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Understanding leadershipJanuary 8, 2016

Understanding leadership – Part 17: Taylorist image of humanity

Understanding leadership – Part 17: Taylorist image of humanity
Taylorism and vertical division of labour (see post 12) are still widespread today. Social conditions in Western Europe have shifted toward democracy and co-determination—but Taylor's spirit still rules in our minds and in some assembly lines and call centres, not to mention leadership and work methods on the world's "extended workbenches" where horizontal and vertical division of labour are practised in pure form. Taylor's "scientific management" succeeded worldwide partly because it matched the image of humanity at the start of the 20th century:

Taylorist image of humanity

  • People are seen as unreliable machines.
  • Humans are a source of uncertainty in mechanised production.
  • Therefore people must be comprehensively controlled and steered—and are believed to be comprehensively controllable (control paradigm).
  • Workers are merely cheap factors of production (instrumental view).
  • Workers are thought to have only primary needs (motivational view).
  • Workers pursue only one goal: satisfying primary needs—"homo economicus" (instrumental-rational view).
  • Workers cannot organise their own work but must be systematically driven to perform by managers (power-political view).
The mechanistic image appears in Taylor's description of the German immigrant Schmidt ("migration background" reversed):
"A man who feels at home in the job of pig-iron handler in the long run must naturally be mentally very limited and quite indifferent. A bright man is therefore quite unsuited to work of such grinding monotony. The worker best suited to it is therefore unable to understand the theoretical side of this work" (Taylor 1983, p. 62)
  But is this mindset so different from what the term "personnel leadership" expresses? Klaus Türk wrote in 1988 that this term assumes staff
"…evidently need guardianship because they are ignorant, lazy, unmotivated, perhaps even undisciplined. They must be rewarded and punished, educated and guided, motivated and instructed to do what is required…" (Türk 1988 cited in Neuberger 1995, p. 46)
  Taylor assumed people could be deployed as unproblematically as any other tool. In "scientific management" workers are assumed to be motivated only by economically defined self-interest—minimising effort while maximising pay. According to the Taylorist image, workers are assumed overall: Sitting workers with shovels on the rest, fotolia
  • Workers are mainly motivated by material incentives.
  • They cannot and will not plan and perform work rationally themselves.
  • Workers constantly try to shirk work and hold back performance.
  • Workers accept passive behaviour and being manipulated, motivated and controlled by superiors.
  • Workers keep private and company interests separate and treat feelings at work as private.
This worker type is contrasted with the supervisor who self-controls and self-motivates (today "self-management") and subordinates personal to organisational goals. Their tasks:
  • design the production process effectively,
  • select and train staff appropriately,
  • assert positional authority, and
  • guarantee high performance and conflict avoidance through control.
While Taylor worked in workshop and production, successors transferred Taylorist rationalisation to administration—with more complex conditions and more qualified staff.

Taylorism is unproductive in developed industrial and service societies!

Taylorism rests on an instrumental, mechanistic image that degrades people as mindless machines—unacceptable for most employees today. It destroys "love of one's own product" vital for meaning. Quality work, diligence, punctuality, responsibility, order, discipline and satisfaction through work fall by the wayside—mistrust, resignation, disinterest and indifference may result. Keyboard with windmill, photocaseIn Taylorist organisation unmeasurable human abilities are suppressed. Feelings have no place on the line; moods and illness are left at the factory gate. Self-organised group work, emotional intelligence and creativity essential today have no chance under Taylorism. Conversely, where rules, files and control dominate, people will truly work to rule and sometimes against the company.
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