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Homepage of dr. Hans Pruijt

dr Hans D. Pruijt
Faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen, Sociologie
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam,
PO Box 1738 3000 DR Rotterdam
Burg. Oudlaan 50
Room M6-12
010 408 2071
pruijt@remove-this.fsw.eur.nl

Taylorism vs. Anti-Taylorism
Pruijt, H.(1997) Job Design and Technology. Taylorism vs. Anti-Taylorism, London and New York: Routledge isbn 0-415-15869-9

Short description

Dutch Summary

The Fight Against Taylorism in Europe

Taylorism (keeping conception and execution apart ) is a persistent, underlying principle of many organizations. Many have pointed to drawbacks in terms of flexibility, capacity for innovation, quality, cost and employee wellbeing. There is a countermovement, particularly in North-West Europe where managers and employee representatives, aided by consultants and researchers, pursue viable alternatives.

Job Design and Technology analyzes 150 cases of anti-Taylorist initiatives in Scandinavia, the UK and the Netherlands. A conclusion: it is possible, with monumental effort and ingenuity, to achieve real change in the workplace. However a notable proportion of organizations, even those now known as successful innovators, later regressed to a more Tayloristic manner of working. This book explores various explanations, seeks to draw out the practical lessons.

Multiple Personalities: the Case of Business Process Reengineering

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) seemed anti-Taylorism on steroids. But it is full of tricky contradictions.

Repainting, Modifying, Smashing Taylorism

Taylorism is more resilient than many have expected. It can be flexibly adapted while keeping intact its core attractions, the promise of a “one best way” and a medicine against “systematic soldiering” .

Performance and Quality of Working Life

Many successful authors paint an ideal model in which high performance and the abolishment of Taylorism go hand in hand, and suggest that this is the wave of the future. This is an appealing approach, but there are also some drawbacks: a blind spot for the employment relationship and a tendency to downplay the change efforts required to make the visions a reality.

Teams between Neo-Taylorism and Anti-Taylorism

Is embracing teamworking as practiced in Japanese companies such as Toyota the most viable way to get rid of Taylorism? Or is teamworking just a cheaper, more insidious form of management control? The key to this conundrum is differentiating between types of teamworking.

Links on (anti-)Taylorism

Work, Power and the Economy

Internationale Herstructurering, Baanonzekerheid en Werknemersparticipatie.
Een case uit de chemische industrie.

Arbeid en Macht: Vooruit naar het Verleden?

Internet and Social Capital

Social Capital and the Equalizing Potential of the Internet

The Internet is the social capital of the information society. It also offers a potential for counteracting isolation caused by divide-and-conquer organizational politics. More>>>

Urban Movements

Is the Institutionalization of Urban Movements Inevitable?

A Comparison of the Opportunities for Sustained Squatting in New York City and Amsterdam.Links

The Impact of Citizens' Protest on City Planning in Amsterdam

A relatively successful mobilization.

Squatting in Europe
An analytical overview of squatting in The Netherlands, Germany, the UK and Italy.

Mastering ICT

Programming the Evolution of Cooperation

Since the repeated Prisoner's Dilemma game exhibits a negative relationship between technical complexity and theoretical relevance, it is useful as a case in a social science computing course. More>>>

Other Activities

Sailing