Is There a Business Psychology?

...But the name has now been firmly established and we must make the best of it...

...Human kindness has gone out of fashion to a large extent, and the monstrous proposition that "you cannot mix business and sentiment" has become axiomatic...

...that they want just the same comforts and con- veniences and securities and advantages as he has, neither more nor less...

...And yet once this initial effect had departed, an effect heightened by the superb scenic investiture given the opera by Mr...

...And Puccini, strive as he might, never could reach beyond his first instinctive outbursts...

...It is something he ought to know already...

...What is the reason for Puccini's failure to sustain his youth- ful creative vigor...

...e earch Have you never seen the anxious night Sweeping away the dusty clouds With frantic haste, when she has lost, Amid the piled disorder of her floor, The shining coin she stole from day...

...But that there is need for such the business world amply testifies...

...No one can follow this course and escape the degradation...

...De Luca, and Mr...

...A man cannot spend half a lifetime in concentrating upon himself and his own advancement and then be able all at once to appreciate and under- stand the problems of the very men over whose heads he has climbed--much less ameliorate their condition...

...These two works bore the stamp of a strikingly individual talent...

...His Boh~me, unlike Verdi's Traviata, was to be succeeded by no Aida or Otello or Falstaff...

...Business men have come very largely to believe in a certain something which I have called "business psychology," and now speak of and make a show of studying what they call the "psychology" of employees, as though some new qualities had been discovered in them not previously known, and some new field of ex- ploration opened up...

...And the reason why so many employees regard "getting together" with suspicion and distrust and are so reticent on such occasions is that they cannot for the life of them un- derstand why the "boss" should not already know that their needs and desires are exactly the same as his own...

...December 8, I926 THE COMMONWEAL I29 IS THERE A BUSINESS PSYCHOLOGY...

...They are not difficult to ascertain, being for the most part precisely the same as those he himself harbors...

...And I will tell them the reason in the words of Mr...

...It is to these I would address myself, and indeed to that very vague alarm spoken of, which has its roots in something very fundamental in human nature...

...Turandot, despite the masterly conducting of Mr...

...It is the Puccini of Boh~me who will remain...

...The younger man had in his early work drained the cup of his genius to the bottom, and his was to be no ever-renewlng flagon...

...And any one of such conclusions cannot but leave them dis- satisfied and with a rankling sense of injustice and wrong...

...With The Girl of the Golden West, the decline had become patent, and the three short operas which followed showed only a slight return to the old creative fire...

...But is there anywhere in sight an executive who does not do this very thing every day of his life, or a young business man who is not sedulously cultivating that very form December 8, I926 THE COMMONWEAL I3I of degradation under the belief that it is the true way to greatness...

...In the music, moreover, there is a gorgeousness of color which often blinded one to the essential emptiness underneath...

...The one thing so many executives utterly fail to do is to treat the employee as an ordinary human being...

...It is the eternal striving on the .part of the employer z3o THE COMMONWEAL December 8, 1926 or executive to understand something in the mind of the employee that appears perpetually to puzzle him...

...It is sheer nonsense to expect, as so many business men seem to, that it is possible deliberately and steadfastly to pur- sue one course, and then reap the rewards that can only be enjoyed by those who have followed quite the opposite course...

...Possibly enough, the formidable title has something to do with this con- fusion of thought, and if we simply spoke about "soul- ology" or "mindology" we might get along better...

...One asks oneself with a sense of consternation how it comes about that the people wlao have been entrusted with such power for good or for evil can appear to be so insensible to the desires and the necessities of their fellow men and women...

...The realm of commerce, which might be supposed to be an intensely human preoccupation, dealing as it does with the affairs of every-day life, is somehow or other assumed to lie outside of the influence of the natural emotions altogether, and to call for a branch of science to itself, together with a whole new code of classifications to cover its requirements, tag and sort out its species and varieties, and furnish it with guiding principles and a sense of direction...

...who has cultivated his superiors and connived at injus- tice and cruelty for "political reasons," and who has learned to harden his heart because it paid to do so) what he will have to do to get in touch and in sym- pathy with his fellows again is simply to start an equally laborious process of unmaking and rebuilding...

...Sera~n, the admirable impersonations of Mine...

...It is not of and to this gentleman I am speaking (for I really do not know how to handle his case) but to those in the managing class who are actuated by a very real desire to do something for those over whom they have control, and who are so full of vague alarm that the solidarity of their position is in some mysterious way or other endangered...

...but my purpose at present is to show that such is not neces-sarily the case, and that the prevailing attitude of the business mind in this connection is fraught with some danger both to the business man himself and to those committed by Providence to his care...

...Much if not all of the foregoing is, I am aware, open to the modern objection of being "destructive criticism...

...It does indeed seem strange...

...Just what was happening to the psychology of em-ployees ten or fifteen years ago I do not quite know, and very little is recorded of their "reactions" except when they reacted violently (as they seemed to do with disturbing frequency) and had to be suppressed at all costs, or reacted unexpectedly and prematurely into graves...

...rive of a financial paper on the pass that things had come to, expressing, with a kind of quaint wistfulness, a fear that it was really harder for young men to get ahead today than it was when he was young...

...There is no help for it, painful though it may seem...

...Urban, by the magnificent handling of the stage by Mr...

...We are all psychologists nowadays, in much the same sense as Mr...

...But even then they had their "psyche" thick upon them although nobody suspected it...

...If the single item of melodic inspiration be omitted, it might well be proclaimed that Puccini has here reached his apotheosis...

...JAMES E. TomN...

...Arthur Balfour said in the British House of Commons some years ago that we were all Socialists...

...By Jo B. M. CLARK T HERE is possibly no more abused word in the present-day vocabulary of commerce than the blessed word "psychology," which bids fair to achieve in the sphere of business the fame enjoyed by "Mesopotamia" in the theological world of yesterday or the day before...

...In Manon Lescaut and Boh~me, Puccini probably said all he really had to say...

...It was not in any spirit of jest that Herbert Spencer wrote: "Nothing is more degrading than to seek to impose your will upon another...

...The point is too obvious to need laboring...

...Jerltza, Mr...

...That is why so much is heard about "getting together" with employees, a thing for which there should be little or no need (in the sense in which it is commonly done) in a properly regulated establishment...

...However limited their knowledge of psychology might be, so long as they acted with human kindness they got re-sults...

...what "they" will like, and what is good for "them," and how "they" will react, and so on--on matters that have every appearance of being childishly simple and obvious...

...Is it not that the man's genius was purely instinctive, that his intellect never equaled his emotions...

...The most successful employers of that day (as they are today) were those who regarded their employees as human beings and shaped their policies accordingly...

...They were on lines that were fundamentally sound...

...Suspicion and hate," Pro- fessor Robinson goes on, "are much more congenial to our natures than love, for very obvious reasons in this world of rivalry and common failure...

...The opinion prevails among business men," wrote an eminent American psychologist not long ago, "that the psychology of business is different from other psychology...

...Youth writes it knows not why nor how, but the mature man needs to turn to a conscious internal spirit which the flame of his youth must feed, but which must guide his way into other, deeper paths...

...For there is talk of "them" and "they" that sounds strange and unreal...

...For this the world will ever be his debtor...

...PUCCINI'S TURANDOT By GRENVILLE VERNON T HE production of Turandot, Puccini's posthumous opera, at the Metropolitan Opera House, bears from the popu- lar standpoint every mark of a pronounced success...

...Which stated bluntly may be understood to mean that we are all anxious to get while the get- ting is good of whatever may be going in the way of credit for innovations...

...That the affair is not without its humorous side is seen in such cases as that of the president of one of the largest and wealthiest Canadian corporations who recently retired from active service, and who un-bosomed himself in pessimistic vein to the representa...

...Then followed Tosca and But- terfly, and in these there was a masterful reworklng of the melodic materials which had gone before...

...Every business man who is worth his salt feels called on to talk about the "psychology" of his subordinates or his employees as the case may be...

...At the risk of being hackneyed, I would like to quote the old biblical admonition about the impossibility of serving God and Mammon, the profundity of which is far greater than is commonly supposed...

...An audi- ence which packed the theatre greeted each curtain with en-thusiastic applause and even with cheers, and it is understood that the ticket speculators have not been slow to take the hint...

...It is not for nothing that they are out of sympathy with, and have lost the approbation of, their fellows...

...His true music was and will ever remain the expression of youthful passion, a passion charged with the pathos of inexperience, fresh, sincere, spon- taneous...

...Apparently what the business man who has fol-lowed such a course will have to do to keep abreast of the times (the type that has genuinely believed that business and sentiment could not be mixed and has stifled his natural impulses and emotions accordingly...

...When pressed for reasons, they are usually found voicing the opinion that the rank and file have not worked so well or so hard as they themselves and do not deserve what the employers have acquired...

...The average individual rarely mistakes human kind- ness when it is extended in his direction...

...Writing some-where about the unsuitability of the business man to look after the welfare of others, he says: "As though the man who has been accustomed to look after Num- ber One all his life can suddenly turn round and think about the other fellow," or words to that effect...

...But as a matter of fact, business psychology is simply good psychology applied to business problems...

...that poignant cry that so frequently denotes the fear of criticism of any kind at all...

...Bada, the stentorian singing of Mr...

...or that he is trying to bluff them and put them off with less than they deserve, or reconcile them to do something they do not like...

...It is not only strange, but disquieting...

...Can it be that they them- selves are out of touch with, or beyond the appeal of, our common humanity...

...At the present time, however, such a line of conduct is reckoned in some quarters too antiquated to ~e of much use...

...Our hot de-fense of our ideas and beliefs does not indicate an established confidence in them," writes Professor Rob- inson in the work already quoted, "but often half dis- trust, which we try to hide from ourselves, just as one who suffers from bashfulness oitsets his sense of in-feriority and awkwardness by rude aggression...

...This is really saying in effect that there is just one kind of human nature and that its workings are the same wherever you go...

...It seems strange," writes Professor James Harvey Robinson in his famous Mind in the Making, "that human beings should have to be exhorted to under-stand human conduct...

...This to a certain extent was honest, although it came rather strangely from the lips of one who had not, so far as could be discovered, done as much as lift a finger to make it easier for those who were to follow...

...Yet there is really little or no excuse at this time of day for harboring delusions on the subject...

...George Ber- nard Shaw, making due apologies for the introduction of such an authority in such a place...

...If he does not know, and cannot find out, his case must be sad in-deed, and it does not appear probable that anything one can do or say will furnish the needed illumination...

...Lauri-Volpi, is but another in that long llst of Italian operas, effective for awhile, and then forgotten...

...It was no doubt this lack of understanding of com- mon things that led the head of an important Ameri- can firm not long ago to pronounce against the whole tribe of industrial engineers, business psychology ex- perts, and specialists in industrial relations, and to con- dude (quite unwarrantably) that the large sums spent on such people were for the most part thrown away...

...In his polyphonic writing for the choruses in particular, the composer showed a mastery he perhaps never attained before, while his economy of means and his certainty of touch were alike extraordinary...

...The true Puccini remained the youthful Puccini...

...And that is the plain truth of the matter, unpalatable though it may be...

...The results of this mistaken attitude might be imagined to be laughable rather than dangerous, and harmless enough in the main...

...If understanding of purely operatic e~ectiveness and tech- nical mastery toward that end were enough to give life to a work, Turandot might face the future unafraid...

...And when he does stumble across real knowledge in this way, his first impulse is usually to cry out at the cost...

...yon Wymetal, by the admirable singing of the chorus, and the effective work of the principal artists, what remained was precisely thls--an utter emptin~s...

...who has fought always and only for his own hand...

...And bewildered by his per- sistent ignoring of, or failure to comprehend, what seems to them so obvious, they conclude (perhaps rather hastily) that he has not really got their welfare at heart at all...

...His complaint really was that the results seemed alto- gether out of proportion to the cost, inasmuch as their recommendations in the main were simple and obvious --so simple and obvious indeed that it is not until an "expert" at a large fee tells him about them that the business man, in many cases, can grasp them...

...Such a task is indeed difficult of accom-plishment...

...Be it noted I am not dealing at the moment with that very numerous class of employers who really do believe that their subordinates are not entitled to the privileges that they themselves enjoy, and who wax indignant if such be suggested...

...The reasoning of many business men seems to be based on the assumption that the employee is a kind of strange creature whose nature has to be carefully studied and his ways and habits tabulated and classified, just as though he were built on entirely different lines to those who are setting out to solve his and their own problems...

...It then became evident that the miracle worked by Verdi, who with each new group of operas discovered for himself a new soul, was not to be looked for in his successor...

...The more one hears the more is one reluctantly compelled to believe that the answer to this question is in the affirmative...

...The an-swer appears to be either that the motives are mis-taken by those they are intended to benefit, or that their direction is wrong...

...He wants to know what the employee is thinking, to ascertain his ambitions and aspirations...

...To the suggestion that if employees could be imagined as working as well and as hard as employers and to the same advantage our plight as a community would be even worse than it is, since we would have nothing but leaders and no rank and file at all, the executive has nothing to say except to convey, by implication rather than the spoken word, that the rank and file are lacking in some qual- ity innate in himself which they can never even hope to acquire...

...that he does not consider them fit to enjoy the life he enjoys...

...Never had Puccini constructed a score with greater shrewdness, and never had he worked up his dimaxes to more outwardly overwhelm- ing effect...

...It is difficult to know how to tell an employer or a man-ager, himself a human being, how to be human...

...It did really appear as if the leaven of conscience was at work, in spite of the strenuous efforts of the rep-resentative of the financial paper to explain it away otherwise...

...Why, then, should so man~ employers and executives have to strive so hard to make their motives dear...

...One has only to sit in at a meeting of directors, department heads, or executives of almost any kind and hear them discussing projected improvements or innovations to become aware early in the proceedings that many of these men actually do not seem to realize just what the needs of employees really are...

...And yet he would be a daring prophet who would assert that twenty, or even ten years from now, Turandot will still find itself in the Metropolitan's repertory, in a llst which certainly will include Boh~me and Tosca and Butterfly...