Similarities Between Ford And Taylorism

Taylorism and Fordism were business theories formed by Frederick Taylor and Henry Ford during the early twentieth century respectively. Taylorism, sometimes referred to as scientific management (Ed Clark, 2010), is a “form of job design which stresses short, repetitive work cycles; detailed, prescribed task sequences; a separation of task conception from task execution; and motivation based on economic rewards.” Fordism, a derivative of Taylorism, adopts scientific management principles. It is defined as the “unification of high-volume, high-speed production of a limited range of products using mass production, assembly line technology and unskilled, assembly-line operatives, aimed at a mass consumer market” (Ed Clark, 2010). Both theories

He added and extended Taylorism by increasing division of labour by simplifying the production process further by installing one-purpose machinery to make standard parts. By doing this, Ford sped up the production of cars and made it affordable to middle-class people too. Moreover, he showed that productivity could increase through more capital, higher wages, (by doubling wages to $5.00 which declined labour turnover by 40%), and improving the organisation of production. However, Fordism has been criticized for destroying craftsmanship and deskilling jobs, as well as causing workers’ stress due to the repetitive nature of the jobs.

Taylorism and Fordism similarly shared an economic point of view of employees, who were assumed to only be motivated by financial rewards. Moreover, both theories neglect the psychological and emotional aspect of workers in the workplace which was equally important. Also, they both increased wages in different aspects and allowed for a larger workforce as there wasn’t much skill needed in these jobs. Furthermore, they also provided a way in which management could work in increasing productivity and better laws and regulations to maintain

Taylor advocated for organized work around existing machinery whilst Ford eliminated work with the addition of new machinery. Additionally, the pace of work in Taylorism was set by the employees or the supervisor, but in Fordism it was set by the machinery with the speed of the assembly line. Moreover, the payment methods differed with Taylor utilizing piece rates and Ford using day rates.

The relevance of Taylorism and Fordism remained and their principles were applied to modern day situations. For instance, call centres had workers ‘attached’ to computers and call distribution systems to answer calls every 2-3 minutes to aid consumers of the company. Roughly 150 calls per day would be answered using scripted replies that are monitored by supervisors. In another instance, fast food places such as McDonald’s use standardization principles to mass produce their food by having standard, basic menus, no skill required to make the food and therefore no need for skilled labour such as