EGNILGES@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Ed Nilges) (04/12/89)
In article <850@uceng.UC.EDU>, dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny) writes: >From Henry Ford Sr., "My Life and Work," p. 86 (1922): > >"None of our men are "experts." We have most unfortunately found it >necessary to get rid of a man as soon as he thinks himself an >expert--- because no one ever considers himself expert if he really >knows his job. A man who knows a job sees so much more to be done than >he has done, that he is always pressing forward and never gives up an >instant of thought to how good and how efficient he is. Thinking >always ahead, thinking always of trying to do more, brings a state of >mind in which nothing is impossible. The moment one gets into the >"expert" state of mind a great number of things become impossible." This quote is offensive. First of all, it is sexist since it assumes that all of Ford's employees are "men". More importantly, it ne- glects to mention that Henry Ford Sr. was a vicious and crazy man whose goons enforced industrial discipline by beating up workers on his assembly line (see David Halberstam's excellent book, THE RECKONING). It is true that a false notion of "expertise" can prevent one from trying things. Tom Peters writes: "From a senior software designer in a major computer company: 'It's the advent of the computer science degree. When we started, we had anthropologists, archaeologists, history majors and physicists doing software design. Now we have "experts". Is it any wonder we don't get anywhere?' " But Ford was attempting to do more than just dismiss self-satisfied expertise. He was dismissing (metaphorically and probably in actual- ity) engineers with enough experience to stand up to him or his management. Halberstam documents what this did to Ford as a company in the '30s: no new ideas came out after the model A, and the company was rescued by wartime contracts. Engineers with ideas for change have either to be very brave, or else encouraged by management to stand up for their own ideas. This is especially important with issues that do not make a direct contribution to the bottom line: safety of workers and consumers is often a concern of the engineer but not of her management. Many creative engineers are fresh out of school and it's great to see them try things that "can't be done". Many other creative engineers are seasoned women and men who have seen things done wrong many years and yearn to do them right for a change. Because of idiotic quotes like this, the latter group encounters age discrimination. I recommend Ernest D. Liebermann's excellent book "Unfit to Manage!" published last year by McGraw Hill. Liebermann, with a graduate degree in engineering, worked for several years as a programmer and documents the sort of management practices (such as forcing the programmers to work in isolation from users and machines) that have impacted productivity and created the "software crisis". He's also published "Rebuild America by Rebuilding Labor" in the New York Times' business section for Jan 8 1989. A quote: "Meanwhile, professional engineers, who are vital to industrial success, are treated as obsolete 5 years after their graduations." Indeed, the IEEE had to forbid its advertisers a few years ago to state "no more than x years of experience" and suchlike verbiage: this, however, it is still a common practice in commercial newspapers to specify a maximum number of years of 3 to 5. Dan, I know you meant well by posting this quote. But be advised of what sort of man Ford was really like and what he is really saying. Edward Nilges O FREUNDE, NICHT DIESE TONEN! SONDERN, LASST UNS ANGHENEMEHRE ANSTIMMEN, UND FREUDENVOLLERE! - Beethoven