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do this. But scientific management has tended to think mainly in terms of the large firms, and its formulae are over-elaborate for the typically small New Zealand concern. Moreover, it has been more successful in its treatment of production and organization than in its handling of personnel. Our investigation is concerned with the ordinary smallish New Zealand firm, with New Zealand conditions, and with the personnel function of management. We are interested in ascertaining what techniques of management are meeting with success, what experiments have been tried and found wanting, and, above all, the underlying attitudes of mind—if you like, the philosophy, even if it is not clearly or systematically formulated —which are all important. An investigation of this kind is not easy to carry out; but we believe that with the ■co-operation of managements results of general interest will eventually be obtained. Education Lecture courses on industrial psychology were delivered in the course of the year in Wellington, Christchurch, and Auckland. The enrolments in the three centres exceeded two hundred persons. In Wellington, in addition to the lecture course, a discussion -course on " The Will to Work " attracted a mixed group of factory-managers, foremen, •Government servants, and trade-unionists, and led to some interesting and often entertaining exchanges of views. In addition to these regular lecture courses, addresses have been given by invitation to a number of organizations. The bulletin, issued quarterly, has continued to receive a wide circulation. Now that peace has returned we hope to increase the size of the bulletin, and also to invite •contributions to its pages. Service During the year surveys and investigations were carried out, or other services performed, for nineteen firms and organizations. In addition, advice and information were supplied to thirty-eight other concerns in response to requests. The topics covered in the surveys and investigations are discussed under seven main headings. (1) The Recruitment of Labour. —At the present time many firms and other employing bodies are finding it hard to obtain the labour they require. This applies particularly to firms employing female and juvenile labour. A full investigation of this problem was •carried out for one large non-industrial organization, and a briefer investigation for one factory situated in a small town. In the latter case the problem was virtually insoluble except over the space of years, as the factory had grown too large for the town in which it was located. But even so we considered that some steps could be taken by the management to alleviate the position by making the work more attractive- in ways likely to appeal to prospective employees, and by taking steps to improve the social status of factory employment. in the other organization, where a fuller investigation was carried out, the main grievance of the existing workers and the main objection of prospective applicants reduced itself to the question of their status in the organization compared with that of the non-manual workers employed. There were very few complaints about workingconditions, which were, on the whole, good. There were a few justifiable complaints about amenities and some about the amount of lifting which had to be done in certain ■departments. But these did not constitute the main reason for the acute difficulties experienced by the concern in recruiting staff. In any large organization there are perhaps inevitably different grades of employee corresponding to differences of function performed. For instance, in a large industrial concern there are executives, office staff, perhaps laboratory staff, and both skilled .and unskilled workers. At the present time in New Zealand factories there may be no great differences in wages or conditions of employment between these grades. Differences in status however, are still emphasized in numerous minor ways, and these differences cause one class of work to be regarded as inferior. This sense of inferiority the attitude of persons to the job, and is a major factor in deterring recruits.

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