Re-Tayloring Management: Scientific Management a Century On

Over a century has passed and yet there is growing evidence that knowledge workers across the globe today are as constrained by F.W. Taylor's much-maligned The Principles of Scientific Management, as factory workers were in the early twentieth century.

Re-Tayloring Management looks critically at Taylor's philosophy on management and contrasts it with other perspectives that have since emerged, along with the professionalization of management and the growth in business and management education. The contributors demonstrate that despite the complexity and uncertainty that organizations face, instead of designing work systems where knowledge and service workers have the freedom to apply knowledge and skills at the point they are most needed, managers are obsessed with maintaining tighter control. This approach conflicts with contemporary job design principles, which emphasise