Writing Red Taylorism into management history

Abstract

An increasing number of Western scholars are currently arguing that socialist transition theory may provide solutions to industrial relations and management problems that capitalism struggles to resolve. I add to this effort by introducing the debate on whether scientific management could assist the transition from capitalism to socialism that was undertaken in the United States through the first two decades of the 20th century. By so doing, I make two contributions. First, I show that socialist theory has a substantial lineage within management studies from which current progressives might draw lessons. Second, I add to the literature that has problematised the authoritarian depiction of Taylorism that is orthodoxy in the management and industrial relations literature. I do so by showing that a significant body of theorists and practitioners believed scientific management could assist populations to move beyond capitalism. Some welcomed this possibility, while others viewed it as a dire threat, requiring that Taylorism be demonised.