Taylorism in a Post-Modern Age?

Abstract

F. W. Taylor made an early and important contribution to the organisation of work in an industrial society. His ideas, or versions of his ideas, are once again receiving attention. Some commentators even describe a new or neo Taylorism (Pollitt, 1990). This paper argues that the only theoretical justification for the re-introduction of Taylorist strategies in the workplace is found in the notion of the post-modern world; where rationality is replaced by a ritual of signs and work becomes part of that ritual; where form replaces rationale, and strategies for work are governed by processes of survival in the remnants of modernity.

‘… I use … the words bringing the science and the workman together. It is unfortunate, however, that the word bringing has a rather disagreeable sound, a rather forceful sound; and in a way, when it is first heard it puts one out of touch with what we have come to look at as the modern tendency …’ F. W. Taylor (Pugh, 1990, p 206).