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

Principles

• The “one best way”

• Incentives

Implementation

• Time-Motion Study– Therbligs

• Pace setting

• Piecework

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

Restructuring pay

• Speed v. Quality

• Age and infirmity

William Gropper, “Piece Work”

Speedup

• Every year, one out of 500 Pittsburgh workers died on the job

Gilbreth’s shaving experiment

Resistance

Strike at Kellogg Switchboard and Supply Co, Chicago, 1903

IAM president James

O’Connell

Ideals v. Reality• Employers adopt

ideas about efficiency, productivity

• Reject consultant’s methods of obtaining worker obedience– High pay– Unions– Psychology

U.S. Navy shipyard, Hog Island, 1918