The Public and the Administration of the Telephone Service
| Date | 01 September 1924 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1924.tb02184.x |
| Published date | 01 September 1924 |
| Author | A. M. Ogilvie |
Administration
of
the
Telephone
Service
The
Public and the
e.
Administration
of
the
Telephone
Service
BY
SIR
A. M.
OGILVIE,
K.B.E..
C.B.
(Zuk
Second
Secretary
fo
fhc
Post
Ofice)
HERE
are few civil servants whose work brings them into contact
T
or direct communication with the public who do not experience
a
certain antagonism
in
the attitude of those with whom they have to
do business.
This
antagonism
is
common to
civil
servants of
all
depart-
ments in their administrative work, and
I
should like
to
say
a
few words
as
to its origin, its effects and
as
to the methods by which it may be overcome,
as
illustrated by some humble experiences of my
own
in telephone work.
The operation of the telephone service and
its
staff suffer from
a
special
and most virulent variety of
this
antagonism which
is
special
to that
service and is superimposed on the ordinary feeling against State-managed
concerns. It exists
in
the United States, where the service
is
conducted
by private enterprise, and is generally accepted
as
the best in the world
;
and in Sweden also where there is
a
most excellent telephone service
;
conducted, it is true,
as
a State undertaking, but in Sweden Government
officials
as
a class are regarded with high respect.
This
special hostility
towards telephone services
is
probably due to the divided responsibility
for working between the public and the staff and,
so
long
as
the human
nature of telephone users (and possibly of operators) remains what
it
is,
is likely to continue. Whether the replacement of operators by auto-
matic mechanism, which is now beginning on a considerable scale,
will
make much difference
is
an interesting problem.
It is, however, this intensified feeling of the public towards the telephone
service, which makes
it
what scientific people call
a
“limiting case”
and therefore especially worthy of study
as
an example
of
the public
mistrust of Government departments, and gives value to the methods by
which experience has shown that this mistrust may be reduced.
In dealing with Civil Service questions people are apt to think of the
Civil
Service
as
having always been what it is
at
present and to forget
the long and slow process of evolution which it has undergone. But the
ideas and feelings of the present always have their origin
in
the facts of
the past, and to discover the real reason for the view of the man-in-the-
street about Government departments we have to look
at
our
ancient
265
history.
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