INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21531, 31 December 1931, Page 13

INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY

CONTENTED AND USEFUL WORKERS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 24. A demonstration of the applications of industrial psychology to business was given yesterday by the National Institute of Industrial Psychology. Lord D’Abernpn, the president, said that heads of great businesses throughout the country and in distant parts of the Empire were reaping the benefit of the institute’s constructive suggestions, in the greater efficiency and contentment of their staffs, in increased output, and in lower production costs. The institute staff possessed, besides experience as psychologists, specific abilities and training which enabled them to diagnose and suggest remedies for inefficiency, friction, waste, and low output. What was perhaps more important, they could, in vocational guidance, offer reliable methods of choosing the men and women best fitted for the work to be done. “ The generation now growing up,” said Viscount D’Abernon, “must not be allowed to waste their ability and lose their enthusiasm by being forced into occupations for which they are unsuited The experience gained during the last few years has made possible the development of a technique which will ensure the chance of contented and useful working lives to thousands, as soon as public opinion awakens to the vital importance of this object. “ The extension of the institute's vocational guidance work to those who arc unable to pay the fees is severely curtailed owing to the absence of adequate financial support. Neither commerce nor industry can afford to neglect the help which science can give towards the solution of their problems.’’