Just a quick reaction to the all-too-easy condemnation of Frederick Taylor
and his "scientific management." I used to condemn it, also, but have
learned to appreciate his accomplishments and to condemn, instead, those
who misunderstood and misused his tenets.
As Marvin Weisbord described it (in his classic, Productive Workplaces),
"We were not a society of innocent artisans before Taylor. We were a
society of growing inequity, sweatshops, brutal working conditions; and he
wanted, with all the tools of science and engineering, to do something
about it....So attractive were his ideas, so dramatic his results, that
his descendants simply divorced his values and married his techniques."
--"John Gunkler" <jgunkler@sprintmail.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>