... of increasing productivity and thus profit. The main characteristics of this scientific management2 include the divorce of the conceptual from the executable elements of work, separation of direct and indirect labour, the minimisation of skill requirements (and hence job-learning time - Wilson, 1999) and the removal of employee power in decision-making processes. Taylor conducted experiments to identify the optimum way in which to carry out any sub-task. He then made calculations about elements of work such as time, motion and materials and diagnosed what was considered optimum e.g. how fast to walk, how much to carry, how to lift or other such meticulous details may be calculated. In his study he referred to these elements as "merely the...details of the mechanisms of management". At the start of the twentieth century, during the Industrial Revolution, large factories and sweatshops presented the management of the day with a new organisational problem, the scale of ...

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