Essay - Critically Evaluate Important: Critically Evaluate the View that 'Taylorism' and...

Critically evaluate

IMPORTANT:

Critically ***** the view that "Taylorism" and "Fordism" have been replaced by "post-Fordism" as the means of organizing work in a capitalist society.

What is 'Fordism'?

***** Ford!" exclaim the characters of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (Huxley, 1988, p. 29). Rather than God, in Huxley's standardized dystopia, Henry Ford is the highest moral p*****nacle to which an individual can aspire. Fordism is perhaps best exemplified in the early model of the Ford Company itself, devoted to mak*****g cars affordable for ordinary Americans, in every color so long as the cus*****mer wanted a car colored black. Because ***** *****, production shifted once and for all from a stress upon ***** craftsmanship to unskilled labor (Brody 1985, p.614). The "systematic deskilling of labor" ***** prioritizing the perfection of processes over teaching workers how to make quality productions became the h*****mark ***** Ford*****m (Foster 1988, p.1). Ford was inspired by the principles of scientific management or ***** maximization of efficiency of worker movement and the conveyor, assembly-line techniques ***** the Chicago meat-packing industry and used these techniques ***** produce automobiles. "Within three months of the introduction of ***** endless-chain conveyor at *****'s Highland Park plant in 1914, the time required to assemble a Model T had dropped ***** one tenth ***** what previously had been necessary" (Foster 1988, p.1)

However, workers often found Fordism dehumanizing—and dull (***** 1988, p.7). Frustrated by their lack of investment in the productive process, workers began to leave Ford's factories in droves. A devout adherent to ***** idea that profits were linked ***** high levels of output and a strong opponent ***** unionization, Ford decided to pay his workers a then-princely sum of $5.00 a day, if they remained and did not unionize. ********** generosity generated much positive publicity for the ***** Mo*****r Company. Ford's believed that his high wages should be adopted by all industries. "Mass production, Ford said, requires mass con*****ption, ***** means [requires] higher wages" for workers to buy goods ***** services (Foster, citing Wood, 1988, p.1).

Fordism, although it paid well, did not necessarily encourage social mobility. It actively discouraged class solidarity in the form of unionization. Also, Ford's organization was quite hierarchical—his own son assumed leadership ***** the company after his father's demise. Fordism ***** not teach workers skills. Mass ***** enabled unskilled and therefore cheaper workers to man *****. Workers ***** as interchangeable as the parts they were assembling, rather than masters ***** a skill and producers of a product that was uniquely 'theirs.' They were easily replaceable, ***** could ***** easily eliminated if de*****d ***** sharply.

Ford used his high wage scale to justify ***** requirement that the workers standardize their behavior outside ***** the factory, monitoring even the friends of his employee's children. "In this way, ***** legendary $5 ***** which had made Ford a national hero, became a means ***** human engineering, allowing the employer to determine not only the production conditions within the factory to the minutest detail, but also ***** conditions under which