Musings on Taylorism

Scientific Management and its principles were “originally prepared for presentation to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers” and was also a “remedy for inefficiency [with]in systematic management” (source). I personally feel (but did not locate initial research for) that Scientific Management has some tie-ins to Systems Theory, specifically, Systems Engineering in which the employees can be perceived as stakeholders. Based within the historical perspective of ‘science’, only speculation and interpretation can yield that management’s early phases needed educational/academic/scholarly documentation for credence. Research and communication methods assisted in accomplishing this feat and Taylorism was perhaps classified as a “scientific” certification.

I feel that G. Hamel’s 1995 response was ethnocentric and that by saying that “HPT is Taylorism with a new name” is committing the same, unintelligent fallacy. Taylor’s work was a part of the foundation for management’s (ex. production and/or manufacturing) evolution. Per today’s latest research, science is different from technology. My philosophy is that the ‘H’ is optional; technology is primarily needed to support/nurture “Industrial Objectives”, and the fundamental aspect is Performance. Seeing that HPT’s definition is malleable per user, Performance can then be explored infinitely.


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Created for RU TRDV 450.98 Spring, 2008