CURING LABOUR ILLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 108, 9 May 1928, Page 9

CURING LABOUR ILLS.

THE MIND OF THE WORKER. DR. MAYO'S INVESTIGATION. (Prom Our Own Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, April 12. A new cure for Labour ills is being developed at Harvard University, and if the research now being conducted by Mr. G. Elton Mayo is fruitful," strikes will be practically eliminated. In addition, drudgery and monotony may be eliminated from all jobs. Dr. Mayo not only proposes to inject happiness and contentment into all tasks but also to set up a new standard whereby each person may know just what kind of a job he is best equipped to handle, and, therefore, will be most successful in doing. The Harvard savant told students of the University at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the graduate school of business administration department, that he believes the solution of his problem lies in a combination of psychological and physiological factors, which he is investigating at first hand through observation in factories and workshops. Dr. Mayo said he had reached these conclusions:^ —(1) If you find your work so dull that it is necessary "for you to employ your leisure time to gain amusement, then something is wrong with the work; (2) That most strikes develop from discontent and "gloomy reflection," which in turn is caused principally by fatigue. The "strike attitude," according to Dr. Mayo, is not determined so much by experience as by habitual reflection. If work is continued after fatigue has set in, it will be accompanied by pessimistic reflection, he said. Frequent rest periods, especially in work of a repetitive nature, are recommended. (3) Arbitration courts are unsound because they are based on the assumption that the views of the employer and the'employee are diverse, which is false. Dr. Mayo believes that by delving into the mind of the worker it will be possible to ascertain the conditions which will keep him contented on the job. Preliminary tests in increasing rest periods for workers and more carefully organising the work have resulted in diminishing discontent among employees and a more efficient performance of duty.