Laura Mosher
December 3, 1998
English H102
Dr. Boese
The Taylor System Puts Society in Prison
Fredrick W. Taylor (1856-1915) is known as the father of scientific
management. Hugh Aitken defines scientific management as the “idea that
human activity could be measured, analyzed, and controlled by techniques
analogous to those that have proved successful when applied to physical
object”(16). Aitken also said that Taylor was the “first to synthesize
and systematize the best that was known about management of men and to
point out the techniques by which this art might be advanced in the future”(14).
This very systematization of the management of workers started treating
all people of the western industrialized society, especially the factory
workers, as if they were being kept prisoners. The constant supervision
and exact procedures the workers had to follow left the worker with no
control over his or her own life.
Constant supervision was a major part of the entire Taylor system.
This had to be done because one of Taylor’s main concepts was with time-study
experiments. A person who stood over the worker with a stopwatch
timing his or her specific movements did the studies. One specific
worker who worked at the Watertown Arsenal, said “it made him nervous to
have a man stand over him with a stop watch”(Aitken 136). With these
workers always having someone looking over their shoulders they had to
feel like prisoners. The young manager of a modern day assembly line
plant, Tom Bonnema, even says that if he is always watching his workers
they feel that he does not trust them. Bonnema says, “If I am always
out there, they resent me and work even slower.” The timed movements
that come from constant supervision are recorded and become set time constraints
for every worker doing the same task. There was no room for a worker
to set his or her own time constraints; the advances in productivity directly
depended on this limitation. All control over work pace was stolen
from each worker. People in the modern prisons have no control over
their own scheduling and so once the time-study experiments set by Taylor
were initiated, each worker began to be treated like a prisoner.
These time-study experiments were not seen as a bad process to everyone.
The managers and executives of the factories found them very useful, not
to mention the stockholders seeing an 80%-90% growth. I have rarely
heard of a prison warden who did not like the way the prison was run.
This is obviously because they are the ones who get to have the power and
the control. It is this type of control that makes the time studies
such a problem for the workers. When Taylor started his job in the
Midvale factory he made many “attempts at controlling, or rather, over
controlling, which led to his fight with the worker in the machine shop
almost immediately after his coming to Midvale”(Kakar 55). It was
the workers who were upset, not Taylor himself. Taylor was the boss
and he was just happy to be getting his production done faster. It
was not, however, only the time studies that made the work go faster nor
was it only the time studies that made the work place seem like a prison.
Taylorism started the road to mass production that in turn led to faster
production and also led to an even more prison-like atmosphere. The
repetitive jobs that all workers had to perform made the factories an even
more unbearable place. T.O. Prenting has said that it was the assembly
line that led to many of the repetitive jobs. In this case the worker
has no control over the rate of the job. This goes along with the
time study experiment, only it takes it a step farther. With an assembly
line, there is a conveyor belt that keeps the product moving, so that one
small contribution to the whole has to be completed before the conveyor
moves it along. Many people find this kind of job very repetitive
and boring. Bonnema has learned that if a worker thinks his or her
job is mindless and pointless than they will hate the job. That is
why he always tries to give each of his workers some responsibility.
The sad thing is that there are not many managers who think the same way
as Bonnema. Even when Bonnema tries to give responsibility, the workers
still stand in one place all day doing the exact same motion for the exact
same amount of time. I think that having that mindless work would
be worse than being in prison. At least in prison each prisoner has
some control of what his or she is doing from minute to minute. This
was not the fact for many workers that were employed on Henry Ford’s automotive
assembly line. One of the many workers described his daily routine
in the following way,
Once a Ford employee had learned the special spasm expected
from him he can go through life without a single thought or emotion.
When the whistle blows he starts to jerk and when the whistle blows again
he stops jerking, and if that isn’t the simple life, what is? (Cowan 189)
This whistle blowing goes back to the overpowering of authority figures.
Since they have control over the whistles they basically have control over
all their workers. This repetitive and controlled work environment
upset many of the workers. Most workers were used to having control
over their work. They did not like to be imprisoned in their own
workplace.
The idea that workers could not control their own work schedule
was very new to many people. Before Taylorism many factory workers
were given tasks and could work on it whenever and however they wanted,
as long as the job got done. The skilled workers not only had challenging
jobs, but they also had control over them. Although some may argue that
their control was unproductive, it made many of the workers proud of their
jobs. Bonnema agrees with this fact, he learned that when workers
have some responsibility they have a sense of pride in their work and they
do it better. Once Taylorism was put into effect, unskilled workers
replaced the skilled workers. Ruth Cowan points out that “skilled
carpenters came to realize that they could no longer expect to be both
self-employed and prosperous”(182). There are two reasons that skilled
workers lost hope in their own futures. One reason was that the tasks
were reduced to such simple duty that there was no skill needed to accomplish
the job. The other reason was that the unskilled worker would work
for a much lower pay rate. This saved companies a lot of money.
The money was another reason that factory owners loved the controlling
and imprisoning factory jobs that came from Fredrick Taylor’s ideas.
Most factory owners did not care that the unskilled workers were
involved in mindless, repetitive jobs. They only saw the fact that
the assembly line put into effect by Henry Ford reduced the assembly time
from 12 ½ man-hours to 5 5/6 man-hours (Mack). According to
another estimate that was recorded by Ruth Cowan, the machine-made construction
components reduced production costs by 80 to 90 percent. By
reducing the production costs and initially paying the unskilled workers
less than the skilled worker, factory owners saved a lot of money.
Cowan also recorded that New York had fifty-eight planing mills with capital
goods and inventories worth $131,000 in 1850; fifty years later, factory
planing was a $22 million industry. The money made and the time saved
look very favorable on paper, and that is why Taylorism has such an effect
on the work force. The fact that the common worker is imprisoned
by his or her employee should leave society outraged at Taylorism.
It is too bad that most of American is so caught up in money that they
don’t stop to think about jobs that are basically numbing the brains of
all the workers. Pam Mack, a history teacher at Clemson University,
reports that when the assembly line was first introduced to the workers
in Ford’s factories, the workers were so upset that the turnover rate got
as high as 360%. Then in 1914 Ford was the first factory owner to
offer his workers the double wages (Mack). This made many of his
workers stay in their “repetitive, dangerous, oppressive, dead-end, low
paying, insecure jobs”(Cowan 188). They either worked on the assembly
line for more money or they did not eat. This realization is what
made so many workers put up with the conditions that put prison walls around
their work place.
There are, surprisingly enough, some people who really do not
see the problem with the Taylor System. It is these people who make
managers more inclined to watch over their employees. Bonnema states
the belief of many managers when he says, “The reason these people are
working on the assembly line is because they did not have the personal
initiative to get ahead. Since their personality is not to work,
they need to be observed.” These workers who are lacking initiative
do not see the jobs as imprisoning. They simply see it as a simpler
way of life. Peter Drucker, the author of an article in American
Management Association Production Series, was one of these people.
He felt that mass production work is no more monotonous that the elementary
tasks performed in pre-industrial times, even in agriculture. He
sees little evidence that monotony actually has the negative effects that
so many people say that it has. G. Friedmann, the author of Industrial
Society, reports that a man named Mayo similarly believes that whether
work is monotonous or not depends on the temperament, intelligence, and
psychological make-up of the individual (Friedmann). There are some
people who like to work on small tasks rather than large complicated tasks.
Some reasons for people liking small tasks include: “less complicated,
confusing,” “Seems like less work,” and “less chance to get behind”(Prenting
12). Repetitive jobs are the complaint of many people when asked
about the Taylor System. These complaints are not always the thought
of all workers. There are a few people who do not see the imprisoning
cycle that the Taylor system started in motion.
Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Player Piano, shows its readers what would
happen if the cycle was to continue beyond its present state. Vonnegut
told a story about a town that had machines that did the mindless, repetitive
work that is now done on the assembly line. Not only did this process
eliminate the skilled workers jobs, but it also eliminated the unskilled
workers jobs. The only people that kept their jobs in the factories
were the managers. Doctor Paul Proteus, the manager of the Ilium works
factory, called the new ideas the second revolution. Proteus stated
that, “. . . the First Industrial Revolution devalued muscle work, then
the second one devalued routine mental work”(12-13). Proteus agreed
with all the assembly line workers when he says, “If was so ridiculous
to have people stuck in one place all day, just using their senses, then
a reflex, using their senses, then a reflex, and not really thinking at
all” (13). Proteus believed that this new design of running a factory
with machines would make the workers happy. He thought that the workers
would be thankful for not having to do the repetitive jobs. However,
this new way of working things only separated society. The managers
of the plant lived on one side of the river and everyone else lived on
the other. The workers started to resent the managers because they
were believed to be a higher class. Proteus could not see the concerns
that the ordinary person had until one of his workers started to talk about
how easy it would be to replace him with a machine. Although the
Taylor System has not taken society this far it is well on its way.
This is having new and more dangerous affect on workers.
The one thing that scares me the most is the fact that the cycle, today,
is moving beyond the working class alone and into society as a whole.
J. Bentham came up with an idea called Panopticon (Foucault). The
entire idea of Panopiticism comes from the need for better prisons.
This idea is to build a prison that could have constant supervision over
its prisoners. There is a tower with windows that open to the inner
side of a ring shaped building. The ring shaped building is divided
into many cells, each cell has two windows. One of the windows is
on the inside of the ring, so the supervisor can see the “prisoner.”
The other window is on the outside of the ring, so the light can travel
through each cell. The light that shines through makes it possible
for the person in the tower to always see the prisoners actions without
being seen. The only known buildings built after the Panopiticism design
are prisons, but Michel Foucault takes Bentham’s idea to a new level.
Foucault refers to this Panopticism by saying, “All that is needed, then,
is to place a supervisor in the central tower and to shut up in each cell
a madman, a patient, a condemned man, a worker or a schoolboy” (200).
This is proof that workers have become thought of a prisoner. Foucault
proves this by comparing a madman and a condemned man to a worker and a
schoolboy. This idea of equality between the different types of people
started with Taylorism’s surveillance system in factories. Foucault
even said, “among workers, it makes it possible to note the aptitudes of
each worker, compare the time he takes to perform a task, and if they are
paid by the day, to calculate their wages” (203). Foucault believes
that with this kind of surveillance there will be “no disorder, no theft,
no coalitions, none of those distractions that slow down the rate of work,
make it less perfect or cause accidents” (201). The idea is that
if workers are locked in cells alone for the entire workday, they will
get more done and have less mistakes. This once again looks very
good on paper, but society needs to step back and look at what this really
means. The factory workers are becoming like slaves. The entire
concept we outlawed so many years ago is coming back in an entirely new
way. In China all ordinary workers are called Takaru, which translates
to the English word slave (Vonnegut 19). This is accepted in China,
but America fought a war to get rid of the slaves in this country.
No one in this country wants to be known as a slave, but that is exactly
what Foucault’s twist on Bentham’s Panopticon has would do to society.
It has done and will do more of the enslaving of workers and even school
children. The school children are the first step in taking Taylorism
into the society as a whole. Teachers have always observed school
children, but they have also been allowed to be with other students.
If Bentham had his way, every child would be locked up so there would be
“no copying, no noise, no chatter, no waste of time” (Foucault 201). With
school children getting involved in the constant separation and surveillance,
society should start to see the imprisonment we are all approaching.
Taylor started the cycle with surveillance in the factories, now more and
more business people are building onto the idea of surveillance.
The Panopticism prison could not have a guard on surveillance
of each cell at every moment, just as it is impossible for the owner of
the plant to keep constant surveillance on all workers. This problem
is easily fixed by lay out of the Panopticism Buildings. When the
surveyor is in the central tower he or she “sees everything without ever
being seen” (Foucault 202). Foucault points out that the major effect
of the Panopticon is “to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and
permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power” (201).
Because of this idea that each person could be constantly watched, there
is no need for the guard to constantly watch him or her. Foucault
declares, “it is not necessary to use force to constrain the . . . worker
to work . . .” (202). Foucault’s idea is very dangerous to everyone
in society. Now it is only talk about the factories and schools being
built in this fashion, but what happens when those really happen.
Then what will be the next idea? Entire communities could be built
in this fashion. The police would definitely have an easier job,
but what does that really do to society. Fredrick Taylor started
the cycle by imprisoning factory workers, then Foucault added his new twist
on Bentham’s idea of Panopticism; with those ideas put together the entire
society is in danger of being put in a prison community.
Another idea that started as prison security and may move into
the workplace is called the Electronic Offender Monitor. Bruce Sterling,
author of “Hardware for Hard Time” in Wired magazine, stated that this
hardware as a monitoring system that “allows probation officers to track
ex-cons and other offenders who have been confined to their homes or otherwise
have their movements limited”(140). Sterling also reported that “Americans
love the idea”(140). This new technology could be disguised as a watch,
no one would know who has one and who does not. This type of technology
gives someone superior authority, just as Taylorism does. I cannot
help but think that Taylor, along with most managers, would jump at the
chance to use this technology in his factories. Now that factory
owners could have access to this technology, they will be tempted.
Sterling says, “Because it involves computerized real-time control of large
crowds – any kind of crowds – the system has the potential to bust out
of prison”(142). There is also software now that bosses can use to
monitor the number of key strokes a worker has per minute. They can
also monitor which web sites there workers are using to make sure they
are not wasting their time. The latest technology that could affect
workers is called the “smart T-shirt” by USA Today. Robert Davis
reports that the computer T-shirt is woven with fiber optics and electrically
conductive thread. There is a pager-size processor that analyzes
data and transmits it by using satellites. Robert Davis points out
that “any kind of computer chip could be plugged into the shirt, allowing
. . . an employer’s computer to track a worker’s every move”(1).
When Taylor started the idea of constant surveillance in the work place,
he opened the door for many technologies to help place the workers in prison.
Fredrick Taylor and his colleges place society in a prison.
When Taylor started the constant surveillance of his workers, he started
society on a long road with many unexpected bumps and curves on the way.
Taylor’s system showed managers the ability to produce things in a much
faster way. This system and the new systems that followed made many
managers pleased with the outcome, but put the workers at a disadvantage.
The workers were constantly watched, making them feel that they were not
trusted and had no control over their jobs. With the assembly line
and mass production the workers had even less control over their jobs.
The workers pace was first put on a time schedule by their manager’s surveillance
and then by the conveyor belts on the assembly line. The workers
in most plants felt as though they had no importance. They felt as
though they were prisoners in the work place. Foucault took this
feeling of being in prison and came up with an idea that could change that
feeling into a reality. Foucault took Bentham’s idea of Panopticism
that was intended for prisons and turned it into a technology for the workplace.
Technologies are being invented every day that help people survey other
people. These technologies are usually intended for prisons, but
since the introduction of the Taylor System factories find these technologies
very useful. The managers see the new technologies as ways to advance
their production, but the workers do not see it that way. The workers
feel like they are becoming less and less important. An unskilled
worker from an electronics plant once said,
Me? Oh, I’m just a machine. When they talk to me
they say ‘Number 566’, not ‘Mademoiselle so and so’. That’s my machine
number. So, me and the machine are one in the same (Doray 72).
If factories continue to move in the direction described by this one worker,
our society will become like the one in Player Piano. Not only would
workers feel like they are in prison, they will be completely isolated
from each other.
Bibliography
Aitken, Hugh. Taylorism at Watertown Arsenal. Harvard University
Press: Massachusetts, 1960.
Bonnema, Tom. Telephone Interview. 1 December 1998.
Cowan, Ruth Schwartz. A Social History of American Technology.
Oxford University Press: New York, 1997.
Davis, Robert. ‘Smart T-shirts’ Can Sound the Alarm. USA
Today. Online. 17 November 1998. Available: http://www.usatoday.com/life/science/general/lsx009.htm.
Doray, Bernard. From Taylorism to Fordism: A Rational Madness.
Free Association Books: London, 1988
Drucker, P.F. “The Human Factor in Mass Production,” American
Management Association Production Series. No. 175, 1948, pp.45-46.
Foucault, Michel. Discipline & Punishment: The Birth of the
Prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan. Vintage Books: New York,
1979.
Friedmann, G. Industrial Society. Gencoe, Illinois: The
Free Press, 1955, p.131.
Kakar, Sudhir. Frederick Taylor: A Study in Personality and Innovation.
The MIT Press: Massachusetts, 1970.
Mack, Pamela. Technology and Work. Online. Available:
http://people.clemson.edu/~pammack/lec122/aline.ht. October 29, 1998.
Prenting, T.O. “Better Selection for Repetitive Work,” Personnel,
vol.41 no.5 (September-October). (Sorry I could not find the book
with the rest of the info.)
Sterling, Bruce. “Hardware for Hard Time” Wired (November, 1998),
pp.136-144.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Player Piano. Dell Publishing Co.: New York,
1952.
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