Twentieth Century Research Paper

The world of work in the twentieth century featured many different methodologies in what has to be considered as a relatively small period of time. The bulk of these methodologies all largely originated in the United States of America before later catching on to businesses and factories in Europe and the wider world. The three work related methods that have to be considered are Taylorism or Scientific management as it can be known, Fordism and lastly post-Fordism. The main points this essay will discuss is what these methodologies actually meant to the world of work in the twentieth century before going on to explore the effect the emergence of these regimes had on the world of work in twentieth century Europe.

Firstly, what is Taylorism and

Fordism continued the method of breaking tasks down to a simpler form used by Taylorism and involved greater focus on the production line by creating a series of steps into making a car which was repetitive for each worker with the core aim of achieving mass production. Fordism was different to Taylorism with regard to the deskilling of tasks and moving them into the assembly line as already mentioned made the workers tasks highly repetitive . This was met with criticism from many including Taylor who compared the assembly line workers to trained monkeys . Although this was not the first time the assembly line type practice was seen, the new organisational development and introduction of a conveyor belt was new which therefore put the pace at which the workers worked in the hands of factory management . This new change was not met with great pleasure from the American workforce, with absenteeism, deterioration of quality, the growth of trade unions just to name a few all causing Ford problems. This led ford to introduce the five dollar day, a scheme where employees would work shorter hours and earn double their daily wage. This would be a benefit all employees would receive if they conformed to strict measures not only in work but also outside of work . So when did this start to affect Europe? The first decade after the First World War saw most of Europe swept off their feet by Fordism. The front runner of this rise in Fordism was the car manufacturing industry, particularly Renault in France and FIAT in Italy. This led to the car manufacturing industry becoming symbolic for its efforts in mass production along with creating a new working class. The difference between Fordism in Europe and America was that with regard to Europe, Fordism was more state led. The government invested heavily in its economies with some governments even taking over key industries.