TAYLORISM

Taylorism, a system originated by Frederick Taylor and publicized in his book The Principles of Scientific Management (1911), was designed to increase industrial output by rationalizing the production process.

Over the course of the nineteenth century, unskilled workers and then machines had begun to replace skilled craftsmen. Yet because of their specialized knowledge, the more skilled workers continued to exert considerable control over the pace of work, the methods used, and the levels of output. Taylor, working as a foreman in the Midvale Steel Company in the 1880s, concluded that to increase production, managers must take control of the process, starting by doing time studies of each factory job. This involved observing workers meticulously, analyzing each step in terms of time spent and energy expended, and using the results to determine the best method for each task. This standard method would be required of every worker, with scaled piecework rates providing incentives for higher output.

After his methods had increased production significantly at Midvale, Taylor became a pioneer management consultant, publicizing his system and advising the nation's burgeoning corporations on how to use it. For workers, Taylorism brought a marked loss of autonomy, as managers supervised more and more closely the activities of the shop floor. Many workers felt that they knew more about production than the managers, planners, and experts now in charge; some asserted that the gains in incentive pay were a poor exchange for the increasing pressure and regimentation of working in a scientifically managed factory. But Taylorism fit with the trend to larger-scale, more mechanized production, and it appealed to the growing class of corporate managers who were distrustful of labor and intent on maximizing efficiency and profits. Other consultants, like Lillian and Frank Gilbreth and H. L. Gantt, pursued similar ideas. Taylor's doctrine was not always followed precisely by his converts, but by the 1920s his emphasis on standardization, close accounting, and managerial control had had a profound effect on industrial management throughout the United States.

See also Industrial Revolution; Science and Technology.