Abstract
IN his speech in the House of Commons on July 22 on the work of the Factory Department of the Ministry of Labour and National Service, Mr. Ernest Bevin paid a well-deserved tribute to works managers. The works manager, he asserted, deserves more recognition than he had yet received, and the country owes much to him in this War, as well as to the mines manager, for overcoming problems which no Government department, scientific worker or technician could have foreseen. There is a very close understanding between the Factory Department and the works managers, who have much in common, being trained, to a very large extent from the same personnel and thus understanding not only each others' problems but each others' approach to the problems. He drew a distinction, which he thinks industry will have to face in the future, between what he called the working directorates who understand the actual operations of the job and he put these working directorates in the same category as works managers. He also emphasized the value of the newly established Factory and Welfare Board as a safeguard against rigid bureaucratic methods. It gives industry and public service a proper place in this branch of administration, and Mr. Bevin thinks that a board of this character will remain a permanent feature to enable us to surmount the changes and difficulties which will arise in our industrial system in the vexed and difficult times ahead. Referring to the Department's policy in encouraging the establishment of personnel managers in the larger factories, he believes that too much is often imposed on the works manager in receiving deputations and like matters and being expected to run the works as well. Much specialization is essential in handling such problems, and the personnel manager as part of the executive is a great asset in large works. Referring to hours of work, Mr. Bevin said that production and mobilization of manpower have now reached a point when matters can be tightened up in respect of hours of work, and the trend of his speech indicated a welcome determination to deal firmly with the question of excessive hours, which are so important a factor in absenteeism and in low production.
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Functions of Works Managers. Nature 150, 229 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/150229c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/150229c0