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Efficiency movement

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The efficiency movement was a major movement in the United States, Britain and other industrial nations in the early 20th century that sought to identify and eliminate waste in all areas of the economy and society, and to develop and implement best practices . The concept covered mechanical, economic, social, and personal improvement. The quest for efficiency promised effective, dynamic management rewarded by growth.

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165-533: As a result of the influence of an early proponent, it is more often known as Taylorism . The efficiency movement played a central role in the Progressive Era in the United States, where it flourished 1890–1932. Adherents argued that all aspects of the economy, society and government were riddled with waste and inefficiency. Everything would be better if experts identified the problems and fixed them. The result

330-507: A Marxian variant of cybernetics. As with the concept of 'Organoprojection' (1919) by Pavel Florensky , underlying Nikolai Bernstein and Gastev's approach, lay a powerful man-machine metaphor. W. Edwards Deming (1900–1993) brought the efficiency movement to Japan after World War II, teaching top management how to improve design (and thus service), product quality, testing and sales (the last through global markets), especially using statistical methods. Deming then brought his methods back to

495-622: A "third alternative" between "unrestrained capitalism" and socialism , which was becoming increasingly popular in Europe. Hoover sought to foster a balance among labor, capital, and the government, and for this, he has been variously labeled a corporatist or an associationalist . A high priority was economic diplomacy, including promoting the growth of exports, as well as protection against monopolistic practices of foreign governments, especially regarding rubber and coffee. Hoover demanded, and received, authority to coordinate economic affairs throughout

660-497: A London-based independent mining consultant and financier. Though he had risen to prominence as a geologist and mine operator, Hoover focused much of his attention on raising money, restructuring corporate organizations, and financing new ventures. He specialized in rejuvenating troubled mining operations, taking a share of the profits in exchange for his technical and financial expertise. Hoover thought of himself and his associates as "engineering doctors to sick concerns", and he earned

825-447: A business footing and administered to get better results. The looming threat of Germany, which was widely seen as a much more efficient nation, added urgency after 1902. Politically National Efficiency brought together modernizing Conservatives and Unionists, Liberals who wanted to modernize their party, and Fabians such as George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells , along with Beatrice and Sidney Webb , who had outgrown socialism and saw

990-433: A classmate named Lou Henry , though his financial situation precluded marriage at that time. The daughter of a banker from Monterey, California , Lou Henry decided to study geology at Stanford after attending a lecture delivered by John C. Branner . Immediately after earning a promotion in 1898, Hoover cabled Lou Henry, asking her to marry him. After she cabled back her acceptance of the proposal, Hoover briefly returned to

1155-627: A clerk in Midvale, but advanced to foreman in 1880. As foreman, Taylor was "constantly impressed by the failure of his [team members] to produce more than about one-third of [what he deemed] a good day's work". Taylor determined to discover, by scientific methods, how long it should take men to perform each given piece of work; and it was in the fall of 1882 that he started to put the first features of scientific management into operation. Horace Bookwalter Drury , in his 1918 work, Scientific management: A History and Criticism , identified seven other leaders in

1320-584: A contender in the 1920 presidential election. Hoover's wartime push for higher taxes, criticism of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer 's actions during the First Red Scare , and his advocacy for measures such as the minimum wage , forty-eight-hour workweek, and elimination of child labor made him appealing to progressives of both parties. Despite his service in the Democratic administration of Woodrow Wilson, Hoover had never been closely affiliated with either

1485-524: A critical food situation; Hoover estimated that as many as 400 million people faced the possibility of starvation. The United States Food Administration became the American Relief Administration (ARA), and Hoover was charged with providing food to Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to providing relief, the ARA rebuilt infrastructure in an effort to rejuvenate the economy of Europe. Throughout

1650-496: A dangerously high level of uncontrolled power. After an attitude survey of the workers revealed a high level of resentment and hostility towards scientific management, the Senate banned Taylor's methods at the arsenal. Taylor had a largely negative view of unions, and believed they only led to decreased productivity. Efforts to resolve conflicts with workers included methods of scientific collectivism, making agreements with unions, and

1815-455: A distinct theory or school of thought was obsolete by the 1930s, most of its themes are still important parts of industrial engineering and management today. These include: analysis; synthesis; logic ; rationality ; empiricism ; work ethic ; efficiency through elimination of wasteful activities (as in muda , muri and mura ); standardization of best practices ; disdain for tradition preserved merely for its own sake or to protect

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1980-449: A future presidential bid throughout the 1920s, but he carefully avoided alienating Coolidge, who possibly could have run for another term in the 1928 presidential election . Along with the rest of the nation, he was surprised when Coolidge announced in August 1927 that he would not seek another term. With the impending retirement of Coolidge, Hoover immediately emerged as the front-runner for

2145-446: A high level of managerial control over employee work practices and entails a higher ratio of managerial workers to laborers than previous management methods. Such detail-oriented management may cause friction between workers and managers. Taylor observed that some workers were more talented than others, and that even smart ones were often unmotivated. He observed that most workers who are forced to perform repetitive tasks tend to work at

2310-575: A huge crowd that he would continue the policies of the Harding and Coolidge administrations. The Democrats nominated New York governor Al Smith , who became the first Catholic major party nominee for president. Hoover submitted his resignation as Commerce Secretary on July 7, but Coolidge kept him on until August 21 to wind up pending business. Hoover centered his campaign around the Republican record of peace and prosperity, as well as his own reputation as

2475-533: A large property on the remote north coast of Santa Cruz County. The Theodore J. Hoover Natural Preserve is now part of Big Basin State Park . World War I broke out in August 1914, pitting Germany and its allies against France and its allies. The German Schlieffen plan was to achieve a quick victory by marching through neutral Belgium to envelop the French Army east of Paris. The maneuver failed to reach Paris but

2640-618: A mine scout for a year, Hoover was hired by Bewick, Moreing & Co. ("Bewick"), a London-based company that operated gold mines in Western Australia . He first went to Coolgardie , then the center of the Eastern Goldfields , which was actually in Western Australia , receiving a $ 5,000 salary (equivalent to $ 183,120 in 2023). Conditions were harsh in the goldfields; Hoover described the Coolgardie and Murchison rangelands on

2805-488: A model Uniform Vehicle Code for adoption by the states and a Model Municipal Traffic Ordinance for adoption by cities. Both were widely influential, promoting greater uniformity between jurisdictions and tending to promote the automobile's priority in city streets. Phillips Payson O'Brien argues that Hoover had a Britain problem. He had spent so many years living in Britain and Australia, as an employee of British companies, there

2970-542: A new political dimension to the Efficiency Movement. For instance, while fighting against legalized price fixing, Brandeis launched an effort to influence congressional policymaking with the help of his friend Norman Hapgood , who was then the editor of Harper's Weekly . He coordinated the publication of a series of articles ( Competition Kills , Efficiency and the One-Price Article , and How Europe deals with

3135-650: A reputation as a "doctor of sick mines". He made investments on every continent and had offices in San Francisco; London; New York City; Paris; Petrograd ; and Mandalay , British Burma . By 1914, Hoover was a very wealthy man, with an estimated personal fortune of $ 4 million (equivalent to $ 121.67 million in 2023). Hoover co-founded the Zinc Corporation to extract zinc near the Australian city of Broken Hill , New South Wales . The Zinc Corporation developed

3300-548: A separate mine in the Altai Mountains that, according to Hoover, "developed probably the greatest and richest single body of ore known in the world". In his spare time, Hoover wrote. His lectures at Columbia and Stanford universities were published in 1909 as Principles of Mining , which became a standard textbook. The book reflects his move towards progressive ideals, as Hoover came to endorse eight-hour workdays and organized labor . Hoover became deeply interested in

3465-494: A series of articles denying they were inefficiently managed. When steps were taken to introduce scientific management at the government-owned Rock Island Arsenal in early 1911, it was opposed by Samuel Gompers , founder and President of the American Federation of Labor (an alliance of craft unions ). When a subsequent attempt was made to introduce the bonus system into the government's Watertown Arsenal foundry during

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3630-645: A successful engineer and public official. Averse to giving political speeches, Hoover largely stayed out of the fray and left the campaigning to Curtis and other Republicans. Smith was more charismatic and gregarious than Hoover, but his campaign was damaged by anti-Catholicism and his overt opposition to Prohibition. Hoover had never been a strong proponent of Prohibition, but he accepted the Republican Party's plank in favor of it and issued an ambivalent statement calling Prohibition "a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose". In

3795-859: A unique, gigantic achievement, worthy of the greatest glory, which will long remain in the memory of millions of Russians whom you have saved from death". In 1919, Hoover established the Hoover War Collection at Stanford University. He donated all the files of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, the U.S. Food Administration, and the American Relief Administration, and pledged $ 50,000 as an endowment (equivalent to $ 878,695 in 2023). Scholars were sent to Europe to collect pamphlets, society publications, government documents, newspapers, posters, proclamations, and other ephemeral materials related to

3960-557: A universal measure for all manual work. The Bedaux System was influential in the United States in the 1920s and Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, especially in Britain . From the 1920s to the 1950s there were about one thousand companies in 21 countries worldwide that were run on the Bedaux System, including giants such as Swift's , Eastman Kodak , B.F. Goodrich , DuPont , Fiat , ICI and General Electric . Later movements had echoes of

4125-567: A worker fails, he should know that he would share the loss. In Scientific Management, the responsibility of the success or failure of an organization is not solely on the shoulder of the workers, as it is in the old management systems. According to Scientific Management, the managers are taking half of the burden by being responsible for securing the proper work conditions for workers' prosperity. In his book "Principles of Scientific Management", Taylor formally introduced his methodically investigated theory of Scientific Management. Although he explained

4290-441: Is already clearly documented. Especially when wages or wage differentials are high, automation and offshoring can result in significant productivity gains and similar questions of who benefits and whether or not technological unemployment is persistent. Because automation is often best suited to tasks that are repetitive and boring, and can also be used for tasks that are dirty, dangerous, and demeaning , proponents believe that in

4455-419: Is called "the management", (b) The lack of relation between good (shop) management and the pay. He added, "The art of management has been defined, " as knowing exactly what you want men to do, and then seeing that they do it in the best and cheapest way "." In this regard, he highlighted that although there is "no concise definition" for this art, "the relations between employers and men form without question

4620-576: Is happening in the long term, if at all, as well as the impact on income inequality for those who do find jobs. Though not foreseen by early proponents of scientific management, detailed decomposition and documentation of an optimal production method also makes automation of the process easier, especially physical processes that would later use industrial control systems and numerical control . Widespread economic globalization also creates opportunity for work to be outsourced to lower-wage areas, with knowledge transfer made easier if an optimal method

4785-409: Is nearly ubiquitous in industry. Frederick Taylor tackled the challenge of making a business productive and profitable in his years of service and research in a steel company. He believed in a scientific solution. In his "Shop Management" article, Taylor explained that there were two facts that appeared "most noteworthy" in the field of management: (a) "Great unevenness": the lack of uniformity in what

4950-504: Is required in an organization, he believed that management could unite high wages with a low labor cost by application of the following principles: (a) A large daily task: Each worker in the organization, should have a clearly defined task. (b) Standard Conditions: Each worker should be given standard conditions and appliances that will enable him to perform his tasks. (c) High pay for success: Each worker should be rewarded when he accomplishes their task. (d) Loss in case of failure: When

5115-477: Is sometimes known as Taylorism after its pioneer, Frederick Winslow Taylor . Taylor began the theory's development in the United States during the 1880s and 1890s within manufacturing industries, especially steel. Its peak of influence came in the 1910s. Although Taylor died in 1915, by the 1920s scientific management was still influential but had entered into competition and syncretism with opposing or complementary ideas. Although scientific management as

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5280-550: The 1920 U.S. presidential election . Hoover served as the secretary of commerce under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge . Hoover was an unusually active and visible Cabinet member, becoming known as "Secretary of Commerce and Under-Secretary of all other departments." He was influential in the development of air travel and radio. Hoover led the federal response to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 . He won

5445-611: The Commission on Industrial Relations       Owing to its application in part in government arsenals, and a strike by the union molders against some of its features as they were introduced in the foundry at the Watertown Arsenal , "scientific management" received much publicity.       The House of Representatives appointed a committee, consisting of Congressman William B. Wilson , William C. Redfield and John Q. Tilson to investigate

5610-552: The Conference of Governors held in the White House, with a focus on natural resources and their most efficient use. Roosevelt delivered the opening address: "Conservation as a National Duty". In contrast, environmentalist John Muir promulgated a very different view of conservation, rejecting the efficiency motivation. Muir instead preached that nature was sacred and humans are intruders who should look but not develop. Working through

5775-589: The Depression of 1920–21 , he convinced Harding to assemble a presidential commission on unemployment, which encouraged local governments to engage in countercyclical infrastructure spending. He endorsed much of Mellon's tax reduction program but favored a more progressive tax system and opposed the treasury secretary's efforts to eliminate the estate tax . Between 1923 and 1929, the number of families with radios grew from 300,000 to 10 million, and Hoover's tenure as Secretary of Commerce heavily influenced radio use in

5940-696: The North Sea forty times to meet with German authorities and persuade them to allow food shipments. He also convinced British Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George to allow individuals to send money to the people of Belgium, thereby lessening workload of the CRB. At the request of the French government, the CRB began delivering supplies to the people of German-occupied Northern France in 1915. American diplomat Walter Page described Hoover as "probably

6105-587: The Paris Peace Conference , Hoover served as a close adviser to President Wilson, and he largely shared Wilson's goals of establishing the League of Nations , settling borders on the basis of self-determination , and refraining from inflicting a harsh punishment on the defeated Central Powers. The following year, the famed British economist John Maynard Keynes wrote in The Economic Consequences of

6270-643: The Republican Party , he served as the U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 1921 to 1928 before being elected president in 1928 . His presidency was dominated by the Great Depression , and his policies and methods to combat it were seen as lackluster. Amid his unpopularity, he decisively lost reelection to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 . Born to a Quaker family in West Branch, Iowa , Hoover grew up in Oregon . He

6435-465: The Sierra Club he founded, Muir tried to minimize commercial use of water resources and forests. While Muir wanted nature preserved for the sake of pure beauty, Roosevelt subscribed to Pinchot's formulation, "to make the forest produce the largest amount of whatever crop or service will be most useful, and keep on producing it for generation after generation of men and trees." In U.S. national politics,

6600-605: The United States Geological Survey ; these experiences convinced Hoover to pursue a career as a mining geologist. When Hoover graduated from Stanford in 1895, the country was in the midst of the Panic of 1893 and he initially struggled to find a job. He worked in various low-level mining jobs in the Sierra Nevada Mountains until persuading prominent mining engineer Louis Janin to hire him. After working as

6765-590: The froth flotation process to extract zinc from lead-silver ore and operated the world's first selective ore differential flotation plant. Hoover worked with the Burma Corporation, a British firm that produced silver, lead, and zinc in large quantities at the Namtu Bawdwin Mine . He also helped increase copper production in Kyshtym , Russia , through the use of pyritic smelting. He also agreed to manage

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6930-503: The history of science , and he was especially drawn to the De re metallica , an influential 16th century work on mining and metallurgy by Georgius Agricola . In 1912, Hoover and his wife published the first English translation of De re metallica . Hoover also joined the board of trustees at Stanford, and led a successful campaign to appoint John Branner as the university's president. During his senior year at Stanford, Hoover became smitten with

7095-404: The labour movement of the Australian miners. During his time with the mining company, Hoover became opposed to measures such as a minimum wage and workers' compensation , feeling that they were unfair to owners. Hoover's work impressed his employers, and in 1898 he was promoted to junior partner. An open feud developed between Hoover and his boss, Ernest Williams, but Bewick's leaders defused

7260-414: The personnel management movement. Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States , serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and was the director of the U.S. Food Administration , followed by post-war relief of Europe. A member of

7425-483: The social status of particular workers with particular skill sets; the transformation of craft production into mass production ; and knowledge transfer between workers and from workers into tools, processes, and documentation. Taylor's own names for his approach initially included "shop management" and "process management". However, "scientific management" came to national attention in 1910 when attorney Louis Brandeis (then not yet Supreme Court justice) popularized

7590-413: The 1928 Republican nomination, and he quickly put together a strong campaign team led by Hubert Work , Will H. Hays , and Reed Smoot . Coolidge was unwilling to anoint Hoover as his successor; on one occasion he remarked that, "for six years that man has given me unsolicited advice—all of it bad". Despite his lukewarm feelings towards Hoover, Coolidge had no desire to split the party by publicly opposing

7755-703: The Allied Powers, preventing their collapse and earning Hoover great acclaim. As head of the Food Administration, Hoover gained a following in the United States, especially among progressives who saw in Hoover an expert administrator and symbol of efficiency. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society during his tenure. World War I came to an end in November 1918, but Europe continued to face

7920-494: The American Federation of Labor (AFL). Once the time-and-motion men had completed their studies of a particular task, the workers had very little opportunity for further thinking, experimenting, or suggestion-making. Taylorism was criticized for turning the worker into an "automaton" or "machine", making work monotonous and unfulfilling by doing one small and rigidly defined piece of work instead of using complex skills with

8085-600: The Bolsheviks and feared the possibility of a protracted U.S. involvement. The Russian famine of 1921–22 claimed six million people, but the intervention of the ARA likely saved millions of lives. When asked if he was not helping Bolshevism by providing relief, Hoover stated, "twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!" Reflecting the gratitude of many Europeans, in July 1922, Soviet author Maxim Gorky told Hoover that "your help will enter history as

8250-481: The British at a handicap in competition with the world, especially with Germany, which was seen as the epitome of efficiency. In the early 20th century, "National Efficiency" became a powerful demand — a movement supported by prominent figures across the political spectrum who disparaged sentimental humanitarianism and identified waste as a mistake that could no longer be tolerated. The movement took place in two waves;

8415-581: The British refused to lift their blockade of German-occupied Belgium unless the U.S. government supervised Belgian food imports as a neutral party in the war. With the cooperation of the Wilson administration and the CNSA , a Belgian relief organization, Hoover established the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB). The CRB obtained and imported millions of tons of foodstuffs for the CNSA to distribute, and helped ensure that

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8580-601: The Chinese government, the director of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company agreed to establish a new Sino-British venture with Bewick. After they established effective control over the new Chinese mining company, Hoover became the operating partner in late 1901. In this role, Hoover continually traveled the world on behalf of Bewick, visiting mines operated by the company on different continents. Beginning in December 1902,

8745-535: The Democrats or the Republicans . He initially sought to avoid committing to any party in the 1920 election, hoping that either of the two major parties would draft him for president at their national conventions. In March 1920, he changed strategy and declared himself a Republican; he was motivated in large part by the belief that the Democrats had little chance of winning. Despite his national renown, Hoover's service in

8910-413: The Efficiency Movement and were more directly inspired by Taylor and Taylorism . Technocracy , for instance, and others flourished in the 1930s and 1940s. Postmodern opponents of nuclear energy in the 1970s broadened their attack to try to discredit movements that saw salvation for human society in technical expertise alone, or which held that scientists or engineers had any special expertise to offer in

9075-502: The German army did not appropriate the food. Private donations and government grants supplied the majority of its $ 11-million-a-month budget, and the CRB became a veritable independent republic of relief, with its own flag, navy, factories, mills, and railroads. Hoover worked 14-hour days from London, administering the distribution of over two million tons of food to nine million war victims. In an early form of shuttle diplomacy , he crossed

9240-542: The Germans did control nearly all of Belgium for the entire war. Hoover and other London-based American businessmen established a committee to organize the return of the roughly 100,000 Americans stranded in Europe. Hoover was appointed as the committee's chairman and, with the assent of Congress and the Wilson administration , took charge of the distribution of relief to Americans in Europe. Hoover later stated, "I did not realize it at

9405-502: The Harding administration. Hoover envisioned the Commerce Department as the hub of the nation's growth and stability. His experience mobilizing the war-time economy convinced him that the federal government could promote efficiency by eliminating waste, increasing production, encouraging the adoption of data-based practices, investing in infrastructure, and conserving natural resources. Contemporaries described Hoover's approach as

9570-564: The Home Modernizing Bureau. He worked with bankers and the savings and loan industry to promote the new long-term home mortgage, which dramatically stimulated home construction. Other accomplishments included winning the agreement of U.S. Steel to adopt an eight-hour workday, and the fostering of the Colorado River Compact , a water rights compact among Southwestern states . The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 broke

9735-530: The Hoovers began living in the United States, maintaining homes in Stanford, California , and Washington, D.C. Hoover's great-grandaughter (through Allan) is conservative political commentator, strategist, media personality and author Margaret Hoover . Hoover's elder brother Theodore also studied mining engineering at Stanford, and returned there to become dean of the engineering school. In retirement, Theodore bought

9900-642: The Peace that if Hoover's realism, "knowledge, magnanimity and disinterestedness" had found wider play in the councils of Paris, the world would have had "the Good Peace". After U.S. government funding for the ARA expired in mid-1919, Hoover transformed the ARA into a private organization, raising millions of dollars from private donors. He also established the European Children's Fund, which provided relief to fifteen million children across fourteen countries. Despite

10065-499: The Progressive Era. According to historian Samuel P. Hays , the conservation movement was based on the "gospel of the efficiency". The Massachusetts Commission on Economy and Efficiency reflected the new concern with conservation. It said in 1912: The only proper basis for the protection of game birds, wild fowl and, indeed, all animals is an economic one, and must be based upon carefully constructed and properly enforced laws for

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10230-491: The Republican nomination in the 1928 presidential election and defeated Democratic candidate Al Smith in a landslide. In 1929, Hoover assumed the presidency. However, during his first year in office, the stock market crashed , signaling the onset of the Great Depression, which dominated Hoover's presidency until its end. His response to the depression was widely seen as lackluster and he scapegoated Mexican Americans for

10395-418: The Senate and from radio station owners. Hoover was also influential in the early development of air travel, and he sought to create a thriving private industry boosted by indirect government subsidies. He encouraged the development of emergency landing fields, required all runways to be equipped with lights and radio beams, and encouraged farmers to make use of planes for crop dusting . He also established

10560-421: The Senate. Hoover would serve as Secretary of Commerce from 1921 to 1928, serving under Harding and, after Harding's death in 1923, President Calvin Coolidge . While some of the most prominent members of the Harding administration, including Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty and Secretary of Interior Albert B. Fall , were implicated in major scandals , Hoover emerged largely unscathed from investigations into

10725-474: The South, Hoover and the national party pursued a " lily-white " strategy, removing black Republicans from leadership positions in an attempt to curry favor with white Southerners. Hoover maintained polling leads throughout the 1928 campaign, and he decisively defeated Smith on election day, taking 58 percent of the popular vote and 444 of the 531 electoral votes. Historians agree that Hoover's national reputation and

10890-417: The U.S. in the form of quality control called continuous improvement process . Taylorism Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows . Its main objective is improving economic efficiency , especially labor productivity . It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineering of processes to management. Scientific management

11055-590: The United States for their wedding. They would remain married until Lou Henry Hoover's death in 1944. Hoover was the first president to be a widower since Woodrow Wilson . Though his Quaker upbringing strongly influenced his career, Hoover rarely attended Quaker meetings during his adult life. Hoover and his wife had two children: Herbert Hoover Jr. (born in 1903) and Allan Henry Hoover (born in 1907). The Hoover family began living in London in 1902, though they frequently traveled as part of Hoover's career. After 1916,

11220-495: The United States. In the early and mid-1920s, Hoover's radio conferences played a key role in the organization, development, and regulation of radio broadcasting . Hoover also helped pass the Radio Act of 1927 , which allowed the government to intervene and abolish radio stations that were deemed "non-useful" to the public. Hoover's attempts at regulating radio were not supported by all congressmen, and he received much opposition from

11385-583: The Watertown Arsenal petitioned to abolish the practice of scientific management there. A number of magazine writers inquiring into the effects of scientific management found that the "conditions in shops investigated contrasted favorably with those in other plants". A committee of the U.S. House of Representatives investigated and reported in 1912, concluding that scientific management did provide some useful techniques and offered valuable organizational suggestions, but that it also gave production managers

11550-572: The Wilson administration had alienated farmers and the conservative Old Guard of the GOP , and his presidential candidacy fizzled out after his defeat in the California primary by favorite son Hiram Johnson . At the 1920 Republican National Convention , Warren G. Harding emerged as a compromise candidate after the convention became deadlocked between supporters of Johnson, Leonard Wood , and Frank Orren Lowden . Hoover backed Harding's successful campaign in

11715-404: The age of 34 of a sudden heart attack. Hoover's mother died in 1884 of typhoid , leaving Hoover, his older brother, Theodore, and his younger sister, May, as orphans. Hoover lived the next 18 months with his uncle Allen Hoover at a nearby farm. In November 1885, Hoover was sent to Newberg, Oregon , to live with his uncle John Minthorn, a Quaker physician and businessman whose own son had died

11880-573: The age of thirteen to become an office assistant for his uncle's real estate office (Oregon Land Company) in Salem, Oregon . Though he did not attend high school, Hoover learned bookkeeping, typing, and mathematics at a night school. Hoover was a member of the inaugural "Pioneer Class" of Stanford University , entering in 1891 despite failing all the entrance exams except mathematics. During his freshman year, he switched his major from mechanical engineering to geology after working for John Casper Branner ,

12045-505: The agency leadership— Alonzo E. Taylor (technical abilities), Robert Taft (political associations), Gifford Pinchot (agricultural influence), and Julius Barnes (business acumen). World War I had created a global food crisis that dramatically increased food prices and caused food riots and starvation in the countries at war. Hoover's chief goal as food czar was to provide supplies to the Allied Powers, but he also sought to stabilize domestic prices and to prevent domestic shortages. Under

12210-582: The amount of crude oil spilled during extraction and shipping. He promoted international trade by opening overseas offices to advise businessmen. Hoover was especially eager to promote Hollywood films overseas. His "Own Your Own Home" campaign was a collaboration to promote ownership of single-family dwellings, with groups such as the Better Houses in America movement, the Architects' Small House Service Bureau, and

12375-526: The banks and levees of the lower Mississippi River in early 1927, resulting in the flooding of millions of acres and leaving 1.5 million people displaced from their homes. Although disaster response did not fall under the duties of the Commerce Department , the governors of six states along the Mississippi River specifically asked President Coolidge to appoint Hoover to coordinate the response to

12540-690: The best practices. For example, Chicago created an Efficiency Division (1910–16) within the city government's Civil Service Commission, and private citizens organized the Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency (1910–32). The former pioneered the study of "personal efficiency," measuring employees' performance through new scientific merit systems and efficiency movement State governments were active as well. For example, Massachusetts set up its "Commission on Economy and Efficiency" in 1912. It made hundreds of recommendations. Leading philanthropists such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller actively promoted

12705-458: The booming economy, combined with deep splits in the Democratic Party over religion and Prohibition, guaranteed his landslide victory. Hoover's appeal to Southern white voters succeeded in cracking the " Solid South ", and he won five Southern states. Hoover's victory was positively received by newspapers; one wrote that Hoover would "drive so forcefully at the tasks now before the nation that

12870-710: The broad powers granted by the Food and Fuel Control Act , the Food Administration supervised food production throughout the United States, and the administration made use of its authority to buy, import, store, and sell food. Determined to avoid rationing, Hoover established set days for people to avoid eating specified foods and save them for soldiers' rations: meatless Mondays , wheatless Wednesdays, and "when in doubt, eat potatoes". These policies were dubbed "Hooverizing" by government publicists, in spite of Hoover's continual orders that publicity should not mention him by name. The Food Administration shipped 23 million metric tons of food to

13035-427: The chairman of Stanford's geology department. During his sophomore year, Sam Collins proposed founding, Romero Hall Boarding Club , the first student cooperative boarding house at Romero Hall, for "sociability and economy", which Hoover and William Foster Hidden co-founded. Hoover was a mediocre student, and he spent much of his time working in various part-time jobs or participating in campus activities. Though he

13200-555: The company faced mounting legal and financial issues after one of the partners admitted to having fraudulently sold stock in a mine. More issues arose in 1904 after the British government formed two separate royal commissions to investigate Bewick's labor practices and financial dealings in Western Australia. After the company lost a lawsuit Hoover began looking for a way to get out of the partnership, and he sold his shares in mid-1908. After leaving Bewick, Moreing, Hoover worked as

13365-506: The concept of efficiency was developed in Britain in the mid-18th century by John Smeaton (1724–1792). Called the "father of civil engineering", he studied water wheels and steam engines. In the late 19th century there was much talk about improving the efficiency of the administration and economic performance of the British Empire. National Efficiency was an attempt to discredit the old-fashioned habits, customs and institutions that put

13530-412: The conferences grew and soon embraced motor vehicle standards, rules of the road, and urban traffic control. He left the invited interest groups to negotiate agreements among themselves, which were then presented for adoption by states and localities. Because automotive trade associations were the best organized, many of the positions taken by the conferences reflected their interests. The conferences issued

13695-517: The conservation of all species for the benefit of future generations of our citizens, rather than based on local opinion. …This expenditure for the protection of fish and game is clearly a wise economy, tending to prevent the annihilation of birds and other animals valuable to mankind which might otherwise become extinct. It may be said that Massachusetts and her sister States have suffered irreparable loss by carelessly allowing, for generations past, indiscriminate waste of animal life. President Roosevelt

13860-476: The consumer, the railroads should pursue efficiency by reducing their overhead and streamlining their operations, initiatives that were unprecedented during the time. The Bedaux system, developed by Franco-American management consultant Charles Bedaux (1886–1944) built on the work of F. W. Taylor and Charles E. Knoeppel . Its distinctive advancement beyond these earlier thinkers was the Bedaux Unit or B ,

14025-490: The country the strong movement setting towards scientific management. National labor leaders, wide-awake as to what might happen in the future, decided that the new movement was a menace to their organization, and at once inaugurated an attack... centered about the installation of scientific management in the government arsenal at Watertown . In 1911, organized labor erupted with strong opposition to scientific management, including from Samuel Gompers , founder and president of

14190-429: The department stores can do business cheaper than the little dealer." Brandeis ideas on which business is most efficient conflicted with Croly's positions, which favored efficiency driven by a kind of consolidation gained through large-scale economic operations. As early as 1895 Brandeis had warned of the harm that giant corporations could do to competitors, customers, and their own workers. The growth of industrialization

14355-424: The details of Scientific Management in his works, he did not provide its concise definition. Shortly before his death, Taylor approved the following summary and definition of Scientific Management that Hoxie prepared: "Scientific management is a system devised by industrial engineers for the purpose of serving the common interests of employers, workmen and society at large through the elimination of avoidable wastes,

14520-466: The economic crisis. Approximately one million Mexican Americans were forcibly "repatriated" to Mexico in a forced migration campaign known as the Mexican Repatriation even though a majority of them were born in the United States. In the midst of the Great Depression, he was decisively defeated by Democratic nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election . Hoover's retirement

14685-683: The edge of the Great Victoria Desert as a land of "black flies, red dust and white heat". Hoover traveled constantly across the Outback to evaluate and manage the company's mines. He convinced Bewick to purchase the Sons of Gwalia gold mine, which proved to be one of the most successful mines in the region. Partly due to Hoover's efforts, the company eventually controlled approximately 50 percent of gold production in Western Australia . Hoover brought in many Italian immigrants to cut costs and counter

14850-495: The efficiency movement. In his many philanthropic pursuits, Rockefeller believed in supporting efficiency. He said To help an inefficient, ill-located, unnecessary school is a waste ...it is highly probable that enough money has been squandered on unwise educational projects to have built up a national system of higher education adequate to our needs, if the money had been properly directed to that end. The conservation movement regarding national resources came to prominence during

15015-425: The end of his eight years as president will find us looking back on an era of prodigious achievement". Hoover's detractors wondered why he did not do anything to reapportion congress after the 1920 United States census which saw an increase in urban and immigrant populations. The 1920 census was the first and only decennial census where the results were not used to reapportion Congress, which ultimately influenced

15180-715: The eyes of the workers. Frederick W. Taylor and Carl G. Barth visited Watertown in April 1909 and reported on their observations at the shops. Their conclusion was to apply the Taylor system of management to the shops to produce better results. Efforts to install the Taylor system began in June 1909. Over the years of time study and trying to improve the efficiency of workers, criticisms began to evolve. Workers complained of having to compete with one another, feeling strained and resentful, and feeling excessively tired after work. In June 1913, employees of

15345-461: The federal government's power to inspect planes and license pilots, setting a precedent for the later Federal Aviation Administration . As Commerce Secretary, Hoover hosted national conferences on street traffic collectively known as the National Conference on Street and Highway Safety. Hoover's chief objective was to address the growing casualty toll of traffic accidents , but the scope of

15510-472: The first wave from 1899 to 1905 was made urgent by the inefficiencies and failures in the Second Boer War (1899–1902). Spectator magazine reported in 1902 there was "a universal outcry for efficiency in all departments of society, in all aspects of life". The two most important themes were technocratic efficiency and managerial efficiency. As White (1899) argued vigorously, the empire needed to be put on

15675-434: The flood crisis, by 1928, Hoover had begun to overshadow President Coolidge himself. Though Hoover received wide acclaim for his role in the crisis, he ordered the suppression of reports of mistreatment of African Americans in refugee camps . He did so with the cooperation of black American leader Robert Russa Moton , who was promised unprecedented influence once Hoover became president. Hoover quietly gathered support for

15840-463: The flood. Believing that disaster response was not the domain of the federal government, Coolidge initially refused to become involved, but he eventually acceded to political pressure and appointed Hoover to chair a special committee to help the region. Hoover established over one hundred tent cities and a fleet of more than six hundred vessels and raised $ 17 million (equivalent to $ 298.18 million in 2023). In large part due to his leadership during

16005-406: The following guideline: (a) Each worker should be given the highest grade of work they are capable of. (b) Each worker should be demanded the work that a first-grade worker can do and thrive. (c) When each worker works at the pace of a first-grade worker, they should be paid 30% to 100% beyond the average of their class. While Taylor stated that sharing "the equitable division of the profits"

16170-516: The general election, and he began laying the groundwork for a future presidential run by building a base of strong supporters in the Republican Party. After his election as president in 1920, Harding rewarded Hoover for his support, offering to appoint him as either Secretary of the Interior or Secretary of Commerce . Secretary of Commerce was considered a minor Cabinet post, with limited and vaguely defined responsibilities, but Hoover decided to accept

16335-417: The general improvement of the processes and methods of production, and the just and scientific distribution of the product." Taylor indicated that Scientific Management consisted of four underlying principles : 1) the development of a true science: We must scientifically analyze all parts of a job. This consists of examining the elements and steps that required to carry out the work, as well as measuring

16500-434: The government. He created many sub-departments and committees, overseeing and regulating everything from manufacturing statistics to air travel . In some instances, he "seized" control of responsibilities from other Cabinet departments when he deemed that they were not carrying out their responsibilities well; some began referring to him as the "Secretary of Commerce and Under-Secretary of all other departments". In response to

16665-616: The home-grown REFA system which focused on the standardization of working conditions, tools, and machinery. "Rationalization" meant higher productivity and greater efficiency, promising science would bring prosperity. More generally it promised a new level of modernity and was applied to economic production and consumption as well as public administration. Various versions of rationalization were promoted by industrialists and Social Democrats, by engineers and architects, by educators and academics, by middle class feminists and social workers, by government officials and politicians of many parties. It

16830-508: The influential Hoover Commission . Critical assessments of his presidency by historians and political scientists generally rank him as a significantly below-average president, although Hoover has received praise for his actions as a humanitarian and public official. Herbert Clark Hoover was born on August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa . His father, Jesse Hoover, was a blacksmith and farm implement store owner of German, Swiss, and English ancestry. Hoover's mother, Hulda Randall Minthorn,

16995-480: The late 19th and early 20th century, scientific management built on earlier pursuits of economic efficiency . While it was prefigured in the folk wisdom of thrift , it favored empirical methods to determine efficient procedures rather than perpetuating established traditions. Thus it was followed by a profusion of successors in applied science, including time and motion study , the Efficiency Movement (which

17160-434: The later fields, and the different approaches often display a high degree of compatibility. Taylor rejected the notion, which was universal in his day and still held today, that the trades, including manufacturing, were resistant to analysis and could only be performed by craft production methods. In the course of his empirical studies, Taylor examined various kinds of manual labor . For example, most bulk materials handling

17325-412: The long run it will free up human workers for more creative, safer, and more enjoyable work. The early history of labor relations with scientific management in the U.S. was described by Horace Bookwalter Drury: ...for a long time there was thus little or no direct [conflict] between scientific management and organized labor... [However] One of the best known experts once spoke to us with satisfaction of

17490-434: The long-term benefits are no guarantee that individual displaced workers will be able to get new jobs that paid them as well or better as their old jobs, as this may require access to education or job training, or moving to different part of the country where new industries are growing. Inability to obtain new employment due to mismatches like these is known as structural unemployment , and economists debate to what extent this

17655-501: The lot of the Chinese worker, seeking to end the practice of imposing long-term servitude contracts and to institute reforms for workers based on merit. The Boxer Rebellion broke out shortly after the Hoovers arrived in China, trapping them and numerous other foreign nationals until a multi-national military force defeated Boxer forces in the Battle of Tientsin . Fearing the imminent collapse of

17820-415: The manner in which, in a certain factory where there had been a number of union men, the labor organization had, upon the introduction of scientific management, gradually disintegrated. ...From 1882 (when the system was started) until 1911, a period of approximately thirty years, there was not a single strike under it, and this in spite of the fact that it was carried on primarily in the steel industry, which

17985-427: The moment, but on August 3, 1914, my career was over forever. I was on the slippery road of public life." By early October 1914, Hoover's organization had distributed relief to at least 40,000 Americans. The German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 set off a food crisis in Belgium, which relied heavily on food imports. The Germans refused to take responsibility for feeding Belgian citizens in captured territory, and

18150-531: The most important part of this art". He then continued that a good management must in long run give satisfaction to both managers and workers. Taylor emphasized that he was advocating "high wages" and "low labor cost" as "the foundation of the best management". Discussing the pays for different classes of workers and what he called a "first-class" workman, he compared different scenarios of workmanship and their pros and cons. For best management, he asserted with ample reasons that managers in an organization should follow

18315-416: The most prominent figure was Herbert Hoover , a trained engineer who played down politics and believed dispassionate, nonpolitical experts could solve the nation's great problems, such as ending poverty. After 1929, Democrats blamed the Great Depression on Hoover and helped to somewhat discredit the movement. Boston lawyer Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) argued bigness conflicted with efficiency and added

18480-488: The movement, most of whom learned of and extended scientific management from Taylor's efforts: Emerson's testimony in late 1910 to the Interstate Commerce Commission brought the movement to national attention and instigated serious opposition. Emerson contended the railroads might save $ 1,000,000 a day by paying greater attention to efficiency of operation. By January 1911, a leading railroad journal began

18645-468: The mud" when he repeatedly got trapped in the mud crossing the unpaved street. Herbert's family figured prominently in the town's public prayer life, due almost entirely to mother Hulda's role in the church. As a child, Hoover consistently attended schools, but he did little reading on his own aside from the Bible. Hoover's father, noted by the local paper for his "pleasant, sunshiny disposition", died in 1880 at

18810-455: The nation's food needs during the war. Hoover had hoped to join the administration in some capacity since at least 1916, and he obtained the position after lobbying several members of Congress and Wilson's confidant, Edward M. House . Earning the appellation of "food czar", Hoover recruited a volunteer force of hundreds of thousands of women and deployed propaganda in movie theaters, schools, and churches. He carefully selected men to assist in

18975-420: The one-price goods ), which were also distributed by the lobbying group American Fair Trade League to legislators, Supreme Court justices, governors, and twenty national magazines. For his works, he was asked to speak before a congressional committee considering the price-fixing bill he drafted. Here, he stated that "big business is not more efficient than little business" and that "it is a mistake to suppose that

19140-401: The only man living who has privately (i.e., without holding office) negotiated understandings with the British, French, German, Dutch, and Belgian governments". War upon Germany was declared in April 1917, and American food was essential to Allied victory. With the U.S. mobilizing for war, President Wilson appointed Hoover to head the U.S. Food Administration , which was charged with ensuring

19305-565: The opposition of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and other Republicans, Hoover provided aid to the defeated German nation after the war, as well as relief to famine -stricken Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic . Hoover condemned the Bolsheviks but warned President Wilson against an intervention in the Russian Civil War , as he viewed the White Russian forces as little better than

19470-487: The optimum time for each task. We also need to know the working time per day for a qualified worker. 2) the scientific selection of the workers: The most suitable person for the job is selected. 3) the scientific education and training of the workers: There is a clear division of work and responsibility between managers and workers. While workers are carrying out the job with quality and workmanship, managers are responsible for planning, supervision, and proper training of

19635-566: The political realm. Coming into usage in 1990, the Western term lean manufacturing (lean enterprise, lean production, or simply "lean") refers to a business idea that considered the expenditure of resources for anything other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. Today the Lean concept is broadening to include a greater range of strategic goals, not just cost-cutting and efficiency. In engineering,

19800-596: The pool of workers and thus lowering wages and job security . In the long term, most economists consider productivity increases as a benefit to the economy overall, and necessary to improve the standard of living for consumers in general. By the time Taylor was doing his work, improvements in agricultural productivity had freed up a large portion of the workforce for the manufacturing sector, allowing those workers in turn to buy new types of consumer goods instead of working as subsistence farmers . In later years, increased manufacturing efficiency would free up large sections of

19965-399: The popular Commerce Secretary's candidacy. Many wary Republican leaders cast about for an alternative candidate, such as Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon or former secretary of state Charles Evans Hughes . However, Hughes and Mellon declined to run, and other potential contenders like Frank Orren Lowden and Vice President Charles G. Dawes failed to garner widespread support. Hoover won

20130-471: The position. Hoover's progressive stances, continuing support for the League of Nations , and recent conversion to the Republican Party aroused opposition to his appointment from many Senate Republicans . To overcome this opposition, Harding paired Hoover's nomination with that of conservative favorite Andrew Mellon as Secretary of the Treasury , and the nominations of both Hoover and Mellon were confirmed by

20295-418: The presidential nomination on the first ballot of the 1928 Republican National Convention . Convention delegates considered re-nominating Vice President Charles Dawes to be Hoover's running mate , but Coolidge, who hated Dawes, remarked that this would be "a personal affront" to him. The convention instead selected Senator Charles Curtis of Kansas. Hoover accepted the nomination at Stanford Stadium , telling

20460-466: The rate increase, but also dismissed as insufficiently substantiated that concept the railroads were necessarily inefficient.) Taylor recognized the nationally known term "scientific management" as another good name for the concept, and adopted it in the title of his influential 1911 monograph . The Midvale Steel Company , "one of America's great armor plate making plants," was the birthplace of scientific management. In 1877, Frederick W. Taylor started as

20625-495: The role of experts in the schools system. Higher education was an important initiative, typified by the growth of the London School of Economics , and the foundation of Imperial College . There was a pause in the movement between 1904 and 1909, when interest resumed. The most prominent new leaders included Liberals Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George , whose influence brought a bundle of reform legislation that introduced

20790-499: The same amount of goods. In the short term, productivity increases like those achieved by Taylor's efficiency techniques can cause considerable disruption. Labor relations often become contentious over whether the financial benefits will accrue to owners in the form of increased profits, or workers in the form of increased wages. As a result of decomposition and documentation of manufacturing processes, companies employing Taylor's methods might be able to hire lower-skill workers, enlarging

20955-619: The situation by offering Hoover a compelling position in China . Upon arriving in China, Hoover developed gold mines near Tianjin on behalf of Bewick and the Chinese-owned Chinese Engineering and Mining Company . He became deeply interested in Chinese history , but gave up on learning the language to a fluent level . He publicly warned that Chinese workers were inefficient and racially inferior. He made recommendations to improve

21120-453: The slowest rate that goes unpunished. This slow rate of work has been observed in many industries and many countries and has been called by various terms. Taylor used the term "soldiering", a term that reflects the way conscripts may approach following orders, and observed that, when paid the same amount, workers will tend to do the amount of work that the slowest among them does. Taylor describes soldiering as "the greatest evil with which

21285-402: The steel plant and research, which have footprints in other fields, such as accounting and Engineering. Some of his concepts, studies, and findings has led to intellectual revolution in organization management. Taylor made contributions to various fields such as work measurement, production planning and control, process design, quality control, ergonomics, and human engineering. Flourishing in

21450-652: The summer of 1911, the entire force walked out for a few days. Congressional investigations followed, resulting in a ban on the use of time studies and pay premiums in Government service. Taylor's death in 1915 at age 59 left the movement without its original leader. In management literature today, the term "scientific management" mostly refers to the work of Taylor and his disciples ("classical", implying "no longer current, but still respected for its seminal value") in contrast to newer, improved iterations of efficiency-seeking methods. Today, task-oriented optimization of work tasks

21615-475: The supply. Their plan was to drastically cut back on output from British Malaya , which had the effect of tripling rubber prices. Hoover energetically gave a series of speeches and interviews denouncing the monopolistic practice and demanding that it be ended. The American State Department wanted no such crisis and compromised the issue in 1926. By then Hoover had solved his image problem, and during his 1928 campaign he successfully squelched attacks that alleged he

21780-405: The system as it had been applied in the Watertown Arsenal . In its report to Congress this committee sustained Labor's contention that the system forced abnormally high speed upon workmen, that its disciplinary features were arbitrary and harsh, and that the use of a stop-watch and the payment of a bonus were injurious to the worker's manhood and welfare. At a succeeding session of Congress a measure

21945-529: The term. Brandeis had sought a consensus term for the approach with the help of practitioners like Henry L. Gantt and Frank B. Gilbreth . Brandeis then used the consensus of "SCIENTIFIC management" when he argued before the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) that a proposed increase in railroad rates was unnecessary despite an increase in labor costs; he alleged scientific management would overcome railroad inefficiencies (The ICC ruled against

22110-504: The utopia of a scientifically up-to-date society supervised by experts such as themselves. Churchill in 1908 formed an alliance with the Webbs, announcing the goal of a "National Minimum", covering hours, working conditions, and wages – it was a safety net below which the individual would not be allowed to fall. Representative legislation included the Education Act 1902 , which emphasized

22275-683: The war and the revolutions that followed it. The collection was renamed the Hoover War Library in 1922 and is now known as the Hoover Institution Library and Archives . During the post-war period, Hoover also served as the president of the Federated American Engineering Societies. Hoover had been little known among the American public before 1914, but his service in the Wilson administration established him as

22440-476: The war in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover to lead the Food Administration. He became famous as his country's "food czar". After the war, Hoover led the American Relief Administration , which provided food to the starving millions in Central and Eastern Europe, especially Russia. Hoover's wartime service made him a favorite of many progressives , and he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in

22605-471: The welfare state to Britain. Much of the popular and elite support for National Efficiency grew out of concern for Britain's military position, especially with respect to Germany. The Royal Navy underwent a dramatic modernization, most famously in the introduction of the Dreadnought , which in 1906 revolutionized naval warfare overnight. In Germany the efficiency movement was called "rationalization" and it

22770-434: The whole production process done by one person. "The further 'progress' of industrial development... increased the anomic or forced division of labor," the opposite of what Taylor thought would be the effect. Some workers also complained about being made to work at a faster pace and producing goods of lower quality. TRADE UNION OBJECTIONS TO SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT: ...It intensifies the modern tendency toward specialization of

22935-576: The work and the task... displaces skilled workers and... weakens the bargaining strength of the workers through specialization of the task and the destruction of craft skill. ...leads to over-production and the increase of unemployment... looks upon the worker as a mere instrument of production and reduces him to a semi-automatic attachment to the machine or tool... tends to undermine the worker's health, shortens his period of industrial activity and earning power, and brings on premature old age. — Scientific Management and Labor , Robert F. Hoxie , 1915 report to

23100-753: The worker has time to recover from fatigue, either physical (as in shoveling or lifting) or mental (as in the ball inspection case). Workers were allowed to take more rests during work, and productivity increased as a result. Subsequent forms of scientific management were articulated by Taylor's disciples, such as Henry Gantt ; other engineers and managers, such as Benjamin S. Graham ; and other theorists, such as Max Weber . Taylor's work also contrasts with other efforts, including those of Henri Fayol and those of Frank Gilbreth, Sr. and Lillian Moller Gilbreth (whose views originally shared much with Taylor's but later diverged in response to Taylorism's inadequate handling of human relations). Scientific management requires

23265-543: The workers. 4) cooperation between managers and workers: Managers and workers scientific cooperation is required to ensure the proper and high-quality execution of the jobs. There are various tools that would enable us to serve these principles, such as time and motion study, functional foremanship, standardization of tools and movements of workers for each type of work, clear instructions for workers, and cost accounting. There are many other features, tools, and methods that Taylor developed and recommended during his job at

23430-481: The workforce for the service sector . If captured as profits or wages, the money generated by more-productive companies would be spent on new goods and services; if free market competition forces prices down close to the cost of production, consumers effectively capture the benefits and have more money to spend on new goods and services. Either way, new companies and industries spring up to profit from increased demand, and due to freed-up labor are able to hire workers. But

23595-734: The working-people ... are now afflicted". This reflects the idea that workers have a vested interest in their own well-being, and do not benefit from working above the defined rate of work when it will not increase their remuneration. He, therefore, proposed that the work practice that had been developed in most work environments was crafted, intentionally or unintentionally, to be very inefficient in its execution. He posited that time and motion studies combined with rational analysis and synthesis could uncover one best method for performing any particular task, and that prevailing methods were rarely equal to these best methods. Crucially, Taylor himself prominently acknowledged that if each employee's compensation

23760-414: The world's troubles, such as famine in Belgium, as well as specific American problems which he had solved as food commissioner during the world war. The third solution to was to fall back on that old tactic of twisting the British tail. He employed that solution in 1925–1926 in the worldwide rubber crisis. The American auto industry consumed 70% of the world's output, but British investors controlled much of

23925-519: The year before. The Minthorn household was considered cultured and educational, and imparted a strong work ethic. Much like West Branch, Newberg was a frontier town settled largely by Midwestern Quakers. Minthorn ensured that Hoover received an education, but Hoover disliked the many chores assigned to him and often resented Minthorn. One observer described Hoover as "an orphan [who] seemed to be neglected in many ways". Hoover attended Friends Pacific Academy (now George Fox University ), but dropped out at

24090-466: Was Alexei Gastev . The Central Institute of Labour (Tsentralnyi Institut Truda, or TsIT), founded by Gastev in 1921 with Vladimir Lenin 's support, was a veritable citadel of socialist Taylorism. Fascinated by Taylorism and Fordism, Gastev has led a popular movement for the “scientific organization of labor” (Nauchnaya Organizatsiya Truda, or NOT). Because of its emphasis on the cognitive components of labor, some scholars consider Gastev's NOT to represent

24255-412: Was a broader cultural echo of scientific management's impact on business managers specifically), Fordism , operations management , operations research , industrial engineering , management science , manufacturing engineering , logistics , business process management , business process reengineering , lean manufacturing , and Six Sigma . There is a fluid continuum linking scientific management with

24420-622: Was a powerful social and economic force before 1933. In part it looked explicitly at American models, especially Fordism . The Bedaux system was widely adopted in the rubber and tire industry, despite strong resistance in the socialist labor movement to the Bedaux system. Continental AG , the leading rubber company in Germany, adopted the system and profited heavily from it, thus surviving the Great Depression relatively undamaged and improving its competitive capabilities. However most German businessmen preferred

24585-409: Was a risk that he would be labeled a British tool. There were three solutions, all of which he tried in close collaboration with the media, which greatly admired him. First came the image of the dispassionate scientist, emotionally uninvolved but always committed to finding and implementing the best possible solution. The second solution was to gain the reputation of a humanitarian, deeply concerned with

24750-508: Was always "one best way" to fix a problem. Leaders including Herbert Croly , Charles R. van Hise , and Richard Ely sought to improve governmental performance by training experts in public service comparable to those in Germany, notably at the Universities of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Schools of business administration set up management programs oriented toward efficiency. Many cities set up "efficiency bureaus" to identify waste and apply

24915-515: Was creating mammoth companies which he felt threatened the well-being of millions of Americans. In The Curse of Bigness he argued, "Efficiency means greater production with less effort and at less cost, through the elimination of unnecessary waste, human and material. How else can we hope to attain our social ideals?" He also argued against an appeal to Congress by the state-regulated railroad industry in 1910 seeking an increase in rates. Brandeis explained that instead of passing along increased costs to

25080-479: Was initially shy among fellow students, Hoover won election as student treasurer and became known for his distaste for fraternities and sororities . He served as student manager of both the baseball and football teams , and helped organize the inaugural Big Game versus the University of California . During the summers before and after his senior year, Hoover interned under economic geologist Waldemar Lindgren of

25245-468: Was linked to their output, their productivity would go up. Thus his compensation plans usually included piece rates . In contrast, some later adopters of time and motion studies ignored this aspect and tried to get large productivity gains while passing little or no compensation gains to the workforce, which contributed to resentment against the system. Taylorism led to productivity increases, meaning fewer workers or working hours were needed to produce

25410-462: Was manual at the time; material handling equipment as we know it today was mostly not developed yet. He looked at shoveling in the unloading of railroad cars full of ore ; lifting and carrying in the moving of iron pigs at steel mills; the manual inspection of bearing balls ; and others. He discovered many concepts that were not widely accepted at the time. For example, by observing workers, he decided that labor should include rest breaks so that

25575-462: Was one of the first graduates of the new Stanford University in 1895. Hoover took a position with a London-based mining company working in Australia and China. He rapidly became a wealthy mining engineer. In 1914, the outbreak of World War I , he organized and headed the Commission for Relief in Belgium, an international relief organization that provided food to occupied Belgium . When the U.S. entered

25740-458: Was over 31 years long, one of the longest presidential retirements. He authored numerous works and became increasingly conservative in retirement. He strongly criticized Roosevelt's foreign policy and the New Deal . In the 1940s and 1950s, public opinion of Hoover improved, largely due to his service in various assignments for Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower , including chairing

25905-411: Was passed which prohibited the further use of the stop-watch and the payment of a premium or bonus to workmen in government establishments.       When the federal Commission on Industrial Relations began its work it was decided that a further investigation of "scientific management" should be made, and Mr. Robert F. Hoxie , Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago ,

26070-464: Was raised in Norwich, Ontario , Canada, before moving to Iowa in 1859. Like most other citizens of West Branch, Jesse and Hulda were Quakers . Around age two "Bertie", as he was called during that time, contracted a serious bout of croup , and was momentarily thought to have died until resuscitated by his uncle, John Minthorn. As a young child he was often referred to by his father as "my little stick in

26235-637: Was ridiculed by the extremists in the Communist movement. As ideology and practice, rationalization challenged and transformed not only machines, factories, and vast business enterprises but also the lives of middle-class and working-class Germans. Ideas of Science Management was very popular in the Soviet Union. One of the leading theorists and practitioners of the Scientific Management in Soviet Russia

26400-491: Was selected to undertake the work. [ ... ]       Mr. Hoxie was to devote a year to his investigation, and [ ... ] it was deemed advsiable that he should be accompanied by two men [ ... ]       One of those appointed was Mr. Robert G. Valentine [formerly Commissioner of Indian Affairs, but "at this time a management consultant in private practice" according to Aitken] [ ... ]       The other expert

26565-417: Was strong support for building research universities and schools of business and engineering, municipal research agencies, as well as reform of hospitals and medical schools, and the practice of farming. Perhaps the best known leaders were engineers Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856–1915), who used a stopwatch to identify the smallest inefficiencies, and Frank Bunker Gilbreth Sr. (1868–1924) who proclaimed there

26730-591: Was subject to a great many disturbances. For instance, in the general strike in Philadelphia , one man only went out at the Tabor plant [managed by Taylor], while at the Baldwin Locomotive shops across the street two thousand struck. ...Serious opposition may be said to have been begun in 1911, immediately after certain testimony presented before the Interstate Commerce Commission [by Harrington Emerson] revealed to

26895-452: Was the nation's foremost conservationist, putting the issue high on the national agenda by emphasizing the need to eliminate wasteful uses of limited natural resources. He worked with all the major figures of the movement, especially his chief advisor on the matter, Gifford Pinchot . Roosevelt was deeply committed to conserving natural resources, and is considered to be the nation's first conservation President. In 1908, Roosevelt sponsored

27060-512: Was to be a trade unionist, and I [John P. Frey] was honored with the appointment. The Watertown Arsenal in Massachusetts provides an example of the application and repeal of the Taylor system in the workplace, due to worker opposition. In the early 20th century, neglect in the Watertown shops included overcrowding, dim lighting, lack of tools and equipment, and questionable management strategies in

27225-624: Was too close to British interests. With the goal of encouraging wise business investments, Hoover made the Commerce Department a clearinghouse of information. He recruited numerous academics from various fields and tasked them with publishing reports on different aspects of the economy, including steel production and films. To eliminate waste, he encouraged standardization of products like automobile tires and baby bottle nipples. Other efforts at eliminating waste included reducing labor losses from trade disputes and seasonal fluctuations, reducing industrial losses from accident and injury, and reducing

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