scientific management
Teppo
In my Organizational Behavior class a few weeks back we discussed the classic Lincoln Electric case, Taylor’s scientific management and I even managed to slip in 10 minutes of the intro of Chaplin’s Modern Times [all 83 minutes free here via google video]. Lincoln Electric, for over a century now (since their founding in the late 1800s) has managed to essentially run the company based on the playbook of scientific management – piece rate incentives, competition, automation, job design, and individualism. Despite the human relations movement, the approach appears to work, for them at least (three cheers for contingency). I have not kept up on how Taylor’s work is being framed these days [is evidence-based management a reincarnation?] - JC however appears to have some things to say.
Harry Braverman charged that almost all modern theories of managerial control in the workplace is a variant of Taylor’s scientific management. Although he recognized that certain elements of Taylor’s original approach have proven useless and naive, the overall struggle to subvert workers’ interests and make them more pliable by management has succeeded. It’s become so dominant, he argued, that it is invisible to us. We can’t imagine an organization working any other way.
brayden
October 20, 2006 at 1:56 pm