The same cycle is repeated in office and factory operations, where efficiency is possible only when the hands carry out automatically the desired action. In typewriting and telegraphy, in the handling of adding machines, in the feeding of drill presses, punch presses, and hundreds of special machines, the learner passes through three distinct phases: first, swift improvement in which prelearned move-
ments and skill are brought to bear on the task under the stimulus of both novelty interest and voluntary interest; second, arrested progress-- the period of incubation or habit formation; and the final stage of automatic skill and efficiency.
_Since increase of efficiency is dependent upon continued efforts of will, slumps are inevitable. Voluntary attention cannot be sustained for a long period_.
Work requiring effort is always subject to fluctuations. The man with a strong will may make the lapses in attention relatively short. He may be on his guard and ``try to try'' most faithfully, but no exertion of the will can keep up a steady expenditure of effort in any single activity. All significant _*increases_ in efficiency, however, are dependent upon voluntary attention--upon extreme exertions of the will.
No man can develop into an expert without great exertion of the will. Such exertions of the will are recognized by authorities as being very exhaustive and unstable. One of the greatest of the authorities and one who in
particular has emphasized the necessity of a ``do-or-die'' attitude of work concludes his discussion with the following significant admission: ``All this suggests that if one wants to improve at the most rapid rate, he must work when he can feel good and succeed, then lounge and wait until it is again profitable to work. It is when all the conditions are favorable that the forward steps or new adaptations are made.''
Voluntary attention must be employed in making the advance step, in improving our method of work, and in making any sort of helpful changes. But voluntary attention must not be depended upon to secure steady and continuous utilization of the improved method or rate of work. To secure this end, an attempt should be made to reduce the work to habit so far as possible and also to secure spontaneous interest either from interest and pleasure in the work itself or because of the reward to be received.
The case of the young sales manager, described in the first part of this article, suggests
some of the methods by which this interest can be secured. The chief factor in his progress was the interest in the work itself due to the novelty of his successive tasks--an element impossible to introduce into the average man's job. Yet there were other and powerful motives stimulating his interest: the responsibility of organizing a big department and of directing the expenditure of large sums of money; the prompt credit given him and the growing confidence extended to him; and the expression of their appreciation in the concrete shape of salary increases.
It is quite true that these various stimulating factors cannot be produced indefinitely; tasks must ``stale,'' praise grow monotonous, salaries touch their top level. But ``making good'' and finding interests in work crystallize into habits which endure as long as conditions remain fair. The rise of the efficiency curve thus depends upon recurrent periods of successful struggle followed by periods of habit formation and by the development of powerful spontaneous interests.
Voluntary interest is a valuable thing to possess, but a difficult thing to secure either within ourselves or in those under our charge.
In its psychological aspect, scientific management enters here. By working out and establishing a standard method and standard time for various ``repeat'' operations a workman is engaged in, it encourages--and even enforces--the formation of new efficiency habits. The bonus paid for the accomplishment of the task in the specified time supplies an immediate and powerful motive to the effort necessary to master the ``right way'' of doing things.