At the start of the 20th century, work, employment, and wage-earning emerged as distinct statuses. This development can be attributed to the rise of factories, the organization of work into sectors, and the recognition of trade unions in the 19th century.
Before this, work was often carried out on a sporadic or seasonal basis by individuals who had lost their land rights or could not achieve the status of a master craftsman. Wage labor resembled the labor of newly emancipated slaves, who, despite being considered free, remained in a state of poverty. The only difference was that they now had to pay for housing.
Over time, labor became increasingly organized, leading to the establishment of salaried workers' rights. For instance, France granted the right to strike in 1864. In the United States, progress followed a different path, but certain corporations still asserted their demands with determination.
In response, Frederick Winslow Taylor introduced scientific management, which depersonalized work and transformed workers into replaceable components of a production chain. Adam Smith, Charles Babbage, and Émile Durkheim had already discussed this division of labor, but Taylorism took it to an extreme level of routinization.
Taylor's book, The Principles of Scientific Management, was published in 1911 and later translated into French. This approach to work organization influenced Henri Fayol, a business management pioneer in France.
This era prioritized extreme rationality in work, intending to prevent workers from making mistakes by discouraging independent thinking. Mechanization, automation, and proceduralization were promoted.
Taylor emphasized the moral aspect of his method, claiming that it offered opportunities to even the least educated individuals as long as they dedicated themselves to their work. This notion of meritocracy can be seen as hypocritical.
We often overlook the contributions of Mary Parker Follet, who had an innovative approach to work organization and management.
Her management philosophy went against the ideas of Taylor and Fayol. She believed managers should have a social and humane connection with their teams, aiming for a fair and balanced relationship between the company and its employees. This laid the foundation for the concept of shared leadership, where leaders are an integral part of the team and share the same duties and obligations.
In 1918, she published "The New State, group organization, the solution of popular government." Unfortunately, books on leadership and motivation don't give it the recognition it deserves.
On the other hand, George Elton Mayo and his famous Hawthorne experiment receive much more attention, leading to his human relations theory.
However, the Hawthorne experiment had its limitations. It was conducted with a very small number of participants (maximum of 10 workers in the tested team, for just two experiments), and the results were highly inconclusive. It is worth noting that observing a group can impact the group itself. Mayo was right, but for the wrong reasons. 1
Elton Mayo's conclusions are questionable in terms of methodology, and he is not the only one. Nonetheless, his conclusion remains valid. For the first time, we hear a voice that challenges Taylorism, mechanical labor, and the devaluation of workers. Unfortunately, Mary Parker Follet's voice did not carry as far.
But not everyone is fortunate enough to teach at Harvard.
Starting in 1939, Kurt Lewin focused on group dynamics. Also a Harvard professor and representative of the school of human relations that emerged from Elton Mayo's work, he emphasized the impact of influences on choices and decisions within a cooperative group.
He conducted experiments with autonomous teams that were assigned objectives but had the freedom to organize themselves. These teams were able to achieve 20% more productivity compared to teams working under Taylorian conditions.
In the 1950s, Chris Argyris, who had attended Lewin's courses at Harvard, delved into performance factors. Based on his experiences, he concluded that developing individual skills was the key to success. He emphasized the importance of hierarchical trust and informed employees about the company's economic interests.
In the 1960s, Rensis Likert defined a four-level authoritarian versus participative management scale.
Robert Blake and Jane Mouton adapted this scale in 1964 into a two-dimensional managerial grid, assessing the degree of interest in results and production and the degree of interest in human relations. They labeled this leadership style as democratic leadership.
However, the term "democratic" can be problematic. If a company only caters to the demands of a few, it cannot be considered a true democracy. It is more aptly described as a "democrature."
Regardless of the terminology used, this marked the beginning of an evolution in managerial language that continues to be popular: intuitive leader, alpha leader, servant leader, happiness manager, and so on.
Before her untimely death in 1971, Joan Woodward published "Industrial Organisation: Behaviour and Control." In this work, she emphasized that the "one best way" advocated by Taylor did not exist.
She proposed the theory of structural contingency, which establishes a connection between an organization's structure and the technology it employs. The theory attempts to demonstrate that companies using the same technology tend to have similar structures.
Tom Burns and George Stalker expanded on this theory, asserting that the most efficient companies are those capable of rapidly adapting to the constraints of their environment, ensuring their survival.
During the 30 years from 1945 to 1975, known as the "glorious" years, wage conditions were highly regulated. However, despite France experiencing remarkable economic growth during this period, wage inequalities increased significantly.
One of the main demands of the 1968 protests was an increase in the minimum wage to help reduce these inequalities.
In the 1960s, women demanded an end to gender-based division of labor. This division, which has always existed, perpetuated stereotypes about certain jobs being suitable for women and others for men. Women working in factories were often assigned repetitive and monotonous tasks. Furthermore, this discrimination resulted in significant pay disparities between men and women performing the same work, considering that for women, work was often seen as a secondary occupation to their primary role of managing the household.
The events of May 1968 also allowed women to seek liberation from their work and demand "equal pay for equal work". However, it is essential to acknowledge that gender-based divisions in work and pay still exist today.
"We Want Sex Equality" is a documentary released in 2010 that focuses on the 1968 strike by female workers at Ford's Dagenham car plant near London and the subsequent negotiations that resulted in achieving complete wage equality between men and women.
In 1966, near Liège in Belgium, a strike led by women workers at FN Herstal demanded equal pay for men. This strike lasted twelve weeks and significantly impacted the issue of equal pay and the evolution of women's position in Belgian society.
Fanny Gallot emphasizes that achieving professional equality is more than just about equal pay. Women should have the same opportunities to access managerial positions as men.
The 1980s marked the end of the "glorious" years. The rise of neoliberalism, championed by leaders like Reagan and Thatcher and influenced by Friedrich Hayek's ideas, particularly those supported by Milton Friedman, led to a reduction in state aid and opened the door to various financial risks. This neoliberalism, depicted in films like "The Wolf of Wall Street," eventually contributed to the subprime crisis in 2008.
But who is the society? There's no such thing! There are men and women and families, and no government can do anything except through people. But people look after themselves first (...) People think too much about their rights without thinking about their obligations. But you can't have a right unless someone else has fulfilled an obligation. I think one of the tragedies of our times is that some people manipulate the system of benefits we pay - benefits that were imagined to reassure people that if they were ill, a safety net would be in place to help them - and (...) say to themselves: "But what's the point of working? I earn just as much on the dole! But this "unemployment" is paid for by your neighbor. - Margaret Thatcher (1987) 2
In France, this entrepreneurial spirit was cultivated during the leadership of Bernard Tapie, who was cynical enough to run as a socialist under the presidency of François Mitterrand.
This marked the beginning of valuing workers as heroes, as invincible conquerors. The message was to push oneself further and aim higher constantly.
This narrative is reflected in the autobiographical story of Chris Gardner in "The Pursuit of Happyness", released in 2006.
The same atmosphere can be observed in films and cartoons that promote superpowers and individual heroism.
However, assembly-line work still exists. Some argue that it should be outsourced to Asia, while others believe it should be made more appealing and visually attractive through atmospheric effects and beautiful costumes.