4 Business Ideas That Changed the World: Scientific Management

In 1878, a machinist at a Pennsylvania steelworks noticed that his
crew was producing much less than he thought they could. With
stopwatches and time-motion studies, Frederick Winslow Taylor ran
experiments to find the optimal way to make the most steel with
lower labor costs. It was the birth of a management theory, called
scientific management or Taylorism. Critics said Taylor’s drive for
industrial efficiency depleted workers physically and emotionally.
Resentful laborers walked off the job. The U.S. Congress held
hearings on it. Still, scientific management was the dominant
management theory 100 years ago in October of 1922, when Harvard
Business Review was founded. It spread around the world, fueled the
rise of big business, and helped decide World War II. And today it
is baked into workplaces, from call centers to restaurant kitchens,
gig worker algorithms, and offices. Although few modern workers
would recognize Taylorism, and few employers would admit to it. 4
Business Ideas That Changed the World is a special series from HBR
IdeaCast. Each week, an HBR editor talks to world-class scholars
and experts on the most influential ideas of HBR’s first 100 years,
such as disruptive innovation, shareholder value, and emotional
intelligence. Discussing scientific management with HBR senior
editor Curt Nickisch are: Nancy Koehn, historian at Harvard
Business School Michela Giorcelli, economic historian at UCLA Louis
Hyman, work and labor historian at Cornell University Further
reading: Book: The One Best Way: Frederick Winslow Taylor and the
Enigma of Efficiency, by Robert Kanigel Case Study: Mass
Production and the Beginnings of Scientific Management, by Thomas
K. McCraw Oxford Review: The origin and development of firm
management, by Michela Giorcelli