Management, then, deals with the three sources of force- or energy—capital, labor and nature. The management should never lose sight of their important influence. A strike which involves trouble with the labor force may mean many hours of anxiety for the ' manager, but the labor loss may be as nothing com pared with the capital losses in interest, depreciation and mark.et disorganization incurred during the shut down.
5. Manager must direct forces.—The complexity arid-exteriFarth—e workings of a modern factory are forcing the question of management upon the atten tion of both stockholders and the public. The stock holders are interested in their profits. The consum ing public is concerned about the high cost of prod ucts. Both are beginning to believe that their inter ests could be better served if the managers of produc tion were specialists in management rather than as is too often the case—composites of abilities ranging from the requisites of a good office boy to the accom plishments of a mechanical expert.
A manager must direct forces. He cannot be tied to the details of an office, of a department or of an organization. His special work is cut out for him by the forces which he handles and the object which he must attain in their direction or management.
The mechanical engineer, the electrical engineer, the locomotive engineer, etc., have their own special provinces. Each is a specialist in the control of his particular form of power. Yet it has often been ex pected of managers of production that they not only be technical experts in various branches of an industry, but that they be expert handlers of men and judges of business methods as well.
The discussions and investigations of big business operations during the past few years have so focused attention upon the manager that we are able to see his true relation to the organization in a better light than ever before.
A chart, prepared by an auditing concern and re produced on page 60, shows in a very simple way the relationship of the two chief forces with which the manager must deal.
It will be here observed that the capital, land and labor forces have taken the form of plant and equip ment, materials, supplies and men. The manager, therefore, has jurisdiction over these things and has charge also of the inspection of product and pur chases. The two types of physical energy which are
most evident in production, and which the manager must control, are those produced by fuel in conjunc tion with a machine, and those which come from food when converted into the muscle and brains of men. When the full importance of these factors in man agement is realized, it becomes evident at once how until very recently that engineering has to do solely with the intelligent development and control of that energy which depends upon fuel and the machine. Accordingly, the mechanical engineer early became a recognized aid in the management of a plant and fac tory, and now that business men are beginning to analyze their productive processes, the profession of engineering has been extended to include the develop ment and control of that energy which displays itself thru the minds and bodies of men.
A study of Fig-ure 1 shows the main lines of activity which these two forms of physical force follow. The physical energy coming from the food which a man eats shows itself in either bodily or mental activi ties on the part of the worker. In the factory, then, we may divide the workers into brain laborers and body laborers, and so throw into bold relief at once the basic problems of management. These are the prime factors which lie at the bottom of all permanent pro ductive efficiency. The managers must find the best way to develop this human power and conserve its energy. Looked at in this light, it is not a matter of indifference to the management what the foremen, the laborers and others eat and drink outside of factory hours. Nor is it compatible with the principles of business management to ignore the sociological condi tions which surround the workers at home and in the shop. Anything which dissipates the energy of the employe is a handicap to the productive efficiency of the factory. Welfare work, medical service, indus trial betterment are growing and spreading among the world's great industries. This movement is taking place simply becaus,e it is good business policy. If welfare work succeeds, it does so because it develops and conserves the human working force. It pays for itself in productive efficiency and not merely in its ad vertising possibilities.