The institute conducted pioneering research in the areas of intellect psychology, the application of mathematical-statistical methods, and computing machines for processing statistical information.
During the 1920s, Soviet press and publications regarded the institute as one of the centers of the Scientific Organization of Labor (Nauchnaya organizatsiya truda - NOT) movement.
[3] The institute was envisioned as an organizational platform to attract "scientific forces" and provide a conducive environment for interested specialists to carry out productive research.
The initial allocations allowed the institute to acquire a vast amount of the latest foreign literature, leading to the creation of a large library with publications on production and management organization, modern mathematical-statistical methods, labor psychology, and the theory of intelligence.
In 1922, the institute's activities experienced a brief hiatus due to its transfer to the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Education (Narkompros) of the USSR and a shortage of funding.
Some were deemed politically unacceptable, while others faced resistance from groups vested in the status quo or were misunderstood by leadership entrenched in traditional working methods.
Despite extended efforts, including seeking the support of the People's Commissariat of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate (NK RKI), the institute's endeavors mostly ended in stalemate.
[4][5] Additionally, the institute was at the forefront in the USSR in its extensive use of mechanical tabulating machines for processing large-scale statistical data and employing contemporary methods of correlation-regression analysis at the time.
In 1921, a program to investigate the working conditions and productivity of industrial enterprises in Kharkiv was developed in collaboration with the Southern Bureau of the AUCCTU, with which the institute cooperated at the time.
Experiments in scientific work organization conducted at the locomotive plant and VEK factories by engineers Kapeller and Sakharov were examined.
At factories like locomotive plant, "Serp i Molot", and Electrosila, over 1,300 workers in the hot metal processing workshops underwent a medical-anthropological examination.
A series of labor protection measures were proposed, and profession-specific profiles were developed, intended to serve as the foundation for new methodologies in the professional selection of workers.
It suggested conducting general intellectual development testing of primary school students and then reserving spots for the most successful among them in higher educational institutions.
In essence, it contradicted the entire system of social mobility that had been established in the early USSR, where preference was given to people of "proletarian" origins, and promotions were made based on the party-youth organization line.
Chronometry was conducted, identifying "bottlenecks" in the organization of the studied entities, redundant and duplicated documentation, unnecessary operations, and positions.
An experiment from May to August 1924 demonstrated that with the new working scheme, queues were eliminated and the document acceptance process was expedited fourfold with the same workforce size.
The task to investigate the cooperatives aimed to understand why customers were abandoning their services in favor of unaffiliated individual sellers known as "Nepmen."
A project that studied the product turnover in Kharkiv cooperatives HCRK and "Laryok" (which comprised 45 and 40 retail stores supplied from a central warehouse, respectively) was comprehensive.
Implementing the new accounting system drastically reduced the volume of product capital in circulation while ensuring more efficient assortment regulation across the network.
In 1925, a group led by Evsei Liberman proposed a significant overhaul of the tax accounting system in the Ukrainian SSR, transitioning it to a mechanized basis.
In October 1925, Evsei Liberman and the head of the Organizational Department of the NKF of the Ukrainian SSR, Lyubimov, were dispatched to Moscow to defend their project.
The work at the Kharkiv agricultural machinery factory Serp i Molot (formerly plants owned by the Gelferich-Sade and Melgoze firms before nationalization) was more prolonged.
A significant challenge was the initial accounting setup, hindered by an extremely low production and management culture and the prevalence of low-skilled, underpaid labor.