Skip to main content

Taylor Made Management

The Palgrave Handbook of Management History

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the life and career of Frederick Winslow Taylor, father of scientific management. This chapter discusses both how Taylor’s actions as well as the environment within the United States nurtured the rise of scientific management. The contention is that America’s progressive era as well as the transformation of knowledge allowed for management to become a field of study. Taylor’s work is discussed as well as a discussion of the criticisms that have been levelled at Taylor. In addition, the chapter provides a discussion of how scientific management clashed with peasant work culture.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aldrich M (2010) On the track of efficiency: scientific management comes to railroad shops, 1900–1930. Bus Hist Rev 84(3):501–526

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banta M (1993) Taylored lives. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Bedeian AG, Wren DA (2001) Most influential management books of the 20th century. Organ Dyn 29(3):221–225

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell D (1956) Work and its discontents. Beacon Press, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Bendix R (1956) Work and authority in industry: ideologies of management in the course of industrialization. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bendix R, Fisher LH (1949) The perspectives of Elton Mayo. Rev Econ Stat 31(4):312–319

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boddewyn J (1961) Frederick Winslow Taylor revisited. J Acad Manag 4(2):100

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruce K, Nyland C (2001) Scientific management, institutionalism, and business stabilization: 1903–1923. J Econ Issues 35(4):955–978

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruce K, Nyland C (2011) Elton Mayo and the deification of human relations. Organ Stud 32(3):383–405

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnham J (1941) The managerial revolution: what is happening in the world. John Day Company, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Burt RS (2004) Structural holes and good ideas. Am J Sociol 110(2):349–399

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Claeys G (1987) Machinery, money and the millennium: from moral economy to socialism 1815–1860. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Claeys G (1989) Citizens and saints. Politics and anti-politics in early British socialism. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper WH (1962) The comparative administrative philosophies of Frederick W. Taylor and Elton Mayo. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper JM (1983) The warrior and the priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. Belknap, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Copley FB (1923) Frederick W. Taylor, father of scientific management. Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Dean CC (1997a) The principles of scientific management by Fred Taylor: exposures in print beyond the private printing. J Manag Hist 3(1):4–17

    Google Scholar 

  • Dean CC (1997b) Primer of scientific management by Frank B. Gilbreth: a response to publication of Taylor’s principles in the American magazine. J Manag Hist 3(1):31–41

    Google Scholar 

  • Diggins JP (1978) The bard of savagery: Thorstein Veblen and modern social theory. Seabury Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Diggins JP (1996) Max Weber: politics and the spirit of tragedy. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Drucker P (1954) The practice of management. Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Elwitt S (1988) Social science, social reform and sociology. Past Present 121:209–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Etz DV (1964) Han Fei Tzu: management pioneer. Public Adm Rev 24(1):36–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Filene PG (1970) An obituary for “the progressive movement”. Am Q 22(1):20–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gabor A (2000) The capitalist philosophers. Times Business, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutman HG (1973) Work, culture, and society in industrializing America, 1815–1919. Am Hist Rev 78(3):531–588

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haber S (1964) Efficiency and uplift: scientific management in the Progressive Era, 1890–1920. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Haber S (1991) The quest for authority and honor in the American professions, 1750–1900. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Hargadon A (2003) How breakthroughs happen: the surprising truth about how companies innovate. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Heames JT, Breland JW (2010) Management pioneer contributors: 30-year review. J Manag Hist 16(4):427–436

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoopes J (2003) False prophets: the gurus who created modern management and why their ideas are bad for business today. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hough JR, White MA (2001) Using stories to create change: the object lesson of Frederick Taylor’s “pig-tale”. J Manag 27(5):585–601

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanigel R (1997) The one best way: Frederick Winslow Taylor and the enigma of efficiency. Little, Brown and Company, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Katz MB (1996) In the shadow of the poorhouse: a social history of welfare in America, 2nd edn. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman SB (1973) Samuel Gompers and the origins of the American Federation of Labor. Greenwood Press, West Port

    Google Scholar 

  • Keller M (1992) Regulating a new economy: public policy and economic change in America, 1900–1933. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Keller M (1998) Regulating a new society: public policy and social change in America, 1900–1933. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Kipping M (1997) Consultancies, institutions and the diffusion of Taylorism in Britain, Germany and France, 1920s to 1950s. Bus Hist 39(4):67–83

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klaw S (1979) Frederick Winslow Taylor: the messiah of time and motion. Am Herit 30(5):26–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Kloppenberg JT (1986) Uncertain victory: social democracy and progressivism in European and American thought, 1870–1920. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Knowles WH (1952) Economics of industrial engineering. Ind Labor Relat Rev 5(2):209–220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kolko G (1963) The triumph of conservatism: a reinterpretation of American history, 1900–1916. The Free Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraines O (1960) Brandeis’ philosophy of scientific management. West Polit Q 13(1):191–201

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kreis S (1995) Early experiments in British scientific management: the health of Munitions Workers’ Committee, 1915–1920. J Manag Hist 1(2):65–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Larson MS (1979) The rise of professionalism. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Lauer Schachter H (2016) Frederick Winslow Taylor, Henry Hallowell Farquhar, and the dilemma of relating management education to organizational practice. J Manag Hist 22(2):199–213

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lears J (1997) Man the machine. New Repub 217(9):25–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Livesay HC (1978) Samuel Gompers and organized labor in America. Little, Brown and Company, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Locke EA (1982) The ideas of Frederick W. Taylor: an evaluation. Acad Manag Rev 7(1):14–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mandel B (1963) Samuel Gompers: a biography. Penguin Group, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin A (1971) Enterprise denied: the origins of the decline of American railroads, 1897–1917. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • McCormick RL (1981) The discovery that business corrupts politics: a reappraisal of the origins of progressivism. Am Hist Rev 86(2):247–274

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGerr M (2003) A fierce discontent: the rise and fall of the progressive movement in America, 1870–1920. Oxford University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Merkle JA (1980) Management and ideology: the legacy of the international scientific management movement. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Merton RK (1947) The machine, the worker, and the engineer. Science 105(2717):79–84

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Montgomery D (1979) Worker’s control in America. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Montgomery D (1987) The fall of the house of labor: the workplace, the state, and American labor activism, 1865–1925. Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Muldoon J (2017) The Hawthorne studies: an analysis of critical perspectives 1936–1958. J Manag Hist 23(1):74–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Nadworny M (1955) Scientific management and the unions 1900–1932: a historical analysis. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson D (1980) Frederick W. Taylor and the rise of scientific management. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison

    Google Scholar 

  • Nigro LG (1986) Scientific management: seniority and productivity in the public sector. Public Productivity Rev 10(1):73–80

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nyland C (1995) Taylorism and hours of work. J Manag Hist 1:8–25

    Google Scholar 

  • Nyland C (1998) Taylorism and the mutual gains strategy. Ind Relat 37:519–542

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nyland C (2000) A contemporary account of scientific management as applied to women’s work with a comment by Frederick W. Taylor. J Manag His 6:248–271

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker LD, Ritson P (2005) Fads, stereotypes and management gurus: Fayol and Follett today. Manag Decis 43(10):1335–1357

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Payne SC, Youngcourt SS, Watrous KM (2006) Portrayals of FW Taylor across textbooks. J Manag Hist 12(4):385–407

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodgers DT (1998) Atlantic crossings: social politics in a progressive age. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers EM (1962) Diffusion of innovations, 1st edn. Free Press of Glencoe, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlesinger AMJ (2000) A life in the twentieth century. Houghton Mifflin, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwarz C (2015) A review of management history from 2010–2014 utilizing a thematic analysis approach. J Manag Hist 21(4):494–504

    Google Scholar 

  • Searle GR (1971) The quest for national efficiency: a study in British politics and political thought, 1899–1914. Basil Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Simha A, Lemak DJ (2010) The value of original source readings in management education: the case of Frederick Winslow Taylor. J Manag Hist 16(2):233–252

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart M (2009) The management myth: debunking the modern philosophy of business. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Suchman MC (1995) Managing legitimacy: strategic and institutional approaches. Acad Manag Rev 20(3):571–610

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taneja S, Pryor MG, Toombs LA (2011) Frederick W. Taylor’s scientific management principles: relevance and validity. J Appl Manag Entrep 16(3):60

    Google Scholar 

  • Tarr GA (2001) Laboratories of democracy? Brandeis, federalism, and scientific management. Publius 31(1):37–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor FW (1947) Scientific management (comprising shop management, the principles of scientific management, and testimony before the special house committee). Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor SG, Bedeian AG (2008) The Fred Taylor baseball myth: a son goes to bat for his father. J Manag Hist 14(3):294–298

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas JM (1993) Figures of habit in William James. N Engl Q 66(1):3–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson EP (1963) The making of the English working class. Victor Gollancz, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Tipple J (1970) The capitalist revolution: a history of American social thought. Pegasus, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner SP, Turner JH (1990) The impossible science: an institutional analysis of American sociology. SAGE library of social research. SAGE, Newbury Park

    Google Scholar 

  • Urofsky MI (1971) A mind of one piece: Brandeis and American reform. Scribner, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner-Tsukamoto S (2007) An institutional economic reconstruction of scientific management: on the lost theoretical logic of Taylorism. Acad Manag Rev 32(1):105–117

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner-Tsukamoto S (2008) Scientific management revisited: did Taylorism fail because of a too positive image of human nature? J Manag Hist 14(4):348–372

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitston K (1997) Worker resistance and Taylorism in Britain. Int Rev Soc Hist 42(1):1–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiebe R (1967) The search for order, 1877–1920. Macmillian, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson NB, du Pont L (1965) In anticipation of Frederick W. Taylor: a study of work by Lammot du Pont, 1872. Technol Cult 6(2):208–221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wrege CD, Greenwood RG (1991) Frederick W. Taylor, the father of scientific management: myth and reality. Irwin Professional Pub, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Wrege CD, Perroni AG (1974) Taylor’s pig-tale: a historical analysis of Frederick W. Taylor’s pig-iron experiments. Acad Manag J 17(1):6–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Wrege CD, Stotka AM (1978) Cooke creates a classic: the story behind F. W. Taylor’s principles of scientific management. Acad Manag Rev 3:736–749

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wren DA (2005) The history of management thought, 5th edn. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Wren DA, Hay RD (1977) Management historians and business historians: differing perceptions of pioneer contributions. Acad Manag J 20(3):470–476

    Google Scholar 

  • Wren DA, Bedeian AG (2018) The evolution of management thought, 7th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeffrey Muldoon .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Muldoon, J. (2018). Taylor Made Management. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Management History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62348-1_27-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62348-1_27-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62348-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62348-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Business and ManagementReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Taylor Made Management
    Published:
    17 April 2020

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62348-1_27-2

  2. Original

    Taylor Made Management
    Published:
    02 May 2018

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62348-1_27-1