WHY DO WE WORK?

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 35, 11 February 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

WHY DO WE WORK?

ByC. J. Adcock

IT sounds very like asking the obvious, doesn't it? I can hear countless readers replying, "Because I have to," and wondering what in the world anyone could consider as an alternative reason.

Of course it is economic necessity primarily that motivates our daily toil, but it is much more complicated than that. For instance, many people work who could quite comfortably retire. Greed? Well, perhaps.

Docs it matter why ive work, anyhow ? Would it be better for us to get 011 with the work anil never mind the reason why? I think not. The reason why is all-important. Unless we are quite clear about our goal we may waste time by unnecessary work or fail to put enough effort forward to produce the worth-wliile results. If we don't know what we want, how are we to know when we have got it? And if employers don't know the real motives that prompt their employees, how are they to provide adequate incentive? A matter of £ s d, did you say? I don't know. I was suggesting to a farmer to-day that if he liked to pool his farm with a dozen or so others and consent to work on co-operative lines, he could greatly increase his income or considerably shorten his hours, or a little of both. He wouldn't hear of the idea. And why? Because he doubted whether there would be any increased income? Not at all. Because he preferred to keep his own farm and be independent. I quite approved. If he valued his independence more than another £100 a year or a weekly holiday he did quite right to turn down the suggestion. But notice that he wanted more than mere money. His farm was to him not merely an income producer. It was hie guarantee of independence, the visible symbol of his social security. And more than that. It, in itself, was his chief interest in life. His life had been woven around it —he looked upon it as a larger part of himself—as much a part of him as hie clothes.

Do you dare tell me now that money is the only motivation for work? Many an .employer has made the same mistake. Many an employer has offered more money to get more work —and he has got it for a while. But he quickly finds that there is a very definite limit to the stimulation consequent upon higher wages. Sometimes indeed there is no

response. The men think their security best served by sitting tight. But after money has failed to elicit more work, other motives have succeeded and with less strain on the men. The Vories Experiment Thirty-three years ago William Vories obtained a teaching post in the remote Japanese village of Omi-Hachiman, but was dismissed for using his spare time to teach Christianity. Instead of accepting good offers from Kyoto he remained in Omi-Hachiman. A number of students rallied round him, and with their help and his own ability a« an architect, he founded the Omi Brotherhood. This

organisation now consists of some 300 workers and does business to the extent of a quarter of a million pounds, a year. Two things about this organisation seem striking. In the first place, there is no attempt to remunerate according to work done. A chief executive and a caretaker

may both draw the same salary. In the second place the experiment is strikingly successful. In a land where the 12-hour day and seven-day week are all too common, the Omi Brotherhood is able to give its worker?, a seven-hour day and a five-and-a-half-day-wcek. In addition t.liey have much better wages than •the average in Japan and are able to use up surplus profits on social wor.v.

It will be thought that a strong religious motive is the secret of it all. Not so. At least the industrial work is not carried out to raise funds for religious purposes. Katlier the living of a harmonious useful life is the religion. In other words, the workers are not in the brotherhood for the glory of God, but because it gives them the fullest satisfaction of their natural impulses. Control is democratic. Everyone is able to feel his own" importance. There is security for all. There is pride in the commercial success of the brotherhood and in i's humanitarian work. These satisfactions seem to more than com-

pensate for the absence of large salaries as a stimulus for efficiency. It would seem, therefore, that the Western capitalist might profitably give the matter some consideration. Analysing Motives Let us now try to disentangle the many motives that keep the average worker plugging away at his job. First of all he needs money to purchase his ordinary requirements. To get this money he will make a reasonable effort to satisfy his employer. If by working harder he can secure more money he will increase his efforts within limits,

but only at the cost of increased strain. To get further production we must either gain his co-operation in working for the immediate end, apart from monetary or other reward, or we must facilitate the means of production. This latter can be done either by attention to the physical environment, as better lighting or layout, etc., or by attention to the social environment.

By improving the social environment I do not mean the provision of sport facilities, concerts, entertainments, etc. I mean the immediate social environment in which the man works—his relations to his superiors and the men working alongside him. This may be far more important than mere physical matters. The Western Electric Company made a study of five young women engaged in independent routine assembly work. They worked together for five years, and were paid on a system of group piecework. Detailed records of physical and social conditions were made, and compared with fluctuations in output. There proved to be no correlation between variation in physical conditions, but a very definite ratio between production and the interest the girls developed in one another. Only when friendships began to be formed did production really rise, and a spurt in production invariably meant the development of a new friendship. The reason for this was probably twofold: on the one hand a more comfortable social atmosphere, on the other hand the stimulation of the individual desires by

social sympathy. One can always better race with the encouraging approval of other people, approving friends one will attend feat that one would funk alone, - •• i§|p|§ Scope for the Ego ■

But this is not all. More importot than all this is the development of'fljjfes individual ego. We must all wtitfi ' our striving for importance in way, if it is only by vying witk friends in humility. I said of the faiij(|l§£ that he regarded the farm almost a* iwfryfjs of himself. He had woven it into ego. Praise for his farm was praise him. It satisfied his sense of hia owafU importance. The old craftsman to ;ret a similar satisfaction out work. He could delight in what be produced. It is difficult to get sort of thrill out of dipping choeoletesfl or adding one nut to a motor car. it is difficult to feel much pride factory which may dismiss one the fifl. $ lowing week, or where the foreman fi® constantly prodding the slacker looking for an ever-increasing flesh. f'w.

That is the weakness of modern lumscale pr- duction. It does not norajfe give sufl'.cient scope to this impulse. ■ it < ••1 do so, and when it does it nmr ha." ' .uniely. It increases profits Ml so i.iiows higher wages to be paid, IjjS it gives the employees something better than higher wages. It gives them direct satisfaction from their work. Que frequently finds a factory with lover wages inore popular with the men rtiijgf another with much higher wages, eria? the reason is usually to be the social atmosphere within the factory. In some way or another, then, it is sect* Gary to give workmen a direct intocitS in the company or organisation -fcr which they work. They must be life, to identify themselves with it, to fed a pride in its success and feel that tkey themselves are contributing towards tint success. They cannot do that if Vjjg'4 are wandering from job to job. Tfer must have security. And they must art feel they are increasing profits juat to bloat the boss' bank account. The Oai Brotherhood could increase productiqi without any immediate share in it, bgt it is doubtful if they could have beat

persuaded to do «o if the surplus profits had gone exclusively to several .men already over-rich. In the case of a private company, therefore, it is essentia]'! to any such scheme as this that incmted I profits be used in some manner that vj]l appeal to the men. Many Motives We see, then, that although most ofX us work in the first place becauso yri'have to, we go on working for a variety of motives: to increase security, -to;: gratify our lust for power and impair"' tance, because we have come to parij&f a common social end. These latter emsiderations may, with others, govern tie actual rate of our working without vn&i. direct connection with monetary retnra.

We may in certain circumstances quite forget the connection between oar incomes and our work and strive to kei more efficient in the latter without UJ thought of a reaction upon wagea «r° salary. The average man, given £o*l conditions, will strive to do his he* work just for the satisfaction of. doing good work. He doesn't like to feel inferior. And. after all, he wanta more

income just for the came reason. Hie

must keep up with, the Joneses!