[Review of the book The Twelve Principles of Efficiency (Fifth Edition)

Abstract

Reviews the book, The Twelve Principles of Efficiency (Fifth Edition) by Harrington Emerson (1917). Five of the twelve principles concern the relations between employer and employee, the others deal with methods or institutions and systems occurring in manufacturing concerns. The workings of each principle are explained by the help of many positive and negative illustrations well chosen from actual practices and malpractices. The one critical suggestion that forces itself upon the reader of the many anecdotal illustrations is that there were fewer of them and that instead some space were devoted to practical hints or explanations as to the general application of the twelve principles to the concrete problems of modern industrial life. This is perhaps asking too much, and the next best thing is what the author of this volume has attempted to do, to reduce the complicated mechanism of industrial management to a few guiding principles and to illuminate their operation from as many angles as possible. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)