Of Executive Work in National - Forest Administration

JOB-LOAD ANALYSIS AND PLANNING OF EXECUTIVE WORK IN NATIONAL - FOREST ADMINISTRATION 'V. A MANUAL FOR FOREST OFFICERS By E. W. LOVEItJDGE As8iptani Chief Branch of Operation, Forest Service United States Department of Agriculture UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOREST SERVICE JOB-LOAD ANALYSIS AND PLANNING OF EXECUTIVE WORK IN NATIONAL-FOREST ADMINISTRATION A MANUAL FOR FOREST OFFICERS By E. W. LOVERIDGE Aulsiang Chief Branch of Operation, Forest Service United States Department of AgricuUculture UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1932 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, 0. C. Price 25 cents PREFACE Good business management has already saved large sums in the administration of the national forests and has greatly increased the effectiveness of the work being done by the organization which is m charge of them. Within the last few years, for example, consolidations of administrative units have resulted in reducing by 8 the number of national forests, and the number of ranger districts by 80. By such consolidations and reorganizations it has been possible to do urgently needed work otherwise impossible in the amount of approxi- mately a quarter of a million dollars a year.At the same time the service rendered the public has not only been constantly improved, but there has been a downward trend in the curve based on forest-fire losses and area burned. Job-load analysis and planning have been major factors in the most recent efforts for increased economy and effectiveness.These efforts are still under, way and will result in further progress along these lines.In order, therefore, that the methods developed during the course of the job-analysis and planning project my be most effectively used in the organization studies stifi to be made, this manual has been prepared. No other material of general distribution is available which deals with the subject as it relates to executive and supervisory work. Widespread and decentralized as the organization of the Forest Service necessarily is, this text should serve as the most effective means of getting suitable technic developed and applied. It will answer numerous questions which would otherwise result repeatedly in lengthy correspondence, and in addition it will provide the only practicable basis on which the essential correlation of action, in a far-flung organization working on a difficult project of this sort, can be obtained. A broader object of this publication is to give a comprehensive account of the aims, methods, problems, and developments in job- load analysis and planning as applied to certain classes of work i1i forestry practice and to show the influence this procedure has on getting the work done. While the information adduced relates prim- arily to the duties of rangers and supervisors in national-forest work, it is believed the subject matter will also be of interest to forest execu- tives generally. No statement on job analysis and plans of work in national-forest administration would be complete unless it acknowledged the in- valuable contributions to the present methods and attitudes made through the years of widespread discussion, development, and use of standards, many of which later found their way into manuals and. handbooks. With the background of that movement and with the experience gained by the service-wide development and use of pro-- grams of work, job lists, trip plans, effective inspection methods, and similar tools of the good executive, the coalescence of all of this material in the job-load analysis and planning procedure was a logical. next step. In Iv PREFACE The historic principles of the "scientific method," in the more con- crete form of job analyses with their time studies and plans, have been further developed and are a fundamental part of the management engineer's profession. He is the recognized authority in this field.For this reason, and to show the similarities and differences between methods as well as to support those steps which have been developed by trial and error and experience in studies of forest super- vision, numerous excerpts from publications by management engi- neers and other authorities on the subject have been included.This portion of the text is probably out of balance but has been purposely amplified not only because the Forest Service personnel, for which the manual is chiefly written, baa learned to respect and derive value from the works of such technicians, but also in order that such material may be readily available to those who have not actually worked with or have not otherwise become intimately acquainted with the aims, methods, and results of the job-analysis and pJnning project. The development of job-load analysis and planning as now used in the Forest Service has been possible only because of the earnest co- operation of many men. Group thinking and correlated experience have brought the development to its present stage and will continue to carry it forward. The contributions of individuals to this development have ranged all the way from very small to very large, depenling on varying opportunities and inclinations. Acknowledgement of even the more important contributions is hardly practicable because in doing so there is no logical place to stop.It seems best, therefore, to substitute for such individual acknowledgements a repetition of the statement that the job-analysis and planning project would show small returns without the cohesive effort which it has had from many men. R. Y. STUART, Forester. CONTENTS Page Introduction 1 Definitions 3 Job analysis of executive work 3 Problems and aims 9 Special problems and aims 9 General problems and aims 12 Methods 13 Preliminary work 15 Part 1The job descriptions 15 Job-load analysis minus time requirements 23 Part 2The job list 38 Part 3The plan 41 Miscellaneous 49 Revisions 68 Resulls 69 Comparison of past act;ual working time with the proper needs of a position as determined by job-load analysis 70 Recognition and evaluation of activities 73 Economies in administration 73 Standards raised 74 Quality results 74 Intangiblesquality versus quantity 76 Comparing and rating positions 77 Job analysis and accounting 77 Effect on the personnel 78 Initiative and freedommechanization and the human element 79 Morale 82 Additional proposed uses 83 Conclusion 83 Appendix 85 Glossary of abbreviations 85 Sample job-load analysis and plan, Composite ranger district, Com- posite forest Sample supervisory job-load analysis and plan, Coeur d'Alene National Forest_ 132 Sample analysis andplanSupervisor's workSierra National Forest 188 Sample time and method studies 218 Literature cited 233 Index --------- 235 V JOB-LOAD ANALYSIS AND PLANNING OF EXECUTIVE WORK IN NATIONAL-FOREST ADMINISTRATION INTRODUCTION Competitive demands of problems in the three broad sciences, biology, sociology, and economics, with which the forester has to deal, make his work at times bewilderingly complex. On additional biological studies concerning forest life, depends to a great extent the fulfillment of the ultimate aims of forestry.The sociological or politi- cal phases dealing with important questions of policy also demand the attention of the forester.And bearing on both of these demands are the economic or business phases of his work. To a noteworthy degree the history of American forestry is similar to that of American industry.In the beginning, European practices were brought to the United States and efforts were made to apply them to conditions, problems, and temperaments which, although in some cases similar to those of Europe, were often so entirely different that it was necessary to develop new theories and methods in order to meet local needs more adequately. The change in practices commonly associated with the history of American industry from painstakingly made, individualized, and correspondingly expensive articles, which received limited use, to modern, satisfactory, uniformly made, and inexpensive products is well known.Likewise, American foresters through the necessity for handllin large-scale operations economically have developed methods which differ greatly from those in use in countries where, for example, the value of the products may make it desirable for the forester to know even the individual trees in his stands.As this condition is approached,. the biological side of forestry becomes of increasing importance.In the meantime, however, the relatively low financial return from forests in this country, their vast extent, the urgent need for placing in actual use many of the highly desirable but as yet unattained improvements in field practice that have been developed and tested on an experimental basis through years of effort by the research organization, the growing demand on the part of many private owners and foresters for "industrial forestry," and other factors all point to the greater importance of economics in forestry practice.This is in substantial agreement with the words of Doctor Fernow (9, p. 97-98, 100)': "As m every productive industry so in the forestry industry we can distinguish two separate yet necessarily always closely interdependent branches, namely, the technical art which concerns itself with the production of the material, and the business art which concerns itself with the orderly, organized conduct of the industry of production. * * * Aforester then is not, as the American public has been prone to apply the word, * * * a botanist; nor * * *adendrologist; nor* * * a propagandist; nor * * * anaboriculturist; * * * nor * * * a lumberman, nor * * * a forest guard nor even * * * a silviculturist; but in the fullest sense of the I Italic numbers In parentheses refer to Literature Cited, p. 231. 1 2 JOB-LOAD ANALYSIS AND PLANNING OF EXBCUTIVE WORK term, a forester is a technically educated man who* * * com- bines * * * knowledge which enables him to manage a forest property so as to produce certain conditions resulting in the highest attainable revennc from the soil by wood-crops." Only that phase of forest economics having to do with the use of the scientific method in forest administration is treated here.As expressed by Beard (3, p.

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