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EMPLOYMENT  PSYCHOLOGY

some  objective  record  of  the  employee’s  activities  is  necessary. ­
  Such  a  record  sets  a  limit  to  the  imagination  of
the  foreman,  and  also  provides  the  employment  manager
or  committee  with  a  concrete  and  reliable  basis  upon
which  to  rest  an  opinion.  The  present  chapter  is  devoted
largely  to  the  development  and  application  of  such  a
record.
In  order  to  standardize  the  basis  of  retention  and  in
order  to  put  this  basis  into  record  form,  it  is  necessary,
first  of  all,  to  make  a  comprehensive  estimate  of  the  factors
that  should  determine  retention;  in  other  words,  to  ascertain ­
  the  relative  importance  of  the  various  elements  entering ­
  into  the  relationship  of  the  employee  to  the  company
or  to  the  company’s  officers.
In  making  an  analysis  of  this  relationship  the  first
question  which  must  be  answered  is:  What  is  the  chief
purpose  of  the  organization  as  a  whole?
The  chief  function  of  an  industrial  organization,  aside
from  all  sentimental  considerations,  is  production.  It
matters  not  whether  that  production  is  in  the  form  of
manufactured  goods  or  in  the  form  of  service,  such  as
street-car  service;  it  is  still  production.
If  it  is  granted  that  the  chief  object  of  an  industry  is
to  produce,  then  the  foremost  and  most  important  factor
about  any  member  of  that  industry  is  his  comparative
productiveness.  In  estimating  the  value  of  the  worker  to
the  organization  the  first  question  should  be:  How  does
his  productiveness  compare  with  that  of  his  co-workers?
Obviously,  an  assembler  who  can  assemble  half  again  as
many  parts  in  a  day  as  another  man  is  the  more  valuable
of  the  two,  other  things  being  equal.
Productiveness  has  two  aspects,  quantity  and  quality,
which  naturally  supplement  each  other.  In  most  manu-