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A.STOLYARENKO
__TITLE__ The PsychologyPROGRESS PUBLISHERS MOSCOW
[3] Translated from the Russian
Designed by Vadim Kuleshov
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[4]CONTENTS
Page
CHAPTER I. THE METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MANAGEMENT OF LABOUR COLLECTIVES............
7
1. 1. Marxism-Leninism as the Basis for the Solution of Problems of Management . ....................... 7
1. 2. A Psychological Analysis of Bourgeois Theories of
Management............................ 16
1. 3. Socialist Management as a New Type of Management..... 24
1. 4. The Significance of the Psychological Factor in Management. 31 CHAPTER II. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FORMATION AND FUNCTIONING OF GOALS IN THE SYSTEM OF MANAGEMENT .............................. 43
2. 1. Goals in the System of Management............... 43
2. 2. The Psychological Problems of Co-ordinating Goals in the
System of Management...................... 52
CHAPTER III. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ORGANISATION OF MANAGEMENT............................ 59
3. 1. The Psychological Factors in Organising Management..... 59
3. 2. The Ways of Optimising Organisational Management Structures on the Basis of Psychological Data............. 64
3. 3. The Psychology of the Individual in Management Organisation ................................. 75
3. 4. The Psychology of a Collective in an Organisation....... 101
3. 5. Workmanship and the Psychology of Its Formation...... Ill
3. 6. The Ergonomic Premises for Raising Labour Productivity . . 123 CHAPTER IV. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MANAGEMENT PROCESSES 140
4. 1. The Psychology of Centralisation and Decentralisation, of
Individual and Collective Responsibility in Management
Processes.............................. 140
4. 2. Psychology of Managerial Decisions............... 150
4. 3. Psychological Factors in Decision Implementation....... 159
4. 4. The Psychology of Manager Relations with Subordinates in
Management ............................ 165
4. 5. Interpersonal Relations Between Superiors and Subordinates
in the Process of Management.................. 176
CHAPTER V. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE EXECUTIVE'S PERSONALITY .............................. 187
5. 1. The Socio-Psychological Characteristics of the Political and
Moral Traits of the Executive's Personality........... 187
5. 2. The Psychology of the Executive's Competence........ 193
5, 3. The Executive's Abilities..................... 197
5. 4. The Psychology of Self-Education and Self-Control...... 202
[5] ~ [6] __NUMERIC_LVL1__ Chapter I __ALPHA_LVL1__ THE METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONSThe history of mankind provides numerous instances of different theories, concepts and ideas for managing society and its spheres, institutions, and cells. Of the numerous political and scientific movements for transformation of society not a single one failed to put forward its own conception of management. However, a theory can only be regarded as fruitful if it reflects the world correctly, if it reveals the laws inherent in it, if it considers the world in its development (not only the present but also tendencies connecting the past, the present and the future), in its interconnections, taking into account the objective conditions, i. e. those that do not depend on the will of men.
Everything in the world is governed by laws. Both nature and society have their own intrinsic laws. The category of law expressed the existence in nature and society of general, essential, and necessary cause-and-effect links in the mass of phenomena that at first glance seem to be accidental and unmotivated by causes. As long as men are ignorant of the laws which determine the life and development of society, they are blind toys at the mercy of unknowable forces, they are powerless to consciously manage those forces, influence them, or subordinate them to their own will, objectives, and interests. "Active social forces [wrote Engels] work exactly like natural forces: blindly, forcibly, destructively, so long as we do not understand, and reckon with, them. But when once we understand them, when once we grasp their action, their direction, their effects, it depends only upon ourselves to subject them more and more, to our own will, and by means of them to reach our own ends. And this holds quite especially 7 of the mighty productive forces of today.''^^1^^ The untenability and downfall of many theories, conceptions, and ideas, as well as practical attempts at management, were determined primarily by the fact that they were in the nature of subjective desires, stemming from a lack of understanding of the objective laws of society's life and development or else from neglect of the latter. An attempt of management that runs counter to the objective laws of society can at best result in temporary successes in isolated areas of endeavour. Management will inevitably end in failure if it is built on a speculative basis, on arbitrarily constructed schemes divorced from reality.
Marx, Engels, and Lenin, who developed the science of society, showed that society is governed by objective laws; they discovered these laws and proved that management of the various spheres of society, directions of its activity, and social institutions is effective and progressive insofar as it is based on them. Marxism-Leninism has developed a scientific conception of society as an integral self-- governing system. The term ``system'' is taken to mean an object whose properties are not reducible to a mere sum of the properties of its constituent parts or elements. Not a single property of a single element is manifested as the property of the system.^^2^^ The elements function and develop within the framework of the system, so that their properties are subordinated to those of the system as a whole. In the absence of interaction between elements, not a single property of any of them can manifest itself, and it is not manifested in pure form in interaction. System properties always have some traits that are different from the properties of the constituent elements, being a result of integral functioning of the system, a qualitatively specific result of its inner phenomena.
The systems approach in science should be distinguished from the ``atomistic'' of functional approach, which studies system problems in isolation from the conditions and the causes from which they arise. The ``atomistic'' approach in the theory and practice of management is manifested in the view of management as a phenomenon independent of all others, as well as in isolated consideration of problems and phenomena that are systemic in nature, one that takes into account only individual cause-and-effect dependences (though they may be correct ones) unconnected with their entire ensemble at a systems level.
Implementing the systems approach to society and all social _-_-_
~^^1^^ Frederick Engels. Anti-Duhring. Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1977, p. 339.
^^2^^ For instance, a radio set, as distinct from a pile of parts that is an agglomerative mechanical whole with accidental interaction between the elements, is a technical systems object with qualitatively new properties that none of the parts has. These properties arise from joint interaction of all the elements arranged in a certain manner. The functioning of the set depends on the parts, but each part manifests many of its properties only within the set as a whole.
8 phenomena, Marxism-Leninism formulated the definition of socioeconomic formation---the universal form of social wholeness, a unity of productive forces and production relations. Lenin wrote that "just as Darwin put an end to the view of animal and plant species being unconnected, fortuitous, 'created by God' and immutable, and was the first to put biology on an absolutely scientific basis by establishing the mutability and the succession of species, so Marx put an end to the view of society being a mechanical aggregation of individuals which allows of all sorts of modification at the will of the authorities".^^1^^ Society emerged as an integral social organism in which all its parts (components) are mutually connected, interdependent, and mutually conditioned. A socio-economic formation is an integral, dynamic and developing system, whose sources of motion and development are within it, inherent only in it, and cannot be invented or arbitrarily formulated. The basis of development are the economic factors, the development of social production. As production changes, all the other components of society change too. Obsolete ideas and corresponding relations recede into the past, to be replaced by new ones corresponding to the changed economic basis. Evolutional social changes are succeeded by revolutionary, leap-like, qualitative changes in a socio-economic formation.The systems approach to social systems facilitates an understanding of the role of management in them, the requirements imposed on management, and the conditions of its effectiveness. Systems are commonly subdivided into managing and managed sub-systems. Generally speaking, management is interpreted as impact produced on a system for maintaining it in some given operational mode or for putting it into a new state in accordance with the goals of management. Management is an attribute or an inalienable property of a system, a system-forming and system-optimising factor. There are different forms of management in the technical, biological, and social systems. The specificity of systems is reflected in the specific traits of managing them.
Marx discovered two types or mechanisms of managing impact on a social system, spontaneous and conscious. Spontaneous management does not involve the functioning of special social management institutions. The spontaneous mechanism manifests itself in the collision and interweaving of a mass of random events and forces often contradicting one another. This kind of managing action brings about a general tendency in the random play of individual instances, the social acts. Men are obliged to adapt their behaviour to the blind play of accidental forces; being unable to conquer it, they become its _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin. "What the 'Friends of the People' Are and How They Fight the Social-Democrats". Collected Works, Vol. 1, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1960, p. 142.
9 prisoners. A striking manifestation of the spontaneous mechanism of management is the role of the market in the capitalist system, the effect of the random play of numerous acts of buying and selling in the capitalist market with the underlying tendency represented by the law of value---the ultimate basis of capitalist economy. "Chance and caprice [wrote Marx] have full play in distributing the producers and their means of production among the various branches of ' industry'.''^^1^^The conscious mechanism of management involves specific activity of men, the functioning of established institutions ( personalities, organs, or organisations) exerting a purposeful impact on the system. "...Regulation and order [wrote Marx] are themselves indispensable elements of any mode of production, if it is to assume social stability and independence from mere chance and arbitrariness.''^^2^^ Social management is therefore mostly a conscious and purposeful impact on various areas of public life-individual institutions, links and elements-implemented within the framework of society's political organisation with the goal of preserving its qualitative specificity, its functioning and development. Society cannot fully free itself from the impact of chance on management in a given segment, sphere, or element. But the degree of emancipation of some concrete society from the uncontrolled action of chance, and of its opposition to the action of spontaneous forces vary considerably. Thus the spontaneous uncontrolled play of market forces under capitalism, just as the laws of anarchy and competition, are the principal determining factors not only in production but also in the social relations of men and their conduct. Being objectively conditioned by the capitalist nature of ownership of the implements and means of production, these factors significantly limit the possibilities of conscious management under capitalism and the dominion of the uncontrolled market forces. Under socialism, based on ownership of the whole people, qualitatively new possibilities arise for effective management.
The development of management in social systems is conditioned by the development of the social process of labour, by the growing complexity of the links and dependences between the various sides of the life of society. "All combined labour on a large scale requires, more or less, a directing authority, in order to secure the harmonious working of the individual activities, and to perform the general functions that have their origin in the action of the combined organism... A single violin player is his own conductor; an orchestra requires a separate one.''^^3^^ The significance of management grows with the development of productive forces and production relations, with _-_-_
~^^1^^ Karl Marx. Capital. Vol. I, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1974, p. 336.
^^2^^ Karl Marx. Capital Vol. Ill, 1977, pp. 792-793.
~^^3^^ Karl Marx. Capital. Vol. I, p. 313.
10 the growth of the social potential and possibilities for development, and with the rise of new social tasks. Management becomes a relatively independent function not only of the total social production but also of all the areas and elements of public life. All of this objectively gives rise to a new division of labour, making inevitable the emergence of a new kind of labour-managerial labour, as well as its development and extension and the growth of the managerial cadre. At the same time, the effectiveness of social production and solution of the social tasks in various spheres of life increasingly depend on management and its characteristics.The development of management as a special type of activity, its increased role, and continual extension of the network of management organs, constitute a natural tendency in socio-historical development. Organisation of management and its implementation become increasingly complicated. The number of workers engaged in managerial activities is constantly growing, and they now cover not only the sphere of production but also exchange, distribution, consumption, services and finance, as well as the non-productive spheres of society's life: activity of the administration bodies, education, science, health services, legislative and law-enforcing institutions, etc. It has been computed, however, that in the last 100 years labour productivity in industry has grown by 1,500 per cent, on an average, while in the sphere of management it has increased by a factor of two only.
The development of production, more complex links between the various components of the social system, growing need for conscious management, on the one hand, and more complex organisation of management and its separate processes, development of managerial machinery, and increasing numbers of managerial workers, on the other, sharply increase the role of effective management under modern conditions, requiring its raising to the level of a science, correctly reflecting the objective laws of the functioning and development of society.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ 1. 1. 2. The Class Essence of Social Management;For Marxism-Leninism, the concept of social system and society has always been a concrete historical, political, and class one. This doctrine was the first to reflect correctly social reality and the class nature of all social institutions. Marx, Engels and Lenin showed that management, though forming a specific area of human activity, does not exist by itself, as an absolutely independent phenomenon. Being a phenomenon pertaining to the social system, it forms its part, a special sub-system carrying all the features of the whole. Lenin showed that social management, in its origin, essence, goals, forms, methods, and 11 other characteristics, cannot be isolated from the specificity of the socio-economic formation in which it is implemented, from the concrete stage in the development of given society, from the political and class tasks that society faces, or from the interests and problems of its development. Management is effective to the extent in which it is prosocial and corresponds to the most essential social factors conditioning it (both existing and future ones). Management relations in class society are of class nature. Thus, in antagonistic society management relations are those of the exploited and the exploiters.
Marxism-Leninism refutes the bourgeois fable of class-neutral goals and methods of management, of ``de-ideologisation'' of management, of its being essentially administrative and technical, and of the general validity of its principles. Lenin thoroughly demonstrated the untenability of the attempt by some people to create a universal "science of organisation", ignoring the political and economic foundation of society and the class relations, proceeding merely from the "general natural" laws of organisation, and making use of "biological and energeticist terms that contribute nothing, and can contribute nothing, in the sphere of the social sciences...''^^1^^
Marx revealed the dual nature of capitalist management. He indicated that the capitalist's management is not only a special function arising from the special nature of the process of labour---it also performs the function of supervision, compelling the exploited to work, against their own basic interests, for the exploiter, and this function exists in all modes of production based on the antagonism between the worker as direct producer, and the owner of the means of production. The greater the antithesis between the two, the greater the role of supervision, as Marx indicated: "Just as in despotic states, supervision and all-round interference by the government involves both the performance of common activities arising from the nature of all communities, and the specific functions arising from the antithesis between the government and the mass of the people.''^^2^^ These contradictions give rise to class-antagonistic contradictions in the system of management, disregard of labour discipline by the exploited, the individuals' trend towards having private property of their own, egoistic ethics, and neglect for the public interest. Lenin wrote that during centuries of exploitation the working man was opposed to labour, and that 'inevitably created a psychology in which public opinion among thj working people not only did not frown on poor work or shirkers, but, on the contrary, saw in this an inevitable and legitimate protest against or means of resistance to the excessive _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin. "Materialism and Empiric-Criticism". Collected Works, Vol. 14, 1962, p. 327.
~^^2^^ Karl Marx. Capital. Vol. HI, p. 384.
12 demands of the exploiters".^^1^^The special attention paid in Marxism-Leninism to the economic laws of development and functioning of society did not signify at all any underestimating of the subjective factor. Moreover, it was Marxism-Leninism that revealed the role of the masses in history, showing the need and the significance of the spiritual factor in the revolutionary transformation of society, and in its management. The specificity of social systems lies in that their laws are, first and foremost, the laws of human activity. There can be no social system without men that are its integral part, the carrier of its essential properties, to a considerable degree its creator and at the same time product. No social laws, no history or future society exist without men. "`History' is not, as it were, a person apart [wrote Marx and Engels], using man as a means to achieve its own aims; history is nothing but the activity of man pursuing his aims.''^^2^^ Then again no objectified elements of social systems are independent of men or reveal their social function independently of men. "Where the bourgeois economists [noted Lenin] saw a relation between things (the exchange of one commodity for another) Marx revealed a relation between people."^^3^^ Men as the principal productive force in society cognise and utilise the laws of nature and society in the production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of material wealth.
An important feature of social systems lies in that management in them is implemented by men and depends, to a decisive degree, on them. It primarily influences men, the ultimate social product being determined by the effectiveness of this influence. In the final analysis, management has social relations for its object. This type of management is just as complex as the life of society itself, the mode of life, and the activities of social groups and individuals.
If we were to present a system that is the object of management in the form of a pyramid, management and its problems may be viewed, figuratively speaking, "from above" and "from below", as analysis of the past and present conceptions of management shows. The mechanist, bureaucratic, and despotic conceptions approach social systems with the primitive view that the goals of management may be attained by solving problems "from above", and that the behaviour of all men in social systems is determined by prescriptions _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin. "Original Version of the Article 'The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government' ". Collected Works, Vol. 42, 1971, p. 83.
~^^2^^ Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. "The Holy Family, or Critique of Critical Criticism". In Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 4, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1975, p. 93.
~^^3^^ V. I. Lenin. "The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism". Collected Works, Vol. 19, 1973, p. 26.
13 or diktat "from above". Some adherents of this approach regard the social mechanism of management as a mechanical construction consisting of connected cog-wheels (as in a clockwork), where part of the force is inevitably lost in the transmission of motion. This prompts the conclusion that the initial driving force from the top should be made greater. In that case, even in the presence of inevitable waste, that part of the initial force which will ensure the attainment of the goals of management will reach line personnel---the direct producers. As early as the 1920s, the French scientist Henri Fayol criticised this approach, pointing out that all administrative cog-wheels should be set in motion so that all intermediary managers became "producers of motion and ideas", so that each of these cog-wheels carried its own "force of initiative". He nevertheless remained largely an adherent of the top-to-bottom approach, insisting that although the juices gave life to the branches of a tree, in social organisation only "superior authority" could give life to all the elements of management.But social systems are solid and stable, and their activity productive, where there is integral unity of the managing and managed sub-systems, a unity of their goals and interests, active involvement on the part of the lower echelons as well as of the upper ones, initiative and efforts towards controlling the system showed not only by the upper echelons but also by the lower ones. This follows from the basic proposition of Marxism-Leninism on the decisive role of the masses in social development. "...The minds of tens of millions of those who are doing things create something infinitely loftier than the greatest genius can foresee,"^^1^^ wrote Lenin. And, on another occasion: "The greater the scope and extent of historical events, the greater is the number of people participating in them, and, contrariwise, the more profound the change we wish to bring about, the more must we rouse an interest and an intelligent attitude towards it, and convince more millions and tens of millions of people that it is necessary".^^2^^
Marx's teaching created scientific premises for development of social management that is in keeping with the objective laws and organically combines the interests of the development of society with those of the broad masses of the population. Lenin and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union worked out the principles, forms, and methods of socialist management and of its practical implementation. The more than sixty years of Soviet state development, as well as the development of Soviet economy and management of various spheres of _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin. "Third All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies". Collected Works, Vol. 26, 1964, p. 474.
~^^2^^ V. L Lenin. "The Eighth All-Russia Congress of Soviets". Collected Works, Vol. 31, 1966, p. 498.
14 society, have confirmed its effectiveness. The experiences of other socialist and developing countries bear testimony to the same fact. The science of management of socialist society has been created and continually develops in connection with the new tasks facing the society of mature socialism and the search for ways of fuller utilisation of the advantages of socialist management as compared to capitalist one. [15] __ALPHA_LVL0__ The End. [END] __ALPHA_LVL2__ 1. 2. A Psychological Analysis of Bourgeois Theoriesproduction, as a "philanthropic mission" solicitous of other countries' economic development. In reality, we are dealing here with attempts to cover up theoretically the US managerial expansion in other countries, its interference in their internal affairs, and American subordination of the developing countries and those that have recently freed themselves from colonialism.
In considering bourgeois theories of management, it is therefore necessary to remember that they form part of bourgeois management and thus reflect the dual nature of management under capitalism. Lenin stressed the need for distinguishing between the scientific and practical achievements of bourgeois theory and practice in organising production, and those aspects of these theories that stem from the growing cruelty of the capitalist exploitation of workers. In studying the capitalist theory and practice of production management, it is necessary to take cognizance of the desire to conceal and camouflage the capitalist ideological and class positions and to present, under the cover of such words as ``freedom'', ``democracy'', ``equality'', etc., the capitalist mode of management as a universal one, unconnected with a definite socio-economic formation; to present managers as ``neutral'' persons whose sole objective is production. This lie was already denounced by Marx who said of managers that, "while the work is being done, [they] command in the name of the capitalist".^^1^^
The desire of bourgeois researchers to stress the psychological factors and to search for ways to take them into account in practical management, which has become particularly strong in recent decades, can be explained by the following:
---as the structure and technology of production and of production relations increase in complexity, man's attitude to labour assumes greater significance, and further growth of capitalist profit is only possible if due attention is paid to the human factor in production;
---organisation of the working class in the capitalist countries has increased, and so has its activity in the struggle for higher wages and normal working conditions, for elimination of capitalist production relations;
---class contradictions have become more acute, and new forms of ideological brainwashing are now needed---new screens to hide the exploiting and reactionary nature of the capitalist system;
---the disintegration of the world colonial system compelled the defeated colonialists to actively advertise the capitalist mode of life and the modes of capitalist management in order to retain their sway over the newly independent countries.
The various bourgeois schools and conceptions differing in their
Lenin wrote: "Tackle the question of management... Leam from your own practical experience. Learn from the bourgeoisie as well. They know how to maintain their class rule; they have the experience we cannot do without...''^^1^^ Problems in scientific management of capitalist production came to be studied at the turn of the century. Contemporary bourgeoisie places great hopes in a scientifically organised system of management, or modern bourgeois administration, regarding it not only as a means of increasing profits but also as an instrument for averting crises, eliminating the radical contradictions of bourgeois society, and settling class conflicts. The science of management is advertised by its adherents as a reliable means of preventing bankruptcy of individual firms and even of the entire capitalist system.
However, a distinctive feature of modem "scientific management" is extreme diversity of views and absence of a single theoretical platform. It is characterised by a great number of different and competing schools, each of which proclaims that its approach is the only correct one.
This situation is not accidental---it is not due to the controversies and debates that are a motive force in scientific progress. The theoretical crisis reflects the crisis of society and of management itself which exhausts itself trying to find a way out of an impasse. At the same time these theories are characterised by ideological orientation, by a desire to provide new arguments for bourgeois propaganda that would substantiate the viability of capitalism.
Recently, American bourgeois theoreticians have also endeavoured to show in a favourable light the activities of international corporations, presenting them as a new stage in the organisation of capitalist
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin "Speech Delivered at the Third All-Russia Congress of Water Transport Workers. March 15, 1920". Collected Works, Vol. 30, 1977, p. 42.
161 Karl Marx. Capital. Vol. I, p. 314.
17approach to the solution of management problems may be aligned on a kind of scale with the rationalist and behaviourist approaches at the opposite poles and the rest, in between.
Correct as these critical remarks may be, bourgeois scientists do not recognise the fact that the view of man inherent in the classical theory is ultimately conditioned by the system of capitalist management of economy, by the position of the exploited worker, and by bourgeois morality prevailing in capitalist countries.
Attention should be given to the concept, worked out in this school, of the organisational structure of management as a system of relationships between positions and roles, the organisational principles of such relations with a view to integration, and to the insistence that the organisational structure determines the premises of decisionmaking. Contemporary adherents of the rationalist approach work out methods of management through operations research, development of information systems for decision-making, and use of computers. Despite isolated practical successes, the theoretical foundations of a number of works are rather weak. Quantitative methods are sometimes raised to an absolute. It would be appropriate to recall that Norbert Wiener, one of the founders of cybernetics predicted that it would have a great potential but at the same time warned against machine idolatry. He indicated that the area of management, in the present and in the foreseeable future, cannot be fully formalised and still less fully described algorithmically.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ 1. 2. 2. The Rationalist Approach.The foundations of this approach were laid by Frederick W. Taylor in the late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries. His ideas were developed by Lillian and Frank Gilbreths, H. L. Gantt, Emerson, Henri Fayol, Luther Gulick, Lyndall Urwick, Harold Koontz, Ernest Dale and others. Theirs is a mechanist and engineering approach to an organisation (enterprise, firm, corporation). It is ensured by a formal structure of the organs and positions, formalisation of the management process (distribution of duties and rights clearly worked out in the greatest detail, formulation of the norms of behaviour of the workers within the organisation), supervision, control, organisation of a rigid system of compelling men to comply with the administration's requirements. The rationalist approach tends to regard the members of an organisation as passive instruments in the hands of the leader, whereas the latter appears as a magician using sophisticated means to make his subordinates perform the tasks he believes necessary. He treats subordinates as lazy beings devoid of any initiative, who will never do anything unless they are placed under conditions which induce them to perform their prescribed duties. In principle, the adherents of the rationalist approach admit the possibility of deviation from the prescribed rules, but these cases are regarded as the consequences of imprecision in the computation of the formal system of management.
Adherents of other schools believe that underlying the ``classical'' theory is a model characterised, first, by the view of "the employee as an inert instrument performing the tasks assigned to him. Second, there is a tendency to view personnel as a given rather than a variable in the system".^^1^^ William Foote Whyte reproaches the classical theory for the assumption that "men, like machines, can be treated in a standardised fashion".^^2^^ J. O'Shaughnessy wrote: "The classical approach did have `laws' which were the rules laid down to regulate the behavior of people working together in the organization. But they were normative rules.''^^3^^
__ALPHA_LVL3__ 1. 2. 3. The Behavioural Approach.This approach is based on the doctrine (model or theory) of "human relations". The principal proponents of this doctrine are Mary Parker Follett, Elton Mayo, Fritz Roethlisberger, Chester Barnard, Herbert A. Simon, and others. This approach took shape and became widely known in the early 1930s after Mayo's Hawthorne experiments. The behavioural approach is a kind of reaction to the defects of the rationalist approach that were brought out into the open by the Great Depression.
Along with the formal structure of organisation, this approach lays equal stress on the informal, human structure. It draws the manager's attention to man, showing that it is impossible to make him perform his work satisfactorily if the manager restricts himself to formal bureaucratic prescriptions, orders, and punishment. Man is thus regarded not only as an employee but also as an individual having certain personal qualities and interests. The main conclusion at which Mayo and other adherents of the human relations doctrine arrive is that growth in labour-productivity is affected mostly by psychological, informal factors rather than by the normative formal ones. Wendell French and Charles Bell compare an organisation with an iceberg whose submerged part contains various elements of the informal system while the upper part carries the formal aspects.
191 James March, Herbert A. Simon. Organisations. John Wiley & Sons Inc., N. Y., 1965, p. 29.
~^^2^^ W. F. Whyte. Money and Motivation. Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, 1955, p. 3.
~^^3^^ J. O'Shaughnessy. Patterns of Business Organisation. George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1976, p. 83.
18The functioning of organisations is not therefore fully determined by their formal structure, by formal goals and prescriptions.
According to Roethlisberger^s definition, the term "informal organisation" refers "to the practices, values, norms, beliefs, and unofficial rules as well as to the complex network of social relations, membership patterns, and centers of influence and communications that developed within and between the constituent groups of the organization under the formal arrangements but that were not specified by them".^^1^^ Some authors single out two aspects of the informal structure: (a) interpersonal relations; and (b) ascribing power, rights, status, etc. to certain members of the organisation on an informal (of mixed) basis (institutionalists).
The human relations doctrine took into account the decisive factor of production and labour productivity---men and their attitude to work. But its adherents did not at all intend to change the essence of bourgeois society and eliminate its basic defects. They merely wanted to camouflage class contradictions by humane declarations. Figuratively speaking, the ``classics'' preferred the stick, while the supporters of the human relations doctrine relied more on the carrot This doctrine is unscientific and reactionary in that it rejects the class essence of relations, endeavouring to eliminate the antagonistic relations between the exploited and the exploiters by highflown rhetoric about democracy and through psychologically sophisticated forms of ``humane'' relationships.
The human relations doctrine could not satisfy the majority of businessmen, for its practical recommendations were rather general in nature so that it was difficult to improve concrete management systems on their basis. Besides, it was psychologically unacceptable to the entrepreneur and could only be used by him for propaganda. It is not accidental that this doctrine did not gain wide currency in capitalist management.
The untenability of the propositions of the human relations school led to the realisation that social organisation was not reducible to informal structure. Attempts were made to work out a balanced approach incorporating both the formal and the informal structures (Chester Barnard, Rensis Likert, Irving Katz, Robert Louis Kahn, and others), and to create a model of an "ideal organisation". However, just as in the human relations doctrine, the adherents of the new models assume, quite unjustifiably, that the worker may be compelled to work more productively when some of his personal needs are satisfied within the limits permitted by the capitalist organisation of production; and that psychologically sophisticated instruments of
influence can make the hired worker regard the employer's interests as the worker's own, work with enthusiasm in the name of goals alien to him, and feel gratitude and loyalty to the employer for the opportunity for self-expression and self-assertion.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ 1. 2. 4. The Theory of Organisation as Political Institution.There are attempts to present organisation and management in a broader framework, from the standpoint of the social relations within the organisation and outside it; three levels of organisation management are singled out: technical, administrative ( organisational), and institutional (political). The core of the theory of organisation as a political institution is the idea of "parasympatic management", that is, of involving subordinates in decision making, of "industrial democracy''.
On the whole, the idea of participation has exerted great influence on bourgeois management science, becoming the starting point of "the third management revolution" allegedly taking place now. In bourgeois society, however, this idea is in the nature of a propaganda device, serving the needs of further camouflaging the exploiter essence of capitalist management. It could not be widely used under capitalism, and this prompted bourgeois scientists to criticise businessmen, passing over the basic causes in silence. Here is a characteristic example: General Foods Corporation, which introduced in the early 1970s organisation forms where workers performed some managerial functions, subsequently gave this up despite the fact that the economic results of the experiment were positive. The reason was that this system was too threatening to too many people. It led to* a dangerous growth in the workers' self-consciousness, and to an offensive against the prerogatives of managers, which could lead to undesirable consequences if these tendencies were allowed to develop. A survey in 1974 showed that only four per cent of the major US corporations implemented, to some extent or other, participation programmes.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ 1. 2. 5. The Empirical, Situational,The development of these approaches in the last decade was a reaction against the failures of the rationalist and behavioural approaches, expressing the dissatisfaction with management theory in capitalist society. The greatest emphasis was now laid on the study and dissemination of concrete experiences in company management (Peter Drucker, Ralph Davis, A. Chandler, Ernest Dale and others), continual selection of forms of management organisation and of methods appropriate at a given time and under concrete conditions
~^^1^^ F. J. Roethlisberger. "Contributions of the Behavioral Sciences to a General Theory of Management." In Toward a Unified Theory of Management. Ed. by Harold Koontz, McGraw Hill Book Co., N. Y., 1966, p. 47.
20 21(Paul Lawrence, Jay Lorsch, Gene Dalton, Gilbert Galbraith, J. D. Thompson, and others), or finding such forms through comparative analysis (Wolf Heydebrand, William Greenwood, D. Pugh, and others). The ``situational'' theory of leadership developed by Fred Edward Fiedler, Marin Chemmers, William Foote Whyte and W. J. Redden in opposition to the formerly current views of an optimal style of leadership and ideal qualities of leader, insists on their being situation determined. These theoreticians propose selection of managers with a style of their own which corresponds to a concrete situation, changing the criteria for selecting personnel depending on the situation. Rigid style of management, suppression of the workers' resistance, and increased exploitation---all of this is now the recognised norm of capitalist management, where it is "dictated by the situation''.
All these approaches demonstrate the desire of the theoreticians and practical managers to emphasise the practical applications of the studies. The desire to obtain maximal profit at all cost characteristic of American pragmatism, on the one hand, and the critical situation in American economy in the 1970s and the early 1980s, on the other, stimulate concerted efforts in the search for recommendations that promise a speedy return. These approaches reflect not only the fear of the growing instability of the capitalist market and of society as a whole but also the disappointment in bourgeois management theories that have proved to be incapable of solving the problems of management under modern conditions.
All of this bears evidence that, despite certain scientific achievements in the area of management under capitalism, they cannot ensure complete success that would satisfy the interests of society as a whole and of its progress. This is explained by the following reasons:
-under capitalism, the main requisite of goal-directed, planned and balanced scientific management is absent, this requisite being socialised economy, the whole people's ownership of the implements and means of production;
---the basic condition of the efficiency of collective work---the unity and consistency of goals, desires, interests, and needs of all its participants---cannot be fully satisfied in the presence of existing differences in the relation to property under capitalism;
---the contradictory character of capitalist management leads to one-sided development of the science and practice of management, to the improvement of its organisational and technical aspects and inability to treat adequately the human factor in management;
-a distinction should be drawn between the science of management and scientific management. The former expresses a system of reliable knowledge available to given society, and the latter, the degree of utilisation of that knowledge in the broad practice of management and in the management of each work group. Management as a social factor in the life and development of society is fruitful if the level of
22management science and scientific management in practice is high. Even productive ideas for improving management cannot be fully realised under the dominion of private ownership, bourgeois psychology and morality. They meet with little support among businessmen, while attempts at using them are treated as socially dangerous for the capitalist system. Possibilities for putting practice on a scientific basis under this system are even lower than the possibilities and factual level of management science.
[23] __ALPHA_LVL2__ 1. 3. Socialist Management as a New Type of Management 24 subject to political goals, it is included in the system of political leadership and is intended to develop socialist society in all directions and to defend the attainments of socialism. As distinct from capitalist management, socialist management does not conceal its class goals, for they are the goals of the masses, of all the working people. Free from capitalist competition, it strives not only to attain immediate goals and obtain instant results: it also proceeds from the perspective of obtaining higher results in the future. It envisages goal-directed development of the system of management.Socialist management is founded on fully taking into account the need for organic unity of the social, collective and personal goals. Lenin linked quite definitely the success of economic work with the personal interest every worker takes in the solution of concrete production tasks: "Not directly relying on enthusiasm, but aided by the enthusiasm engendered by the great revolution, and on the basis of personal interest, personal incentive and business principles, we must first set to work in this small-peasant country to build solid gangways to socialism... Otherwise we shall never get to communism...''^^1^^ "We can administer [he said on another occasion] only when we express correctly what the people are conscious of."2 The development of the socialist system of economy is at the same time the formation of qualitatively new forms of material and moral incentives for higher labour activity. Of greatest significance have become the various forms of socialist emulation---a. specific type of labour competition characteristic of socialism alone and based on friendly mutual assistance in the interests of the common cause.
Elimination of objective premises for the contradictions of capitalist management is ensured under socialism by the dominant position of the ownership of the whole people, by the unified principles of the construction and functioning of the system of management, and by the leadership of the Communist Party. The principle of unity of political and economic management sets the attainment of production and social goals as a diune goal, the two sides of which are inextricably interlinked. In the capitalist world, economic profit is declared to be the only goal of management, whereas under socialism human profit is also obligatory-education of men, the shaping of the man of socialist society, consolidation of socialist relations and their gradual transformation into communist relations. Capitalist management is not interested in raising the consciousness, creative and social activity, and ideological and political consolidation of rankand-file workers, whereas socialist management regards the solution of
Since the earliest Utopian forms, the socialist idea of social organisation and management has always been linked with a desire for a just humane society, society for all. Marxism transformed Utopian socialism into science. Lenin and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union have translated this science into practice, simultaneously developing it into a detailed theory of socialist management. The system of Lenin's views complemented by a scientifically interpreted experience of socialist construcion has assumed the role of science, becoming the science of socialist management.
Socialism put an end to the anarchy of production and implacable competition inherent in capitalist society, transforming society into an integral social system functioning and developing according to plan. That changed the scope of management, resulting in qualitative changes in the very nature of management and in a new, socialist type of management.
The prime features of the qualitatively new type of socialist management are its goals. Lenin pointed out that "as we begin socialist reforms we must have a clear conception of the goal towards which these reforms are in the final analysis directed, that is, the creation of a communist society".^^1^^ Any management is goal-directed. Management is inconceivable without goal-setting and is essentially a goaldirected change of the object of management. A goal is the starting point of management that affects all of its characteristics. Goalattainment is the essence of management, and the process of attaining goals, its content.
In socialist society, its goals underly the entire system of management. Management corresponds to its social role to the extent it facilitates the qualitative specificity of society, the goals it sets for itself, and its consolidation and planned development. Management is
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin. "Fourth Anniversary of the October Revolution". Collected Works, Vol. 33, 1966, p. 58.
~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin. "Eleventh Congress of the R.C.P.(B.)". Collected Works, Vol. 33, p. 304.
1V. I. Lenin. "Extraordinary Seventh Congress of the R.C.P.(B.)". Collected Works, Vol. 27, 1965, p. 127.
25 24this task as the most important condition for attaining production and also social goals. Pursuasion, education, active influence on public opinion and moods, on the moral and psychological climate, consolidation of the socialist mode of life, formation of the communist world-view and of an active attitude to life in all individuals is a key task of management under socialism. It is centred on the consciousness of the masses as the most effective factor of management. At the same time it must take into account and implement the management of such social psychological phenomena as attitudes of mind, traditions, customs, illusions, interests, experiences of the masses, etc. Organic combination of economic and educational work, cbnstant attention paid to the social, educational, and psychological consequences of managerial activity, are the distinctive features of socialist management.
Socialist management is characterised by a new mode of interaction between the working people and the authorities. It is not separate individuals, the owners of production means, who are the subjects of management, but rather the socialist state as a whole, the state, economic, and social organisations, every citizen and the Communist Party---the nucleus of the political system of socialism. In fact, the subject of management under socialism is a multilevel and multicomponent system of bodies and individuals participating in management. The subject of each hierarchical level is part of the system subject, and its activity cannot be effected or understood outside of system features. It is not only the subject but also the object of management as regards the higher level. Executive activity of the socialist subject of management, particularly in the system of state management, is its prevailing feature. Socialist management lays particularly great stress on the objective conditions of the activity of the entire system of management and on the practical implementation of the advantages inherent in the socialist system of economy. The study and improvement of management attaches great significance to system characteristics, unity and co-ordination of the activity of individuals involved in the system of management, creating the general conditions ensuring effective functioning of the entire system, conditions under which the people themselves desire to do more and better honest work.
This approach to the construction of the management system is in keeping with the specificity of socialist management, it is in opposition to the approach of bourgeois managerismthat creates the manager cult, regarding the manager as the only subject of management. This latter approach is in keeping with the ideological foundations of bourgeois science, with the dominion of private ownership in capitalist society, the position of the owner at the top of the managerial pyramid, and his tasks of skilful utilisation of the working people's potential for obtaining capitalist profit.
26The new relations between the working people and the authorities in management are reflected in the leading organisational and political principle of socialist management---the principle of democratic centralism. Its essence lies in ensuring an organic unity of integral, planned, and centralised management of all the social institutions and processes and of the local initiative and creative activity, the responsibility of each state body 'and official for carrying out their duties. It is a unity of two principles-centralism and democracy. The CPSU insists-that all the administrative bodies and all administrators should simultaneously consolidate both of these principles. Centralism should be developed and thus barriers erected against the departmental and local tendencies. Democratic principles and local initiative should also be developed to free the leadership from petty tasks and to ensure efficiency and flexibility in decision-making.
The CPSU holds the view that the implementation of the principle of democratic centralism is intended to provide an outlet for the inexhaustible sources of the energy of the broad masses and to ensure planned, effective, and continuous influence on all social activities. Lenin pointed out that "we have a 'magic way' to enlarge our state apparatus tenfold at once, at one stroke, a way which no capitalist state ever possessed or could possess. This magic way is to draw the working people, to draw the poor, into the daily work of state administration".^^1^^ Socialist democracy is democracy for the people, it is the power of the people. Drawing the broad masses into management at various levels is regarded by the Communist Party as the most important means of their education, as a way to democratjsation of social life, as a condition for the realisation of the power of the people, since management under socialism is not the privilege of the moneyed elite but of the whole people.
One of the important directions in the realisation of this principle is raising the role of labour collectives, all-out development of selfadministration in them, and increasing their ability to solve, jointly and efficiently, the collective's problems in accordance with social interests. The CPSU regards further democratisation of management and all-out extension of the participation of the workpeople in management as an inexhaustible resource of work improvement. This was also reflected in the new Constitution of the USSR. Under socialism, conditions are created when democratic forms of management ensure actual influence of the workers on the state of affairs and not just participation of workers in management.
Social management, as distinct from management in technical systems, is not a one-way process. This is particularly clear in socialist society. The relativity of subject and object arises out of the
1 V. I. Lenin. "Can the Bolsheviks Retain State Power?". Collected Works Vol. 26, pp. 111-112.
27participation of the working people and social organisations in management, creating possibilities for the implementation of the people's supervision of the performance of managerial functions by the management machinery and the leaders. In this connection, the problem arises of the unity of the approach to management, of harmonious combination of individual and public interest, of development of criticism and self-criticism, businesslike approach to the solution of problems facing the labour collectives, of the authority of the managerial staff and leaders, of preventing undesirable changes in the personalities of managers, and of abuses of authority.
The importance of the realisation of the principle of democratic centralism is also determined by the goals of further democratisation of social life and the tendencies in its development, e.g. the tendency towards greater intellectual level of the work of line personnel, towards a growth in their conscious approach to life, in their educational level, social activity, creative potential; the trend towards introduction into production of the technical means of management and a growth of the managerial functions of workers in the technological process, an acute need for specialists with a knowledge of the functioning of management systems, etc.
To ensure continuous management, the socialist state constructs a special management machinery, entrusting the various sections of work to responsible executives, the leaders. However, managerial personnel have the social mandate to act in strict accordance with the principle of democratic centralism, to structure each managerial act in accordance with the goals of transformation of society and on the basis of the world-outlook and moral requirements of the Communist Party. Violation of this mandate is incompatible with occupying managerial positions.
Democratic centralism in management is thus no subjective desire that can be accepted or rejected but an objective requirement flowing from the nature of the socialist system. In a management system built on this principle the contrast is eliminated between the goals of the upper and lower echelons which exists in other social systems. It creates the social and socio-psychological conditions under which each member of a work group at his or her work place displays a maximum of conscientiousness, initiative, striving to discover and utilise resources for increasing labour productivity and for attaining socially significant goals coinciding with the personal ones. These are the objectives of the CPSU, which encourages Party organisations, leaders, and labour collectives to raise in every way the discipline in carrying out plans; to develop local initiative facilitating the solution of common tasks; to educate in the Soviet people an active attitude in life, and to create in each work group an atmosphere of friendliness and creative search. In its very essence, socialist management is the management of the creation, development, and functioning of the
working people's association on a national scale and of the relations of socialist collectivism.
Socialist society encourages not only the development of management science but also the raising of practice to a scientific level. Lenin paid great attention to the development of the science of management in the USSR, a science that would conform to the essence of the new socialist relations. From the very inception of the Soviet power, Lenin viewed mastering the art of management as the most important task facing the working masses. "This is the most difficult task [he wrote], because it is a matter of organising in a new way the most deep-rooted, the economic, foundations of life of scores of millions of people. And it is the most gratifying task, because only after it has been fulfilled (in the principal and main outlines) will it be possible to say that Russia has become not only a Soviet, but, also a socialist, republic.''^^1^^ Lenin ascribed exceptional importance to the scientific quality of management and to the development, in this connection, of theory which anticipates developments in practice.
Today, too, great importance attaches to the development of the science of management and to raising practical management to a scientific level. The CPSU regards the solution of this task a most important condition for further development of mature socialism. Major measures for further improvement of the mechanism of economic management were worked out by the 25th and 26th congresses of the CPSU. The implementation of these measures transforms science into a productive force of socialist society, enabling it to attain new results in the economy and social development.
The problem of the cultural level of management is very acute in socialist society. "We must ... learn [wrote Lenin], and then see to it that learning shall not remain a dead letter, or a fashionable catchphrase (and we should admit in all frankness that this happens very often with us), that learning shall really become part of our very being, that it shall actually and fully become a constituent element of our social life.''^^2^^
The science of management in socialist society develops as an interdisciplinary science, which is in keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of the object it studies---systems of social management. The significance socialist society attaches to the science of man is reflected in particular in the development of the psychology of management, which also distinguishes it from the theory and practice of management in capitalist countries.
Thus the socialist type of management is a new one and fundamen-
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin. "The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government" Collected Works, Vol. 27, pp. 242-243.
~^^2^^ V. I. Lenia "Better Fewer, But Better". Collected Works, Vol. 33 pp. 488-489.
28 29tally different from the capitalist. Having absorbed all the best traits of the world practice of management, it is at the same time based on its own methodological and theoretical foundation-Marxist-Leninist theory, which is the only theory that correctly reflects the life and development of society. There are deep-lying social and scientific premises for bringing socialist management in accordance with the objective laws of the functioning and development of social systems. Socialist management corresponds to the interests of the masses and the perspectives of society's development.
__ALPHA_LVL2__ 1. 4. The Significance of the Psychological FactorIt has been pointed out above that Marxism-Leninism views economy as the determining factor in the life of society, while men and their activity play a decisive role. Lenin wrote: "The raising of the productivity of labour first of all requires that the material basis of large-scale industry shall be assured, namely, the development of the production of fuel, iron, the engineering and chemical industries...
``Another condition for raising the productivity of labour is, firstly, the raising of the educational and cultural level of the mass of population... Secondly, ,a condition for economic revival is the raising of the working people's discipline, their skill, the effectiveness, the intensity of labour and its better organisation."l
Man's decisive position in the management of social systems (in the Marxist-Leninist acceptation) determines at the same time the place of the psychological factor in management. Individuals and groups, as the objects and subjects of management, act as the carriers of certain social functions, in the performance of which the individuals and groups pursue definite goals and satisfy their needs, following their interests, ideals, and convictions, to the extent of their abilities, as well as knowledge, skills, customs, habits, traditions, etc. Therefore management in social systems is inseparably connected with the phenomena, mechanisms, and laws of psychic activity.
Management can be effective if the subject of management is structured and functions in such a way that it obtains, processes, and takes into account in the managerial influences on the object of management the latter's essential features. That means, in particular, that management in social systems can be effective if it obtains and processes all the information about personnel, including information about the psychological laws and phenomena. Psychological informa-
1 V. I. Lenin "The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government". Collected Works, VoL 27, pp. 257-258.
31tion is a type of social information without which management of social systems cannot be fully successful.
Lenin paid considerable attention to the socio-psychological problems of management in society, laying particular emphasis on the socio-psychological factors of mass movement and efficiency of influencing the consciousness of the masses. Lenin proceeded from the assumption that the psychology of society is rooted in its economic basis, but the consciousness of the masses is a transforming factor rather than a passive reflection of social reality. He wrote: "We are well aware of the methods for coping with this disastrous situation, which we have been using during two years of war. These methods are---raising the social consciousness of the masses and appealing directly to them."J Everyday management must also be based on the consciousness of the masses: "Our idea [he said further] is that a state is strong when the people are politically conscious. It is strong when the people know everything, can form an opinion of everything and do everything consciously.''^^2^^
Lenin noted the significance of the socio-psychological features of different strata and groups of society, traditions and customs, social habits and moods, and the need to take them into account in management. Thus, he emphasised the effectiveness of the method of persuasion: "...The task of convincing the masses can never be wholly overshadowed---on the contrary, it will always be among the important tasks of government.''^^3^^ He used psychological categories for substantiating the style of management and the requirements imposed on the personality of the manager, for characterising the style and methods of management, for analysing the causes and the ways for combating bureaucracy, red-tape, and self-conceit in management.
To understand better the significance of psychological problems in the management of work groups, and to be able to consider later the principal ways and modes of management of such groups, we shall discuss the main categories of psychological science that will subsequently have to be used.
science in question and not studied by other sciences. Man and groups of men are objects of cognition in many other sciences, too, but psychology has its own approach, its own subject-matter. The subjectmatter of psychology as a science, the qualitatively specific ``aspect'' of man and human groups which it studies, is the phenomena, laws, and mechanisms of the psychology of individuals and groups.
In the study and interpretation of the psyche, Soviet psychological science relies on Marxist-Leninist methodology as the doctrine of the general methods of cognition and transformation of the world. Strict compliance with these positions is extremely important, for psychology, from the very first days of its existence, has been an area of ideological struggle between materialism and idealism, between dialectics and metaphysics, between determinism and chance. A methodologically correct approach to the solution of psychological problems saves one from rude mistakes in theory and practice.
Of fundamental methodological significance is the proposition of Marxism-Leninism that matter is primary and consciousness, secondary, and that man's psyche is reflective in nature. The psyche cannot exist either as an independently acting entiry, as asserted by idealists, or as some emanations of the brain, as posited by vulgar materialists. The psyche is not emanated by the brain (as gastric juice is emanated by the stomach, for example) but emerges as a result of the impact of environment on man's brain; it reflects reality.
In recognising that psychic phenomena are caused by physiological processes in the brain, psychology concentrates on the reflective nature of the psyche, which is manifested in the psyche being the subjective image of the objective world. Psychic reflection is not passive reflection, it depends on man's activity and his specific interaction with reality. The proposition concerning the reflective nature of the psyche is of immense significance for the theory of psychology and for practice, for it explains many psychic phenomena and, moreover, points to the principal mode of the formative and directive psychological actions: the creation of the conditions and objective influence that would produce the necessary psychic phenomena.
A logical development of the methodological proposition outlined here is the thesis of the decisive role of social conditions in the formation of man's psyche, the thesis of the social nature of the psyche. Historical materialism considers personality, group (or collective), and society in their dialectical unity. It has revealed the decisive role of labour and activity in the emergence and formation of man. Man is not a passive product of external influences---he is also the product of his own activity. This fundamental methodological proposition is reflected in the Programme of the CPSU, which says that the formation of the new man takes place in the process of his active participation in the construction of communism and in the development of the communist principles in social and economic life, under
__ALPHA_LVL3__ 1. 4. 2. The Subject-Matter of Psychological Science.The term "subject-matter of science" refers to the qualitatively specific range of phenomena, laws, and mechanisms studied by the
1 V. L Lenia "Speech at the Fourth Conference of Gubernia Extraordinary Commissions. February 6, 1920". Collected Works, VoL 42, 1971, p. 172.
2 V. I. Lenia "Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. October 25-26 (November 7-8, 1917)". Collected Works, Vol. 26, p. 256.
3 V. L Lenin. "Original Version of the Article 'The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government' ". Collected Works, VoL 42, p. 68:
322---979
33the impact of the entire system of educational work conducted by the Communist Party, the state, and the social organisation.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ 1. 4. 3. Classification of IndividualThe psyche is exceedingly complex. It can be better understood through a classification of the psychic phenomena of which its functioning consists (see Fig. 1).
and through which goal-formation, planning, and self-control are implemented. Psychological science is now mostly concerned with this highest level of human activity. Management of men assumes first of all action on their consciousness.
The lowest level of the psyche is the subconscious one. It is characterised by psychic phenomena in which man takes no cognizance of the actions performed, of orientation in the environment, of the motivation, modes, and goals of his acts. Of this nature are the phenomena occurring during sleep, in automated actions, phenomena that grow in intensity but stop short of reaching the conscious level, etc. Subconscious phenomena, in their primary characteristics, are also determined by social conditions, functioning as partial and insufficiently precise reflection of the surroundings.
In their existence forms, all psychic phenomena fall into three groups: psychic processes, psychic states, and psychic stereotypes (structures or properties).
Psychic processes include emergent, changing, developing, and disappearing phenomena in the psyche. The entire psychic activity is made up of many processes, cumulative, combining and interacting with one another and replacing one another.
Psychic states are the summary result of all the psychic processes taking place within an individual at a given moment or period of time. Thus, a person may be in a state of attention, interestedness, tiredness, emotional upsurge, etc. We use phrases like "I was in an excellent mood in the morning", or "He has been feeling depressed for three days", thus stressing something typical in the psychic activity within the given period of time.
Psychic states, although they are formed out of processes, are at the same time integral, that is to say, having once emerged, they exert an influence on the processes. For instance, the process of perceiving the administrator's speech by two subordinates will not be identical in the two, if one of them listens to the speech with interest and the other, indifferently. Men's actions are often determined by their psychic states. In managing the subordinates, the leader should continually bear in mind their psychic states, creating the necessary state in order to attain high efficiency of management.
Psychic structures (stereotypes or properties) are psychic processes and states consolidated within the given individual, typical of this individual and dominant within him or her (easily reproduced and dominant over others). They are formed as a reflection of the objective conditions and modes of behaviour habitual for the individual's life experiences. That means that, in order to create certain psychic structures or change existing ones, corresponding typical conditions will have to be created or existing ones changed. The most elementary psychic structures are knowledge, skills, habits. Complex ones include the properties and qualities of an individual (orientation, character,
WORLD OF INDIVIDUAL -PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA
According to form of reflection
According to form of existence
According to level of reflection
(Mode of cli
ssification)
1 Motivational I
I Psychic processes I
1 Cognitive 1
V ^\
Psychic states
Emotional
Psychic stereotypes (structures and properties)
J_
Volitive
Fig. 1. Diagram of principal individual psychological phenomena affecting management
All psychic phenomena belong to different levels of psychic reflection of reality differing in the criterion of consciousness.
The conscious level of the psyche (consciousness) is the highest level of reflection, the most characteristic one in man. Inherent in this level are the psychic phenomena in terms of which man's surroundings are understood, as well as his ego, intentions and relations,
34 35temperament, aptitudes).
There are bilateral links between processes, states, and psychic structures. Once established, .psychic structures exert feedback influences on the psychic processes and states emerging within man at a given moment, guiding them along the existing channels. Thus, the individual's views, habits, and character traits determine the specific features of his thinking (he understands things "in his own way"), emotions, and reactions at a given moment.
External causes affecting man are always mediated through internal, psychological conditions. The latter include all the psychic phenomena considered above: the psychic structures in a given individual, the psychic states and processes taking place at a given moment and caused by previous circumstances. That is why the reactions of different individuals vary under identical conditions. Psychological analysis of some event or action always assumes singling out processes, states, and structures involved, and a psychologically substantiated managerial decision assumes taking these into account and influencing them.
Finally, according to the form of reflection all psychic phenomena are divided into motivational, cognitive, volitive, and emotional.
Motivational psychic phenomena are those which play the role of incentives, determining the selectiveness of an individual's relations and activity. These are most important phenomena exerting the strongest influence on all the others. Directing motivational phenomena is a most necessary psychological task of any administrator in any directive action. In the absence of suitable motivation of the subordinates, no tasks can be solved.
Cognitive psychic phenomena are those through which man creates an ideal model of the" world (its objects, phenomena, links, and laws). They include sensations, perceptions, attention, memory, notions, imagination, and thinking. The specific traits and laws of cognitive processes play an important role in the training of subordinates, in explaining their tasks, in their persuasion by the leader and in changing their convictions, in organising their interaction, in the study and analysis of the situation, and in other cases.
Emotional psychic phenomena are those which express the way in which man experiences his attitude to the environment, to everything he does or is preparing for. Emotions (feelings) are not a passive concomitant of the rest of man's psychic activity but rather active participants in it affecting its course and results, all the deeds and actions. "There has never been [wrote Lenin], nor can there be, any human search for truth without 'human emotions"'.^^1^^ There are many kinds of emotions---positive and negative, simple and complex
(or higher emotions), sthenic (facilitating successful activity) and asthenic (hindering activity), moods and affects. The administrator absolutely has to take into account the role and influence of emotions---both his own and other people's. Controlling emotions is one of the most difficult psychological tasks requiring from the manager psychological tact, delicacy, and profound knowledge of psychology.
Volitive psychic phenomena. In observing individuals, we see them striving towards certain goals, mobilising their resources in dealing with difficulties, we observe their behaviour in these situations. These traits of individuals, manifested in conscious overcoming of internal and external difficulties in the way of attaining a goal, are called volitive. Every, worker needs well-developed will, which is made up of volitive qualities---purposefulness, persistence, activeness, initiative, independence, decisiveness, self-critical attitude, self-possession, calmness in the face of risk and danger, courage, bravery, boldness. The development of volitive qualities in subordinates and in himself, ability to control manifestations of will are matters of concern to the experienced leader.
The interconnection between all the psychic phenomena is expressed in the fact that processes, states, and structures may be motivational, cognitive, emotional, and volitive. In their turn, motivational phenomena, for instance, may appear in the form of processes, states, or structures. However, states and structures are often complicated in nature, containing motivational, cognitive, emotional, and volitive components in varying degrees, which should be reckoned with in the analysis of men's actions and in making management decisions.
However important the psychic phenomena considered above may be, one cannot restrict oneself to them, for the psychic activity of different individuals is characterised not so much by the structural elements (e.g. by the fact that in some individuals will is most prominent while in others, reasoning) as by the content of psychic reflection. The main thing is the motives behind the actions of the given individual, the things he understands and the way he understands them, the feelings he has and the causes of those feelings, the kind of volitive qualities he has, etc. For these reasons, only meaningful psychological analysis will prompt the manager a psychologically substantiated decision in each concrete case.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ 1. 4. 4. Group Socio-Psychological Phenomena.As was indicated ealier, the subject-matter of psychology as a science also includes the facts, laws, and mechanisms of the psychology of groups of individuals (see Fig. 2). They are most often manifested in mass (group) phenomena (public opinion, public mood, tradi-
1 V. I. Lenin. "Book Review". Collected Works, Vol. 20, 1977, p. 260.
36 37
psychological phenomena in groups of people are determined by and originate from the objective world, social reality. "It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness", pointed out Marx.1 Social consciousness, arising out of social being, acquires a measure of independence and self-movement, exerting in its own turn an impact on social being.
Socio-psychological phenomena and men's mode of life form a unity. Being is not just environmental conditions but also men's conscious activity under these conditions, directed at changing them. The concept of mode of life, reflecting as it does an integral system of life conditions and the activity of a group or an individual, permits a realisation of the systems approach in their study and an understanding of socio-psychological phenomena, and of the factors conditioning them. Socio-psychological research in the group's mode of life reveals the close unity of social environment, social activity, and socio-psychological phenomena within the group itself.
The principal features of the most important socio-psychological phenomena in groups of people are conditioned by the most essential traits of the socio-economic formation of which they are part and product. These features are determined by the social traits of the formation and by the impact of society's ideology and morality. They are also affected by the history and destiny of the previous generations, the future, the perspectives, and the goals of society. This should continually be borne in mind, for in practice emphasis is often placed on bringing out the individual and the negative in groups.
All socio-psychological phenomena are in a state of dialectical development Even the apparently immutable phenomena are merely relatively stable. Each of them has its own history, its present and future. But socio-psychological phenomena not only exist against the background of time: they are also vitally affected by the time factor. The past and future of a community or group affect their presentday psychology. Thus, the group's views and moods are influenced by traditions, customs, experiences, and memories of events of the recent past, as well as the goals, ideals, perspectives, and expectations of the future.
The unity and diversity of factors affecting the psychology of groups of people, determine, accordingly, the unity and differences in their very psychology.
The concept of group is a generic one, covering in general any association of men. Theory and practice, however, require a differentiated approach to groups, and approach that takes into account their
1Typical socio-psychological traits of individuals comprising given group
1 Mass 1 1 Interrelations 1
1 Group objectives 1
Group needs 1 1 Interpersonal 1
1 Group interests 1
1 Group ideals 1 Personal-group
Group desires
Intergroup
Group attitudes, amotions, moods
Group opinions
Rumours
Customs, traditions, fashion
Illusions,
survivals of old attitudes, superstitions
I
Group motives
Fig. 2. Diagram of principal socio-psychological phenomena characterising group psychology
tions, customs, etc.) and intergroup, person-to-group, and interpersonal relations (e.g. relations between two workers of the management mechanism, interrelations between the management staff and line personnel, of the leader and the collective, etc.). All of these fall under the heading of socio-psychologicd phenomena. In/studying these phenomena and working out the ways of taking cognizance of them, the following methodologically important propositions should be borne in mind.
Socio-psychological phenomena are reflected in nature. The socio-
1 Karl Marx. A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1978, p. 21.
38 39specificity. That is why groups are classified on different principles. Depending on the mode of singling out the groups, they can be real and conventional. The former are organised specially or spontaneously and exist as real communities, whereas the latter are singled out by researchers and are not manifested in life as integral socio-- psychological structures (e.g. the group of bachelors may be singled out as part of the population, but in real life the members of this group will not know one another or communicate with one another or act in a similar manner and so on). According to size (the number of individuals in the group), the latter are divided into large, or macrogroups, and small, or microgroups. According to the type of contacts, groups fall into contact (those in which members are in constant communication) and distant ones (where members communicate occasionally). According to the mode of origin, groups are divided into specially formed and spontaneously arising (the latter include, e.g., the spontaneous groups formed in everyday life---``fellow-villagers'' or `` fellowtownsmen'', ``mates'', people with the same hobbies, interests, plans, etc.). According to the content of activity, there may be service groups, working groups, military, academic, neighbourhood, ideological groups, etc. Each of these has its own socio-psychological features that have to be reckoned with in working with them.
Depending on the presence and degree of participation in joint activities, groups fall into a number of types, with diffuse groups at one pole and collectives at the other. A diffuse group is a community in which interpersonal relations are not mediated by joint activity. A random gathering of people in a queue, a bus, at a party (where not all those present are even acquainted with one another), a group of companions or crowd that has just been formed, are all examples of diffuse groups. The term collective is not applied to any group but only to organised contact groups which pursue socially useful goals and are united by joint activity, leadership and psychology. Every collective is a group but not every group is a collective. A collective is the highest socio-psychological association of men. It is the shaping of a labour collective that forms one of the most important tasks in managing it.
Groups do not just exist side by side: they interact, being hierarchically connected and interdependent. The greatest social community is the population of a country. Classes, nationalities, professional groups, departments, etc. constitute large social groups. Labour collectives, the family, social associations, neighbourhood groups, are all small social groups. The population of a district or town is a structurally complex group comprising organised and spontaneously formed groups, conventional and real ones. But even the collective of an enterprise or office has its own structure, consisting as it does of smaller (secondary) collectives of departments, services, etc. ( functioning as the primary collective with regard to the latter).
One should also distinguish in the structure of any group its external {official or formal) organisation and the internal (unofficial, informal, or socio-psychological) one. The latter assumes singling out groups according to interests, communication, likes and dislikes, and other socio-psychological criteria. External and internal group structure should be distinguished but not opposed to each other. Internal structure depends on the external one, but they do not always coincide. The less cohesive and educated the group, the greater the divergence. This prompts the need for a thorough study by the administrator of the structure of the collective he heads, which largely determines the interrelations in it and other socio-psychological phenomena.
There are three varieties of group socio-psychological phenomena characterising the psychology of certain groups:
---typical socio-psychological features of individuals and groups forming them;
-mass (group) socio-psychological phenomena-the integral phenomena arising in the real groups (group goals, needs, interests, ideals, wants, desires, opinions, views, rumours, feelings, customs, traditions, etc.);
-intergroup, interpersonal, and personal-group interrelations (e.g. relations between workers of two departments, between the collective and the population, between the administrator and the collective, etc.).
The integrating or system-forming properties are differently represented in these varieties. Whereas the former is a sum of personality socio-psychological characteristics, the latter is a whole possessing specific qualities. Marx wrote that "the offensive power of a squadron of cavalry, or the defensive power of a regiment of infantry, is essentially different from the sum of the offensive or defensive powers of the individual cavalry or infantry soldiers taken separately". ^^1^^ He underscored that joint activity, the work of men pursuing a common objective, increases the productivity of individuals and, besides, gives rise to a new "mass force". The latest socio-- psychological studies confirm the existence of specific properties of mass phenomena: their integral quality, "mass force" (the property of reinforcing or weakening the resultant strength of individuals forming a collective or group depending on the specificity of the dominant mass phenomenon), and effectiveness (ability to be speedily manifested in the behaviour of the whole group). The socio-psychological mechanisms-convictions, suggestions, empathy, imitation, solidarity, coercion-act more effectively in groups. All of this compels one working with groups study closely their psychology.
In studying and acting on group psychology, one should of course
1 Karl Marx. Capital. Vol. I, p. 308.
40 41take cognizance not only of the specificity of structure but also of the content features, that is, the definite content filling structural forms. Indeed, it is important, e.g. to know not only that an opinion has been formed in the group, but also the opinion itself, its concrete content, the extent of its objectivity and ideological maturity, etc.
Groups, just as individuals, are unique in their psychological specificity, but individuality should not be raised to an absolute. Each relatively small group comprised in a larger one inevitably carries elements of the latter's psychology. Thus, the labour collective of a given concrete enterprise, office, or establishment is one of the cells of society, and there are always meaningful features in it which it shares with other collectives and which make it similar to them in the principal features. At the same time the given collective belongs to the large group of workers of a certain department or social sphere and has traits characteristic of this social group and distinguishing it from the psychology of other large groups. The psychology of a collective or small group is therefore always a dialectical unity of the general, the particular, and the individual in varying proportion.
The basic propositions of psychological science presented in the above permit a more concrete consideration of managing labour collectives and the discovery of hidden sources for its improvement.
__NUMERIC_LVL1__ Chapter 2 __ALPHA_LVL1__ THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FORMATION AND FUNCTIONINGAll management is goal-directed. It is inconceivable without goal-setting and largely consists in goal-directed changes in the system. A goal is the necessary, desirable, and attainable state of the managed system, that future result towards which the subject (and in socialist society also the object) of management work. It is the starting point of management determining its entire organisation and process, the selection of forms and methods, the direction and strength of managerial actions, evaluation of the attainments, and the final results. Marx wrote that purpose "gives the law to his [man's] modus operandf, and that "he must subordinate his will" to the purpose^^1^^. The goal is set by man and therefore always appears as a form of psychic reflection. It always combines the objective and the subjective (or the individual), for it is one of the subjective factors of the objective world. Marx' words refer precisely to the purpose which man actually sets himself and which is present in his head in ideal form.
Rational (normative) goals are set before organisations, their structural sub-divisions, and offices and are always manifested through their realisation by individuals. It is a complicated process, its result being a product of a great number of influences, and it may not coincide with the necessary one. Of particular significance is the process of goal-formation and its results in the management system. It is important that the goals taking shape and functioning at the psychological level should correctly reflect the goals objectively set
1 Karl Maix. Capital. Vol. I, p. 174.
43before labour collectives, and that they should be unified and coordinated in all the links of the management system, consolidating the management system and increasing its efficiency.
pondingly the measures they take, their motives being "we shall not be understood", "we shall not be supported", "let's do what we are
told''.
3. "Improvements where possible" (position E, Fig. 3). Not setting the goal of doing the work in accordance with the ideal goals and not believing in its attainment, the leader and the collective of a body set themselves limited goals: not to allow any breakdowns and to strive for certain improvements where possible. Some of the efficiency criteria and the instructions from higher authority are regarded as formal and useless for the cause, but they are not questioned and to some extent adhered to as guidelines.
4. ``Time-serving'' (position F, Fig. 3a). The administrator and the staff of a body strive to attain only those goals that can be positively evaluated by the superiors and improve their image, even though the actual situation deteriorates ;and the goals attained merely harm the public cause. This orientation is manifested in attaining at any price those indices that mostly determine the assessment of the effectiveness of management, and in endeavouring to achieve favourable numerical indices as well as superficial order at the office.
It would be erroneous to explain the persistence of formal and narrow goals by the defects of the personality of each given administrator only. The causes lie in the imperfection of the objective criteria of effectiveness, elements of subjectiveness in evaluations by superior bodies, and discrepancy between the complexity and range of task, on the one hand, and possibilities of their solution, on the other.
Deviation from businesslike and socially significant goals is also manifested in bureaucratic red-tape. Bureaucracy means literally the power of the office. Bureaucracy is a phenomenon in management systems where the office (the mechanism of management, the circulation of papers) exist, as it were, for their own ends and not for those who need their services, so that form assumes the dominant role to the detriment of the essential interests of the general cause. Bureaucracy has many faces, and is revealed in:
---undue emphasis on paper work, ascribing decisive significance to what is written on paper, to meaningless and useless memos;
---preference for quantitative indices to the detriment of quality;
---endeavouring to present a favourable picture of the state of affairs on paper, even if there are no factual grounds for that;
---the practice of delaying and red-tape.
C. Northcote Parkinson, the British specialist on management and satiric author, wrote sarcastically that "recent research has tended to show that the Abominable No-man is being replaced by the Prohibitive Procrastinator... Delays are thus deliberately designed as a form of denial and are extended to cover the life expectation of the person whose proposal is being pigeon-holed. Delay is the deadliest
45 __ALPHA_LVL3__ 2.1.2. The Characteristic of the EssenceThat is the most important characteristic of the goals of concrete administrators, the management staff and whole organs, revealed in the latter's conformity to the transforming nature of socialist management, organic unity of the principal goals of socialist management, and correct realisation of the socio-psychological and educational goals of management.
Conformity of the orientation of the given management mechanism and the administrator to the transforming character of socialist management (the parameter of social productiveness of goals) can be assessed by two indices: the degree of orientation of the entire activity at attaining businesslike, large-scale, and socially significant goals, and the degree of orientation at narrow or formal goals. The work of any labour collective is of course basically concrete and businesslike in nature, and it manifests itself in production indices. However, there are also cases of orientation at attainment of goals that contribute little to a better conduct of affairs.
It is clear from Fig. 3a that the body or administrator whose goals are in position A are ideal. Diametrically opposed to it is position B, where only formal narrow goals are taken as the basis of management. That is a theoretically possible position, but in practice, as a rule, goals belonging to various trajectories between A and B occur and function. Probably the most widespread are four varieties of the orientation of management organs and administrators generated by the specific features of the parameter in question.
1. "Striving for an ideal" (position C, Fig. 3). The manager and/or staff clearly realise the ideal of management and its results and constantly endeavour to bring the everyday practical work in accordance with the latter, to bridge the gap between them. Usually, doing everything in keeping with the ideal is impossible, but the administrator and staff do not give up the ideal, neither do they weaken in their attempts to attair it.
2. "Restrained limitations" (position D, Fig. 3). The administrator and staff know the ideal goals and realise both the importance of their attainment and their own failure to do everything possible to attain them. But they came to that position as a result of unsuccessful attempts to show initiative and innovative spirit, as a-result of interdictions imposed by higher authorities and demands to act in the way they had been instructed to. They limit their goals and corres-
44form of denial".^^1^^
The psyschological causes of bureaucracy may be unconscious and conscious. The former include the inability of management staff and administrators to work out a style corresponding to the conditions of growing complexity of management; lack of time and energy for implementing high-quality management; certain personality traits---insufficient activity, inclination for quiet office work, exaggerated carefulness bordering on pedantry, lack of faith in the possibility of solving the tasks, lagging behind the pace of life, etc. The conscious causes may include desire for personal well-being, placing personal interest above that of the social cause, defending " corporate honour", conservatism, desire to retain the position attained, self-seeking.
The degree of cohesion of the principal goals of management must be characterised by an organic combination of orientation toward high production results and toward societal or socio-psychological results, toward mobilisation and education of workers; it must be characterised by the view of these goals as a diune goal. However, there are different variations of combining the two goals in practical work, at the level of the psychology of manager and managerial staff. As the study of practical experiences shows, the following are the most widespread varieties of combinations (individual and group conceptions of managerial psychology) (see Fig. 3b).
1. The "organisational and technical ideal" conception^^2^^ (position G, Fig. 3b). The administrator and managerial staff believe their task to be the construction of a system of management implemented in a clearcut structure, schemes, instructions, prescriptions, directions, and other normative acts, in which everything is detailed and envisaged, a system with a firm material and technical basis, including computers. The attitude to personnel is expressed in these statements: "Since they.are employed here and got their appointments, they must do a good job of work"; "If they don't want to work, we'll replace them"; "I have no time for persuasion". Some adherents of this conception believe emphasis on questions of psychology to be unpromising, counterproductive and even harmful, ``softening'', and introducing unnecessary obstacles in the formalised technical system of management. Luckily, the adherents of this conception are not very numerous, although they do exist.
2. The conception of "urgent attainment of results in performing current tasks, accompanied by all possible attention to psychological and pedagogical questions" (position H, Fig. 3b) resorts to persuasion.
~^^1^^ C. Northcote Parkinson. The Law of Delay. John Murray, London, 1970, pp. 117, 119.
~^^2^^ We refer here to conceptions existing at the level of individual or group managerial psychology, to opinions, views, interests, and attitudes, that are sometimes not expressed but are manifested in the whole of managerial activity.
Max.
6g 7
o
| 6
- B
/
/E
~ /
_i_
Min. 01 2345678 9 Max. Oreintation toward socially significant work goals
§> Max.
|
i
Min. 0
123456789 Max Orientation toward rational, organisational and technical goals
Fig. 3. Managerial matrices of meaningful goals (according to socio-psychological criteria)
46The managers adhering to it believe that the solution of current problems in conducting the affairs of the enterprise should come first and foremost, whereas moral and psychological climate, education and upbringing are all quite important problems but "I have no time for any of it. Let public organisations and the personnel department deal with it". This conception is rather widely current.
3. The features of the conception of "equal attention to order in the organisation of management and to working with the personnel" (position /, Fig. 3b) are obvious. The administrators and managerial staff implementing it take part in educational work, endeavour to foresee the educational and psychological consequences of their actions and decisions, and actively use the strength and influence of the Communist Party organisation as well as the inner resources of the collective of co-workers. This conception is also widely current.
The problem of improving managerial psychology lies in the formation in all administrators and managerial staff of views and convictions ensuring harmonious and maximally effective fulfillment of both the current tasks in the work of the enterprise and the sociopsychological tasks in educating the people.
gressive socio-economic formation in the history of mankind has always been conditioned, among other factors, by the fact that it created the premises for the worker's greater interest in the results of his labour, thereby generating higher productivity of labour.
With reference to the management of a concrete labour collective, scientific data confirm the significance of the desire of the administrator and managerial staff for attaining favourable socio-- psychological goals. Each work place and position may be represented by three ``areas''; "the area of prescribed actions", "the area of socially useful actions", and "the area of anti-social actions" (Fig. 4). If an individual dislikes his work, if it gives him no satisfaction or joy, if it does not suit his needs and abilities, bringing nothing but unpleasantness, and so on, the most that can be got out of this worker is good quality performance within "the area of prescribed actions"---even under conditions of perfect functioning of the organisational and technical subsystem of management, high demands imposed on the worker and supervision over his actions. "The area of socially useful actions" is a sum total of concrete actions and results going beyond the normative ones, using the hidden resources of the work place, that can only be revealed and utilised by an enthusiastic worker performing satisfying tasks with a feeling of creative elan, and so on. In the absence of such an attitude, "the area of socially useful actions" yields no harvest, and the hidden resources remain unutilised. Opportunities are wasted, but it is impossible to hold the worker responsible. The field of anti-social actions is characteristic of the behaviour of persons breaking the law, abusing their authority, and embezzling the property of the people.
This does not mean, of course, that management should be effected by "weak arm tactics", and that administrators have but one
__ALPHA_LVL3__ 2.1.3. The Fields of Prescribed Actions andThose leaders who set themselves socio-psychological goals, often differ in the interpretation of conditions which ensure maximal labour productivity and education of employees. Two groups of goals occupy opposite poles of the possible (and actual) range of such goals.
The first group (that of favourable socio-psychological goals) is linked with the idea that an individual functions at his best when he realises the expediency, purpose, and meaning of the labour efforts, when he likes his work, when it gives him a feeling of satisfaction and joy, when work is done with creative elan and proceeds successfully, when it opens up possibilities for self-assertion among other people, for increasing cohesion with the referent group, that is, the group of persons whose opinion is important for the given individual.
The second group (that of normative socio-psychological goals) is based on the idea that an individual works best under conditions of rigid organisational and legal regimentation, control, unyielding exactingness, coercion, censure, criticism, punishment, even a measure of fear.
Judging from historical experiences, the' victory of a more pro-
48
Area of socially useful actions
Area of prescribed actions
Area of anti-social actions
Fig. 4. Diagram of man's areas of actions at his work place
choice---persuading each individual, never offending anyone, creating greenhouse conditions, etc. Lenin emphasised that it was impermissible and erroneous to confuse the issues of democracy and individual responsibility: "We must learn to combine the 'public meeting' democracy of the working people---turbulent, surging, overflowing its banks like a spring flood---with iron discipline while at work, with unquestioning obedience to the will of a single person, the Soviet leader, while at work." He also indicated the need "strictly to separate two categories of democratic functions: on the one hand, discussions, and on the other hand, the establishment of strictest responsibility for executive functions and absolutely businesslike, disciplined, voluntary fulfilment of the assignments and decrees necessary for the economic mechanism to function really like clockwork"^^1^^. Combining persuasion and coercion, with primary emphasis on persuasion, has been and still remains the basic rule of management under socialism.
The administrator has to take into account that some of his subordinates are not conscientious enough, not disciplined enough, badly educated and brought up. All of this notwithstanding, he has to work with these people here and now, so that he has to combine the measures of persuasion and coercion, bearing in mind the individual traits of his subordinates, the extent of the collective's education and cohesion. Simultaneously, persistent educational work is conducted, professional skills developed, and harmonious development of personality encouraged.
The presence of badly trained, insufficiently disciplined and insufficiently diligent subordinates points to the need for using individual-centred methods of management; it cannot justify failure to attain favourable socio-psychological goals at every given moment and at each work place to the extent permitted by the concrete circumstances. It should constantly be remembered that the essence of Soviet management does not lie in coercing some individuals to obey others but in organising meaningful joint productive work based on mutual understanding and common interest.
Lack of industry and conscientiousness in some subordinates, abuse of trust, combined with insufficient managerial training, are the apparent causes of the tenacity of survivals of the past in the individual managerial psychology of some administrators, which are manifested in the following socio-psychological attitudes:
---demanding the impossible from the subordinate means attaining the possible;
-if a subordinate is worked up and his vanity excited, he will always find strength to solve a task;
-a subordinate aware of his personal dependence on his superior works better;
---a subordinate in fear of losing his position or of incurring unpleasantness will work at full efficiency;
---in a conflict situation, each side seeks the superior's support and therefore works with redoubled energy ("divide and rule").
Exaggerating the role of coercion in management and insufficient attention to creating favourable socio-psychological conditions are the major causes of inefficient labour activity, of defects in organisation and discipline, of high turnover, and other facts and indices that have to be eliminated.
~^^1^^ V. L Lenia "The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government". Collected Works, Vol. 27, pp. 271, 211.
50 __ALPHA_LVL2__ 2.2. The Psychological Problems of Co-ordinating Goalsto certain intermediate links, the ultimate and total effect of great efforts and investment may be diminished. Emphasis is placed on the need to take into account the societal, educational consequences of decisions adopted at present.
The strengthening of goal-directed (programmatic) management is a most important condition for raising the efficiency of management, for it corresponds in the greatest measure to the requirements of the integral and systemic approach. It is manifested as a comprehensive all-embracing structuring of management and its organisational and practical implementation embracing all the aspects and directions of work, the current and long-term goals, and their optimal co-- ordination. Goal-directed management appe'ars as
-general orientation of management at attaining goals and planning a series of crucial decisions that have to be taken for that purpose;
---integration of problems arising in relations between branches of industry and various regions (that are most complicated where the organisational structure of management is well developed), the need for an all-round approach;
-the need for subordinating each act of management to the current and ultimate goals simultaneously.
The goal determining the direction of all the psychical activity of the subject of management, compels it to analyse, continuously and within the framework of a definite approach, concrete situations, to formulate problems and to select for solution those of them which correspond to the greatest extent to the system of goals. This approach overcomes the defects of situational management that is rather in the nature of responses to haphazardly arising situations, producing waste of effort and rushing from one extreme to another.
Thus the programmatic goal-directed approach functions as a powerful and system-optimising factor, it is one of the ways of utilising the advantages of socialism.
The goal-directed approach requires harmonious co-ordination of activities subordinated to the attainment of the current and longterm goals, that is, of the current and long-term activity of the management organ or administrator. Long-term activity is of special significance at the ministerial level or the management of some branch of industry, and current activity, for the lower echelons of management---administrators of sub-divisions. Both types of activity are to be conducted at all levels of the system of management.
The importance of the integral, systemic approach is also determined by the need for the subject of management to strive simultaneously for attaining economic and educational goals. The goals of education, upbringing, strengthening the collective's cohesion and discipline, developing the workers' abilities, etc. cannot be attained by a one-time effort, immediately. They are an integral product of everyday efforts and the outcome of the entire managerial activity. A
53The general goals of management in a labour collective are broken down into various types of goals, as objectively conditioned by the complexity of its structure, by the division of labour and the growing scope of work. Among the most important divisions of goals are those
-differing in the time of attainment: immediate (short-range), intermediate (medium-range), and ultimate (long-range);
---differing in functions: technical, technological, organisational, economic, supply, sales, etc.;
-differing in levels: pertaining to national economy, to a branch of industry, to an enterprise, shop, section or division, an individual worker.
Even normative administrative-legal co-ordination of all these goals involves certain difficulties. Still greater problems arise at the level of managerial psychology, but only complete resolution of these problems can ensure integral quality of the entire system and its optimal functioning.
Among the goals differing in their temporal characteristics particular attention should be paid to co-ordination of immediate (current or short-range) goals, medium-range (quarterly, annual) and longrange (five-year goals, ultimate goals). Management does not mean merely directing the system as it functions at present and attaining immediate results---it also means taking care that better work will be done and higher results obtained in the future, taking into account the results of today's actions and adopting measures whose results will only be perceived in the future. It is rightly said that to manage means to foresee.
The CPSU advises organs of management and Soviet leaders to extend the temporal range of the goals of management. Managerial and, in the first place, planning activities should be aimed at ultimate economic results. In the chase after intermediate results, which are in themselves inconclusive, it is easy to lose sight of the main thing--- the ultimate results. Contrariwise, unless proper attention is given
52harmonious combination of attaining current and long-term goals may be improved by the development of psychological goal-directed management (that is, by the attainment of psychological goals in the formation of the collective and in the development of the personalities of its members) as a constituent part of programmatic goal-directed management of the labour collective, as part of a plan of its social development.
The implementation of goal-directed management (including psychological goal-directed management) is, however, fraught with difficulties, some of which are of psychological nature, being reflected in the managerial psychology of individual administrators and groups.
The first deviation from the goal-directed management is belittling the status of goals, neglect for the goals of management (particularly long-term ones), subordinating managerial activities to the solution of current problems. The result is a reflex model of management manifested in responses of the subject of management to problems and events arising randomly, unexpectedly, from various quarters. It is not the administrator or organ that has command of the situation but the situation that dominates the administrator; the latter does not anticipate events but rather drags behind them. Fussing, lack of system, great probability of inconsistency and omissions in the work are the logical consequences of such a model. Where it is not based on a conscious attitude (in the latter case it corresponds to the philistine rule "live in the present and least of all trust the future"), the psychological reasons of its development in individual leaders are: (1) the greater mobilising effect of immediate events than of the remote ones that are probably more important objectively; (2) lack of time ("rushed off my feet by the routine"); (3) defects in management organisation by the administrator or his superiors (e. g. a flood of instructions and memos from above marked ``rush'', ``urgent'', "very urgent", etc., leaving no time for any other work); (4) frequent evaluation by superior organs of the indices characterising work in progress rather than its results or the personality of the administrator or members of managerial staff; (5) low level of managerial training and defects in the administrator's personal qualities.
The second type of deviations of individual leaders and organs from goal-directed management is underestimation or even elimination from everyday managerial activity of actions whose positive results will only be revealed after some time. For the present, such activities may even appear unnecessary and interfering with the work. Of this kind are intensive educational measures and professional training, raising the level of psychological and pedagogical awareness of the managers and staff, initiative in conducting scientific research and experiments, improving the working conditions of staff, the search for optimisation of management structures, etc. Those who omit these measures proceed from the assumption that life does not
change, that tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, in a year, or in five years, demands on management and administrators will be the same as today, and that that which is good today will remain so forever, that everything may be attained through direct action. In actual fact, however, the causes that hinder attaining desirable results today must be eliminated, and their gradual elimination will permit in the future to raise the level of national economy.
The third manifestation of weakness of long-term goals in the work of individual administrators and organs is failure or inability to take into account the educational and socio-economic consequences of their decisions, actions, and methods of work. Managers of enterprises should directly participate in educational measures. But the main thing is the educational effect of organisational and economic work itself. As practical experiences show, where managers of industry disregard the educational consequences of their activity, the creative initiative of the masses does not reveal its potential fully, conscious discipline gives way to formal discipline, and the necessary moral and psychological climate does not arise in a collective, which is ultimately reflected in low production indices.
Experienced administrators clearly realise that the educational and socio-psychological effects of their personality and activity are both profound and extensive. That is determined by their status of representatives of the Communist Party and the Soviet state, carriers of power, personification of ideological maturity, competence, moral purity and justice. Their attitude to labour, to men, to words and deeds passes by a kind of chain reaction to all the departments and services under their authority, and is assimilated by a considerable number of other administrators and staff. Every decision they make is evaluated and discussed, leaving a trace in memory and consciousness. It can be confidently stated that even an administrator unwilling to participate in education and deciding to ignore it, has an educational effect on the subordinates, for he unwittingly furthers certain ideas, views, motives, feelings, habits, interests, and value orientations. And the higher the leader's position, the greater his influence. The task lies in making this psychological influence conscious and directed at socially significant goals.
Regrettably, an administrator's work is often evaluated by the current results of production activity. This is a narrow approach, however, which does not assess the actual educational and socio-psychological effect that does not always coincide over short periods of time with the production effect, particularly if the latter is attained at any price. Crude pressure, near-stress atmosphere, endless and persistent demands to work at the full stretch of one's strength, disregarding one's health and interests, may result in increased labour productivity over a relatively short period (six months, a year, two years at most). But at the same time unhealthy attitudes will inevitably develop
54 55within the collective as well as dissatisfaction with the leadership and search for a way out of the situation. ``Unexpected'' breakdowns will result, turnover will increase, and the current appeals "to step on it", "to go all out" will be received with indifference, labour productivity will go down, formal attitude to work will spread, etc. Before this time comes, the ``energetic'' leader will probably be promoted for his ``attainments'', but his successor, or he himself, will have to pay for the consequences of the activity which has brought the short-lived success. It should be pointed out that eliminating the negative consequences of such activity (making the workpeople again believe in their leader) is a difficult psychological task.
The science of management knows a phenomenon called the Pygmalion effect. By restricting the independence and initiative of his subordinates, distrusting them, believing that they are ``inferior'', "insufficiently responsible and conscientious", the leader robs them of an opportunity to do work in which the required qualities can develop. This ascribing of inability and defects to subordinates from the very start leads to a situation where they indeed cease to develop and become after a while the kind of persons which the leader believed them to be from the beginning---indifferent, insufficiently responsible, needing supervision and constant stimulation. They develop "trained inability" and such negative abilities as cunning adaptation to the administrator's methods of control and habits, finding ways of creating the impression of well-being, collecting proofs of objective causes justifying them in case the manager reveals defects in their work, etc. In short, men sometimes become the way they are because they are expected to be that way.
The second widespread type of psychological deformation of goals is differences between the functional goals of the higher and lower bodies, of the superiors and subordinates. In socialist society, their community of goals is based on the ownership of the whole people, democracy, and the guiding role of the Communist Party. As for their differences, which are conditioned by the need for the division of labour in management, they are not antagonistic and insoluble. Differences between functional goals may in some cases become more acute and develop into a conflict of goals, where ideological and educational work in some organ is weak, the style of work of an individual leader defective, and the individual traits of the administrator and subordinates incompatible.
As a rule, the leader identifies his goals with those of the organisation to a greater extent than line personnel. If a rank-and-file worker is not sufficiently educated, he will link up his goals with performing his duties, confining his efforts to the limits of personal responsibility, often failing to realise the general goals after which the leader strives, and sometimes hindering their attainment (at times merely because of lack of authority in the leader or the subordinate's wish to spite him). Where there is such a divergence between goals, the results of the work cannot be effective. The leader must possess ability to unify the goals of all the members of the collective and direct them to the solution of the urgent tasks. This will be furthered by correct organisation of the entire work with a view to its educational effect, and continual efforts to strengthen the cohesion of the collective.
The conclusion may be drawn that in improving management, the resources of its socio-psychological sub-system should be utilised, as well as those of the organisational and technical sub-system. Extremes are out of place here. Rational methods must be combined with behavioural, that is, socio-psychological ones. It will be appropriate to draw the attention of administrators to the following points:
-comprehensive taking into account of the socio-psychological factors acting in the system, of the existence of individual and group managerial psychology actually affecting the efficiency of management;
-primary significance of the problem of goal-formation in the system of management, evaluation of the correspondence of normative and actually realised goals by individual leaders and managerial staff (not so much in words as in deeds), elimination and prevention of discrepancies, the struggle against manifestations of bourgeois, egoistic survivals in managerial psychology;
-the need for creating socio-psychological conditions ensuring the formation of meaningful and mature goals in workers, full realisation of their creative potential, exercise of initiative, of an active attitude to life, of responsibility going beyond the normative one and
57 __ALPHA_LVL3__ 2.2.2. Co-ordination of Functional and Level Goals.In this group, the general goals are broken down into the subgoals of departments, services, shops, teams, sections, etc., in accordance with the organisational structure of the labour collective. This represents an objective premise for a certain discord, competition, and even conflict of goals, which may become quite evident where goal-directed management on the part of the labour collective is weak.
A widespread type of psychological distortion of goals is functional egocentricism and local self-interest They may be revealed at the level of departments and services (functionalism) and at the level of territorially separate parts of a single whole (territorial exclusiveness). However diverse their manifestations may be, their common feature is exaggeration of the goals of their own structural unit and ascribing to them exclusive and independent rank. A concomitant of this is usually the choice of actions detrimental to the common cause.
56
,
maintaining the feeling of satisfaction and enthusiasm about their activity;
---the importance of optimism and persistent striving for the construction of a system of management in full agreement with the ideals of socialist society and requirements of the Communist Party;
-raising the status of goals in management, development of goaldirected (programmatic) management (in improving the socio-- psychological sub-system, too), attainment of long-term socio-psychological goals and solution of current questions, comprehensively taking into account the socio-psychological educational consequences;
---the possibility and necessity for the development of sociopsychological goal-directed management through inclusion of the appropriate section in the plan for the social development of the labour collective.
Everything that has been said here about goals relates both to the organisation and the process of management.
__NUMERIC_LVL1__ Chapter 3 __ALPHA_LVL1__ THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ORGANISATION OF MANAGEMENT __ALPHA_LVL2__ 3.1. The Psychological Factors in Organising Management __ALPHA_LVL3__ 3. 1.1. The Concept of Organisation.Bearing in mind the different meanings implied by the concept of organisation, we shall take it to mean goal-directed (expedient) ordering of the elements, aspects, and kinds of activities of a labour collective as a whole and its sub-systems (managing and managed) ensuring their optimal interaction and integrity. That is a measure of order in the system (something opposite to chaos, disorganisation, and disorder), a system quality producing an organising effect, that is, an addition to the result of the work of a group of men identical in number and composition. Organisation is therefore a means of integrating, uniting all the elements of the system in a single whole in the interests of attaining its goals; it is also activity in organising a system (its ordering, eliminating chaos in it), and the organisational function of management.
This also refers to the sub-system of management, that is, interaction and integrity of its elements (individuals, departments, and services), aspects and types of managerial activity. In other words, management can be effective if it is organised itself. The sub-system (subject) of management, apart from affecting the object of management, should exert an influence on itself, it should implement selforganisation and improve the organisation of management Of primary importance here is orientation towards goals of management, subordination of all measures to improve the organisation to their better attainment. This is easy to understand from the above definition of organisation. If anyone attempts to improve the organisation of management without specifying the goals of such improvement, he runs the risk of proposing the best means of attaining predictable
59results that have no consequence and sometimes, the best means of attaining the worst unpredictable results.
planned organisational and legal sub-system. This is confirmed by the frequent differences in the degree of order in two labour collectives with a practically identical organisational and legal structure. Research confirms that the socio-psychological sub-structure in good condition may make up for the shortcomings of the organisational legal substructure.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ 3.1.3. The Static and Dynamic Components of theThe scientific data and experiences available necessitate the singling out in the socio-psychological sub-structure of management organisation (the organisational components of managerial psychology) of static (stable, unchanging or hardly changing) components (elements or constituents) and of dynamic (changeable ones, largely determined by the individual features of personality and activity).
The principal static socio-psychological components of the organisational structure of management include the following.
Organisation-determined socio-psychological phenomena. To demonstrate visually the sources of their origin, let us once again use the differences between a pile of parts and a radio-set assembled out of these parts. A radio-set is a technical system due to the fact that the random connections between elements in the pile were ordered according to a definite structural scheme and joined together in a construction. The sensitivity, selectivity, reliability, power, and other characteristics of the radio-set are permanently determined by the circuit selected. However, the same parts may be joined together in different circuits. If the circuit arrangement is selected badly, twist the control knobs as we might, the radio-set will function poorly. It cannot do more than its construction permits. A similar effect occurs in social management. The psychological phenomena in the mechanism of management of labour collectives, or departments, being reflective in nature, have anumber of characteristics that are ``given'' by the organisational-legal foundations of their functioning. If there are serious defects in these foundations, the shortcomings of managerial psychology generated by them will be widespread, persistent, and hard to eliminate. Therefore a number of typical (stable) psychological phenomena in the system of management serve as a kind of indicator of the correctness of the organisational-legal structure of management. At the same time knowledge of cause-and-effect links between the organisational-legal elements of a system and the phenomena of managerial psychology determined by them, as well as a conception of the ideal phenomena consistently ensuring men's effective activity, open up additional resources of anticipatory improvement of the organisational-legal sub-structure of the management system.
61 __ALPHA_LVL3__ 3.1.2. The Formal and Informal Sub-Structures of theIn any labour collective there is a structure of staff organisation (specifying numbers of employees, offices, sub-divisions), organisational set-up (lines of subordination and interaction), normative acts (instructions, tables of duties, orders defining and redefining duties, directions for the organisation of information flows---persons responsible for gathering information, the places and methods of storing information, addressees, the officers evaluating information and the modes of doing so, the officers utilising the information and the modes of utilisation, etc.) Their totality forms a formal or organisational-legal sub-structure of management organisation in any labour collective. Better organisation of management implies developing it to the point of ideal corresponding to the norms of law, recommendations of science and of advanced practice. However, it is impossible to establish the necessary order in management along these lines only, for management is implemented by individuals rather than diagrams or instructions.
The duties prescribed by the rational structure of management organisation are performed in different ways by different individuals. They may interpret them each in his or her own way, attach primary significance to the wrong kind of problems, give preference to those directions of work that are not decisive, and they may have sufficient (or insufficient) abilities and training to perform all their duties equally well. They may distribute the information available in their own ways and receive it from sources to which they are not entitled, and they may interact with other officers in ways differing from those prescribed. They may interfere in those affairs and solve those problems that are beyond the scope of their rights and duties, and fail to perform their own duties. In other words, an informal, behavioural, or socio-psychological sub-structure of management organisation (the organisational elements of the psychology of management) actually develops and functions in the system of management.
It would be wrong to oppose these two sub-systems to each other. They are closely interconnected of course, but not necessarily coincide. The existing management organisation is always a manifestation of the extent of coincidence of both sub-systems. The socio-- psychological sub-system (that is, the actions, relations, abilities of men participating in management) can unite and organise a labour collective, make it cohesive, increase its potential (produce an organisational effect), or else it may disunite, fragment, and disorganise even a well-
60 1The organisational abilities and competence of managerial personnel in realising the organising function of management. Even the most perfect rational structure of management organisation creating favourable premises for the emergence of organisation-determined phenomena, cannot produce full effect unless the officers of all categories possess appropriate abilities and training.
The socio-psychological manifestations of the self-organising abilities and level of training of a labour collective. A pronounced ability for self-organisation and self-improvement is a distinctive feature of social systems, which possesses an enormous organising potential. It is manifested most clearly in small groups and collectives. Under favourable socio-psychological conditions, a group that has a common goal outlines the directions of work, distributes the rights and obligations, etc. Where the level of training of a collective is high, it can make up for the defects of the organisational-legal sub-system and surpass its organising potential through self-organisation and effective measures for its manifestation. Ability for self-organisation may remain entirely untapped where socio-psychological conditions in a collective are unfavourable.
The engineering-psychological premises for organised and productive labour of managerial personnel are connected with the psychological features of constructing the work places, the premises, and the technical equipment used.
The sub-group of dynamic socio-psychological components united by the concept of managerial climate is characterised by dynamic phenomena in managerial psychology which emerge, develop, and interact in current management activity under the impact of concrete psychogenetic factors (the individual traits of persons entering upon managerial interaction, their psychic states, concrete actions, etc.).
The static and dynamic socio-psychological components of the organisational structure of management are interconnected and interact, forming the socio-psychological sub-structure of organisation of management.
sure) of socio-psychological order and organisation attained in each labour collective. Determining the level of the socio-psychological sub-structure of management organisation in a given collective makes it possible to explain the situation in it as far as management is concerned, and to search for improving its effectiveness. The most typical levels and the state of various components connected with them are described in Table One.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ 3.1.4. The Levels of Development of the Socio--The static and dynamic components considered above as a rule differ in different labour collectives even if they perform identical functions in society and turn out the same products. Their correlations with the possible ideal are different, some being close to it and others more remote from it. One can thus speak of the existence of levels of development of the socio-psychological sub-structure of management organisation, organically characterising the degree (or mea-
62Table One.
Levels of Development of Socio-Psychological Sub-Structure of Management Organisation
__ALPHA_LVL2__ 3.2. The Ways of Optimising Organisational ManagementPrincipal manifest* Static socio-psychological tions of measure of Levels components
Dynamic -5 socio -9 psychological com -7 ponentsmanagerial climate
Organi -6 sation -5 determined
org. abilities and -5 training of staff
socio -6 psychological -7 manifestations -6 ofselforg.
The theory and practice of management knows three basic types of organisational management structure: linear, functional, and mixed or linear-functional (matrix structures, design-determined management, product-determined management, co-ordinative commissions, etc.).
In linear structure, each management system is headed by one administrator (or body) implementing all the management functions. Its advantages are the flow of instructions to subordinates from one administrator, ensuring consistent, co-crdinated, non-contradictory direction of all the aspects of activity; complete responsibility of each administrator for the results of his work and fullness of authority; ensuring the unity of administration from top to bottom; simplicity and reliability of management, etc. But there are also some defects inherent in linear organisation: it imposes excessively high demands on the qualifications and work of the administrator, slows down information circulation and introduces distortions in it in passing through the levels. The linear structure is suitable for elementary managerial activities, where the rank-and-file members of the organisation have roughly the same duties.
Functional structure is characterised by dividing the integral subject of management into functional (headquarter-like) branches, emergence of a group of managers each of whom knows well a certain function of management and is responsible for its realisation. Its advantages are raising the competence of management, dynamic quality, rapid response to changes. The principal shortcoming is difficulties with the problem of co-ordination and "functional egocentricism". Functional leaders and services are inclined to overestimate the significance of their section of work, to narrow down their responsibility to strictly defined boundaries, and to disregard to some extent the overall goals, demonstrating inability for solving many problems requiring an integral approach and joint efforts.
64Organisation func-
Highest, tions faultlessly,
`` quasirequiring almost no
automatic" interference from
(IV) management
Optimal Highest Highest Highest
Organisation func- Medium, tions reliably enough "semt but needs thorough automasupervision by admin- tic" (III) istration and frequent enough interference in current work
Optimal Highest Medium Medium
Organisation is main-
Low,
Contained by maximum
``mecha-
taineveryday efforts of
nical"
ing deadministration but
(II)
fects has some grave defects
Medium Low
Medium
No organisation, in
Low,
fact; management
``disor-
fails to attain
ganisa-
even satisfactory
tion"
results whatever
(I) the efforts
Unsatis- Weak factory
Absent Low
Because of the defects of both of these structures, the linearfunctional (or branch-functional) structure has gained wide currency. Its features are, first, the setting up of specialised (functional, headquarter-like) sub-divisions (administrators) attached to the linear subject of management and, second, endowing them with certain limited rights with regard to the bodies, sub-divisions, and officers subordinated to the linear administrator. There are three varieties
3---979
65.
of this type of organisational structure of management: linear-- headquarter (the functional services direct the lower levels of the system only through the leader heading the system), concentrated leadership (the functional services may also establish contact with linear lowerlevel administrators) and limited functionalism (the functional services also manage directly the lower-level functional sub-divisions). The foundations of the type of the organisational structure of management are laid in the staff organisational structure and the normative documents, but psychological factors often produce certain variations here.
The linear-functional type of the organisational structure of management is believed to combine the advantages of the linear and functional types and to minimise their defects. Experiences show, however, that it is not devoid of shortcomings inherent both in the first and the second type. The linear-headquarter system tends to suffer from the defects of the linear organisation, whereas the concentrated management system and in particular the limited functionalism system, from the defects of the functional one. In perfecting the organisational structure of management it is necessary first of all to specify to what variety of the linear-functional structure the given one belongs. It is expedient to take special organisational-legal measures to prevent the negative socio-psychological phenomena determined by the organisational structure of management, and to reckon with the possible negative socio-psychological phenomena, overcoming them through educational measures and the structuring of the management process.
separate functions of the given organisation, the individual aspects of its activity, separate indices or results rather than integral ones. As a result, interests are narrowed down and the goals become individual rather than common. There are other socio-psychological consequences of fragmentation of the mechanism of management, too:
---linear (branch) services rely more on discipline and orders while the functional ones are more inclined towards administration though instructions, rules, recommendations, and norms, which causes growth in correspondence, red-tape and formal attitudes;
-although the manager is head of both the linear (or branch) and functional services, he is often inclined to heed the opinion of the latter, believing them to be staffed with competent specialists. The informal role of the functional services is therefore much greater than their formal rights and duties;
---the functional services, competing with one another, often try to set themselves above the others, exerting psychological pressure on the opinions and decisions of the manager that runs counter to the common interest;
---the functional services often show a predilection for direct instructions to the lower-level linear managers and functional subdivisions, even exceeding their authority and abusing their membership in the higher level of management. Where the higher-level functional services are numerous, the subordinate manager actually loses part of his independence, his initiative is restricted, and he may cease to be a motive force, trying to establish a balance between the instructions of the numerous higher-level services and the needs of the functioning of subordinate sub-divisions. The activities of the subordinates carrying out the instructions of the higher-level functional services, begin to escape the authority and control of the subordinate manager, so that the latter loses command of the situation although he continues to bear the responsibility for it;
---the functional services, particularly those of the upper levels of management, lacking reliable and timely information yet desirous of displaying activity and of justifying their existence, go in for unrealistic instructions and general recommendations, increasing the volume of paper work and wasting the time of the workers of lower levels, called upon to implement effective management, on writing reports, passing on data, writing memos, on meetings and talks with numerous representatives of a higher body.
The principal socio-psychological problems generated by the contradictions of the current linear-functional system thus include:
-the prevention and overcoming by all available methods of any manifestations of functionalism, ensuring the unity of goals, actions, co-ordination, and integrity;
---overcoming the excess of functionally-limited instructions violating the unity of leadership, giving rise to contradictions and imbal-
67 __ALPHA_LVL3__ 3.2.2. The Struggle against All Manifestations ofFour types of structural divisions are represented, as a rule, in the modern management mechanism and the bodies subordinated to it: leadership, branches (linear devisions implementing the entire range of the management functions), functional divisions (implementing one single function), auxiliary (clerks, archives, etc.). The most widespread varieties of the organisational structure of management are those of concentrated administration and limited functioning, and the most widespread disease is functional narrow-mindedness. The main organisational-legal cause is fragmentation, complexity of the structure of the management mechanism, a great number of different departments, services, sub-divisions with limited functions, responsibilities and rights. For them, the objects of management are
66ance between the responsibility and the actual rights of the lowerlevel managers, and requiring an integral approach;
---overcoming the negative psychological consequences of increased accounting and paper work in general, which lead to waste of time, to the view that orderliness in the office is more important than business interests (bureaucracy), to inclination towards office work and habit for it.
The socio-psychological problems arising at the juncture of two management collectives may be said to be no less complicated and important than problems of management of the primary collectives themselves.
Judging by socio-psychological criteria, the most preferable variety of the linear- functional system is the second one-concentrated leadership. At the same time it is expedient to take managerial measures to solve the above-mentioned socio-psychological problems pertaining mostly to horizontal co-ordination. It should be borne in mind that
---the greater the number of sub-divisions with narrow functions, the more difficult it is for them to "find a common language" with other departments and services;
-each new independent sub-division creates new problems that have to be solved by the manager, far from making his work easier;
-where separate work places are closely linked with one another within a single work process, many co-ordination duties may be performed independently by working individuals;
---the tasks which produce contradictory desires and interests in individuals who are to co-operate, should be united in one functional sub-division rather than divided between several;
---functional attitudes are overcome through participation of their carriers in the discussion of common affairs and problems, in preparation of integral decisions, the work otadhoc committees, boards, interbranch commissions, etc. However, excessive meetings and sittings are wasteful: hours are wasted for the sake of saving minutes.
central organs, interlevel relations are shaped by the legally regulated acts adopted in the given labour collective as well as by the personal qualities of the individuals entering upon into certain relations. Research shows that in preparing normative and legally regulated acts, in their correcting and perfecting, it is expedient to pay attention to the frequently practiced overcentrdisation (overmanagement). It is seen in an unjustified desire of the higher levels of management (of the leader personally) to take upon himself the solution of a maximally great number of questions depriving the lower levels of some of their rights and of independence (the demand that everything should be reported, co-ordinated, and permission obtained in every case), continual and intolerable interference in the work of the lower levels, etc. Such practices often lead to suppression of creative activity of the lower-echelon administrators, to actual suppression of the feeling of and habit for responsibility, developing the habit for doing only that which is ordered, or prescribed, the habit to await instructions on all questions.
Excessive centralisation has another aspect as well. The level of thinking of the higher echelons of management is reduced under such conditions to the tactical. Petty problems swallow them up, they are lost in the rush of routine matters, and there is no time left for the solution of major problems (that is, those that are inherent in their own level). Excessive centralisation leads in fact to a considerable growth in the size of managerial staff, creating favourable conditions for their self-insulation. It stimulates the desire of the most gifted and capable workers to become part of the central mechanism, encouraging self-seeking, for success in one's career is identified with climbing up the office ladder. This, in turn, weakens the local cadre, which further justifies increased centralisation.
Attempts are made to work out criteria and principles for precise distribution of functions according to levels, but the question has not been solved yet of how far down the interference of a higher body should reach and how far up information on events in the basis of the management pyramid should go. Where it is expedient, the following recommendations should be implemented:
---to strive continually for an optimal combination of centralisation and decentralisation, describing in normative documents ( instructions, directives, etc.), with the greatest possible precision and in detail, how this should be achieved;
-in determining an individual's scope of authority, to proceed from the extent to which that individual is actually capable of affecting the conduct of other individuals and production;
-to give preference, wherever possible, to the horizontal (flat) structure of management over the vertical one; considerable number of direct subordinates is an effective means of inciting the manager
69 __ALPHA_LVL3__ 3.2.3. The Overcoming of the Negative Socio-PsychologicalSpecial attention to this problem is necessitated by the fact that in any system, subject and object of management are singled out as well as levels (stages, links, echelons); functions are divided into levels; and subordination relations (the authority-subordination relations), centralisation and decentralisation are regimented. Apart from the organisational structure of the staff and the normative acts of the
68to create conditions for showing the initiative and independence of the subordinates, the self-organising potential of the collective, rejection of petty, personally administered supervision;
---where a manager has a subordinate whose only task is assisting the manager (secretary, deputy, adviser, etc.), the managerial potential of that manager is nearly doubled;
---a manager dependent to a considerable extent on his superiors is obliged to keep continually in contact with them both for receiving detaided instructions and for reporting on the state of affairs in the sub-division which he heads. This situation, just as restrictions on the subordinates' independence and excessive centralisation, decreases his managerial capacity, that is, the number of workers and the range of tasks which he can effectively manage, the number of problems he can attend to;
---lack of equipment and staff results in lower managerial capacity since the manager in this case wastes a great deal of time on establishing the order in which equipment will be used, on settling arguments over tables and rooms, on looking for the worker to whom the next task will be assigned, etc.;
---where the manager's capacity is insufficient, he cannot cope with the avalanche of tasks and problems befalling him, so that he has to neglect some of them, concentrating on those questions that are supervised by the superiors;
---where the administrator is overtaxed, it is better not to set up an additional stage but free him from part of the load by giving him an assistant or consultant, by raising the level of qualification of his subordinates or selecting better qualified ones, by setting up public groups for supervision, assistance and management or using the existing ones;
---to simplify the procedures for working out, initialling, and signing of managerial papers;
---to proceed from directive management of the lower levels to management based on normatives;
---the right to decision-making should be given to those levels and workers that objectively have conditions for that, namely, possess the most complete information and ability to react promptly;
---correct distribution of rights is hampered by the fears of some leaders (under the vertical structure of management) to appear superfluous, to lose their prestige and significance in transmitting some of their powers to the lower stages;
---it is necessary to oppose the principal activity overgrowing with specialised staff annexes, which are as a rule the negative by-product of human relations.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ 3.2.4. The Psychological Foundations ofAn enterprise, office, or institution consists of a considerable number of work places allotted to individual workers and groups, that is, individual and group work places. Apart from general problems of organisation of the entire collective based on systems notions of it, it is important to take care of the optimal organisation of its elements---the individual and group work places.
The following are the principal ways of improving individual and group work places corresponding to the specificity of socialist management and substantiated by psychological research data:
---humanisation of labour, creating opportunities for full manifestation of the individual's abilities and his all-round harmonious development, favourable socio-psychological conditions in the labour collective for the manifestation and formation of an active attitude to life, of the initiative and independence of each individual and his participation in management;
---organising intense but not excessive work, one that requires full mobilisation of the individual's potential and conscious and responsible attitude to it, and facilitates the worker's development and growth;
---incentives for the worker (or group of workers) going beyond the field of prescribed actions, for complete creative discovery and utilisation of all the resources of increasing labour productivity and solution of societal tasks at his work place;
---optimal regimentation of actions: avoidance of insufficient regimentation causing confusion and offering loopholes for irresponsible attitudes to work, and of overregimentation (excessive prescriptions and instructions) often resulting in loss of initiatives and creativity in doing one's work, in growing tendencies towards restricting oneself to carrying out formal prescriptions, in the growth of bureaucratic red-tape, desire of some workers to look for those points in the prescriptions that may be used in case of need to justify dereliction of duty.
Each work place should be integrated within a general organisation, while the tasks and duties of the workers should be co-ordinated with other work places. The following principles of co-ordination of work places are recommended:
---the principle of organic functions, that is, functions that are easier performed at a given work place than at any other. A function cannot be moved up to a higher (and more highly paid) work place if it can just as well be performed at a lower-level work place;
---the principle of production, which means that the functions of the given work place must be derivative from the principal ones imposed on a structural sub-division of a higher level or stage;
---the principle of reasonableness of ``other'' tasks and duties.
71 70In other terms, the words "and other duties" should not be taken to mean that the administrator can set any task he sees fit for his subordinate;
-the principle of automatic replacement of absent workers. In the absence of some workers, they must automatically be replaced by others whose duty it is to do their work, without distracting the administrator;
-the principle of co-ordinating the tasks of the individual work places. ITiere must be no gaps or doubling of functions, duties, and rights: their load must be distributed uniformly, and working capacities should be co-ordinated.
heads of an organisational unit will wish to 'make their mark' and demonstrate, to_ those who appointed them, their creativity, progressiveness and competence. Yet subordinates can often frustrate attempts to make changes if there is unanimity that such change is against their interests".l Personnel changes are often inevitable, but it is important to assume that the given sub-division can work more effectively with the same staff.
Innovations must correspond to the level of the collective's development and appear justified, necessary and promising to the collective involved.
The socio-psychological preparedness of the collective for changes in the organisational structure of management is expressed in co-- operation between sub-divisions, unity of goals, high level of development of microcollectives, realisation of the inadequacies of the old organisational structure, understanding the principles of the new structure, and participation of the collective in drafting a new organisational structure. A special indication of the psychology of a collective for introducing innovations is the dissatisfaction of the members of the collective with the existing indices and conditions of activity.
Gradual, stage-by-stage reorganisation may bring down the risk of "psychological barriers" and raise the effectiveness of the innovations. Lenin believed that in improving management "it is culture that is required. Nothing will be achieved in this by doing things in a rush, by assault, by vim or vigour, or in general, by any of the best human qualities"^^2^^.
Informing the collective and drawing them into the process of reorganisation create favourable psychological conditions, ensuring viability of the changes introduced. If an individual has made his contribution to the reorganisation, he becomes its adherent and supporter.
Usually, there are individuals in the collective that approve of the innovations (if they are indeed businesslike and reasonable). As a rule, these are conscientious persons acutely aware of defects in the work of the collective. For this reason, in preparing and introducing innovations, the administrator should rely on such persons, singling them out, taking their advice, and instructing them. Informal leaders and lower-level managers should also be drawn into the innovations.
On the other hand, there are workers who are slow in getting used to the innovations, demonstrate distrust and unjustified prudence. There have been cases where some workers, for instance, for years mistrusted the results of computer processing of information. With computer calculations available, they used adding machines to check them. With the passage of time, however, the situation has changed.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ 3. 2. 5.The Psychological Barriers in the WayEveryday practice demands permanent improvement of management organisation. From time to time the need arises for all-round and more or less radical changes. These steps are often undertaken by a newly appointed administrator ("a new broom sweeps clean"). Innovations cause various psychological reactions on the part of the personnel. The latter may be negative, acting as psychological barriers that have to be overcome by the manager if he is to carry through the innovations. These barriers may include:
---indifference;
-disapproval;
---failure to understand;
---doubts about their expediency and suspicious attitude to them;
---critique;
---concealed resistance;
---active struggle.
It would be wrong to insist that man by his very psychological nature opposes any inn ovations. There are of course certain psychological difficulties involved in upsetting a customary way of life, habits, customs, traditions, etc. However, the real attitude to organisational innovations (which are societal in their very essence) is determined by socio-psychological rather than psycho-physiological factors, that is, by the attitude of the members of the collective to labour, to the collective itself, to social values, etc. Accordingly, socio-psychological difficulties may arise out of the low educational level of the collective and its various sub-divisions and individual members, their negative past experiences with innovations, failure to understand the need for them, lack of authority of the manager, etc.
Improvements in management organisation are often linked with the need for personnel reshuffle and replacement. Thus O' Shaughnessy believes that "changes in personnel can facilitate change since new
72~^^1^^ J. O'Shaughnessy. Op. cit., p. 265.
~^^2^^ V. L Lenin. "Better Fewer, But Better". Collected Works, Vol. 33, p. 488.
73Computer centres and computers in general have multiplied everywhere, and the number of those mistrusting them has gone down to a minimum.
Introduction of any innovations should be psychologically prepared through conferences and discussions in which the social attitudes should mature that will serve as a background for the innovations, making them justified and necessary. It is appropriate to create a special committee or commission for the purpose.
A positive effect may be achieved by introducing special courses in the system of vocational training where workers can better appreciate the need for and the essence of the innovations. In a number of countries, "sensitivity training" and studying in so-called T-groups are widely practiced, the goal being psychological preparation of management staff for improvements. Good results have also been obtained in various forms of study aimed at raising the psychological and pedagogical qualification of industrial workers, engineers, and office workers. They usually result in heightened interest in problems of improving management organisation, the growth of initiative, and favourable attitude to innovations.
Innovations suggested by subordinates must find unqualified support. In these cases, it is necessary to be chary of decisions like the following: "Since you suggest it, we shall entrust you with the task". This "punishment of initiative" sometimes has negative socio-- psychological consequences, impeding the workers' creativity, which is detrimental to the common cause.
These are the most general premises of overcoming " psychological barriers" needing further research and testing in practice.
__ALPHA_LVL2__ 3.3. The Psychology of the Individual in ManagementEven the most perfect rational structure of management organisation will fail to produce a full effect unless the persons occupying all the posts in a labour collective possess the properties and qualities answering the requirements of this structure. The typical properties and qualities of men comprising the given collective largely determine the possibilities of establishing an optimal management structure, as well as the specificity of the processes and problems of management. Management organisation therefore assumes:
-selection and placement of personnel;
---education of the members of a labour collective;
---teaching and improvement of professional skills.
Each of these elements involves proper attention to the psychological traits of an individual.
The concept of personality is a fundamental one in the sciences which study man; it characterises him in an integral manner. Each discipline introduces its own shades in the definition of this concept in accordance with the specificity of its subject-matter. The ideology of society essentially affects the meaning of the personality concept.
Bourgeois ideologues insisted in the past and keep insisting now that capitalist society is a society of "equal opportunities for all". The general meaning of "equal opportunities" can be reduced to the skill of making money. It has become a silently accepted axiom that he who can make money is a personality whereas those who cannot are non-persons. This new lie camouflaged the old one: social equality of men is impossible. The bourgeoisie included property in the personality concept. William James, a prominent bourgeois psychologist, indicated that in its widest sense "a man's Self is the sum total of all that he CAN call his, not only his body and his psychic powers, but his clothes and his house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation and works, his lands and horses, and yacht
75and bank-account".^^1^^ In James's view, at the loss of property, of "accumulated gold", the feeling of infringement on our personality prevails, of transformation of a part of us into nothing.
Marxism-Leninism defined personality as a category indicative of man's social maturity. In socialist society an individual is judged by his actual merits-qualities, deeds, and labour activities. Article 14 of the USSR Constitution reads: "Socially useful work and its results determine a person's status in society." The merits of a citizen in developed socialist society are determined by his loyalty to the ideals of communism, active attitude to life, and actual contribution to the solution of problems facing society and labour collectives. In accordance with these methodologically significant propositions and the specificity of its subject-matter, psychological science interprets personality as a concrete person, a sum total of his properties and qualities characterising him as a member of the given society and as an individual.
Each socio-economic formation, in accordance with its specific traits, endeavours to solve problems involved with the concept of personality---its formation, development, training, satisfying its interests and needs. "Just as society itself produces man as man, so is society produced by him"^^2^^, wrote Marx and Engels. It is not accidental that the theory of personality occupies a prominent place in Marxism-- Leninism. All-round and harmonious development of personality, full satisfaction of the person's needs has been set as a concrete practical task which is persistently being solved in the Soviet Union in day-- byday work. The tasks of communist construction demand increasing the efficiency and quality of all work aimed at moulding the new man of communist society.
The leader's activity is closely linked with the problem of personality. In implementing his managerial functions, he comes into contact with real-life individuals who are at different stages of development; at the same time he participates in the shaping of the new man in all his activities. His work is closely bound up with ability to judge people, to study them, and to take into account their individual features.
to the categories of the general, the particular, and the individual.
The most important group of properties and qualities of the personality of any citizen is that which expresses his kinship with other members of the socialist state and is general and typical of all of them. Formation and development of the personality of the builder of communist society assumes first of all the development and perfection of precisely this group of qualities: communist conviction, loyalty to the ideals of communism, socialist patriotism, internationalism, collectivism, etc.
The group of particular qualities characterises personality by some criterion---class, occupation, nation, age-group, etc.
A characteristic feature of personality is individuality [uniqueness, that which is intrinsically his (or her) own and distinguishes him (or her) from all the others]. Individuality, unless it suppresses the, general, has social value.
According to specific psychological characteristics, the following qualities are singled out in the structure of personality: orientation, character, temperament, and abilities.
In observing individuals, we see that their behaviour differs first of all in their aspiration towards attaining different goals, in their being satisfied by different results, and in their different attitudes to identical phenomena. The motivational sphere of personality, the system of characteristic drives towards activity determining its selectivity and the attitude to environment is called personality orientation. Personality image is determined largely by the goals in the name of which the person in question lives and struggles, and by that person's contribution to the cause of the whole people. It is therefore this quality that needs to be studied and shaped first of all.
Personality orientation has its own structure, of which the most important components are needs and world-view, ideals, goals, plans, desires, aspirations, motives, attitudes, and perspectives.
A need is a person's want of something: work, actions, results, objects, etc. "No one can do anything without at the same time doing it for the sake of one or other of his needs,"^^1^^ wrote Marx and Engels. In their view, man regards the objects and phenomena of the surrounding world as a means of satisfying his needs. A concrete person is indifferent to something because it does not correspond to his specific needs, and he therefore desires something else that does gratify them. Satisfying a need is experienced by man as pleasure, joy, recovering his normal state, an upsurge of energy, an urge for intense activity. If the need is not satisfied, it is subjectively experienced as discomfort, dissatisfaction, displeasure, frustrated feelings and wishes. This state of unsatisfied need stimulates man's
__ALPHA_LVL3__ 3.3.2. The Psychological Properties of Individuals.A system of interconnected properties and qualities classified according to a definite criterion, forms the structure of personality. Groups of qualities should first be singled out which correspond
~^^1^^ W. James. The Principles of Psychology. VoL 1, Henry Holt and Company New York, 1893, p. 291.
~^^2^^ Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844". In Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 3, 1975, p. 298.
~^^1^^ Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. "The German Ideology". In Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 5, 1976, p. 255.
77 76.L
cognitive activity and an interest in searching for objects, conditions, actions, etc. capable of satisfying it. An "inner plan" for action is formed, which is later realised in man's deeds, a system of actions (activity) satisfying the need.
Man's needs are varied and may be classified according to a number of criteria. Most frequently, two kinds of such criteria are singled out: material or socialised (the needs for food, water, warmth, clothes, housing, etc.), and spiritual or social. Satisfying material needs is the basis for the person's life and activity. But where they are satisfied to a certain relatively normal level (extremely movable and depending on concrete social conditions), spiritual (social) needs come to play the leading role. Thus, a worker's labour is in one of its meanings a means of obtaining the material necessities of life. But these creature comforts are not decisive in all respects. Studies in personnel turnover have shown, for instance, that men often change jobs because of dissatisfaction with the socio-psychological climate in the collective, lack of opportunity for applying their creative abilities, poor organisation of labour, lack of rapport with the manager, that is, owing to causes that have nothing to do with material well-being. Of course, it would be a mistake to close one's eyes to the fact that there are many people whose material wants are developed one-sidedly, to the detriment of the spiritual ones. But in a well-developed personality, behaviour is dominated by spiritual needs.
The following types of needs are significant for evaluating personality:
-the need for labour, for active participation in social work;
---the cognitive needs: the needs for knowledge, education, selfeducation, improving professional skills, creative attitude to work;
---the need for communication;
-ethical and esthetical needs: patriotism, pride in one's profession, the need for cultured behaviour.
Needs are formed throughout one's life. Of course, a number of the simplest needs are present in man from birth, as the need for food. At the same time, this need assumes concrete content, that is, it is socialised, under the influence of the conditions of life. There are, for instance, a great many foodstuffs that are widely used by some peoples and completely ignored by others. The quantity of food eaten, the mode of cooking it, the manner of eating (using hands or knives, forks, etc.), and the number of courses vary with social conditions and individuals.
The world outlook (in a broad sense) is understanding of the surrounding world by the individual (or individuals), of its laws and the events in it, an understanding which motivates his (or their) behaviour. The world outlook may be scientific or unscientific, progressive or reactionary. The world outlook includes an understanding of society, societal phenomena and laws, information on nature and men.
78The genuinely revolutionary and the only scientific world outlook is the world outlook of the working class-Marxism-Leninism, which Lenin characterised as an integral system of philosophical, economic, and social views.
Distinctions are made between the world outlook of society class, and party; the world outlook of groups of men; the world outlook of a single individual. There always exists an interconnection between these kinds of world outlook, but it is characterised by statistical rather than linear, one-value dependencies. In other words, the world outlook of a single group, as a rule, coincides with the world outlook dominant in society, but it may also differ ou some points; the world outlook of a separate individual usually coincides with the world outlook of that group of individuals to which he belongs, but it may also differ from that outlook in some respects.
The world outlook of a separate individual is a system of convictions, views, and opinions of that individual expressing an understanding of the laws of nature and society, of himself, his links with the surroundings, obligations to men, to society, a system that motivates the individual's behaviour of a certain type. Being a reflection in a separate individual's consciousness of the world outlook of a class (or society as a whole), it includes scientific and empirical (drawn from life) philosophical, economic, and socio-political convictions, views, and knowledge. The most active and stable element of world outlook are convictions constituting a fusion of cognitive, emotional, volitional, and motivational phenomena, that is, knowledge and views which an individual takes to be true without qualification and which he believes it necessary to follow in overt behaviour. Marx wrote: "Ideas, which have conquered our intellect and taken possession of our minds, ideas to which reason has fettered our conscience, are chains from which one cannot free oneself without a broken heart; they are demons which human beings can vanquish only by submitting to them.''^^1^^ These words are a striking expression of the impact of convictions on all aspects of man's psyche and behaviour. Essentially they determine the leading spiritual needs, and their shaping is the core of all the ideological and educational work. In most cases, incentives to action called forth by an actualised need are correlated by the individual with his views and convictions and are either sanctioned or hindered by them.
The world outlook and needs of a person, occupying a dominant position in his (or her) orientation, determine concrete actions in a way that is as a rule neither direct nor automatic. An important role is played here by the second group of components of personality
1 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. "Communism and the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung". In Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 1, 1975, pp. 220-221.
79orientation---the goals or motives (the ideas and emotions compelling the individual to choose precisely the given goal and mode of its attainment). The goal is an answer to the question "What is the individual going to do, what is he striving for?", whereas motives explain why this particular goal was chosen, the ideals, perspectives, plans, intentions, desires, interests, and attitudes (the psychic state determining the person's predisposition or preparedness for a definite perception of reality and actions). They depend on the world outlook and needs and, at the same time, being affected by external factors (e.g. desire arising in a certain situation, interest caused by someone, etc.), they can influence the manifestation of and changes in convictions and needs.
In all of his work, the leader inevitably needs to study and take into account the orientation of the personalities of men with whom he has to work, and to affect that orientation. In analysing the causes of men's actions, he will find it expedient to answer, in first place, the questions about their goals, motives, convictions, etc., the factors producing them, and the reasons and conditions of their emergence in the given individual. In endeavouring to improve management organisation, to change the subordinate's attitude to labour and to his own orders and instructions, he will have to look for and apply certain modes of changing the orientation, affecting the convictions, forming the socially significant goals and interests, etc. Every leader should clearly realise the nature of his own orientation, too, shaping in himself orientation characteristics that are valued in society and significant for the cause.
The second psychological trait of personality is character. It unites those personality features that are manifested in the person's typical attitudes to the surroundings, to labour, other men, and to himself. While orientation expresses mostly the person's ideological make-up, character expresses the moral qualities.
Depending on the attitude to the surroundings, character may be active or passive, optimistic or pessimistic, purposeful or the reverse, principled or unprincipled. According to the attitude to labour, character may be industrious or unindustrious, socially active or individualistic, independent or dependent, organised or disorganised, capable or incapable of sustained effort, creative or non-creative. Depending on the person's attitude to other persons, character is described as communicative or reserved, extraverted or introverted, sensitive or insensitive, good or evil, exacting or unexacting, altruistic or egoistic; depending on the person's attitude to himself, it may be modest or immodest, self-critical or self-uncritical, ambitious, selfproud, etc.
The principal character traits are the product of development and education during the person's life, and of the determining effect of the orientation traits.
80Character traits may be said to have different significance for different occupations. There are even such terms as "character of a leader", "military character", "the character of a pedagogue", etc. Management and improvement of management therefore require the study of character traits in the selection and placement of personnel and in educating them.
It is a well-known fact that some persons quickly assimilate the new and adapt themselves to a new situation, whereas others do it slowly and with great difficulty. Some are very emotional, others quiet and sober-minded. Some persons possess great capacity for work, they are quick, optimistic go-getters, whereas others are weak, easily wounded, slow, and apt to give up their intentions if they run into difficulties. All of these and many other traits of the dynamics of psychic activity are linked with the third personality propertytemperament.
Temperament is the property of personality expressing stable dynamic features of men's psychic activity. Physiologically, temperament is based on the general type of the nervous system of the given person. That determines extreme stability of temperament features, posing before the leader the task of taking it into account rather than changing it.
Temperament features include:
---sensitivity. It is measured by the least force of external influences causing response. Thus, constant slight noise will annoy some individuals while others will fail to notice it;
---reactivity, emotionality. These traits are manifested in the strength of emotional responses to influences and specific nature of the course of these responses (speed of emergence, length of response, controllability, extinction);
-activity, or extent of interference in the surrounding events in attaining goals;
---resistivity, or ability to resist unfavourable conditions slowing down activity;
---rigidity vs plasticity. The first concept reflects inadequate adaptability to new conditions, tasks, and situations, while the second describes the opposite trait;
---extraversion vs introversion. Where a person's reactions are largely dependent on the events taking place at the given moment in that person's environment, the person is said to be extraverted; if they are determined by earlier defined goals, intentions, and considerations, that is evidence of introvertedness;
---excitability of attention/The less the novelty of a situation or factor that attracts attention, the more excitable it is in an individual.
Types of temperament are "distinguished by the sum total of temperament traits. A classification including four types is the most popular (although it is regarded as rather obsolete by scientists).
81The sanguine temperament possesses great mobility, balance, and plasticity. A person of sanguine temperament is easily taught, quickly adapts himself to a new situation, he is gregarious, cheerful, has great capacity for work. Sensitivity is insignificant. A sanguine person takes any kind of unpleasantness in his stride.
A choleric person is highly excitable and therefore inadequately balanced. The distinctive traits of choleric temperament are impetuosity, mobility, enthusiasm, and ability to learn. Failures often bring out hard will and aggressiveness. Subject to breakdowns and extreme swings of emotion (from love to hate, from enthusiasm to depression).
The phlegmatic temperament is marked by low excitability, emotionality, and sensitivity. Phlegmatic persons are slow-moving, introverted, show little plasticity or initiative. Once they get accustomed to the new, they are capable of working persistently during long periods of time, ignoring distracting factors even in situations of danger.
A melancholic person has a weak type of the nervous system, he is highly sensitive, rigid, introverted. Melancholies are vulnerable and mistrustful. Strong irritants often cause them to become torpid, confused, and pessimistic.
Some temperaments are better suited for one kind of specialties, while others, for other pursuits.
Temperament should be taken into account in selecting candidates for performing concrete tasks, in the individual approach to education and upbringing, and in forming groups. Thus, energetic influence on a choleric person, for instance, is quite superfluous, for that person possesses sufficient sensitivity, reactivity, and emotionality without such an impact. A stronger impression will be made on him by short and tactful remarks. The latter, however, may produce no impression if applied to a phlegmatic person. As a rule, what is needed here are energetic, emotionally coloured impacts often repeating over a stretch of time.
Some temperament traits of a given person, combined with others, or in certain manifestations, may be perceived as defects: lack of balance may become lack of self-control and rudeness; lack of mobility may lead to laziness and conservatism, while high mobility, to restlessness and impatience; weakness may develop into passivity, etc. Bearing this in mind, the superior will endeavour to form in the subordinate those behavioural habits which would impose restraint on the negative manifestations of the individual traits of his temperament.
The individual temperament traits should also be reasonably taken into account in working with groups of people. A certain combination of the features of persons in constant contact may become the cause of their psychological incompatibility, that is, of impossibility of joint work in a situation of nearly continuous conflicts and mutual animosity.
82In conducting educational activities or introducing labour innovations one will observe that many of those persons who are prompt to react positively to innovations are choleric and sanguine, while the procrastinators experiencing great difficulties at the start will be predominantly phlegmatics. On the other hand, the former are not steady enough in doing comparatively monotonous jobs over long periods of time. As for phlegmatics, once they have learnt something and got started, they are more inclined to work longer and more persistently. Where that is borne out by practice, the administrator will do well to reckon with the individual temperament traits in selecting workers for carrying out various assignments.
Temperament affects the rate of assimilating new mate rial in learning. The 'manager will therefore act rightly if he refrains from hasty accusations of laziness and irresponsibility in dealing with phlegmatic subordinates. Usually, they later catch up with others and demonstrate sounder knowledge and better skills and abilities.
Research by a number of scientists has shown that the type of the nervous system will also tell on the style of work where the latter is formed spontaneously. Thus, workers with different levels of mobility of nervous processes attained the same labour productivity by resorting to different procedures. Operators with inert nervous processes work out a style characterised by a great number of preventive actions aimed at averting complicated situations requiring fast responses and restructuring of work (for which they show little ability). As for mobile operators, they attain a high mean rate at the expense of spurts of energy and prompt responses (of which they are capable) whenever necessary. Certain specific features of the work of drivers were discovered that were linked with the strength of the nervous system. Many drivers with a weak type of the nervous system, to avoid the inhibiting effect of dangerous situations during a trip that may disorganise their behaviour and possibly incur a car accident for which they would be responsible, think over the coming trip and the route, playing out in their minds the possible dangerous situations so that the latter cease to be unexpected. All ^he features of such situations are considered, where possible, and measures are outlined for their prevention or neutralisation. There are almost no manifestations of weakness in the usual working activities of such drivers. Conversations show that such drivers have a range of options in difficult and dangerous situations that is two or three times greater than that of ``strong'' drivers.
The fourth property of personality is abilities. Abilities are individual psychological features which serve as one of the significant internal conditions for successfully mastering a given profession, for highly productive labour and constant self-improvement. They are not reducible to knowledge or skills but are stable features of the psyche regulating acquisition and manifestation of professionalism.
83Not any personality trait is ability. Abilities are relevant to the evaluation of a person's various individual psychological traits as adequate or inadequate to the requirements of a concrete profession or activity. Some of these psychological traits may have a bearing on the profession or activity while others may be indifferent or of no consequence. In other words the totality of individual-- psychological traits of a given person appears as ability only in comparison with the demands of some activity or profession---it may be inability with regard to another activity. Outside such juxtaposition, these traits are simply the qualities or features of the given person.
The societal significance of abilities is expressed in the basic formulas of socialism and communism: "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his work", and "From each according' to his abilities, to each according to his needs". The Programme of the CPSU says: "Communism is the system under which the abilities and talents of free man ... bloom forth and reveal themselves in full". This proposition indicates that abilities must not only be reckoned with but also developed.
Soviet science does not recognise innate abilities, yet it admits a certain connection between abilities and the anatomic and physiological features of an organism---the so-called aptitudes. The relationship between abilities and aptitudes may be compared with the dependence between the soil and the plant. Wheat, apple-trees, or flowers are not indifferent to the type of soil on which they grow---black earth, loam, sand, or stone. But soil does not determine what grows on it. Both weeds and useful plants may grow on black soil. Aptitudes are much the same: they create the premises for the development of abilities but they do not determine the latter automatically. Aptitudes are multivalued: different abilities may grow on the basis of identical aptitudes. Even where the aptitudes are favourable, the corresponding ability may fail to develop. Everything depends on the environmental conditions, the requirements imposed on man, and the features of his own activity. "In principle, a porter differs less from a philosopher than a mastiff from a greyhound. It is the division of labour which has set a gulf between them," wrote Marx and Engels.l
Socialism was the first socio-economic system to create opportunities for "drawing the majority of working people into a field of labour in which they can display their abilities, develop the capacities, and reveal those talents, so abundant among the people whom capitalism crushed, suppressed and strangled in thousands and millions".^^2^^
The CPSU continually endeavours to create the conditions for a full manifestation of the abilities of each individual.
While asserting the possibility of the development of abilities, one should also bear in mind that this possibility diminishes with time. At the age between 17 and 25, certain abilities may yet be developed in some persons, while in others it will be difficult and in still others, next to impossible. The reason is not only the natural aptitude but also the profound imprint imposed on human personality in the past years of life and activity. Where it is clearly hard to develop in a given person the required abilities, one wonders if it is expedient to train him or her. Would it not be more reasonable to advise that person to take up some occupation for which he or she has a disposition and abilities developed to some extent?
__ALPHA_LVL3__ 3.3.3. The Psychology of Labour Testing and Analysis.Education, upbringing, psychological training are the necessary but not the only foundations of the attainments of today and tomorrow. An important role is also played by labour testing and analysis--- determining the extent of correspondence between labour requirements and the preparedness, suitableness, and activities of the given person or collective. It is not every person with any set of personality traits that can be taught the given profession, not everyone can be suited to it and attain high productivity.
The tasks of labour testing and analysis are as follows:
---vocational guidance: guidance of manpower reserves as to the requirements and conditions of labour in the given occupation and at the given enterprise; consultative and advisory services for jobseekers with the goal ofattracting maximal manpower and opening up the possibilities for selecting the most worthy and suitable persons. Manpower shortage in the Soviet Union deprives managers of the opportunity of selecting personnel, compelling them to hire practically anyone, which considerably complicates subsequent improvements in personnel and attainment of high production results;
---vocational selection and placement: the selection and placement of manpower reserves in the work places and trades according to the abilities and fitness of the individuals;
---professional investigation of the causes of low labour productivity, accidents, breakdowns, lagging behind, dropping out, high turnover, and presenting substantiated report to the personnel departments.
The first two tasks are prognostic in nature, facing the future, while the third is retrospective (facing the past with the goal of improving the present and the future).
Representatives of many Soviet ministries, departments, and enter-
851 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. "The Poverty of Philosophy". In Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 6, 1976, p. 180.
2 V. I. Lenia "How to Organise Competition?". Collected Works, Vol. 26, p. 404
84prises deal with labour testing and analysis: employment managers, personnel departments, enrollment committees at higher educational establishments, medical and labour expert committees, committees investigating accidents, failures, and breakdowns, etc. They take into account moral, political, legal, organisational, special, and physiological factors. There have also been positive results in accounting for psychological traits as well, but these experiences are not widespread. Comprehensive consideration of the latter is an untapped resource for improving labour testing and analysis, opening up further possibilities for improving management efficiency.
The psychological aspects of vocational guidance are to be found in both of its components, vocational advertising and consultations. Vocational advertising attains its goal if it attracts the attention-of the manpower reserves and keeps it up, ensuring continual influx of manpower, particularly of skilled manpower suitable for the required tasks. This type of advertising is called upon to develop in the population correct notions of the requirements and nature of the given type of labour, to rule out subsequent dropping-out due to disappointment, and to attract sufficiently well-trained, politically and morally educated, serious and industrious persons. Vocational advertising must therefore be constant, attractive (striking, interesting, meaningful, emotional, intelligent), serious and comprehensive. The persons responsible for vocational advertising must:
-conduct consultations among school teachers and pupils on problems involved in choosing an occupation, in collaboration with the bodies responsible for education;
---popularise various occupations as well as the work of certain educational establishments and their alumnae and their feats of labour through the mass media;
---hold "open door days", publicising the event amongst the young, the parents, and school teachers;
---organise permanent and temporary exhibitions;
---organise consultations of representatives of educational establishments at permanent district or town consultative vocational guidance centres for the young people and their parents;
-keep up permanent contacts with the local state bodies and enterprises as regards attracting workforce, finding employment for the young, and sending them to educational establishments.
It should also be borne in mind that vocational advertising of immense psychological effectiveness is done spontaneously in the conversations and correspondence of various professionals with their friends and acquaintances, in communication between members of families of those working in a given branch or at a given enterprise with other people. Some members of occupations that traditionally wear uniforms advertise their metier through their image, their entire conduct and way of life.
86Vocational consultations take the form not only of answering the questions of those seeking a certain kind of employment but also of determining their fitness for it and offering advice as to whether they should take it up or not. This kind of consultation requires a study of the individual features of the candidates, including their psychological features. Its methods coincide with those of vocational selection.
Psychological selection is a component part of vocational selection conducted on the basis of studying the political and professional qualities of candidates for training and working at an enterprise or vocational school. Psychological selection is intended to determine the correspondence of the individual psychological features of a candidate to the requirements of the given occupation, choosing the best of the available manpower. The questions answered here are:
---Is a candidate suitable to the given type of labour from the pointx of view of his psychology?
v
-Can he be taught fast?
-Will he be able to attain excellent production results? Will he be able to attain the highest level of professional skills?
Where psychological selection is successful, the number of dropouts from educational establishments goes down, the quality and rate of training as well as labour productivity increase, the number of accidents diminishes. Finding a suitable profession for a person means that there will be one consumption-oriented individual less on this earth and one good producer more. The results of selection also have a personal significance: work for which a person has some aptitude brings him success, joy, enjoyment, respect, satisfaction, well-being--- and vice versa.
Psychological selection is needed most of all in educational establishments training specialists for occupations imposing harsh requirements on individuals (pilots, sailors, drivers, operators, dispatchers, and so on).
Psychological placement is a variety of psychological selection. A body of workers (e.g. those leaving an educational establishment) are placed in certain positions or occupations which correspond to the psychological traits of each individual. Psychological selection is based on finding out individual psychological features of the candidates examined and comparing them with those required by a given occupation or position. The success of this work obviously depends on whether the persons in charge of placements have:
---precise information about the demands imposed by the given occupation, position, task, or conditions on the individual's psychological characteristics (that is to say, criteria or standards with which the qualities of the subject or their possible development are compared);
-reliable procedures for defining within the necessary time limits
87the psychological traits of the given candidate;
---the correct modes of evaluating the correspondence of the features found in the subject to those required.
The general principles of solving these tasks have been worked out well enough in science, so that it is possible to elaborate within several months useful recommendations for any occupation later to be verified and specified in practice.
The starting point of selection is some notion of the ensemble of psychological traits which a candidate must have. Sometimes the rule of contraries is used: a list of counterindications for training and working in a given field is made up.
Depending on the kind of psychological traits regarded as prognostically significant, selection according to attainment and selection according to abilities are distinguished. In the former case persons are selected with already developed qualities necessary for the occupation and with certain knowledge and skills. Selection according to ability deals with long-term prognostication, proceeding from the given individual's potential rather than present condition, from the possibility of his rapid professional training and development. Both these types of selection have their positive and negative aspects as well as social aspects and sphere of application. The methods of selection according to attainments are simpler and quicker to yield results, but grave errors may be thus made in long-term prognostication. In educational establishments which train managerial personnel, selection according to abilities is more preferable.
Actual success in mastering a profession or position and in subsequent work is always conditioned by a set of psychological traits, in which three groups may be distinquished:
---evaluative and motivational (orientation and character traits);
---cognitive (the distinctive features of the cognitive qualities and processes);
-"psychological reliability"-emotional and volitional stability, self-control, steadiness in the face of danger or the new and unexpected, in the face of interference or failure; the speed and balance of reactions, etc.
The prognostic conclusion requires reckoning with the whole ensemble of the individual's traits---it cannot be based on an evaluation of the cognitive group, as is sometimes done. Of great importance are the person's convictions, needs, a conscious stable interest, and sound motives for seeking employment.
Different methods to be used in selection are recommended by psychological science for determining the psychological qualities of men. The most difficult task is determining within a short period of time the evaluative and motivational qualities. The biographical method is recommended as well as individual conversations, behaviour observation, natural experiments during entrance examinations and
88checkups, the study of the results of behaviour and performance of various tasks, the study of first impressions of other persons of the personality traits of the given candidate. Cognitive traits and the components of "psychological reliability" are as a rule determined by psychological tests---form tests, instrumental tests, and filmed tests. Each of them is a task offered to the subject for carrying out. The tasks are compiled in such a way as to appraise a certain psychological trait of the applicant (attention, memory, perception, etc.). The recorded results showed by the subject to whom the test waS applied (number of errors made, time spent, and others) are viewed] as indices of the level of the given trait in the subject. Apart from tests, simulators and other working devices may be used as well as the methods of observation, experiments, interviews, questionnaires, etc.
The data obtained are usually evaluated on a four-stage scale"fully fit", "fitness limited", ``unfit'', "assessment indeterminate". Assessments are given for each trait, each group of traits, and the entire ensemble of the given person's traits. In vocational guidance and advisement, evaluations are in the nature of concrete recommendations as to the suitable occupation or position for the applicant.
Professional investigations are usually conducted after some event for establishing its causes. What is established is usually the role played by some person and the causes of his actions. This is most often done in cases of accidents or certain incidents, breakdowns of machinery, etc., where the accident causes due to the human factor usually figure most prominently (between 40 and 70 per cent of the overall number of causes varying from occupation to occupation). Of these causes, the most frequently mentioned is inadequate vocational training---insufficient knowledge and skills. In actual fact, investigating breakdown causes demands a deeper and more comprehensive psychological approach. It is important in that correct assignment of causes determines their correct prevention in the future.
The most widespread groups of psychological causes of accidents, breakdowns, incidents, failures, and their conditions are:
---defects in the development of personality orientation and character, conducive to carelessness, negligence, dishonesty, lack of discipline, etc.;
---defects in emotional and volitional preparedness leading to confusion, cowardness, indecision, losing one's head, overexcitement, confused activity;
-defects in the development of the qualities of sensations, perception, attention, leading to belated discovery of danger signals, their erroneous evaluation, illusions, absent-mindedness, distractions;
---defects in the development of memory, notions, and reasoning causing failure to understand the situation in whole or partially, as well as erroneous evaluations and decisions;
89---low level of occupational qualification and certain psychological features of its dynamics under the influence of past and current experiences (the negative effects of a past occupation, exaggeration of the subject's own experience-"secondary negligence");
---negative effects on the operational mode of adverse relationships, some news received, incorrect orientation or attitudes;
---temporary decrease of working capacity from tiredness, microclimatic conditions, and psychological phenomena developing during work.
Of course, not all of these causes always lead to an accident. However, stable psychological phenomena of negative nature give rise to systematic errors increasing the probability of an accident, as distinct from the temporary or dynamic ones which mostly cause random mistakes.
Determining the psychological causes of accidents as a rule requires thorough investigation based on the use of three methods:
---the analytical one, subsuming detailed psychological study of each accident, failure, incident, or breakdown;
---the statistical one---systematisation of a great number of accidents according to similar psychological criteria and establishment of their causes;
-the experimental one---modelling under natural or laboratory conditions of situations similar in the psychological characteristics to those of the accident.
Successful selection and placement of personnel according to their occupational and political qualities depends first of all on the psychology of manager, who has to take fully into account the scientific recommendations worked out by specialists in psychological occupational guidance and analysis. A manager may, for instance, show lack of objectivity in evaluating the merits and shortcomings of his subordinates because of friendly relations with or dislike for some worker. A manager's appraisal of subordinates and his concrete decisions in promoting them are sometimes affected by his unexactingness, his fear of setting down a worker's shortcomings in official testimonials, and desire to conceal those shortcomings in order not to spoil the relations. Some managers are guilty of "local patriotism" in dealing with personnel: to retain good workers, the manager passes them over for promotion, and to get rid of a poor worker, the manager will even suggest his employment in a higher position but in another collective.
However, more frequently than lack of objectivity, violations of the businesslike and scientific principles occur that are due to the administrator's inability to understand and correctly appraise the subordinates. These violations are due to inadequate knowledge by the administrator and personnel departments' staff of the ensemble of qualities which an applicant for a given office must possess, to ap-
90plication of insufficiently correct methods of the study and selection of personnel, and attributing the decisive role to information from accidental sources. Because of inadequate knowledge of psychology, some administrators are incapable of expressing in words the specific traits of the subordinate's personality, which is reflected in the quality of official testimonials and recommendations, which are often massproduced and standardised, leaving out of account the person's individuality.
A radical solution of the problem would be the setting up of special scientific laboratories (centres or departments) for vocational guidance, advertising and selection at major enterprises or in every district or branch of industry.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ 3.3.4. The Psychological Features of Personality Formation.Of great significance for the education of labour collectives is correct interpretation of the sources of personality development, of the factors determining the psychology and behaviour of an individual.
Marxism-Leninism and Soviet psychological science, proceeding from an all-sided study of the problem, reject the conception, dominant in the capitalist countries, of the biological nature of man immutable throughout the ages and passed on from generation to generation. Marx and Engels drew the conclusion that "the entire so-called history of the world is nothing but the creation of man".^^1^^ The properties and qualities of each person are determined by the history of previous generations of men, communication with contemporaries, the existing social relations, and his own activity. "The essence of man is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of the social relations.''^^2^^
These fundamental propositions have been confirmed and developed in the latest scientific research. The thesis of the decisive role of social conditions in the formation of human personality and its societal essence does not at all negate the role of the biological, the inherited. Marxism-Leninism and Soviet science treat man as a living natural being inheriting at birth a certain biological fund which affects his individuality. Modern heredity theory has proved the existence of material carriers of heredity---chromosomes, which determine the programme of development of the anatomic and physiological features of man's organism and some of the psycho-
1 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844". In Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 3, 1975, p. 305.
~^^2^^ Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. "Theses on Feuerbach". In Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 5, 1976, p. 4.
91physiological traits (facial features, nervous system type, colour of hair, skeleton and muscle build, functioning of separate organs, etc.). At the same time it states that personality traits are not conditioned by the genetic structure of chromosomes alone but also by various external conditions affecting man throughout his development. That is the basis of geneticists' plans for controlling heredity.
Generally speaking, not all that is hereditary is at the same time innate. Thus, some characteristics of a newborn baby are results of ultrauterine development caused in their turn by the mother's psychic and physical state during pregnancy (e. g. indulgence in alcohol, nervous traumata, etc.). Besides, much of what in everyday life is referred to as inherited (because of similarities between children and parents) is actually acquired by children in the first years of their life under the influence of the actions, arguments, and aspirations of the parents.
All of man's biological features, reflected in his psyche, are realised and developed under social conditions, which affect them decisively. Man has a specific ability for accumulation and transmission of human experience in the form of implements and modes of labour and knowledge of the environment. Marx wrote in Capital: "In the labour-process, therefore, man's activity, with the help of the instruments of labour, effects an alteration, designed from the commensement, in the material worked upon. The process disappears in the product... Labour has incorporated itself with its subject: the former is materialised, the latter transformed. That which in the labourer appeared as movement, now appears in the product as a fixed quality without motion.''^^1^^ In other words, what man possesses as his qualities, abilities, and knowledge, is taken outside and embodied in the creations of his hands and intelligence. Man duplicates himself, as it were. All his aptitudes and qualities are implemented in the fruits of his activity. The products of labour carry the qualities of their creators impressed upon them. In this reified form these qualities are transmitted to other persons and generations. The latter study and utilise them, incorporating themselves in social relations and developing in themselves the appropriate qualities and traits. In their turn, the subsequent generations introduce something new in them, which is also implemented in the fruits of their life and activity. Thus the material and spiritual wealth is handed down that embodies the continually developing properly human qualities that are the basis of development of every person, generation, and society as a whole. This form of perception and transmission of the experiences of past generations has developed in humans due to the fact that their most characteristic activity is creative labour rather than consumption of objects produced by nature.
Man is not a human individual because he eats, drinks, breathes, feels pain, etc., but because he is capable of making predictions, setting conscious goals, consciously directing his behaviour, working and creating, and entering upon social relations with other humans. Every man is, of course, a biological being, but the biological does not constitute his essence. His most essential traits and qualities are formed in the course of his life rather than inherited at birth.
Besides, it would be erroneous to divorce and mechanically oppose to each other the biological and the social in man, as two independent personality factors. The natural organic traits exist in the individual as socially conditioned and socially transformed elements.
Affected throughout his life by social conditions in the process of education, upbringing, and activity (play, learning, work, hobbies, distractions), a child, an adolescent, an adult assimilates the experiences of older generations, developing at the same time the properly human needs, world outlook, abilities, and character. In other words, man learns all of his life how to become man, to become a personality, creating at the same time the man of the future through his activity. The properties and qualities of every man's personality are in the first place his own life story written down within him, the individual history of assimilating the spiritual wealth of society. " Individuals undoubtedly make one another, physically and mentally...," wrote Marx and Engels. *
Control of personality development involves, of course, different levels of complexity at different ages; it is easiest of all in childhood. In an adult, personality traits formed by previous circumstances are deeper rooted. Where they were developed incorrectly or inadequately, it becomes more and more difficult to fill that gap in the course of time. The task of personality development is in this aspect relatively difficult but not insoluble. Every person inevitably changes in some way, and the first task is to place him in the kind of conditions that would stop incorrect development, directing along the desired channel and accelerating the correct development.
What are the basic factors affecting personality formation?
Earlier we have noted the significance of a person's assimilation of social experiences for personality formation. Every individual appearing in this world and starting to develop faces an ocean of spiritual wealth, accumulated by many generations of men during centuries and even millennia. His basic qualities depend on what will be assimilated out of this ocean, what spiritual riches will be appropriated.
Favourable conditions include first of all the broad social conditions depending on the type of production and of production
1 Karl Marx. Capital, Vol. I, p. 176.
1 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. "The German Ideology". In Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 5, p. 52.
93 92relations. The Manifesto of the Communist Party says: "Man's ideas, views and conceptions, in one word, man's consciousness, changes with every change in the conditions of his material existence, in his social relations and in his social life...''^^1^^
The great importance of the concrete conditions must also be indicated, of the effect of immediate surroundings, of those groups of concrete individuals with whom a person was involved in childhood, in the school years, in youth, and early maturity, all the persons one meets in one's life. To analyse the mode of life of an individual at a given moment and, if need be, to change it, it is important to discover the material and spiritual conditions under which that individual lives and acts. Of special significance is the analysis and creation of favourable socio-psychological conditions in the family, the labour collective, in those groups of men whose member a person becomes at work and at leisure.
Differences in individual development as well as the very conditions of the individual's way of life depend on his own activity. Marx and Engels wrote this: "Circumstances make men just as much as men make circumstances.''^^2^^ Man's social being is his own attitude to the surrounding world, his mood of conciliation or active desire for perfection. In this sense, man creates many of the conditions himself. Thus the criminal offender places himself in a state of social alienation and condemnation, although he may be a member of a labour collective engaged in work and even in public activities.
At the same time an individual's activity exerts a profound impact on his personality. "As individuals express their life, so they are.''^^3^^
It should be borne in mind that any activity is characterised by a unity of the internal and the external, of the psychic and physical (that is, motions, speech, gestures, facial expressions, pantomime, etc.). The goal that man is guided by in his activity, his objectives and modes of attaining them, have an immense formative and developmental significance.
Thus the individual personality traits largely depend on the person's pursuits and mode of activity in previous life. In implementing the individual approach, it is important to find out the specific features of that activity. In directing personality formation, it is important to ensure an organisation of the individual's activity answering the goals of guidance both in scope and content. The content of pursuits and the mode of activity, the motives and guiding principles of the individual should be constantly under control. In all cases it is necessary to strive towards a situation where the person treats the
activity intended to produce the major changes in personality with interest, enthusiasm, and industry, displaying all of his potential and creativity. All manifestations of activity should be continually evaluated, care ^should be devoted to the ensemble of activities intended to work the major changes in the personality, with evaluation of the unity of the internal and external characteristics, and of the frequency and length of these activities. All-round and harmonious development of the individual is only possible where varied activities are organised.
Particularly meaningful is the involvement of the individual in improving the socio-psychological and material conditions in the immediate environment and in the struggle against all kinds of shortcomings in the labour collective.
Let us now consider the psychological problems of shaping the separate properties of the individual and in the first place of orientation.
The formation of the individual's socially significant orientation is a complex and integral process which changes its .characteristics fairly slowly, so that the administrator's influence on it must be knowledgeable and patient. Formation of personality orientation requires an integral approach, exerting influence on all aspects of the individual's life, on his consciousness and behaviour.
Under the conditions of socialism and of construction of communist society, where uncontrolled economic development have given way to conscious organisation of production and of the whole of social life, where theory is implemented in practice in everyday activity, formation of a scientific world outlook in all the working people on the basis of Marxism-Leninism assumes major importance, for it must correspond to the world outlook dominant in society, it must be scientific and communist, and the ideas of Marxism-Leninism must be not only studied but also perceived as the only correct ones, they must become the most important motive and controlling force in one's life. Formation of the world outlook should obviously solve not only a cognitive task but also a behavioural one (it should arm the individual with knowledge but, over and above that, it should strive for a unity of word and deed).
The formation of a scientific world outlook in a person is based on the assimilation of scientific knowledge, in the first place, the knowledge of society; it is based on mastering Marxist-Leninist theory. Mass study of Marxism-Leninism is a most important factor in the development of social consciousness at the present stage. It is implemented in the forms of political education, political study, propaganda, art and literature, and application of the method of persuasion---the most important method of education. Persuading means acting on the consciousness, emotions, and will of the subjects, through explaining to them the ideas of Marxism-Leninism, the
95~^^1^^ Kail Marx and Frederick Engels. "Manifesto of the Communist Party". In Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works, VoL 6, p. 503.
~^^2^^ Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. "The German Ideology", p. 54.
~^^3^^ Ibid., p. 31.
94requirements of laws and the rales of socialist community living. This method is recognised to be the most important because it corresponds in the greatest degree to the nature of socialist society, its ideology and morality. This method is most effective in forming the views of individuals and their conscious attitude to themselves and to their surroundings. The method of persuasion assumes particular importance under the conditions of acute struggle between two ideologies, bourgeois and communist.
The Marxist-Leninist world outlook objectively expresses the interests and needs of all the working people. There are therefore favourable conditions for its assimilation and inner acceptance by all men. Lenin indicated that the great attraction of Marxist theory "lies precisely in the fact that it combines the quality of being strict and supremely scientific ... with that of being revolutionary ... intrinsically and inseparably".^^1^^ Marxist-Leninist theory is all-powerful because it is correct. In mastering it, men see for themselves how convincing it is, how demonstrable, consistent, uncontradictory, revolutionary, and just.
For knowledge to become conviction, it is important to prepare the given person's individual position, encourage his constant and intense interest for social knowledge and deep study of MarxismLeninism. Experience shows that, to attain that, the educationalist must
---show Marxism-Leninism to be the science of sciences needed by man to master any system of knowledge, any profession and any occupation;
---substantiate Marxism-Leninism as a strict and precise science, as the highest attainment of the social sciences, as a genuine system of knowledge;
---show the role of Marxism-Leninism in the solution of the practical tasks of life and in overcoming difficulties;
---combine the propaganda, teaching, and studying Marxism-- Leninism with practice in the course of lectures, seminars, in everyday life, in conversations and speeches.
One should reckon with the greater psychological difficulties of assimilating political knowledge as compared to the natural-scientific and technical information. Indeed, any technical device, any physical or biological phenomenon can be shown, drawn, formalised, deduced as a necessary law. Men's social relations and behaviour are quite a different matter. Take for instance man's motive forces-they cannot be seen, they can only be judged by a person's actions. But decoding man's behaviour is not always indisputable, it is not always understood and accepted by the subject. The complexity of assimilating
social relations is also due to the fact that their laws are manifested statistically, since all progressive changes in them proceed at a relatively slow rate. Not every person can ignore the accidental facts of life, concentrating on those that form the basis of the existing social relations and the progressive trend in their development.
Another difficulty about assimilating knowledge of society lies in the dependence of this process on life experiences. All new knowledge is assimilated on the basis of existing knowledge. Where it is a question of the knowledge of physical or chemical phenomena and laws, it is as a rule acquired at school, being built from the very beginning on a scientific basis. As for knowledge about society, men's behaviour, and norms of mutual relations, it is acquired in a more spontaneous manner, depending more on personal experiences and the microenvironment in which the given person has lived and been brought up. Therefore the social knowledge and convictions every person possesses are much more individual than natural-scientific or technical knowledge, so that the formation of new knowledge requires a more sophisticated individual approach.
Convictions are knowledge that is understood clearly and distinctly, forming part of consciousness as the truth. In shaping convictions, particular clarity and simplicity are therefore necessary in presentation of political knowledge and explanation of the phenomena of social life.
Research has shown that some people with seven to ten years schooling regularly attending courses of political knowledge, have incorrect (incomplete, inadequate) ideas about the most important socio-political concepts which they constantly use in different erroneous senses. Most widespread are (a) substitution of one concept for another ("Proletarian dictatorship is the dictatorship of the people"); (b) the singling out of inessential traits instead of the essential ones ("Democracy is freedom of the press and of speech"); (c) using concepts in a narrowed sense ("Classes are divisions of men according to professions"); (d) using concepts in an extended sense ("Ideology is world outlook"), and so on. Poor knowledge of sociopolitical concepts greatly slows down the formation of communist convictions. "The formation of (abstract) notions and operations with them already includes the idea, conviction, consciousness of the law-governed character of the objective connection of the world," wrote Lenin.^^1^^
There are cases, however, when the educationalist speaks clearly but the listeners still have doubts. What one needs, therefore, is indisputable proof. Every proof has three component parts: the thesis to be proved, the argument, and the form of proof. Psycho-
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin. "What the 'Friends of the People' Are and How They Fight the Social-Democrats". Collected Works, Vol. 1, 1960, p. 327.
96~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin. "Conspectus of Hegel's Book The Science of Logic", Collected Works, Vol. 1, p. 178.
4---979
97logically important are the argumentation and the form of proof. Conviction is carried by the logic of argument, the facts, data obtained by objective scientific methods, figures, opinions of the authorities, historical lessons. A necessary element is the ties with practice, with practical life, for convictions are not just assimilated knowledge but also the recognition of the truth of that knowledge, its justice and reliability. Convictions are always formed as a fusion of knowledge and personal experience, so one cannot do without invoking the personal experiences of an individual, group, and sometimes of a social organisation. The educationalist may cite examples from life, but his audience may cite counterexamples contradicting his argument. In such cases it is useful to remember Lenin's words to the effect that each social phenomenon has "relics of the past, foundations of the present and germs of the future".^^1^^ There are always contradictory phenomena in life, but "the truth of life" lies first and foremost in that which is typical of it, which has a mass character and a tendency for growth.
Sincerity and frankness also win over the audience.
Since conviction, psychologically, is a fusion of cognitive, emotional, and volitional elements, it is important to act on the feelings of the listeners, to cultivate their interest, approval, joyful experiences, and other positive emotions. Only if the goal, ideal, perspective, or any idea produce a positive attitude, does the desire grow in a person to recur to them, to repeat the idea that has become a conviction and to act in accordance with it. According to the recent findings of psychology and physiology, thought and emotion are best merged in man when they are manifested simultaneously. In other words, this takes place when a person not only hears correct statements or does something out of necessity, but also experiences at that moment the feelings of joy or anger, approval or censure or satisfaction.
The subject is influenced by the content of the information taught, by a striking and emotional manner of presentation, the propagandist's personal fiery conviction, and many other factors.
The success or failure of persuasion largely depends on the teacher's or propagandist's psychological and pedagogical tact as well as his authority and psychological contact with the audience. Where persuasion is too direct and ignores the opinion of the audience, a barrier of alienation ("the spirit of contradiction") may arise. The audience feels that they are a passive object of propaganda, and their minds resist persuasion. Neither will a teacher or educationalist attain any results if he censures and condemns those who disagree with him instead of using arguments supporting Ms views. The dissenters may keep silent and there will be an appearance of agreement among the
audience but it will be purely external or formal. An important condition of persuasion is unobtrusive and tactful instilling in the audience of conclusions that would be regarded by them as their own. It is natural for men to believe ideas at which they arrive themselves. It is therefore very important to cultivate interest and independence of reasoning, and creative discussions of practical and theoretical problems.
The organisation of the formation of character, that vital personality aspect, assumes
---including tasks in moral and occupational character formation into an integral programme and the plan for personnel education;
---clear description of the character traits to be formed---those that are demanded by the type of activity (this task is facilitated by working out an occupational model of the worker);
---systematic planning and implementation of the necessary and sufficient system of measures intended to implement the programme;
---special measures for the formation and development of individual character traits.
As has been noted, the individual's orientation and world outlook make a strong impact on his character, so that the efforts to form the ideological, political, and occupational orientation are reflected in character changes as well. Apart from the special measures, the importance must be stressed of the formation of moral convictions, conscious attitude to actions, and critical self-evaluation. The need for efforts to form moral convictions is determined by the fact that an individual may have imprecise and sometimes incorrect convictions about the value of certain moral qualities. Some young persons, for instance, do not believe rudeness, sharpness, and tactlessness to be defects, assuming them to be manifestations of a person's firm character and dignity.
The main indicator of a person's moral culture is his deeds and acts rather than his conceptions of morality. It is therefore clear that character cannot be formed by talking only, by lecturing on morals and norms of behaviour. Accumulation of the experience of moral behaviour is necessary.
A person's character develops in the course of solving labour tasks. Their educational impact increases where they are aimed at developing in the person those character traits that are important for the chosen occupation---industry, persistence, conscientiousness, tidiness, self-- possession, courage, hardiness, etc.
Character building is particularly successful where the subjects themselves set it as their goal, where it is part of a self-education programme.
In shaping the character of the subjects, one should be guided by the laws of that process. Character develops gradually, demanding from the instructor and the subject a great deal of purposefulness,
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin "What the 'Friends of the People' Are and How They Fight the Social-Democrats", p. 179.