"Tayloristic work practices are a thing of the past"

Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Economic and Social History, grade: 84, University of Hertfordshire, course: Organisational Behaviour. Theory and Practice, language: English, abstract: In today¿s competitive environment improving efficiency and elevating organisational

performance is critically important to remain competitive in the global marketplace. In

the late nineteenth century Frederick W. Taylor developed one of the earliest

conceptions of management in order to maximise firm productivity. He argued that

performance can only be improved by the application of scientific practices and

established his ¿principles of scientific management¿ (Taylor, 1998). However, due to

the Human Relations movement in the 1930s which emphasised the impact of the social

context of the workplace on firm productivity, Taylor¿s theory of ¿scientific

management¿ became obsolete (Legge, 2005; Thompson & McHugh, 2009).

Conversely, many researchers believe that Taylorism is revived and argue that

Tayloristic ideologies are still dominant in workplaces today (Bain et al., 2002; Bell &

Martin, 2012; Braverman, 1998). More importantly, the continuing relevance of

Tayloristic methods in organising work is no longer restricted to the traditional

manufacturing industry, but can also be found to a greater degree in the rapidly growing

service industry (Braverman, 1998; Crowley et al., 2010). In this context, most notably

the nature of work processes in telephone call centres (Taylor et al., 2002; Zapf et al.,

2003) and the fast food industry (Ritzer, 1996 & 1998) has aroused a great deal of

attention. For instance, a BBC News article raises the question ¿Are call centres the

factories of the 21st Century?¿ (Hudson, 2011) and thus underpins the controversial

debate about the working conditions in call centres. Accordingly, it is worthwhile to

scrutinise this argument in more detail. With that said, the objective of this essay is to

critically appraise the statement ¿Tayloristic work practices are a thing of the past¿ in

the context of the growth of the services organisations. First, in order to set the scene for

the examination of this proposition, the concept of ¿Taylorism¿ will be outlined. After

that, by means of primarily call centre organisations, and fast food restaurants,

occurrence of Tayloristic work practices in the service sector will be investigated.

Finally, based on these expositions, the main findings will be summarised and

evaluated. [...]