Critically discuss the following statement:
“Work itself is organised according to Taylorian principles, while personnel departments and academics have busied themselves with the selection, training, manipulation, pacification and adjustment of ‘manpower’ to suit the work processes so organised. Taylorism dominates the world of production; the practitioners of ‘human relations’ and ‘industrial psychology’ are the maintenance crew for the human machinery.” (Braverman, 1974: 87)
Fredrick Winslow Taylor founded the principles of scientific management in the 1880s. He developed Taylorian principles which aimed to standardise production techniques which was done in order to increase efficiency and productivity of the labour process. In the 1930s, Elton Mayo founded the Human Relations (HR) movement which began with the Hawthorne studies. These studies aimed to establish the effects of social relations and worker’s health and well-being on productivity. HR theory can be seen to ultimately contradict Taylorism; whilst scientific management applies scientific principles to the production process and treats workers like emotionless machines, HR implies that workers should be seen as individuals with needs and emotions.
Industrial psychology was developed after the HR movement; industrial psychologists
work to improve the motivation, health and well-being of employees in order to improve their productivity and job satisfaction. The above statement was written by Harry Braverman. Braverman was a Marxist; Marxism is the belief that capitalism can only exist when the working class is being exploited and alienation is taking place. These two concepts will be discussed in the following paragraphs. Braverman believed that Taylorism failed because of “Taylor’s amateurish and naïve views on human motivation…or because Taylor and various successors antagonised workers…” (Braverman 1998, pp.60). It is therefore possible to see that Braverman is speaking with an element of sarcasm in his statement as his beliefs do not allow him to support the idea that Taylorism dominates the world of production. Braverman believes that HR and industrial psychology play a vital role in the world of production and are not simply a ‘maintenance crew’. I am going to discuss how Taylorism can be seen to dominate the world of production through scientific principles such as time and motion studies and how, on the other hand, HR and industrial psychology may play the most essential role in the success of a business due to the damaging effects of exploitation and alienation on worker’s performance.
Taylorism did once dominate the world of production, in the late 1800’s and early
1900’s, before the HR movement. There were many issues in the production process which Taylor managed to reduce or eliminate and therefore his principles were seen as critical to a successful organisation. One of these issues was soldiering; soldiering is when employees restrict output and Taylor defined it as the ‘greatest evil’ of industry. There is natural soldiering which is “the natural instinct and tendency of employees to take it easy.” (Taylor 1903 pp.30) and systematic soldiering which is planned with the hope of helping themselves and fellow employees as it was believed that if workers increased output then the company would need less workers to produce the same amount of output and therefore unemployment would occur. Prior to Taylorism, workers were paid an hourly or daily rate leading to little incentive for them to produce more output than necessary for them to keep their jobs. Taylor introduced time and motion studies and a differential piece-rate system to deal with the issue of soldiering. Time and motion studies involved each task being broken down into small steps and the time it took to complete each step was then calculated. This method would then establish the time in which a ‘first-rate man’ could complete a task and this would be the time in which all other employees would be expected to complete the task. In addition, Taylor introduced a differential piece-rate system, meaning a worker who exceeds the output level expected in the standard time would be paid higher, and a worker who fails to reach the output level will be paid lower. This gave the worker’s the incentive to work faster in order to gain a higher rate of pay, a motivation which ceased to exist before. Another issue prior to Taylorism was it was the norm for employees to base their methods of production on previous generations or to develop their own unique ways, there was therefore many ways of producing the same product “owing to the fact that the workmen…have been taught the details of their work by observation of those immediately around them, there are many different ways in common use for doing the same thing,” (Taylor, 1911 pp.9). Taylor eliminated these ‘rule of thumb’ methods and standardised production techniques through time and motion studies. This not only led to increased output but also enabled people to be hired who did not have specialist skills in a particular area, as the new standardised techniques were simple and workers could easily be trained how to do it. It is therefore apparent that a time of disorganised production processes and employees failing to work to their best ability, that Taylor’s principles would have been at the forefront of organisational success and could be seen to ‘dominate the world of production’. However, whilst output may have been rising and profits for employer’s increasing, Taylor did not take into consideration the effects of his principles on the health and wellbeing of employees.
Braverman says that “the practitioners of ‘human relations’ and ‘industrial psychology’
are the maintenance crew for the human machinery.” (1974 pp.87) In other words, HR and industrial psychologists exist solely to adjust and manipulate the employee’s thoughts and attitudes in order to ensure they are pacified with the production process introduced by Taylor. However, it can be argued that HR and industrial psychologists play a more important role in the success of a corporation than Taylorism; without HR and industrial psychologists, the ‘human machinery’ could not perform to the best of its ability and low job satisfaction and poor health or well-being may lead to an unproductive workforce producing little, low quality output and ultimately disadvantaging the business. It can therefore be said that HR and industrial psychology ‘dominate the workforce’ as an oppose to Taylorism.
Elton mayo carried out a series of Illumination Tests which aimed to establish the
effects of lighting on worker’s output. Mayo found that there was an increase in output in all groups despite the level of lighting and therefore the tests showed no correlation between the level of lighting and output. It was suggested that employees felt motivated simply by the fact that they were being observed; they felt like an important part of the organisation, not just another part of the production process or ‘human machinery’ (Braverman 1974 pp.87). This lead to managers having to recognise and understand that workers have emotions and needs which need to be taken into consideration “his/her performance not as based on rational response to reality, but as being emotionally and irrationally affected by complex social and interpersonal factors…” (Wendy Holloway, 1991). Therefore, HR is not simply a ‘maintenance crew’ but is an important aspect of the organisation with regards to ensuring that people’s needs are met and feelings are considered to result in a high quality and motivated workforce.
As mentioned before, Braverman was a Marxist. Karl Marx believed capitalism was
“inherently unstable, destructive, and exploitative.” (p.78) Marx believed that that work under the division of labour, as introduced by Taylor led to the “extraction of surplus value from human labor” (p.79) and led to a greedy bourgeoisie who had little consideration of the emotional needs of the workforce. Capitalism was also believed to lead to alienation; alienation is when the worker feels essentially cut off from the work environment. Marx identified four forms of alienation, for example alienation from fellow men. This is due to capitalism creating a competitive labour environment which pitches workers against each other rather than encouraging them to work collectively. “the proposition that man’s species-nature is estranged from him means that one man is estranged from the other, as each of them is from man’s essential nature.” (p.91) Alienation can lead to a demotivated and unproductive workforce which will ultimately disadvantage the business; this therefore highlights, once again, the importance of HR and industrial psychology in a business and reiterates they are not just the maintenance crew for the human machinery (Braverman, 1974 pp. 87) but exist to ensure that one of the main aspects of the organisation (the labour) is able to work effectively and maintain their well-being. On the other hand, it does show that Taylorism dominates the world of production in a sense that his methods, such as the division of labour, continue to exist today and continue to create the main problems which face the workforce.
To conclude, Taylor does dominate the world of production in a sense that he developed
the methods of production such as division of labour, standardised production techniques and dealt with the problem of soldiering. He continues to influence the world of production today, piece rate systems still exist today in the form of performance related pay, bonuses and overtime and production methods have been standardised ever since. He also undoubtedly dominated the world of production before HR and industrial psychology were introduced. His methods were revolutionary and most organisations adopted them as their main form of management technique. However, once E