"My job," says J. R. Richardson, General Manager of the Hotpoint Electric Heating Company, "is to keep the organization steamed up-and to hire the right men, which is coming to be more and more important."

Very similar is the conception of his position held by President Patterson of the National Cash Register Company. Years since, an executive overworked to the point of collapse, he was forced to give up active duties for the time being and sought recuperation by a trip to Europe. It was feared he would never be able to take up the reins of management again. While on this trip, however, Mr. Patterson in pondering over his difficulties, hit upon a simple diagram which he believed expressed them fully. (See Figure 35a).

DA

Α

Figure 35 (a) and (b). The Executive's Position

The management of his factory had proved to be a crushing burden because he himself, as A in the first figure, was supporting the rest of the organization. The correct position, he decided, could be secured only by turning the pyramid about, as in the second figure. (See Figure 35b.) The organization, because of his wrong location with reference to its other members, had crushed him. President Patterson returned to Dayton conceiving his position in a new light, and the later career both of the National Cash Register Company and himself personally confirms in a most convincing way the correctness of his analysis.

The analysis of his position is essential if the executive is to co-operate effectively. The outline of such an analysis is here shown, the presidency of a moderate-sized corporation being the position assumed.

Outlines of Specific Duties

These general conceptions should next be followed by analyses which outline the duties of the position somewhat specifically. Figure 36 illustrates an analysis such as the president of a small corporation might make, although with the responsibilities of a given position clearly before him and his pencil in hand, an executive might well go into more specific detail than is here indicated.

Since an organization comes sooner or later to reflect its manager, this charting of his responsibilities represents an essential element in team-work.

EXERCISES

Careful Adjustment of Function

a business expands questions regarding differentiation of function and distribution of responsibility among its officials are bound to multiply. The problems involved here have already been considered in part in the chapter on the Private Secretary, but they present themselves now in much more complex form. Here it is not a matter of personal relations between a single executive and one or two immediate subordinates. It concerns the relations among many officials whose work, all essential and in large measure independent, interlaces in various points. It is most important that all should have clearly in mind where one man's duty leaves off and another's begins. Within the organization there is no place for a No Man's Land; neither can there be overlapping of lines. That business progresses best in the rapidly shifting conditions of today which is able not merely to mobilize its full power of men and resources, but is both able and ready to readjust its "line-up" from time to time on the basis of scientific analysis.

A Test of Executive Capacity

The readjustment and perfecting of the business "line-up" can proceed more expeditiously if the executive capacity of the men involved receives a more definite appraisal. For this purpose the following test has been devised. In making the appraisal, after each question place in the column at the right the proper letter as per the following rating scale;

I. Have I located the real opportunities afforded by my position? (Am I off on side lines, looking for the surface errors of subordinates?)

2.

3.

4.

In turning these opportunities into realities did I surround myself with
able men? (Do surround myself with a lot of "cheap" second raters,
so that I can have a better chance to be the whole thing myself?)
Has each of these men his job and the authority to proceed?
fusion exist, with repeated calls coming in for instructions?)
Are my subordinates securing from me constructive directions?
find me a putterer over details, a laggard whose non-decisions holds
them up?)

PLANNING

6.

(Does con-
(Do they

(Does

5. Are difficulties foreseen and their effects provided for in advance?
"First one thing and then another" continually trip me up?)
When new projects are decided upon, do I draw up careful outlines of
procedure? (Am I busy settling things piece meal as they come?)
Am I doing every day some real constructive thinking? (Am I too har-
assed and worried to concentrate?)

7.

8. Do I push the work? (Does the work push me?)

INCENTIVES

9.

10.

II.

12.

(Do I belittle

Do I appreciate generously the results obtained by others?
their efforts and push myself into the limelight?)
Am I developing and training men constantly? (Am I always threatening
discharge and telling how incompetent my co-workers are?

Can I keep faith with my organization, permitting each man his due free-
dom and reasonable leeway for errors? (Do break the spirit of my
men by arbitrarily taking things out of their hands?)

Am I regarded as a friend and co-worker? (Have I dwarfed and an-
tagonized men, and instead of being a dispenser of the fair deal been
a dispenser of "bunk"?)

SUPERVISION

13.

14.

15.

16.

Is my judgment based upon the sound data which vitally affects my busi-
ness? (Such sound data lacking, am I left in the dark?)

Have these sound data been properly summarized and reduced to graphic
form for my use? (Does the slow wading through much irrelevant matter
to get what I want cause me more bother than help?)

Do I recognize excellent results when such are produced? (Am I a rule-
of-thumb man without carefully worked out standards?)

Have I a close grip on the essentials of my position? (Am I more filled
with suspicions than facts?)

Test Chart 20. Sixteen Tests of Executive Capacity

CHAPTER XXV

CO-OPERATION

You will never have the right team-work unless each man is looking after all of his own job-and all the others know that he is.-JOHN N. WILLYS, President, Willys-Overland Company.

The Placing of First Things First

The rules of the business game, in their more carefully wrought out state represented by the principles of scientific management, require the addition of a second element before the organization attains its desired smoothness of operation. This element is co-operation.

It is true that in this wonderful machine age the emphasis within large-scale establishments appears to be placed upon mechanical elements. As a rule much is heard of high-speed steel, multiple-spindle drills, automatic lathes, electric resistance welding, internal transportation systems, plant layouts, control boards, and similar items which comprise the mechanics of industry, but not a great deal is said concerning the equally important but more elusive elements encountered when men in their efforts are bound together. Yet it is significant to note that when a really big executive surveys a really big task-as did Mr. Stettinius in the following typical instance— his emphasis is somewhat differently placed.

In the year 1915, the firm of J. P. Morgan and Company was appointed commercial agent for the British Government. Edward R. Stettinius was taken from his position as president of the Diamond Match Company and appointed the company's representative. The Morgan offices were overrun not with hundreds, but thousands of people anxious to sell