Scientific management and market stabilisation, 1914 - 1930

This paper examines the contribution made by the scientific management movement to the stabilisation of production and employment in the United States in the years 1914-1930. By focusing on the debates in the official journal of the Taylor Society, the paper is able to sketch the manner by which the ideas of the Taylorists evolved throughout this period. Beginning by concentrating on the development of stabilisation practices at the workshop level, it is shown that the scientific managers came to focus, in time, on the whole firm and eventually became convinced that an effective stabilisation strategy must embrace all levels of the economic environment.