The Practical Leader

SEPTEMBER 2, 2020

In the early 1900s, Frederick Taylor, used “Scientific Management” principles to make the new production lines more efficient. Workers became cogs in the machine; shut off their minds, shut their mouths, and did what engineers and managers told them to do.

McGregor 101

McGregor Scientific Management Taylorism Taylor 101

Harvard Business Review

JULY 18, 2016

When Frederick Taylor published his pioneering principles of scientific management in 1912, the repetitive and mundane nature of most jobs required employees to think as little as possible. In other words, higher career security is a function of employability, and that in turn depends on learnability. Vincent Tsui for HBR.

Long-term 8

Long-term Short-term Open-book Scientific Management 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 2, 2014

This need to publish to make a career has led to increasingly obscure research of almost no value to real businesses, specialization that encourages silo thinking, and a serious disregard of the importance of teaching students to think. For more information, see the conference homepage.

Education 16

Education Drucker Globalization Trends 16

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

It is impossible to attend a management or technology conference these days without hearing some version of that call for more humanism in tech. The movement challenged the influence of Fredrick Taylor’s scientific management, which had reduced workers to unwieldy cogs in efficiency-seeking industrial machines.

Drucker 11

Drucker Mayo Technology Globalization 11