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General Manager's Message
Organisation.

I recently had an opportunity of addressing members of the Railway Officers’ Institute at their annual social function at Auckland and I expressed a few thoughts on the matter of organisation. I regard this as a subject of such importance that I think I might well embody in this message, for general information, a few of the thoughts to which I then gave expression.

In the course of my discussions with both staff and public whenever the matter of organisation of the Department has come up, it has seemed to be regarded as some special prerogative or exclusive concern of the general management. Such an idea involves a misconception that, I think, goes to the very root of our efficiency. True, the general management lays down the general lines of the organisation of the Department, and an inadequate scheme so laid down might well be fatal to the working of the railway system; but the best scheme that might be laid down by the head of the Department will be ineffective if the organising activities of the Department's staff stop at that point. The railways are essentially a system, and their best results can be obtained only by systematic working. Organisation is nothing else but the bringing into harmony of the functions of the various parts of the system. To bring about this harmony involves the organising efforts, not of any one man, even though he be the head of the Department, but of every man on the railway staff.

Organisation runs through groups right down to individuals. Controlling officers organise the work of individuals in the groups, and higher officers are charged also with the harmonising of the work of the groups. The point I wish to emphasise is the necessity for everyone of the staff to realise that he must be an organiser. Even a man who is alone on a station has a duty to so organise his work that he will fit in with the general scheme. Lack of organisation on his part will cause disorganisation in the system. The man whose work is not ready for a train at the time the train is due to depart disorganises the work of the guard and enginedriver and of the staff at the other stations who have organised their work in anticipation of the train arriving on time. Organisation is interactionary throughout the parts of the system from the top to the bottom and from the bottom to the top. Disorganisation or lack of proper organisation at any point in the system has its inevitable reflection on the work of the system as a whole.

Another aspect of the responsibility of the staff in regard to organisation is that no system of organisation should be regarded as permanent. It is not safe to conclude that the organisation that might meet requirements to-day will do so for all time. The arrangement of duties is of such importance that it should be kept under constant review so that it may be speedily adapted to meet changing conditions.

A thorough-going degree of organisation operating throughout the system means order in our efforts, the absence of organisation means chaos, and between the two lie the varying degrees of muddlement. The work of organisation is everybody's job.

General Manager