Henry Gantt, creator of the Gantt chart, and close associate of Frederick W. Taylor, wrote in 1919 (8 years after Taylor's 'Principles of Scientific Management'):
"It is undoubtedly true that the “efficiency” methods which have been so much in vogue for the past twenty years in this country, have failed to produce what was expected of them.
The reason seems to be that we have to a large extent ignored the human factor and failed to take advantage of the ability and desire of the ordinary man to learn and to improve his position.
Moreover, these “efficiency” methods have been applied in a manner that was highly autocratic.
This alone would be sufficient to condemn them."
Taylor's approach (he called it 'Scientific Time Study' before Justice Louis Brandeis coined the term Scientific Management in the Eastern Rate Case in 1910) was for managers to tell workers exactly what to do and how long it should take, in the context of manual, repetitive labour. Pay was tied to output. This was industrialised in Planning Departments and instruction cards. There was a tribal identity of managers vs workers.
There were two key assumptions: (1) managers are more intelligent than workers (stated as a 'fact' many times!) (2) money was the primary motivator. 'Learn to obey instructions' (Shop Management, 1903) and you'll get paid more. Aligning interests between employer and employee meant paying workers more for more work, and less for less work.
The background was to overcome 'soldiering', where workers would do the least amount of work they could get away with, on daily pay. Sometimes unions imposed an output limit, in other cases it was the threat of violence if one worker outperformed the others.
Principles of Scientific Management
* Pg 39: “The work of every workman is fully planned out by the management at least one day in advance, and each man receives in most cases complete written instructions, describing in detail the task which he is to accomplish, as well as the means to be used in doing the work”
* Pg 83: “All of those who, after proper teaching, either will not or cannot work in accordance with the new methods and at the higher speed must be discharged by the management”
This led to industrial unrest (e.g. Watertown Arsenal strike) and Gantt, as Taylor's closest associate writing the above in 1919.
Taylor's narrative in the US Congress testimonial (1912), following the Watertown strike, was more balanced than his writings.
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
#HumaneWaysOfWorking #BVSSH
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1 mesNice. Thx!