foreman

[mark.wilcox@homecall.co.uk]

Im not sure whether Dave Carr was trying to be ironic in his recent posting. The notion of employing a shed full of people on the minimuk wage with a better paid supervisor telling them what to do is a classic Taylorist position. I thought Dr Deming was famous for criticising "Western Style" management, much of which emanated from Taylor's concept of the functional foreman.  Taylor's philosophy was premised on a hand-brain distinction, whereby all thinking was removed from the hourly paid workers and placed in the control of managers. Taylor's work gave management a system of control - and Im sure the Japanese success as outlined by Dr Deming, Ishikawa and many others is attributed to a rejection of Taylor's philosophy. Of course it would be a nonesense and anarchic to suggest that we get rid of management structures, but why do we need supervisors if we have well trained and well motivated workers. 
The discussion on this point is quite illuminating vis-as-vis the old chestnut on the DEN 'they just dont get it'- in short its beyond our grasp in the West.
Regards
Mark  

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