> Have we taken a step backwards with global supply-chains, corporate citizen-hood, and the ever-increasing "gig-economy" where workers are transient and expendable?
The war described in the article is waged on both sides. The workers themselves are acting as mercenaries - understandable given the conditions. And clearly a business can't extract maximum value from a worker that has absolutely no loyalty.
On a whole though I find the article weak. It's just a hope for an ideal situation with no idea of how to get there. "Can't we all just get along?" - it's clear that no, that state of affairs does not simply spring itself into being.
The article is authored by Frederick Taylor, who had quite a strong sense of what he thought would improve this situation: Scientific Taylorism mixed with higher wages resulting in a shift of worker attitudes.
While today we can debate the growing chasm between worker productivity and wages, it iss important to remember that for over 60 years after this article was written:
- Management practices continued to become more rigorously productivity oriented
- Wages rose in tandem and in proportion to productivity
For all of the faults debated over taylorism and the defects that have developed in our system a century later, on the merits of those points I would say this article has aged well.
The war described in the article is waged on both sides. The workers themselves are acting as mercenaries - understandable given the conditions. And clearly a business can't extract maximum value from a worker that has absolutely no loyalty.
On a whole though I find the article weak. It's just a hope for an ideal situation with no idea of how to get there. "Can't we all just get along?" - it's clear that no, that state of affairs does not simply spring itself into being.