The ‘problem’ of the office: Scientific management, governmentality and the strategy of efficiency

Abstract

The office is a ubiquitous feature of daily life. This paper examines a particularly important period in its history: the early decades of the twentieth century. Our contemporary conceptions of the routines conducted within this organizational form, or indeed the structure of the space which houses it, were significantly shaped during this era. Within this time frame, we witness the rise of the office skyscraper alongside the systematisation and rationalisation of office tasks. Drawing upon the instructional office manuals of the age, this paper seeks to provide a comprehensive review of the detailed dictates associated with the application of science and system to administrative routines. Further, by adopting a governmentality framework, the paper presents an alternative account of this significant period of historical transformation. Govermentality sets the initiatives of the individual office worker within the broader context of a national programme of efficiency. It links the actions of private enterprises with the priorities of the state. Such insights, we believe, shed further light on the forces which shape organizational strategy making and hence suggest the importance of a historically situated approach to understanding the concept of strategy.

Keywords::

• Foucault
• governmentality
• office
• scientific management
• skyscraper
• strategy

Notes

^1.Letkemann, “Learning and Knowledge.”

^2.Hochschild, The Commercialization.

^3.The Office was a comedy television show which first originated in Britain in 2001. It has subsequently been re-made on an international basis.

^4.Weber, Economy and Society.

^5.Du Gay, In Praise of Bureaucracy, 9.

^6.Chandler, The Visible Hand.

^7.Quail, “Becoming Fully Functional,” 129; Strom, “Light Manufacturing,” 63.

^8.Cooper and Taylor, “From Taylorism to Ms Taylor”; Davies, Woman's Place.

^9.Asch, The Office; Baldwin, The Office Wife.

^10.Braverman, Labour and Monopoly Capital;Howard, Brave New Workplace.

^11.Haber, Efficiency and Uplift;Urwick, The Making of Scientific Management;Wren, The Evolution of Management; Daito, “Railways and Scientific Management”; Hearn, “Productivity and Patriotism”; Rowlinson, “The Early Application.”

^12.Yates, Control Through Communication; De Wit and Van Den Ende, “The Emergence.”

^13. Chandler, The Visible Hand;Strom, Beyond the Typewriter, 3.

^14.Mckinlay et al., “Using Foucault.”

^15.Carter et al., “Strategy As Practice?”; Carter et al., “SAP – Zapping the Field”; Carter et al., “Re-Framing Strategy.”

^16.Grant, “Corporate Strategy.”

^17.Toms and Wright, “Corporate Governance”; Abernethy and Guthrie, “An Empirical Assessment.”

^18.Parker and Ritson, “Accounting's Latent Classicism.”

^19.Ford, Cities and Buildings, 24.

^20. Ibid.

^21.Roth, American Architecture, 268.

^22.Sullivan, “The Tall Office Building,” 403.

^23.Gelernter, History of American Architecture, 205; Roth, American Architecture, 268.

^24. Gelernter, History of American Architecture, 156; Ford, Cities and Buildings, 21.

^25. Ford, Cities and Buildings, 31.

^26.Kidney, The Architecture of Choice, 36.

^27. Ford, Cities and Buildings, 32.

^28. Roth, American Architecture, 268.

^29. Ibid., 370.

^30. Ford, Cities and Buildings, 40.

^31. Kidney, The Architecture of Choice.

^32. Gelernter, History of American Architecture, 242, 206.

^33.Guillén, The Taylorized Beauty.

^34. Roth, American Architecture, 268.

^35.Whiffen and Koeper, American Architecture, 239.

^36. Ford, Cities and Buildings, 30.

^37.Baldry, “The Social Construction,” 365.

^38. Roth, American Architecture, 285.

^39. Gelernter, History of American Architecture, 206; Whiffen and Koeper, American Architecture, 267.

^40. Ford, Cities and Buildings, 30.

^41. Ibid., 39.

^42. Gelernter, History of American Architecture, 242.

^43. Roth, American Architecture, 377.

^44. Ford, Cities and Buildings, 39.

^45.Litterer, “Systematic Management: the Search,” 474.

^46.Litterer, “Systematic Management: Design,” 370.

^47. Davies, Woman's Place, 100.

^48. Litterer, “Systematic Management: the Search,” 474.

^49. Yates, Control Through Communication, 10–11.

^50.Taylor, The Principles.

^51. De Wit and Van Den Ende, “The Emergence,” 89; Yates, Control Through Communication, 10.

^52. Yates, Control Through Communication, 10.

^53. Ibid., 15.

^54.Giedion, Mechanisation Takes Command.

^55.Mckinlay and Wilson, “All They Lose,” 52.

^56. Strom, Beyond the Typewriter, 3.

^57. De Wit and Van Den Ende, “The Emergence,” 90.

^58.Cyclopedia of Commerce.

^59.Dicksee and Blain, Office Organisation and Management (1906), 1; Philip, An Office Companion, 1.

^60.Turner, An Introduction, 1.

^61.Leffingwell, Scientific Office Management.

^62. Ibid., Vi.

^63.Frederick, “Standards for the Office,” 85.

^64.Leffingwell, Office Management Principles, 54.

^65.Galloway, Office Management, V;Jackson, Labour-Saving Office Appliances, Vi.

^66.Lloyd, The Technique, 2; Turner, An Introduction, 1; Mcgill, Office Practice and Business, 1.

^67. Leffingwell, Office Management Principles, Vii.

^68. Ibid., 4.

^69. Galloway, Office Management, Viii.

^70. Jackson, Labour-Saving Office Appliances, V.

^71. Turner, An Introduction, 1; Leffingwell, Office Management Principles, 831.

^72. Frederick, “Standards for the Office,” 85.

^73.Sharles, Business Building, 542.

^74.Campbell, Office Practice, 15.

^75. Leffingwell, Office Management Principles, 79; Frederick, “Standards for the Office,” 85.

^76. Leffingwell, Office Management Principles, 53.

^77.Foucault, Discipline and Punish; Frederick, “Standards for the Office,” 85.

^78. Leffingwell, Scientific Office Management, 27.

^79. Turner, An Introduction, 9–10.

^80. Lloyd, The Technique, 7.

^81. Leffingwell, Office Management Principles, 82.

^82. Ibid., 827.

^83. Turner, An Introduction, 45–47; Leffingwell, Scientific Office Management, 214.

^84. Philip, An Office Companion, 1.

^85. Galloway, Office Management, 160; Leffingwell, Office Management Principles, 824.

^86. Galloway, Office Management, 137; Leffingwell, Office Management Principles and Practice, 19.

^87. Turner, An Introduction, 59.

^88. Leffingwell, Office Management Principles, 33.

^89. Ibid., 45.

^90. Ibid., 825.

^91. Dicksee and Blain, Office Organisation and Management (1906), 14.

^92.Dicksee, Office Machinery and Appliances, 146.

^93. Jackson, Labour-Saving Office Appliances, 74.

^94. Campbell, Office Practice, 12.

^95. Sharles, Business Building, 485.

^96. Baldry, “The Social Construction,” 369.

^97.Martin, The Organizational Complex, 87.

^98. Dicksee, Office Machinery and Appliances, 149.

^99. Galloway, Office Management, 63.

^100. Galloway, Office Management, 69; Lloyd, The Technique, 40.

^101. Mcgill, Office Practice and Business, 4; Leffingwell, Scientific Office Management, 207.

^102. Dicksee, Office Machinery and Appliances, 134; Jackson, Labour-Saving Office Appliances, 68.

^103. Galloway, Office Management, 89.

^104. Ibid., 90.

^105. Dicksee and Blain, Office Organisation and Management (1906), 17.

^106. Leffingwell, Scientific Office Management, 208.

^107. Ibid.

^108. Lloyd, The Technique, 41.

^109. Leffingwell, Scientific Office Management, 14, 130.

^110. Advertisement within Dicksee and Blain, Office Organisation and Management (1916).

^111. Sharles, Business Building; Leffingwell, Office Management Principles.

^112. Ford, Cities and Buildings, 20.

^113. Dicksee and Blain, Office Organisation and Management (1906), 16.

^114. Leffingwell, Office Management Principles, 139.

^115. Jackson, Labour-Saving Office Appliances, 74.

^116. Campbell, Office Practice, 42

^117.Milne, “British Business.”

^118. Dicksee, Office Machinery and Appliances, 152.

^119.Foster, Modern Office Machinery, 32; Dicksee, Office Machinery and Appliances, 152.

^120. Strom, “Light Manufacturing”; Yates, Control Through Communication.

^121. Strom, “Light Manufacturing,” 56.

^122. Ibid., 59.

^123. Dicksee, Office Machinery and Appliances; Foster, Modern Office Machinery; Jackson, Labour-Saving Office Appliances.

^124. Foster, Modern Office Machinery, 8.

^125. Jackson, Labour-Saving Office Appliances, V–Vi.

^126. Foster, Modern Office Machinery.

^127. Ibid., 31, 85, 96, 70.

^128. Foster, Modern Office Machinery, 1; Ford, Cities and Buildings, 25.

^129. Galloway, Office Management, 191.

^130. Mcgill, Office Practice and Business, 137.

^131. Leffingwell, Scientific Office Management, 131.

^132. Ibid., 130.

^133. Campbell, Office Practice, 50.

^134. Leffingwell, Scientific Office Management, 130.

^135. Galloway, Office Management, 243.

^136. Ibid.

^137.Lowe, “Women,” 377.

^138. Lloyd, The Technique, 3.

^139. Davies, Woman's Place; Strom, “Light Manufacturing”; Strom, Beyond the Typewriter.

^140. Cooper and Taylor, “From Taylorism to Ms Taylor”; Lowe, “Women,” 378.

^141. Galloway, Office Management, 124–5.

^142. Turner, An Introduction, 17, 33.

^143. Jackson, Labour-Saving Office Appliances, 109, 133.

^144. Turner, An Introduction, 57.

^145. Leffingwell, Office Management Principles, 30.

^146. Litterer, “Systematic Management,” 474; Quail, “Becoming Fully Functional,” 130.

^147.Kipping, “Consultancies,” 67.

^148. Cyclopedia of Commerce, 11.

^149. Leffingwell, Office Management Principles, 101; Turner, An Introduction, 7.

^150. Lloyd, The Technique, Foreword.

^151. Leffingwell, Office Management Principles, 101.

^152. Lloyd, The Technique, 5.

^153. Lloyd, The Technique, 1; Turner, An Introduction, 6.

^154. Lloyd, The Technique, 6.

^155.Divall, “Technological Networks.”

^156. Cooper and Taylor, “From Taylorism to Ms Taylor,” 564.

^157. Leffingwell, Office Management Principles, 832–33.

^158.Foucault, “On Governmentality.”

^159.Rose and Miller, “Political Power,” 173.

^160. Ibid., 181.

^161. Ibid., 175.

^162. Ibid.

^163. Ibid.

^164. Ibid., 182.

^165.Miller and Rose “Governing Economic Life,” 7.

^166. Rose and Miller, “Political Power,” 175.

^167. Ibid., 183.

^168. Miller and Rose “Governing Economic Life,” 32.

^169. Rose and Miller, “Political Power,” 187.

^170. Ibid., 189.

^171.Latour, “The Powers of Association”; Latour, Science in Action;Callon, “Some Elements.”

^172. Rose and Miller, “Political Power,” 184.

^173. Ibid.

^174.Tomlinson, Government and the Enterprise.

^175.Yates, Bureaucratic Democracy;March and Olson, “Organizing Political Life.”

^176.Norton et al., A People;Danzer, The Americans;Kurunmaki and Miller, “Calculating Failure.”

^177.Jeacle and Walsh, “From Moral Evaluation.”

^178. Rose and Miller, “Political Power,” 184.

^179. See, for example, the discussion on national efficiency in Miller and O'Leary, “Accounting and the Construction”; 244–50.

^180. Rose and Miller, “Political Power,” 187.

^181.Mckinlay et al., “Governmentality, Power and Organization,” 13.

^182. Ibid., 10.

^183.Whittington, “Strategy as Practice”; Whittington, “Completing the Practice Turn.”

^184. Carter et al., “Strategy as Practice?”; Carter et al., “SAP – Zapping the Field.”

^185. Carter et al., “SAP – Zapping the Field”; Carter et al., “Re-Framing Strategy.”

^186. Carter et al., “Re-Framing Strategy”; Ezzamel and Willmott, “Strategy as Discourse”; Ezzamel and Willmott, “Strategy and Strategizing”; Mckinlay, “Using Foucault.”

^187. Mckinlay, “Using Foucault,” 1012.

^188. Ibid., 1024.

^189. Ibid., 1025.

^190. Ibid., 1021.

^191. Ibid., 1026.

^192. Ibid., 1012.

^193.Porter, The Competitive Advantage.

^194.Kornberger and Clegg, “Bringing Space Back in.”

^195. See Rosen et al., “Building Buildings.”

^196.Guillén, “Scientific Management's Lost Aesthetic.”

^197. Weber, Economy and Society; Becker, Art Worlds;Hatch, “The Symbolics”; Joroff et al., “The Agile Workplace”; Kornberger and Clegg, “Bringing Space Back in.”

^198.Black, “The Function of Design”; Nutt, “The Strategic Design.”

^199.Parker and Ritson, “Rage, Rage.”

^200. Mckinlay, “Using Foucault.”

^201.Healey, “The Treatment of Space.”

^202.Fitzroy and Hulbert, Strategic Management.

^203.Doz and Prahalad, “Headquarters Influence”; Chung et al., “The Influence.”

^204. Chung et al., “The Influence.”

^205.Chandler, Strategy and Structure.

^206. See Parker and Ritson, “Revisiting Fayol”; Parker and Ritson, “Accounting's Latent Classicism”; Parker and Ritson, “Rage, Rage.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ingrid Jeacle

Ingrid Jeacle is Professor of Accounting and Popular Culture at the University of Edinburgh Business School, UK.

Lee Parker

Lee Parker is Professor of Accounting at the School of Commerce, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.