INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3885, 28 August 1928, Page 18

INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY.

DR FISHER’S ADDRESS.

The members of the Dunedin Manufacturers"’ Association, at their annual meeting last week, had the pleasure of listening to an address on “ Social Work as a Factor in Industrial Efficiency,” by Dr Allan Fisher, professor of economics at the University of Otago. Dr Fisher said that however sharp the differences of opinion on some aspects of the organisation of industry, there would be general agreement that one of the main objectives of industrial organisation was the production of the most attractive and the most varied assortment of goods and services. With that object in view, it was right to pay much attention to natural resources, to the growth of knowledge, and the provision of adequate maternal equipment, but during the amazing mechanical advances of the last century there was a tendency to overlook the vital importance of industry and alertness, intelligence, and conscientiousness in the human factors of industry. To some extent this error has now been corrected. Though there are still no grounds for complacency, there is, in spite of some grumbling, fairly general recognition of the value of education and of regulations designed to ensure appropriate working conditions to those engaged in industry. There is still, however, one line of activity described in vague terms as social work, along -which there has not yet been so much progress, and the pioneers of which are still regarded in some quarters as visionaries and sentimentalists. Social work includes ail activities designed to stimulate and encourage that social organisation and social grouping which frequently under modern industrial conditions has difficulty in finding healthy and spontaneous expression. Everyone knows by experience that the effectiveness of his work depends in part on the harmonious social development not only of those aspects of life which are directly concerned with work, but of all the others as well. If our social relations are strained and we feel ourselves out of touch with our fellows, the quality of both life and work deteriorates. We cannot safely be treated, or treat ourselves, as mere machines. We are, in fact, living organisms, and no part of our life is without relevance to the rest. The difficulties now experienced in finding appropriate expression for social tendencies is partly the result of the greatly’ increased complexity of modern life, and nowhere in this more obvious than wh m we study manufacturing and industrial development. Nobody seriously wishes to return to the good old days, which in truth were usually very bad old days, but the changes of the last century, leading to the general substitution of the bare cash nexus - for the more human relationship which sometimes existed in earlier times, have brought with them serious problems in this connection.

It is common to deplore the lack of interest in his work displayed by the average wage-earner. Such complaints are no doubt exaggerated, but they have a real basis of fact, which can be partly explained by the tendency to discover the real interest of life outside those activities which are founded on nothing more substantial than the cash nexus. The remedy, if it can be found, will, no. doubt, be complex, but a partial remedy may be sought in a more lively realisation of the significance of ordinary social activities. For a long time this was not felt to be in any way the responsibility of those who claimed to control industry. Welfare work was at first merely the hobby’ of enthusiasts, and many mistakes -were made through insufficient appreciation of the necessity for real initiative and spontaneity. But many of the English experiments have now had a long enough history to show that the term experiment is no longer applicable, and the worth of welfare work may be regarded as definitely established. On the purely industrial side it has a valuable influence on the quality of work. In many instances it has reduced the waste which follows unnecessary changes in employment, the problem of labour turnover —a problem not much discussed in Nev? Zealand, chiefly because we have no precise information on the subject. The returns here are indirect, but none the less real.

_ Social and welfare work have sometimes been regarded with suspicion by trade unionists and wage-earners generally, but that is partly due to errors in some of the earlier experiments. Welfare work cannot be regarded as in any' way a substitute for managerial efficiency in the ordinary sense. The just claims of workers in the ordinary employment relationship cannot be compounded for by superficial welfare activities. Nor should welfare work be

encouraged with a view to undermining trade union organisation. Trade unions occupy an inevitable and important place in modern industrial life, and among the most successful welfare schemes have been those which frankly recognise this fact. There has. also been sometimes a tendency to. inquisitorial interference with the private affairs of employees. But despotism, even if benevolent, is bad, and policies which involved such interference would be even less successful in New Zealand than they • have been abroad. Chances of success are also killed by an atmosphere of charity, an air' of patronage. Few of us really’ like re-. ceiving favours. Patronage must Ue avoided, not merely because it is ini-. politic, but because it involves the neglect of the basic principles, positive eo-opera-. tion, and spontaneity, on which the value of all social organisation depends. It has been common in England and elsewhere to organise these activities on the basis of industrial units, and it wag a mistake to suppose that such organisa-. tion was confined to the very large units, of whom we sometimes heard a great deal. Many units, no larger than those in New Zealand, were working along similar lines. Here, too, something was. already being done, but there was a good deal to be said, especially in the light of the criticisms suggested, for organise ing here on a rather wider basis, with in-, dependent social organisations, for whose working no single industrial unit would be responsible. We were sometimes bet-, ter pleased if in our social activities we met people whom we had not known at; work, and initiative was more likely tq flourish in an atmosphere of independ-, cnce. A handy valuable work of tliis sort was being done in .Dunedin. At the Te Taumata Club there was a membership of 200, drawn from a wide variety of t'rades and industries, who were being assisted to organise for themselves healthy recreational and social activities such as are often difficult to discover without organisation in a modern indus-. trial city. For the maintenance and extension of such work money was, of course, essential, and the time was com-: ing when provision of money’ for such purposes would be regarded as much a normal part of business activity as the provision of efficient office equipment or the maintenance of good machinery. Of even more importance than money, or perhaps an essential prerequisite for itq supply’, is the faculty of creative iniagination. During the twentieth century, industrial leadership will be found iq those countries which widen their out-> look, endeavour to grasp the processes of industry as an organic whole, and realise more fully the significance for industry of the organisation and full expression of human and social qualities. On the motion of Mr J. Sutherland Ross a vote of thanks was accorded Dr Fisher for his address.