β[[Scientific management]], for all its pretensions, was less about determining ideal working methods and more about shattering this tremendous source of worker power. By breaking apart each work process into carefully scrutinized component tasks, Taylor had cracked the secret of laborβs advantage, thereby giving management complete mastery over the productive process. The modernizing terminology of βscienceβ and βefficiencyβ masked the prerogatives of discipline and control of workers. In political economist Harry Bravermanβs estimation, βTaylor raised control to an entirely new plane when he asserted as an absolute necessity of adequate management the dictation to the worker of the precise manner in which work is to be performed.β
β Gavin Mueller, Breaking Things at Work
Rendering context...