The municipality, communism and scientific management: management legacies in context

Abstract

Discusses the fact that scientific management′s character and Taylor′s legacy are often treated as ideology and technology for controlling labour. However, proposes that scientific management be located in the conflicts and institutionalized accomodations of market, democracy, rule of law, professional administration, and interrelated forms of culture and applied knowledge. Proposes that scientific management was shaped by and, in turn, helped to shape, the dynamic structure of modern capitalism′s core organizing modes. Illustrates this by discussing late‐nineteenth century changes in American municipal administration. Examines the Soviet attempt to appropriate scientific management without the core regimes which shaped it in the West. Argues that scientific management′s abiding character and Taylor′s legacy are found in the institutional evolution of modern capitalist societies, not in the rise and fall of command economies.

Citation

Tropea, J.L. (1995), "The municipality, communism and scientific management: management legacies in context", Journal of Management History (Archive), Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 79-91. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552529510088349