formal blog #6

I have been itching to write my thoughts on our last reading, ‘The
Scientific Management’.  I have mixed feelings about the book,
although my thoughts on the reading were mostly of disgust, I
 think it is only right to give credit Taylor for such thoughtfulness
 in theorizing a way of scientifically  managing people, thereby
creating a higher level of human efficiency. 

“Under scientific management the “initiative” of the workmen
(that is their hard work, their good will, and their  ingenuity)
is obtained with absolute uniformity and to a greater extent than
 is possible under the old system: and in  addition to this improvement
the part of the men , the managers assume new burdens, new duties
and responsibilities never dear of in the past….classifying, tabulating,
and reducing this knowledge to rules, laws and formulae which are
immensely helpful to the workmen in doing  their daily work.”

However, it is important to note that in our quest for the ultimate
machine, this machine needs to embody a super human level of
efficiency which we desire to attain. The approach Taylor proposes
through his scientific vision offered an outlook to what this machine
could be by exemplifying it through humans.This scientific approach
loses the underlining basis of our quest, to create a human with the
efficiency of a machine, ‘super-human’. Alas,the human quality is
lost in this quest since we can’t separate the human element from
the machine.

This ‘so called’ system of scientific management is an utter state of
totalitarianism orchestrated in the name of science and management.
It is or would be a downright disgrace to the human race to accept
such an approach as a way out of our inefficiency. 

The essence of management in light of today’s world is to create a
conducive environment where people work and are equally paid for
their labor. It is not an attempt to create a state of utopia where
everyone lives "...more prosperous, far happier, and more free
from discord and dissension" and happily ever after, only to see
their live wash down the drain in enslavement to a company. The
fact that we can input logarithms into a system and it spits out a way
to increase efficiency does not  make it the right way to attain that
level of efficiency.  The Human aspect is lost I  this process, maybe
if this ‘efficiency calculating’ Machine were told to consider that
these are fathers that have sons and wives at home,  or mother with
babies, or just plain people that would like to sit back, take a
moment to enjoy life, maybe, just maybe their thoughts  on this
scientific process will differ. This process centers around the illusion
of a better life when all it is an effective system of exploitation and
mental manipulation.