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Still Taylorism In Modern Society Essay

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Taylorism Blog Would workers in Australia, America or Europe accept the Taylorism in this form today?

Generally, the answer to that question would be "absolutely not." While there are situations where this might occur in a limited fashion, the emergence of union organizing rights and what not have empowered employees to a level that such antics by a company along the lines of what Ford was doing would not be accepted. The doubling in pay would be attractive but the conditions behind it would cause a revolt at some point. Indeed, Ford and all of the author domestic automakers are union ... although there are some foreign ones operating in the United States (e.g. Hyundai, Kia, etc.) that have dodged this by opening factories only in the southern (i.e. not pro-union) United States. Ford's doubling of the wages surely attracted people in great number but the conditions and pressures that the workers were subjected to, when it came to union talk in particular, would be outright illegal today and the NRLB (in the United States) and similar organizations in other Western countries would take much the same overall approach if things like that happened there. What Ford did in terms of efficiency cannot be condemned as output was maximized and this meant greater rewards to the company. While some reward trickled down to the employees, it came at a huge cost and overall employee conditions were at a level that would not be accepted today ... union or no union. There could and should be a balance between the expectations that are levied against employees and being reasonable. Ford was obviously entirely too far down the spectrum in that they were working employees entirely too hard and were quick to stomp out any efforts that threatened the flow they had established, whether that be the length of bathroom breaks, talk about unions or messing around in general. Keeping order and compliance is one thing but being dictator-esque is another thing entirely.

2. Consider the design of scripts for use in Call Centres, can you see Taylorism in that? Explain.

Absolutely...

it's a standardization and simplification of the overall method so that every call flows much the same way. The problem with the approach is that many people are wise to the scripting and sort of try to bust their way through it by "cutting to the point" or asking for a manager. It is not a bad idea to keep things as singular and the same as possible but there are obvious situations where deviation from that script and that norm is called for. At the same time, people each writing their own way of doing their job, especially when it comes to procedures of what to do when certain things arise, is chaos in the making and should not be allowed for. For example, if a person is calling a bank to check their balance, the procedure for that needs to be the same and should be followed without fail. Indeed, the identity of the person should be verified and the follow-up questions that are asked should also be the same. The company has a right to expect a certain approach in every alike instance and there is nothing wrong with that, within limits. The company needs to be reasonable and the tools used need to fit the situations that will be encountered by employees. Forcing employees to do things that do not satisfy employees or that do not work in general, for example, would be less than wise.
3. This 'clip' is showing history from 100 years ago. Some would say that 'the world has moved on' and these ideas are out of date. However, could there be parts of the world today for which these ideas might be just what they need? Explain.

There are parts and portions of what is seen in this video that could be useful. Indeed, a factory in Kenya, for example, that does not make use of product staging and assembly line tactics could absolutely benefit from modernizing their approach and their technology. However, they would need to be careful to not learn the wrong lessons from what Ford and others have done. While there should absolutely be a "trickle-down" effect when it comes to better profits garnered through increased efficiency, treating people like commodities or even slaves…

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