Scientific ManagementI. Scientific Management movement
A. LeadersB. PrinciplesC. Implementation
II. Production in the Progressive EraA. The Divided EconomyB. The Labor ProblemC. Progressive Values
III. IssuesA. Breakdown of craftB. Restructuring of payC. Speedup of workD. ResistanceE. Ideals versus Reality
Leaders
• Similarities– Upper class origins– Working class
pretensions
• Differences– Skilled v. unskilled– Union v. non-union
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth
Frederick Winslow Taylor
Progressive Values
• Science
• Efficiency
• Concern about poverty
• Middle class belief that class conflict was wasteful, unnecessary
• MasculinityLouis Brandeis, inventor of
the term “scientific management”
The Divided Economy
• Problems for industrialists:
– Mergers fail to keep profits high
– Must lower costs
– Cannot divide or mechanize craft labor
The Labor Problem
• Increasing strike activity:– 1897: 1,110 stoppages – 1905: 2,186 stoppages
Cart overturned during
teamsters’ strike,
Chicago, 1902
Breakdown of craft• Eroding skill
means reducing bargaining power
• Alienates workers– Intelligence– Manhood
Speedup
• Every year, one out of 500 Pittsburgh workers died on the job
Gilbreth’s shaving experiment