"With the triumph of scientific management, unions would have nothing left to do, and they would have been cleansed of their most evil feature: the restriction of output. To underscore this idea, Taylor fashioned the myth that 'there has never been a strike of men working under scientific management', trying to give it credibility by constant repetition. In similar fashion he incessantly linked his proposals to shorter hours of work, without bothering to produce evidence of "Taylorized" firms that reduced working hours, and he revised his famous tale of Schmidt carrying pig iron at Bethlehem Steel at least three times, obscuring some aspects of his study and stressing others, so that each successive version made Schmidt's exertions more impressive, more voluntary and more rewarding to him than the last. Unlike Harrington Emerson, Taylor was not a charlatan, but his ideological message required the suppression of all evidence of worker's dissent, of coercion, or of any human motives or aspirations other than those his vision of progress could encompass."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Businesspeople from the United StatesMechanical engineersEngineers from the United StatesPeople from PhiladelphiaBusiness theorists from the United States
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
David Montgomery (1989) The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the State, and American Labor Activism, 1865-1925. p. 254.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frederick_Winslow_Taylor
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Frederick Winslow Taylor
Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 – March 21, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer, one of the first management consultants, and is regarded as the father of scientific management.
36 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Frederick Winslow Taylor →
Related Quotes
"In concluding let me say that we are now but on the threshold of the coming era of true cooperation. The time is fast…"
"I think no book is more stimulating than the history of a devoted and successful life."
"The differential rate system of piece-work consists briefly in offering two different rates for the same job: a high …"
"The art of management has been defined, "As knowing exactly what you want men to do, and then seeing that they do it …"
"That there is a difference between the average and the first class man is known to all employers, but that the first …"
"The greater part of the systematic soldiering, however, is done by the men with the deliberate object of keeping thei…"
"After a workman has had the price per piece of the work he is doing lowered two or three times as a result of his hav…"
"The writer feels that management is also destined to become more of an art, and that many of the, elements which are …"
"In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first. This in no sense, however, implies that g…"
"I have read with very great interest Mr. Metcalfe's paper, as we at the Midvale Steel Co. have had the experience, du…"