Toggling with Taylor: A Different Approach to Reading a Management Text*

Nanette Monin, David Barry and D. John Monin

Journal of Management Studies, 2003, vol. 40, issue 2, 377-401

Abstract: ABSTRACT This paper identifies influential, but previously unrecognized, subtexts in the writings of Frederick Winslow Taylor. Working with analytical methods developed from reader‐response theories of literary criticism, we look at the words of the text as we share the standard meaning‐making of the management community, as well as through the words of the text searching out the worldview that emerges from our particular reading of the subtext. We have described our approach to reading as ‘toggling’: that is, switching between reading text ‘rhetorically’ and reading it ‘philosophically’. We conclude that reader identification with textual voices may appear in philosophical as well as rhetorical reading outcomes – that Taylor's text may inveigle readers into accepting a moral worldview wrapped up in a seemingly rational argument – and that ‘toggling’ would empower management theory readers.

Date: 2003
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:40:y:2003:i:2:p:377-401

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