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[NOTE: I've posted this book review because of the occasional interest  
showed in Taylor's work. -- RBE] 
 
EH-NET BOOK REVIEW 
Published by [log in to unmask] (November, 1997) 
 
Robert Kanigel.  _The One Best Way:  Frederick Winslow Taylor and the 
Enigma of Efficiency_.  The Sloan Technology Series.  New York:  Viking 
Books, 1997.  676 pp.  Bibliography and index.  $34.95 (cloth), ISBN 
0-670-86402-1.  
 
Reviewed for H-Business by Hindy Lauer Schachter 
<[log in to unmask]>, New Jersey Institute of Technology 
 
                   The Controversy Continues 
 
This book is the most important trade biography of Taylor since Frank 
Copley's 1923 book, _Frederick W. Taylor:  Father of Scientific 
Management_.  The volume is a welcome addition to the literature.  It 
offers many vignettes from Taylor's childhood, school life and 
professional career.  
 
Widely known as the father of scientific management, Frederick Taylor 
(1856-1915) was a controversial figure in his own time. Old-line business 
managers and labor leaders castigated his appraoch to creating a work 
science.  More innovative managers and Progressive political figures 
embraced his attempts to use experimentation and planning to create more 
efficient workplaces.  
 
Were Taylor and Taylorism good for workers?  The controversy continues in 
current business and public-administration literatures.  Scholars debate 
whether Taylor was an authoritarian or one who elevated knowledge above 
hierarchy.  They argue whether he fostered the use of money as sole 
motivator or whether he pioneered the use of noneconomic rewards such as 
feedback.  A good discussion of these issues appears in the first essay of 
Daniel Nelson's collection, _A Mental Revolution:  Scientific Management 
since Taylor_, published by Ohio State University Press in 1992.  
 
A biography could offer further evidence of where the man stood on these 
issues--although a person as active and prolific as Taylor left ample 
evidence to support multiple views.  Kanigel, however, offers statements 
that are inappropriate for readers familiar with the existence of 
controversy in interpreting Taylor.  On page two he speaks of Taylor and 
says that "In workplaces run in obedience to his design, authority flowed 
implacably down from the top."  But that is not a point that can be simply 
asserted!  In actuality, scholars argue whether this was so or whether 
Taylor privileged knowledge over hierarchy.  
 
Kanigel also talks down to his readers.  On page 189, he relates how a 
young Taylor performed a piece with the line "A warrior bold, with spurs of 
gold, Sang merrily his lay..."  Kanigel then explains that a lay is "just a 
poem or song."  Does he think his audience needs to be told that? He 
assumes his audience knows less about many things than they actually do. 
 
Copyright (c) 1997 by EH.Net and H-Net, all rights reserved.  This work may 
be copied for non-profit educational use if proper credit is given to the 
author and the list.  For other permission, please contact 
[log in to unmask] (Robert Whaples, Book Review Editor, EH.Net. 
Telephone: 910-758-4916. Fax: 910-758-6028.) 
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