According to Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern and Teresa M. Mares’s chapter “Deskilling in the Assembly Line and on the Factory Floor,” scientific management comprises

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Scientific management (Taylorism) deliberately reorganizes work so managers retain the expertise and control while workers perform narrowly defined operations.

1. Relevant knowledge points and concepts
- Scientific management: time-and-motion studies, standardized methods, and task decomposition developed in late 19th/early 20th century to increase productivity.
- Deskilling: reduction of worker skill requirements as complex tasks are broken into simple steps.
- Managerial monopoly of knowledge: separation of planning (management) from execution (labor), where knowledge of processes is codified, routinized, and held by managers or technical manuals.

2. Step-by-step reasoning process
- Identify core elements: scientific management establishes best methods through engineering analysis (time-motion, standard times).
- Translate into control mechanisms: those "best methods" become written procedures and training scripts; workers follow them rather than craft their own methods.
- Resulting power shift: managers and engineers design and control the workflow, maintain the knowledge base, and monitor compliance; workers execute discrete tasks with limited discretion.

3. Intermediate steps / elaboration
- Time-motion studies → identification of "one best way."
- Creation of standard operating procedures → codification of knowledge.
- Training workers to follow procedures and supervision/enforcement → practical removal of tacit skills from workers.
- Division of labor and incentive systems → institutionalize managerial authority.

4. Why the correct answer is correct
The provided answer—“A series of engineering methods intended to establish a managerial monopoly over the knowledge base”—captures both the technical means (engineering methods) and the political effect (managerial monopoly) emphasized by Minkoff-Zern and Mares: scientific management is not neutral efficiency alone but a strategy that centralizes knowledge and power with management, producing deskilling on the shop floor.

5. Why other plausible options are incorrect
- “Simply improving worker welfare” is incorrect because scientific management primarily restructures control and often worsened work conditions.
- “A neutral technical efficiency project” misses the power relationship and intentional centralization of expertise.
- “Worker-led skill enhancement” contradicts the documented outcome of deskilling in assembly-line contexts.

6. Conclusion
Therefore, the correct choice is that scientific management comprises a series of engineering methods intended to establish a managerial monopoly over the knowledge base, which matches the provided answer.

According to Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern and Teresa M. Mares’s chapter “Deskilling in the Assembly Line and on the Factory Floor,” scientific management comprisesSingle choice

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