In Taylor's most famous experiment, he studied men shovelling pig iron. He noted that one particular man - Schmidt - finished the day's work and jogged home to finish building his own house. Taylor therefore picked Schmidt for his experiment. After restructuring the shovel and how the work was to be undertaken (eliminating all superfluous activity), Taylor told Schmidt when to shovel and when to rest. From this experiment, Taylor was able to demonstrate an increase in production per man from 12 tons to 48 tons a day - a 300 per cent increase in productivity. For this achievement, Schmidt's wages were increased from \(\$ 1.15\) a day to \(\$ 1.85\) a day \(-\mathrm{a}\) 60 per cent increase.

Questions

1 Identify the ethical issues associated with the choice of Schmidt for this study.

2 Do you agree with Schmidt's wage increasing by 60 per cent compared with the productivity gain of 300 per cent?