An analysis of 'bloody Taylorism'

Foxconn Technology Group has so far become one of the largest and most profitability manufacturers in the electronic industry, which produces almost 40 % of the electronics items in the world. However, it attracted considerable public attention not for its high efficiency of the production process and good quality products, but due to a series of suicides in 2010 in the China, leading to an international outcry. Since then, an increasing number of scholars began to doubt the applicability of the management mode that is known as the scientific management by the upper level of managers, adopted by Foxconn. Taylor (2004) believes that the fundamental purpose of scientific management is to seek maximum labour productivity, and the highest working efficiency is by the common prosperity of employers and employees. Therefore, the most important means to achieve the highest efficiency is to use scientific, standardised management methods instead of experience management. This essay is to argue that the although Taylorism can be used to partly explain the management practices and working conditions of Foxconn in China, it still has some disadvantages and needs to combine with other theories, such as organisational culture.