"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. [...]