ABSTRACT
The idea of rationalizing the industrial activity and founding the administration of economic units on the basis of scientific knowledge reached with Frederick W. Taylor its culminating point, although certainly Saint-Simonian humanism was alien to him. The notion of a ‘mental revolution’ is what, in essence, defined scientific management, according to Taylor himself. The acceptance of ‘scientific management’, the name he later gave to his approach, grew remarkably as the industrial betterment managerial ideology lost its dominance. The story of Schmidt, narrated by Taylor in Principles of Scientific Management, well illustrates this point, constituting a paradigmatic example of his method in action. Taylor criticized the ‘old management methods’ that based their success on obtaining the workers’ initiative, something that according to him was rarely possible due a ‘natural tendency to idleness’ on their part. The ideological success of Taylorism surpassed its real practical application.
