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Dehumanizing with AI, Automation, and Technical Optimization

The Practical Leader

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. They had a massive turnover problem.

McGregor 101
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What Circuit City Learned About Valuing Employees

Harvard Business Review

In 1960, 11 years after he founded the company that became Circuit City, my father Sam Wurtzel was reading a book he couldn't put down: The Human Side of Enterprise , by MIT professor Douglas McGregor. The next morning, he called McGregor's office and asked for a meeting with him. It was also central to how Sam built Circuit City.

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Steve Jobs and The Bobby Knight School of Leadership

Harvard Business Review

Yet two recent and excellent books ( Inside Apple , by Adam Lashinsky and Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson) describe a management style that was disturbingly harsh. Before answering that question, it is useful to elaborate the two management styles. What are the common success characteristics shared by these two?

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Could Target Have Prevented Its Security Breach?

Harvard Business Review

But the outpouring of opinions, argues Jena McGregor , may be a good thing: "As long as the argument persists about how to get more women at the top, it remains on everyone''s minds — and hopefully, on more people''s agendas." Crisis management Information & technology Technology'