The features of management processes and structures in terms of Fordism and Taylorism: Why did these models come under pressure during the late 20th Century? Has there been a definitive break from them?

Résumé du document

Between 1893 and 1911, F.W Taylor published a series of books about management that defines the basis of a new science: The scientific organization of work . On the one hand, he notes "the dawdling" of workers, who are at the same time influenced by their natural way to be lazy and the strategy of managers who use the technical progress to increase the output instead of encouraging, by the rise of the wages, an increase of productivity. In addition, he notices the rejection of the workers showing zeal by their fellow-members. According to him, the awkwardness and the inefficiency of the daily acts, the bad execution of the spontaneous movements cause immense losses. He thinks that prosperity can only come from the greatest possible productivity of men and machines. He wants each worker to make a work which is compatible with his personal skills, while being involved, with the fastest pace and the maximum effectiveness. From this he will create three principles that are the basis of Taylor's system: the vertical division of work (Every intellectual work must be removed of the workshop to be concentrated in the offices of planning and organization), the horizontal division of work, a wage that is based on yields and a control of time.

Extraits

[...] is the customer who constitutes the objective standard, charged to empty the social relations of their conflictuality”[17]. Duval as for him thinks that the ideological speech on the necessary mobilization of workers around quality and desires of the customer led to the naturalization of the constraints of the scientific organization of work.[18] Manual workers are not the only workers hit by this phenomenon, executives have more stress, they have to make overtime and their work is intensified. The pointer which is the symbol of Taylorism is required today by the executives who have longer days. [...]

[...] Why did these models come under pressure during the late 20th Century? The Fordist Model will be hit by two crises, the first one during the 60s and 70s and the second one during the 80s and 70s. At the end of the sixties the first aspect is the social crisis. This crisis appears with the acceleration of rates which generate rejects, wastings and defects. The effects of infernal rates are confirmed by working conditions (noise, odors, rate and repetitivity) which are worse, the routine generates overwork and accidents, the absenteeism increases, the turnover rises and the number of claims and conflicts rises. [...]

[...] The third principle is a salary that is based on workers´ yields, Taylor is conscious that the work that is proposed to the worker is alienating and not interesting. But he says that the first characteristics of a warehouseman is that he is so stupid and so phlegmatic, that we can compare his mental more to an ox than to anything else. man who has a sharp and intelligent spirit is, for this reason even, inapt to exert this job because of the terrible monotony of a task of this kind”. [...]

[...] However this model has also its limits, employees have to bear a temporal pressure; it is necessary to execute tasks quickly and to respect the deadlines to be competitive. There are also mental effects: employees have to concentrate on different sources of information and are consequently stressed. Finally, the just on time method requires having a good relationship with the supplier, supply problems can occur when there are strikes, the firm has thus to stop its production. The second model for the organization of work is the Volvo model (Uddevalla) described by Freyssenet[14]. [...]

[...] Since 1973 and especially since the beginning of the eighties we have seen a loss of effectiveness in the capital. To produce the same quantity of added value, it is necessary to mobilize more money and more funds. This is the direct consequence of the society of consumers, a single model of black Ford T cannot be appropriate to this new society of consumers who claim diversified models: red, green, blue, with a sliding roof, with air-conditioning for cars, this being true for all goods. [...]