Motivation—a comparison of UK and US industry—one man’s experience

Extract

I suppose that I ought to start off by denning the who, what, when, where and how in the approved military report manner, because my experience has been in the aircraft design and development business and deals with the sharp end of the operation—i.e.—where it all starts. It is important for those who have not had experience in this area to be quite clear that we are dealing with a particular type of human being whose efforts, or the output from them, are difficult to plan or predict effectively. Tending to introspection for long periods, he is very conscious of the fact that, being at the beginning of the process, his errors multiply in costs down the line and this outlook leads to a marked reluctance to produce anything but the perfect. Naturally, this attitude can percolate down to the design support groups whose work is normally of a mechanical nature and quantifiable.