Mary van Kleeck, Taylorism and the control of management knowledge

Abstract

PurposeMotivated by the call of the Congress for Industrial Organizations (CIO) for greater labour involvement in management (a call informed by the principles of the Taylor Society), US business launched a crusade in 1944 under the banner, “The Right to Manage”. The purpose of this paper is to extend earlier explorations of the ideas that inspired the leaders of the CIO.Design/methodology/approachThrough examining the work of the neglected feminist, and labour and social activist, Mary van Kleeck, the paper shows how the ideas concerning the democratisation of management, and the determination of decision making by knowledge, not profit, evolved into Taylorism's principal tenets.FindingsThe paper finds that an analysis of Mary van Kleeck's work helps explain why many of the ideas that prevailed among inter‐war Taylor Society members deeply disturbed employers, while concomitantly enthusing the CIO.Originality/valueThis paper redresses the view of scientific management's history that misleadingly stresses the initial hostility between Taylor's circle and organised labour, which has become entrenched in management folklore and accepted as axiomatic within the discipline, while ignoring the subsequent commitment of Taylor and the Taylor Society to management democratisation.

On the value of management history

“…This crusade continued into the 1950s where, in 1953, the 70 year-old van Kleeck was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and accused of being a Communist Party member and an agent of the USSR (Nyland and Heenan, 2005). Like Follett before her (see Parker and Ritson, 2005), subsequent acknowledgment of van Kleeck's contribution is not well-known, being confined to histories of feminism, social welfare, and labor.…”

“…Born in 1883, she died at Woodstock, New York, in 1972, a unknown in her own profession (given that she was 89 years of age, she did not, as suggested by one young listener to the conference paper on which this article was based, die at the "3 days of peace and music" that, in any event, took place in 1969). Nyland and Heenan (2005) trace the development of van Kleeck's ideas and her influence on and in the Taylor Society in the USA in the period between the world wars. They point to the impact on the Taylor Society in general, and van Kleeck in particular, of "The Right to Manage" crusade launched by American business in 1944 against the call of the Congress for Industrial Organizations (CIO) for greater labour involvement in management.…”

“…It behoves us then to not only seek out all the voices, but also to be clear about the criteria we use to judge their veracity. Perhaps it also behoves us to seek not to "own" the voices but, rather, in the footsteps of van Kleeck, to democratise that knowledge, making the facts known to all (Nyland and Heenan, 2005).…”

“…Like Follett before her (see Parker and Ritson, 2005), subsequent acknowledgment of van Kleeck's contribution is not well-known, being confined to histories of feminism, social welfare, and labor. Perhaps Nyland and Heenan (2005) are in the vanguard of a new movement to recognise the work of van Kleeck and "the many other Taylor Society members who sought to promote the democratisation of management by promoting the diffusion of control over management knowledge amongst the widest possible body of stakeholders".…”

“…There are also writers whose ideas are not widely explored or known, and even ignored (see, for example, Dye et al (2005);and Nyland and Heenan (2005), both in this issue). Accordingly, the history of management ideas that are proffered in the various management/business tomes (with worthy exceptions such as Wren, 2004) are not only sparse, but also patchy and, ultimately, unbalanced.…”