ABSTRACT
This chapter celebrates Lillian Moller Gilbreth’s pioneering, foundational contributions to management theory and practice. It examines how her psychological perspective contributed to a humanisation of Taylorism, alongside a concern for the conditions and experience of workers which preempted the human relations movement. The chapter focuses on the impact that her work had specifically on women’s lives in the workplace and beyond. The Gilbreths’ motion study work is generally identified within the scientific management tradition; indeed, they were early followers of Taylor, becoming “preachers” of his “gospel of industrial efficiency”. It also examines her consultancy in Macy’s department stores; her application of scientific data to women’s labour policy development and her market research into women as consumers. In articulating the value of human life and relations, Gilbreth emphasised the importance of worker communication and co-operation and a clean working environment, with this “industrial betterment” extending to restrooms and the provision of reading ma.
