Management-Sharing Means Doing Your Job.

“In publicity work the advertising man cannot do his job properly unless his work is founded on absolute belief in the soundness of the proposition he is putting up. We have from time to time in the past heard references about the staff having a share in the management. I have never been quite able to understand what exactly was wanted. If the suggestion is that the railways should be managed by democratic vote, I am sure it only needs to be so stated for its impossibility to be apprehended. If, on the other hand, it means that every man should be allowed to develop his individuality in his job to the utmost extent possible, then I say, without hesitation, that, so far as I am concerned at any rate, everybody from the lowest up to the top has a share in the management. As railwaymen, you should know more about the railways, their capacity for service and such other matters in connection with them, than those who are not railwaymen. The page 18 possession of this knowledge, as well as your place in the organisation, carries with it the responsibility not only to give the service to the people for which the organisation is designed, but also to impart that knowledge in order that potential purchasers of transport may have a clear conception of what we can do for them. “I ask you,” he said, “to stand in with me and my officers, and, whenever the opportunity serves, to put the railways case to the public. Then you will not only improve our position, but will help to stabilise the whole situation in regard to the transport problem of the country.”

“We must let the public know,” continued Mr. Sterling, “that we can do a good job. That is the policy I have pursued and shall continue to pursue. When critics tell me I must clean up this or that, I certainly look into it, but my job and your job is largely one of public education on the lines that will enable them to understand the value of the work we are doing, and its extensive, far-reaching, beneficial effects on public welfare.