Taylorism

How a Progressive idea
can have unintended consequences

Named after the US industrial engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor who wrote Principles Of Scientific Management in 1911.
Emphasized gaining maximum efficiency from both machine and worker, and maximization of profit for the benefit of both workers and management.
Taylorism was criticized for alienating workers by treating them as mindless, emotionless, and easily replicable factors of production.
Taylorism was a critical factor in the unprecedented scale of US factory output that led to US dominance of the industrial world.

Taylorism (cont.)

Production efficiency methodology that breaks every action, job, or task into small & simple segments which can be easily analyzed and taught.

Aims to achieve maximum job fragmentation to minimize skill requirements and job learning time
Separates execution of work from work-planning
Separates direct labor from indirect labor
Replaces rule of thumb productivity estimates with precise measurements
Introduces time and motion study for optimum job performance, cost accounting, tool and work station design
Makes possible payment-by-result method of wage determination

Taylorism found its way into many aspects of life during and after the Progressive Era, including education.

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By kdukes

How a Progressive idea can have unintended consequences