Please note: due to both technical and copyright reasons, we cannot post on the web the reading packet which accompanies this assignment – you will need to pick it up from Dr. Bix if you don’t have it!
HISTORY 488 - Writing assignment #2
Your job is to start by re-reading carefully the sections
in Technology
in America and in Meyer’s Five Dollar Day referring to
Frederick Winslow Taylor and scientific management. Next, read the articles
handed out with this assignment. Now, integrate what you have learned - write a
four-to-six-page paper (double-spaced) discussing the following questions:
What was Frederick Winslow
Taylor’s approach to giving management control over workers and the work
process; what did the process of implementing “scientific
management”
involve? What was Taylor’s
philosophy of working; how did he define the relative roles of labor and
management? What assumptions did
he make in his theory? How did he
define his vision of “systemizing”? How “scientific” really was scientific
management? Why were
Taylor’s
ideas so enthusiastically adopted by some business owners and other advocates;
what was the appeal and promise of scientific management? Given Taylor’s insistence that
his approach would improve worker happiness and workplace harmony, why did some
Americans object to scientific management?
Be specific – do not just make broad generalizations!
– you should cite specific passages and evidence from documents to
make your points! (However, do not devote too much space to really long
quotes that eat up most of a page – leave room to put in your own ideas
and show critical thinking).
Take time to check your grammar and
spelling; be sure to proofread.
When you take material directly from an article, cite the source in
parentheses
– for example (Taylor, p. 45) – be sure to avoid plagiarism. Points will be deducted for late
papers.