From taylorism to neo-taylorism : a 100 year journey in human resource management

Frederick Winslow Taylor’s “Principles of Scientific Management” revolutionized systems and techniques of personnel organization and management at the beginning of the 20th century when being published in 1911. This volume, as one of his three major works, is likely to be the best known contribution of the American mechanical engineer and economist. The influence of Taylor’s postulates was immediate in mass production both in the USA and around the world. Later on, in the last 100 years his principles have been applied, modified or reviled as well as they have given chance to different alternative schemes fitted to specific circumstances and market requirements, either aiming at their development or substitution. This paper presents an overview of the main prevalent theories in personnel management from Taylorism up to current times, concluding that, far away of being an obsolete and exhausted model, several forms of Neo-Taylorism are nowadays fully in force in productive organizations