🚀 go-pugleaf

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Message #273 - TQM in Industry (Reese)  (Rcvd)
   Date: 05-27-94 04:47:00
   From: Eric Bohlman
     To: Tom Glenn
Subject: Why Fear?
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@MSGID: 11:202/299 538418ea
@REPLY: 11:202/299 537facf6
@PID: RA 2.01 80219
Dale Worley wrote:

 > My guess would be that it is beneficial to the company to
 > have
 > workers
 > be afraid.  I think that low-skill manufacturing companies
 > are under
 > immense price competition right now, and any technique which
 > makes
 > workers work harder and keeps down wage demands is going to
 > be
 > important for the survival of the company.

Except that all evidence shows that the assumptions on which this strategy is
based are wrong.  Fear leads to increased input, not better output.  Workers
who are afraid may well maximize the amount of effort they put into getting a
given task done, but this is the same thing as minimizing the amount tasks
that get done for a given amount of effort.  In other words, fear motivates
people to spin their wheels harder, not to go further.

It is true that a psychological principle called the Yerkes-Dodson law says
that UP TO A POINT, increased anxiety leads to increased arousal which
improves performance.  But beyond that point (which is lower than most people
think, and which is particularly low for tasks that involve any complexity),
anxiety reduces performance.  Furthermore, most workers are already working
as hard as they can, and any real improvements in productivity can only come
from changes in management (exaggerated example: let's suppose the task is to
move a large and heavy box across the floor, and the boss insists that this
be done by two workers, one on each side of the box, and each pushing.  If
it's necessary to move the box faster, the solution isn't for each worker to
push harder, it's for them to both get on the same side of the box (which is
called "insubordination" unless the boss comes to his senses)).

In short, fear may lead to greater work image (people look busier) but not to
greater work.