In the 1950s, in US and UK industry, there was the rise of Taylorism. Taylorism was about ‘scientific management’; the idea that every job could be broken down into microtasks, measured for ‘efficency’ and then organised in such a way as to be more ‘efficient’. It was a development of Fordism, which worked in US industry where there was a huge supply of low education, desperate immigrants who’d do any job they were offered. Each worker would carry out a tightly defined task according to a procedure that was laid down by ´professional managers´ who were guided by consultants.
It seemed to work for a while; lots of small manufacturers died out but the productivity of the big manufacturers gave us enormous growth in living standards. Joe Average could buy a car, a fridge-freezer and a telly because for the first time these goods could be produced cheaply and in huge numbers.
However, it went a bit wrong. Factory workers hated being controlled in every aspect of their work. In the 1970’s we saw the blue collar blues; the workers rebelled and brought industries to a grinding halt; they had been dehumanized and had no job satisfaction, so took their only pleasure from payment and started calculating, just like their managers; a guy whose job was to make 200 metal pressings a day would up his production by 5% only if he was given a 6% pay rise.
Today, the workplace for most of us is very different. In IT we work on making bespoke products and services for the specific client; even the implementation of a software package usually involves a bespoke configuration. This requires educated, creative people who are given a certain freedom to do what their training tells them is best for the client’s specific needs.
We also have a problem with transport and traffic. People spend hours on overcrowded trains or in traffic jams in a mad rush to get to the office before 9am, because the boss wants everybody to be there from 9 to 5. At the same time, techies have given us the technology to connect almost any computer in the world to almost any other computer anywhere else in the world at any time of day that we choose.
We are told how to do our work by ‘internal best practises’, ISO9001, Prince II, CMMi etc, and then our performance, measured against some apparently arbitrary Proces Indicator, and is entered into a ‘Management Dashboard’ which supposedly gives senior management an overview of what’s happening in the organisation, but actually hides the truth as it gives middle management the tools to manipulate the figures.
Is this a return to the bad old days? Can we expect the ‘white collar blues’ to start causing major breakdowns in our service industries?
What are those guys being taught on their MBA courses and when will managers be dragged into the 21st century? When will they realise that a trained systems expert can work from home, at any time of day, can provide creative input, can liaise with others, can think for him/herself, and that this freedom is precisely what’s needed to get the benefits from technology?
It seemed to work for a while; lots of small manufacturers died out but the productivity of the big manufacturers gave us enormous growth in living standards. Joe Average could buy a car, a fridge-freezer and a telly because for the first time these goods could be produced cheaply and in huge numbers.
However, it went a bit wrong. Factory workers hated being controlled in every aspect of their work. In the 1970’s we saw the blue collar blues; the workers rebelled and brought industries to a grinding halt; they had been dehumanized and had no job satisfaction, so took their only pleasure from payment and started calculating, just like their managers; a guy whose job was to make 200 metal pressings a day would up his production by 5% only if he was given a 6% pay rise.
Today, the workplace for most of us is very different. In IT we work on making bespoke products and services for the specific client; even the implementation of a software package usually involves a bespoke configuration. This requires educated, creative people who are given a certain freedom to do what their training tells them is best for the client’s specific needs.
We also have a problem with transport and traffic. People spend hours on overcrowded trains or in traffic jams in a mad rush to get to the office before 9am, because the boss wants everybody to be there from 9 to 5. At the same time, techies have given us the technology to connect almost any computer in the world to almost any other computer anywhere else in the world at any time of day that we choose.
We are told how to do our work by ‘internal best practises’, ISO9001, Prince II, CMMi etc, and then our performance, measured against some apparently arbitrary Proces Indicator, and is entered into a ‘Management Dashboard’ which supposedly gives senior management an overview of what’s happening in the organisation, but actually hides the truth as it gives middle management the tools to manipulate the figures.
Is this a return to the bad old days? Can we expect the ‘white collar blues’ to start causing major breakdowns in our service industries?
What are those guys being taught on their MBA courses and when will managers be dragged into the 21st century? When will they realise that a trained systems expert can work from home, at any time of day, can provide creative input, can liaise with others, can think for him/herself, and that this freedom is precisely what’s needed to get the benefits from technology?
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