Société, entreprise, individu: la surprenante actualité de la "vision du Monde" de Taylor

Andreu Sole and Bruno Maggi
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Andreu Sole: HEC Paris - Recherche - Hors Laboratoire - HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales
Bruno Maggi: Département de Sciences de la Gestion - UNIBO - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna = University of Bologna

Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: Since we have a tendency to confuse the ideas of Taylor with what is commonly referred to as "taylorism" we often think that the thought of Taylor is outdated. To read the original writings of Taylor the engineer is to discover a strikingly topical "vision of the world": for instance, he postulates that the firm is the fundamental organisation of society, he places the consumer as the leading actor of society, he advocates individualisation approaches against collective bargaining, he calls for democracy and individual taking of initiatives. Taylor designed a utopia which has to be related to the other utopias that have influenced the history of debates concerning the organisation of society and firm, particularly those of Smith, Saint-Simon, and Marx. The "realistic utopia" of Taylor is his way of showing and supporting a global process that started in Europe in the second half of the 18th century at the latest. This study highlights the need, in both teaching and research, to come back to the original texts of great authors and to situate each " vision of the world" in a long term historical perspective.

Keywords: Taylor; "vision of the world"; utopia; organisation; work; firm; individual; society; history; " vision du monde "; utopie; travail; entreprise; individu; société; histoire (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Published in 2007

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