File 13: Taylorism

Question 1

How do you manage the agglomeration of workers in the factory? (3)

Answer 1

1. maintain discipline through time keeping and diligence
2. manage employees with different and specialized skills (pay determination)
3. hierachy combined with the appoitment of supervision

Question 2

What was a common practice for managing labour in larger organizations in the late 19th century and beginning of the 20th century? (3)

Answer 2

subcontracting:

1. owner contracts with set of skilled tradesmen (subcontractors) for the completion of some task (construction of some parts of the ship
2. the subcontractors hire less skilled labour to complete the task at rates of pay set by the subcontractor
3. => owner evades problem of controlling labour: distances the owner from the technical issues involved in the work

Question 3

Frederick Winslow Taylor is seen as?`

Answer 3

the creator of the scientific management

Question 4

Explain the following biographical aspects of Frederick Winslow Taylor: birth, childhood, studies and career.

Answer 4

1. Birth: born 1856 in a wealthy Philadelphia family
2. In 1872, he entered Phillips Exeter Academy to prepare for Harvard. He was admitted into Harvard but before attending he had a psychosomatic crisis complaining of a failing eyesight.
3. He returned to Philadelphia (living with his upper class family) and joined the Entreprise Hydraulics Works as an apprentice to learn the trades of pattern making and machinist.
4. He persisted in manual jobs, got promoted to foreman and later became an industrial engineer.
5. childhood: he had a very disciplined childhood (when playing baseball, he would want to spend most of the available time producing a perfectly configured baseball diamond), he had many nightmares

Question 5

What elements explain how Taylor’s contribution to production organization was made possible? (3)

Answer 5

1. He came from a rich background and shared presumptions of others from that back ground (he didnt become a Marxist)
2. He had direct experience in manual work
3. his compulsive personality meant he was willing to put up with the great stress that the courses of actions led to

Question 6

What greatly and directly influenced Taylor’s career?

Answer 6

His experiences at Midvale Steel Works:
1. he started as an unskilled labourer then become a machinist then a gang boss then a shop foreman. his experience as a worker led him to draw the conclusion that machinists were restricting output to project jobs and rates.
2. As a shop foramen, he combined authority of position and intimate knowledge of the task = authority of expertises to increase machinist effort levels.
3. Over three years, he succeeded in increasing machinist effort levels even though he had threats of dismissal and rate cutting.
He was able to succeed even with the following obstacles: threats of violence, the machinist went to management to attempt to undermine his authority

Question 7

What made controlling the workplace and work process problematic in Taylor’s case? (2)

Answer 7

1. the machinists could argue that they understood what ouput was possible and desirable and that taylor’s demand would have required exceeding that
2. the machinists could argue so due to ORDINARY MANAGEMENT = where boss hires craftmen (directly or thru subcontracting) who understand the work task but the boss does not

Question 8

What was Taylor’s three solution to increasing machinist effort?

Answer 8

relocate knowledge, deskill and use of incentive pay.

Question 9

Explain: relocating knowledge (Taylorism)

Answer 9

1. relocate knowledge: (make knowledge available to senior management)

1a) separate knowledge for simple tasks and for complex tasks (machining) by assembling and analyzing traditional knowledge and having specialists develop and advance knowledge (time the job, analyze motion, analyze work flow)
1b) build corpus of knowledge about most efficient way of performing tasks and organizing work flow
1c) relocate knowledge of production from shop floor to a separate planning office attached to management: improve quality of management decision, reunite authority of position and expertise, reconcile labour and capital

Question 10

Explain: deskill (Taylorism)

Answer 10

(simplifying task-> reduce skill so for each task you have a larger amount of potential employees -> wage is reduced)
Deskill: reduce the number of tasks per worker (including craftsmen responsibility of the care of their own tool: thus the relative supply of workers for each job would be increase and workers would be more substitutable so that turnover creates less of a problem and makes it possible to pay workers less

Question 11

Explain: use of incentive of pay (Taylorism)

Answer 11

1. simplified task make it easier to monitor work and count output => where output can be counted, pay can be tied to output

Question 12

How does Harry Braverman interpret Taylorism?

Answer 12

He argues that Taylorism was designed to reunite expertise and position and to replace skilled with unskilled labourers. The consequences of Taylorism was a closer and more effective management control of work, lower pay and spiritually impoverishing work

Question 13

Why would Marglin and Braverman argue that Taylorism is not distributionally neutral?

Answer 13

because they would argue that taylorism is a case of economic effiency rather than engineering efficiency => taylorism increased output by increasing input (employees work harder) and cutting the price of input in half (pay)