An Institutional Economic Reconstruction of Scientific Management: On the Lost Theoretical Logic of Taylorism

I argue that Taylor was a pioneer in theorizing principles of institutional economics, and I challenge conventional preconceptions that scientific management is theoretically unsophisticated and aimed at disadvantaging certain organization members. I identify in Taylor's writings the institutional economic ideas of dilemmatic interaction conflict regarding capital contributions and capital distributions, conflict resolution through incentives management, mutual gains as the outcome of conflict resolution, and the model of economic man, and I suggest that Taylor's behavioral concept of hearty cooperation deviated from the economic principles he had espoused regarding worker opportunism.