The Taylor Society was an American society for the discussion and promotion of scientific management, named after Frederick Winslow Taylor.
 Bulletin of the Taylor Society masthead | |
| Successor | Society for Advancement of Management |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1911 |
| Dissolved | 1936 |
| Type | membership organization |
| Purpose | American society for the discussion and promotion of scientific management |
| Location |
|
Region served | United States |
Official language | English |
President | James Mapes Dodge, first president 1911-1913; et al. |
| Affiliations | Society of Industrial Engineers |
Originally named The Society to Promote The Science of Management,[1] the Taylor Society was initiated in 1911 at the New York Athletic Club by followers of Frederick W. Taylor, including Carl G. Barth, Morris Llewellyn Cooke, James Mapes Dodge, Frank Gilbreth, H.K. Hathaway, Robert T. Kent, Conrad Lauer (for Charles Day) and Wilfred Lewis.[2][3]
In 1925, the Society declared that it 'welcomes to membership all who have become convinced that "the business men of tomorrow must have the engineer-mind".'[2] In 1936, the Taylor Society merged with the Society of Industrial Engineers forming the Society for Advancement of Management.[3][4]
Key figures and membership
editAt the entry of the United States into World War I in 1917, the Society's membership numbered around 100.[2]
Prominent interwar members included Henri Le Châtelier, Richard A. Feiss, Henry Gantt, Lillian Gilbreth, Mary van Kleeck, William Leffingwell, Harlow S. Person, Hans Renold, Oliver Sheldon, Sanford E. Thompson and Lyndall Urwick.
From 1919, the Society's permanent secretary was Harlow S. Person.[5]
By 1925, the expanded Taylor Society had 800 members.[2]
The Society contained people of diverse political views. One of the Society's members, Walter Polakov, was a Marxist socialist engineer who joined the Society in 1915. Polakov was a keen associate of Henry Gantt and propagated the Gantt chart in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s.[6]
Presidents of the Society
editListing of presidents of the Taylor Society:
- 1911-1913 : James Mapes Dodge[7]
- 1913-1918 : Harlow S. Person[8][9]
- 1918-1919 : John E. Otterson[10]
- 1919-1921 : Henry S. Dennison.[11]
- 1921-1922 : Henry P. Kendall
- 1922-1924 : Richard A. Feiss, Joseph & Feiss Co., Cleveland, O.[12][13]
- 1924-1925 : Percy S. Brown
- 1925-1928 : Morris Llewellyn Cooke[14][15]
- 1928-1929 : Henry P. Kendall[16]
- 1930-1932 : William Henry Leffingwell
- 1932-1933 : Sanford E. Thompson.[17]
Activities
editThe Taylor Society received early support from the British Fabian Society.[18]
The Society was largely responsible for the research and publication of the first biography of Frederick Wilson Taylor by Frank Copley, published in 1923.[19][20]
The Taylor Society were involved in the Committee on American Participation to the Prague International Management Congress in 1924.[2] Frank Gilbreth died prior to the conference and his wife, Lillian Moller Gilbreth, also a Taylor Society member, appeared in his place. This substitution was later made famous by the movie Cheaper by the Dozen (1950).
It had close connections with the Geneva-based International Management Institute (IMI) and International Labour Organization (ILO).[21] From 1928 until its closure in 1933, the IMI was headed by Taylor Society member Lyndall Urwick.[22][23]
Bulletin of the Taylor Society
editThe Society's regular periodical was the Bulletin of the Taylor Society,[2] full editions of which can be found in the F.W. Taylor archive at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. Its successor publication was the Bulletin of the Society of the Advancement of Management.
A 1914–1934 index of articles from the Bulletin, and many Bulletin articles, is in Donald Del Mar and Rodger D. Collons, Classics in Scientific Management: a Book of Readings (University of Alabama Press, c.1976).
Engagement with the Bedaux System
editInitially, the Taylor Society appears to have been unperturbed by the Bedaux System and its Bedaux Unit: in 1927 a discussion of the Bedaux Point System appeared in the Society's Bulletin without additional comment.[24]
However, its approach to Bedaux became more antagonistic. In 1929, the Society supported Southern textile workers in their strike against the Bedaux System, which textile workers believed was 'even worse than the old "Taylor Stop-Watch System"'.[25]
Soon after the dissolution of the Taylor Society, its long-standing secretary Harlow S. Person responded to the Charles Bedaux & Duke of Windsor November 1937 fiasco by stating that the Taylor System, which required much management restructuring, and the Bedaux System, which could be applied 'as is', were 'poles apart'.[26]
In 1940, C. Bertrand Thompson criticised Bedaux as a 'time study merchant', claiming that one of Bedaux's clients told him that 'if they had found my machines bolted upside down to the ceiling, they would have left them there and time studied them just the same'.[27]
Society for Advancement of Management
editIn 1936 the Taylor Society merged with the Society of Industrial Engineers forming the Society for Advancement of Management (SAM). International presidents of the society have been:[28]
- 1936-1937: Ordway Tead
- 1937-1939: William H. Gesell
- 1939-1941: Myron H. Clark
- 1941-1942: Keith Louden
- 1942-1944: Percy S. Brown
- 1944-1946: Raymond R. Zimmerman
- 1946-1947: Harold B. Maynard
- 1947-1948: William L. McGrath
- 1948-1949: Charles C. James
- 1949-1951: Dillard E. Bird
- 1951-1952: Leon J. Dunn
- 1952-1953: Edward W. Jochim
- 1953-1954: Bruce Payne
- 1954-1955: George B. Estes
- 1955-1956: Frank F. Bradshaw
- 1956-1957: John B. Joynt
- 1957-1958: Homer E. Lunken
- 1958-1959: Phil Carroll
- 1959-1960: Dause L. Bibby
- 1960-1961: James E. Newsome
- 1961-1962: Robert B. Curry
- 1962-1963: Fred E. Harrel
- 1963-1964: Hezz Stringfield Jr.
- 1964-1965: William R. Divine
- 1965-1966: Oliver J. Sizelove
- 1966-1967: Donald B. Miller
- 1967-1968: James L. Centner
- 1968-1969: David N. Wise
- 1969-1970: Jack E. Wiedemer
- 1970-1971: Carl W. Golgart
- 1971-1972: Owen A. Paul
- 1972-1973: Ernest T. Tierney
- 1973-1974: Warren G. Orr
- 1974-1975: James W. Bumbaugh
- 1975-1976: Hal J. Batten
- 1976-1977: W. H. Kirby Jr.
- 1977-1978: A. T. Kindling
- 1978-1979: James J. Rutherford
- 1979-1980: John S. McGuinness
- 1980-1981: Clifford J. Doubek
- 1981-1983: Tony Brown
- 1983-1986: Moustafa H. Abdelsamad
- 1986-1987: Thomas R. Greensmith
- 1987-1988: S. G. Fletcher
One of the main task of the Society for Advancement of Management was the recognition of achievements in the advancement of management. Fot that, the society had initiated an Award Program, which contained the Taylor Key Award, the Human Relations Award, the Gilbreth Medal, the Materials Handling Award, the Phil Carroll Advancement of Management Award, the Industrial Incentives Award, and finally The SAM Service Award Honor Society.[28]
Prominent winners of the Taylor Key Awards have been:
- Lawrence A. Appley, George W. Barnwell, Donald C. Burnham, Phil Carroll, Morris L. Cooke, Donald K. Davis, Ralph C. Davis, W. Edwards Deming, Henry S. Dennison, Hugo Diemer, M. A. Dittmer, Peter F. Drucker, H. P. Dutton, W. M. Gesell, King Hathaway, James L. Hayes, Herbert C. Hoover, Harry A. Hopf, John B. Joynt, Henry P. Kendall, Dexter S. Kimball. Axa S. Knowles, Harold Koontz, Harold B. Maynard, Robert S. McNamara, John F. Mee, Don G. Mitchell, Allan H. Mogensen, Frank Henry Neely, Kaichiro Nishino, Nobuo Noda, Harlow S. Person, Henning W. Prentis, F. J. Roethlisberger, Edward C. Schleh, Harold F. Smiddy, Brehon B. Somervell, J. Allyn Taylor, George T. Trundle Jr., Lyndall F. Urwick, and Robert B. Wolf.[28]
Publications
edit- Frederick W. Taylor, 'Scientific Management and Labor Unions' Bulletin of the Society to Promote the Science of Management Vol.1, No.1 (December, 1914) online at University of Oklahoma University Library
- Taylor Society, Frederick Winslow Taylor: a memorial volume; being addresses delivered at the funeral of Frederick Winslow Taylor (1915) online at Archive.org
- Harlow S. Person, 'What is the Taylor Society?' Bulletin of the Taylor Society (December 1922)
- Frank Barkley Copley, Frederick W. Taylor, Father of Scientific Management (Harper and Brothers, 1923) 2 vols. online at Archive.org
- Taylor Society, Critical Essays on Scientific Management (New York, 1925)
- Taylor Society, Union-Management Cooperation in the Railway Industry (New York, 1926)
- Harlow S. Person, Scientific Management in American Industry (Harper & Brothers, 1929) online at Archive.org
References
edit- ^ "A word from President; Scientific Management and Labor Unions; Scientific Management in the Sales Department; Scientific Management in the Sales Department :: Bass Business - Bulletin of the Taylor Society".
- ^ a b c d e f Percy S. Brown, 'The Works and Aims of the Taylor Society' Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (May, 1925) online at JSTOR
- ^ a b Moustafa H. Abdelsamad (ed.), SAM Advanced Management Journal. Vol. 53. Nr. 2 Spring 1988. p. 5
- ^ Link to Society for Advancement of Management
- ^ Daniel Nelson, 'The Transformation of University Business Education' in A Mental Revolution: Scientific Management Since Taylor (1992) "Link" (PDF).
- ^ Kelly, D. J. (2016). Perceptions of Taylorism and a Marxist scienti c manager. Journal of Management History, 22 (3), 298-319.
- ^ Carlos E. Pabon (1992, 119)
- ^ Bulletin of the Taylor Society. Volume 1, No 1, Dec. 1914. p. 1; And: Volume 2, No 5, Dec. 1916. p. 1
- ^ Carlos E. Pabon (1992, 121)
- ^ John Cunningham Wood, Michael C. Wood (2002). F. W. Taylor: Critical Evaluations in Business and Management. p. 89
- ^ Kyle Bruce, 'Henry S. Dennison, Elton Mayo, and Human Relations historiography' Management & Organizational History Vol. 1, No. 2 (2006), pp.177-199.
- ^ Bulletin of the Taylor Society. Vol. 7, No 2, April. 1922. p. 1
- ^ Industry Week, Volume 74. 1924. p. 365: Richard A. Feiss... re-elected president of the Taylor society for the ensuing year.
- ^ Taylor Society. Bulletin of the Taylor Society, Volumes 11-12. Taylor Society, 1926. p. 513: Address of Morris Llewellyn Cooke, President of the Taylor Society
- ^ The Taylor Society Looks Ahead (1927)
- ^ Harlow S. Person (ed.), Scientific Management in American Industry, Harper & Brothers, 1929. p. xv
- ^ Lyndall Urwick, The Golden Book of Management: A Historical Record of the Life and Work of Seventy Pioneers (1956)
- ^ 'A Word from the Fabian Socialists' Bulletin of the Taylor Society (June, 1919)
- ^ Copley, Frank Barkley, Frederick W. Taylor, Father of Scientific Management (Harper and Brothers, 1923) 2 vols. online at Archive.org
- ^ Kanigel, Robert. The One Best Way: Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency. MIT Press Books (2005).
- ^ Nyland, Chris, Bruce, Kyle and Burns, Prue, 'Taylorism, the International Labour Organization, and the Genesis and Diffusion of Codetermination' Organization Studies (2014)
- ^ Charles D. Wrege, Ronald G. Greenwood, and Sakae Hata, 'The International Management Institute and Political Opposition to its Efforts in Europe, 1925-1934' Business and Economic History (1987) PDF link
- ^ E.FL. Brech, Andrew Thomson and John F. Wilson, Lyndall Urwick, Management Pioneer: A Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
- ^ 'News of the Sections' Bulletin of the Taylor Society (1927).
- ^ Milton Nadworny, Scientific Management and the Unions: 1900- 1932. A Historical Analysis (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955)
- ^ Michael R. Weatherburn, 'Scientific Management at Work: the Bedaux System, Management Consulting, and Worker Efficiency in British Industry, 1914-48' (Imperial College PhD thesis, 2014). Weatherburn, Michael (2014). "Download PDF from Imperial College, London". doi:10.25560/25296.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ C. Bertrand Thompson, Advanced Management (Oct-Dec, 1940).
- ^ a b c S.A.M. Advanced Management Journal, Volume 53, 1988. p. 40-48
Further reading
edit- Percy S. Brown, '"The Works and Aims of the Taylor Society" Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (May, 1925) online at JSTOR
- Donald Del Mar and Rodger D. Collons, Classics in Scientific Management: a Book of Readings (University of Alabama Press, c.1976)
- Samuel Haber, Efficiency and Uplift: Scientific Management in the Progressive Era, 1890-1920 (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1964)
- Milton Nadworny, Scientific Management and the Unions: 1900- 1932. A Historical Analysis (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955)
- Carlos E. Pabon, Regulating Capitalism: the Taylor Society and Political Economy in the Inter-War Period (PhD thesis, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1992) PDF online
- Lyndall Urwick, The Golden Book of Management: A Historical Record of the Life and Work of Seventy Pioneers (1956)