than would otherwise be the case, and as a result a smaller force will be required. This, however, does not mean that there should not be a certain number of private secretaries for the most important executives, for the valuable time of these men can be saved by the many things a secretary can do for them. Section heads do not need secretaries and should not have them. It is not uncommon to find minor executives with private secretaries who draw almost as much salary as their principal.

Again a central filing section can be much better managed than small groups of files scattered throughout the office. The material will be kept in better order, the work more economically done, and in general much better service will be given. This, of course, does not refer to the private files of the chief executive which may contain much material that should not be in the general file.

A central computing department will often be found to be a distinct advantage. Work on adding machines, comptometers, computing machines, and so forth, requires trained operators, and the difference in output between them and persons who only work at the machines sporadically, or for a short period each day, is about four to one. If there is any computing work that must be done in the other departments, it can be handled in the same manner as dictation by sending an operative from the computing section to such departments.

Stock-keeping at present is usually centralized even in offices that have little centralized control otherwise.

Mimeographing, multigraphing, and other duplication work is also much better handled by a central department than in isolated sections.

When these various activities are centralized and in operation there will still be a certain number of departmental clerks remaining, but in their case the office manager will still have control as to who shall perform the work.

By his standardization of work the office manager will

also develop better methods of performing each clerical operation; he should, therefore, prescribe the methods to be used and have the workers trained in their performance. This will result in an equally high standard of work throughout the office, a condition not usually found in offices where this is not the practice.

Finally, the office manager through his control or planning room will actually control the production of the entire clerical staff. Standards will be set, tasks will be assigned and controlled with the same precision and definiteness as in the scientifically managed factory.

With the office thus organized and operated, its real

Figure 6: Chart showing relationship of office to other major departments

of a business

character as a major function of business at once becomes evident as its capacity for connecting production and sales is immensely increased. Such an office can, in addition, be economically operated, but it requires a high-grade executive as manager.

THE OFFICE AS A LINKING ACTIVITY OF BUSINESS

A consideration of the three main activities mentioned in an earlier chapter will show that clerical work permeates each and every activity in business, and therefore the office is inseparably bound up with all business activities. If all this clerical work is regarded as a mere heterogeneous mass of duties, the task of controlling them may well seem im

possible, but if regarded as the linking, connecting or coordinating function in production and distribution, the possibility of their control is immediately perceptible. It naturally follows that it should function with the least amount of effort, which in turn means that it should be under the exclusive charge of a specialist who has given his entire attention to the conduct of clerical activities if only from the view-point of regarding them as linking factors in production and distribution. To place a person in the position of manager of works or sales, who had not been trained in the work or had not made it his special study, would obviously be an economic waste. But it is equally so to endeavor to have the office function performed as a side line by an individual not trained in it and who has no special interest in it, no matter how eminently fitted he may be to perform his own individual specialty.

In short, the purpose of the office is to furnish clerical service to all in the business who may have need of it. This, as we have seen, is not only an economically useful service, but considering our present system of production and distribution, an economically indispensable one.

WHAT SIZE OFFICE SHOULD HAVE A MANAGER?

The same general principles apply to small offices of all kinds, though, of course, the control machinery cannot be as elaborate.

I would set the minimum size of an office which can afford to have a manager whose sole duty it is to control clerical functions, as one containing 50 clerks. Offices with a smaller force than this can use the same principles, but the control should be delegated to an executive who has also some other function to perform, preferably one the duties of which require his constant presence in the office.

VIII

ROUTINE OF OPERATION ESSENTIAL

TO CONTROL

Definition of the word routine, in scientific management. Why a routine is advisable. Why is a routine essential to control? A theoretical routine. A complicated routine. A simple order routine. Principles underlying the establishment of routines. Why a routine method increases initiative.

THE word routine has varying meanings which lack the conciseness of the definition of the word as given in the dictionary "a beaten path-a customary course of action or round of occupation." Technically there are but two meanings of the word which can be legitimately used in reference to office management. The first connotes the path a piece of work takes as it travels from one operation to another. The second denotes the performance of any particular duty in a customary manner and order of time.

In its first meaning the routine is a manifestation of the principle of the division of labor, which theoretically is assumed to result in a more economical performance of the work than would be the case if all the operations were performed by one person.

Most office work consists of routines of one sort or another, and so firmly is the above principle established that very little work is performed independently by one person or group of persons-most of it being subdivided into sets of operations. This division exists even in the simple task of the writing of a letter. How far this division of labor should be carried is a question to be decided in each case upon the particular circumstances and conditions involved. In some cases, for example, it is considered that the work of writing a letter should not be so minutely sub