HBR IdeaCast 4 Business Ideas That Changed the World: Scientific Management
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Oct 6, 2022 Nancy Koehn, a historian at Harvard Business School, Michela Giorcelli from UCLA, and Louis Hyman of Cornell University dive into the origins of scientific management, pioneered by Frederick Winslow Taylor. They discuss how this approach revolutionized industrial practices, the critiques it faced over worker treatment, and its surprising ties to both labor movements and Lenin-era efficiency strategies. The guest speakers also reflect on Taylorism's enduring legacy in modern workplaces and question the balance between productivity and human dignity.
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Early Worker Management
- In 1878, worker management varied significantly across industries and locations, influenced by tradition.
- The steel industry, for example, was just beginning to understand economies of scale and how to organize labor and capital.
Shifting Concepts of Productivity
- The concept of productivity as we know it today emerged with the shift from small craft shops to large factories.
- This transition also changed social relationships at work, as apprentices and masters working side-by-side were replaced by wage workers and bosses.
Productivity and Management
- Productivity is a relatively recent concept, tied to the rise of large-scale businesses during the Industrial Revolution.
- As businesses grew, the need to coordinate workers across different units and locations led to the development of management practices.
