The principles of industrial welfare / by John Lee.

  • Lee, John, 1867-1928
Date:
1924
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The principles of industrial welfare / by John Lee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    36/128 page 22
    CHAPTER III THE SEARCH FOR THE FOUNDATIONS What has happened, therefore, is an entire change in the relationship between employer and employed. The factory laws laid down certain conditions as minima; they were a gradual development. The realization of the new principles of industrial welfare has taught us that these minima are insufficient, not insufficient merely from the point of view of moral responsibility, but in- sufficient from the point of view of effectivity. Thus a conception of industrial welfare has become current which recognizes that in the relationship which industry demands between those who direct industrial functions and those who perform industrial functions, there is a recognition of the need for efficiency which brings with it a search for the true foundations of efficiency. It has been rather disastrous to the development of industrial welfare that it should have been emphasized on what may be called the “ benevolent ” side. Doubtless the initial stimulus in many cases has arisen from the benevolent and kindly spirit. It is also true that it has arisen from the recognition, and occasionally the timid recognition, of the solidarity of the workers in the last decade. Nevertheless, it is true that the conception of industrial welfare, at its roots, is the recognition of the indisputable fact that to cultivate industrial welfare is to cultivate efficiency. Nor is it a matter for regret that this search for efficiency should begin at the top. The world has had enough of revolutionary movements which began in forceful demands from below. If we are face to face with a movement which receives its stimulus from the end where responsibility has been placed, it may be that a new spirit of leadership is being born before our eyes.
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