Dictionary

Taylorism en · NOUN

Etymology

From Taylor + -ism.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) The Reformed school of theology developed by Nathaniel William Taylor.
   • In the first half of the 19th century, under the lead of Nathaniel W. Taylor (q.v.) , the Divinity School of Yale became nationally prominent for "Taylorism" or New Haven Theology. 1911, Hugh Chisholm, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, page 900:
   • Rev. Edward Beecher, a strenous advocate of Taylorism, has been equally explicit on this point. 1834, Tyler Thacher, Taylorism Examined: Or a Review of the New Haven Theology, page 83:
   • Taylorism presented two practical difficulties for person who adopted this theology. 1994, Julius H. Rubin, Religious Melancholy and Protestant Experience in America, page 131:
2. (uncountable, usually) Scientific management; a theory of management of the early 20th century that analyzed workflows in order to improve efficiency, originally developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor.
   • Taylorism proved to be more persistent than many had expected. 1997, Hans D. Pruijt, Job Design and Technology: Taylorism Vs. Anti-Taylorism, page 1:
   • One of the ideological supporting pillars of systems thinking in the 1920s had been Lenin's analysis of Taylorism. 1982, Ilmari Susiluoto, The Origins and Development of Systems Thinking in the Soviet Union, page 146:
   • According to Braverman's thesis, Taylorism, or scientific management, has been the key feature in the devaluation and dequalification of work. 2016, Lorraine Giordano, Beyond Taylorism, page 28:
   • The separation of planning and control from work execution is constitutive for Taylorism. 1993, Ulrich Jürgens, Thomas Malsch, Knuth Dohse, Breaking from Taylorism, page 50:
3. (countable, usually) One of the witty, epigrammatic remarks on international relations for which the historian Alan John Percivale Taylor was well-known.
   • The brisk and lively narrative is spiced with Taylorisms: ' Hitler lost , as someone has to do in war, and has therefore been written off as a psychopath'. 1975, British Book News, page 432:
   • What makes Ponsonby significant is that he was one of A.J.P. Taylor's ' troublemakers' whom Taylor credits with all change and advance in history. While some would say that this is a typically large and perverse Taylorism, it is not without an element of truth when applied to the role played by Ponsonby and his fellow troublemakers in the search for a new international order. 1989, Raymond A. Jones, Arthur Ponsonby: The Politics of Life, page Arthur Ponsonby: The Politics of Life:
   • A.J.P. Taylor, The Second World War (Hamish Hamilton 1975), like Jacobsen's book, consists of pictorial history; liberally sprinkled with taylorisms, and not inclined to overstress resistance. 2016, M. R. D. Foot, Resistance: European Resistance to the Nazis, 1940-1945:
   • It is full of what friends of mine at Oxford used to call 'Taylorisms', and as research students there we used to collect them — from his 'except the Italians ' in The Struggle for Mastery to his famous claim at the end of The Origins of the Second World War that Hitler 'became involved in war through launching on 29 August a diplomatic manoeuvre which he ought to have launched on 28 August'. 1983, Peter Quennell, History Today - Volume 33, page 30:

Forms

Relateds

Taylorist · Taylorian

Synonyms

New England theology

Translations (4)

fr taylorisme (scientific management; a theory of management of the early 20th century that analyzed workflows in order to improve efficiency) · pt taylorismo (scientific management; a theory of management of the early 20th century that analyzed workflows in order to improve efficiency) · it taylorismo (scientific management; a theory of management of the early 20th century that analyzed workflows in order to improve efficiency) · fi taylorismi (scientific management; a theory of management of the early 20th century that analyzed workflows in order to improve efficiency)