons for any purpose we encounter the psy c.hology of the crowd — the something within us which arises when we become one of a throng and which may, upon provocation, develop into the spirit of the mob. In the case of industry, however, to these psychological considerations must be added a third: the non-self-directing character of the groups of workers, imposing as this does the oftentimes tremendous burden of the mere physical handling and direction of our force. Taken together, these factors underlie many of the extremely delicate and far-reaching problems of organization and of management which the factory manager of to day must face. What are to be the relations of the group as a whole to each individual, to each superior and to the firm as an individual? What form of organization, how administered, will best serve the true interests of each of these bodies—employer and employed? The simple organization of the small one-man busi ness will no longer suffice. How, in the more complex organization, can there be main tained the desirable personal contact, free dom of action and play of individual initia tive, together with the submission to author ity necessary wherever men are grouped to gether for profitable production? These and scores of similar questions of organization and of management present themselves for solution the moment we bring together large numbers of individuals for any industrial purpose.