Читать книгу Cracking the Leadership Code - Alain Hunkins - Страница 24

In Taylor's system, work was firmly divided between management and labor. Management did all the “thinking” and laborers did all the “labor.” If you were a manager, communication meant telling people what to do.

Moreover, that communication was top-down: no questions asked. After all, in a giant machine, what “parts” ask questions? Telling people what to do became the norm of factory floor communication. The job of the leader was to give orders and maintain order.

Think for yourself? Speak up? Challenge authority? If you were a worker, raising your hand and speaking out might get you killed. Not metaphorically, but literally.

Labor-related violence usually began with workers speaking up and wanting better working conditions. In fact, between 1850 and 1920, in the United States alone, there were at least 74 separate incidents when workers calling for safer conditions were killed by law enforcement officials, members of the company militia, armed detectives, and guards.

In the industrial era, workers were expected to do, not think. They were meant to show up, shut up, and do as they were told. For the jobs at hand, there wasn't much need for analysis and complex problem-solving.

Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company (and one of Taylor's best-known disciples), pioneered the use of the assembly line in the auto industry. His disdain for the aptitude of his workers was quite well known, famously quipping, “Why is it every time I ask for a pair of hands, they come with a brain attached?”

Taylor and his engineering disciples (known as Taylorites) were obsessed with getting workers to do more work in less time. Using stopwatches and some very fuzzy math, they originated what became known as time-motion studies. They believed there was one best way to do things, and management's job was to find it. Once “the way” was found, management's job was simple: command-and-control.