Understanding Taylorism

The subject of TaylXorism, or scientific management, has recently emerged as an issue for debate in the USA, the UK and France, and this development has been stimulated in large part by the work of Braverman, first published in I 973.1 Braverman's account of Taylorism, however, is flawed or inadequate on a number of issues, and Craig Littler's work has attempted to reconstruct the theory and practice of Taylorism in a more far-reaching and historically accurate way.2 As such it marks a considerable advance in our understanding of the theoretical and practical content of Taylorism, and it will undoubtedly remain as a starting point for debate for some time to come. The strengths of the article seem to me to lie in three broad areas. Conceptually, it advances a threefold characterization of Taylorism, in terms of division of labour, the structure of control, and the employment relationship which, in principle, permits a more precise debate about the nature of Taylorism than has hitherto been possible. Methodologically, it attempts to ground analysis and discussion of Taylorism in its historical context, in contrast with writers in industrial sociology and elsewhere, who are quite properly criticized for their 'ideological' treatment of Taylorism, divorced from its context, a view which leads them to erroneous conclusions about its alleged supersession by 'human relations theory'. The point about human relations and Taylorism, as Littler notes following Braverman, is that they operate on different dimensions, and the continued existence of one in no way entails the demise of the other.3 The starting point of the article is in fact built around the paradox obtained by the juxtaposing of the conventional view of lsaylorism and the re-appraisal by Braverman, the paradox consisting of two diametrically opposed positions on its contemporary significance. Finally, on a number of substantive issues, the article sets out to correct prevailing misconceptions about the nature of Taylorism. Specifically, it points out the inadequacy of the notion of Taylorism as centred largely or exclusively around pay and pay incentives and the falsity of the idea that Taylor was unaware of the social dimensions of work. But as well as having advanced several specific themes and ideas

Economic Theory and Institutions · Engineering

• Taylorism Reconsidered

  Open Access•C Wright•Labour History•1993

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