From Taylorism to post‐Taylorism: Simultaneously pursuing several management objectives

Taylorism is well known, for the organizational techniques that it implements. Post‐Taylorism innovates with news ways of working but its initiatives, in many ways, resemble its predecessor. One may argue that these organizational techniques are inconsistent with corporate objectives. Over and above the simple aim of maximizing profit, the Taylorian enterprise works to produce more goods at low cost. In the post‐Taylorism enterprise, the objective of efficiency is complemented by those of short delivery times, quality, diversity and flexibility. In order to attain these new objectives, and still remain coherent with previous ones, enterprises have developed new techniques: just‐in‐time production, business process re‐engineering, call centers, simultaneous engineering, and asynchronous teamwork across networks. According to the hypothesis put forward, post‐Taylorism adds new objectives to Taylorism. The strength of today’s reorganizations lies in attaining these objectives simultaneously. The consequences for people, however, in terms of their relationship with work, do not necessarily change.