The Taylor Society was an American society for the discussion and promotion of

scientific management Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engine ...

, named after

Frederick Winslow Taylor Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 – March 21, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer. He was widely known for his methods to improve industrial efficiency. He was one of the first management consultants. In 1909, Taylor summed up ...

. Originally named The Society to Promote The Science of Management, the Taylor Society was initiated in 1911 at the

New York Athletic Club The New York Athletic Club is a private social club and athletic club in New York (state), New York state. Founded in 1868, the club has approximately 8,600 members and two facilities: the City House, located at 180 Central Park South in Manha ...

by followers of Frederick W. Taylor, including Carl G. Barth, Morris Llewellyn Cooke,

James Mapes Dodge James Mapes Dodge (Manhattan, June 30, 1852 – Germantown, Philadelphia, December 4, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer, inventor, industrialist and president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in the year 1903–04. He is know ...

Frank Gilbreth Frank Bunker Gilbreth (July 7, 1868 – June 14, 1924) was an American engineer, consultant, and author known as an early advocate of scientific management and a pioneer of time and motion study, and is perhaps best known as the father and ce ...

, H.K. Hathaway, Robert T. Kent, Conrad Lauer (for Charles Day) and Wilfred Lewis. Moustafa H. Abdelsamad (ed.),
SAM Advanced Management Journal
'' Vol. 53. Nr. 2 Spring 1988. p. 5 In 1925 the Society declared that it 'welcomes to membership all who have become convinced that "the business men of tomorrow must have the engineer-mind".' In 1936 the Taylor Society merged with the Society of Industrial Engineers forming the

Society for Advancement of Management The Society for the Advancement of Management, commonly known as SAM, is the oldest among professional management societies. On November 11, 1910 colleagues of Frederick W. Taylor met at the New York Athletic Club to discuss and promote the princ ...

Key figures and membership

At the entry of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

into

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

in 1917, the Society's membership numbered around 100. Prominent interwar members included Henri Le Châtelier, Richard A. Feiss,

Henry Gantt Henry Laurence Gantt (; May 20, 1861 – November 23, 1919) was an American mechanical engineer and management consultant who is best known for his work in the development of scientific management. He created the Gantt chart in the 1910s. Gan ...

Lillian Gilbreth Lillian Evelyn Gilbreth (; May 24, 1878 – January 2, 1972) was an American psychologist, industrial engineer, consultant, and educator who was an early pioneer in applying psychology to time-and-motion studies. She was described in the 1940s as ...

, Mary van Kleeck,

William Leffingwell William Henry Leffingwell (June 4, 1876 – December 19, 1934) was an American organizational theorist, president of W. H. Leffingwell, Inc., New Jersey, management author, and the founder of National Office Management Association. Leffingwell was ...

, Harlow S. Person,

Hans Renold Hans Renold (31 July 1852 - 2 May 1943) was a Swiss/British engineer, inventor and industrialist in Britain, who founded the Renold manufacturing textile-chain making business in 1879, and with Alexander Hamilton Church is credited for introducin ...

Oliver Sheldon Oliver Sheldon (1894–1951) was a director of the Rowntree's in York, England. He wrote on principles of public and business administration in the 1920s. Life Oliver Sheldon was born on 13 July 1894. He was educated at King's College Schoo ...

, Sanford E. Thompson and

Lyndall Urwick Lyndall Fownes Urwick (3 March 1891 – 5 December 1983) was a British management consultant and business thinker. He is recognised for integrating the ideas of earlier theorists like Henri Fayol into a comprehensive theory of management admi ...

. From 1919, the Society's permanent secretary was Harlow S. Person. By 1925 the expanded Taylor Society had 800 members.Percy S. Brown, 'The Works and Aims of the Taylor Society' ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science'' (May, 1925
online at JSTOR
/ref> The Society contained people of diverse political views. One of the Society's members, Walter Polakov, was a Marxist socialist engineer who joined the Society in 1915. Polakov was a keen associate of Henry Gantt and propagated the Gantt chart in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

in the 1920s and 1930s.

Presidents of the Society

Listing of presidents of the Taylor Society: * 1911-1913 :

* 1913-1918 : Harlow S. Person * 1918-1919 : John E. Otterson * 1919-1921 :

Henry S. Dennison Henry Sturgis Dennison (March 4, 1877 – February 29, 1952)Morgen Witzel (2005). ''Encyclopedia of History of American Management.'' p. 116 was an American progressive business man, president and owner of Dennison Manufacturing Co. Paper Box Fac ...

. * 1921-1922 : Henry P. Kendall * 1922-1924 : Richard A. Feiss, Joseph & Feiss Co., Cleveland, O. * 1924-1925 : Percy S. Brown * 1925-1928 : Morris Llewellyn Cooke * 1928-1929 : Henry P. Kendall * 1930-1932 : William Henry Leffingwell * 1932-1933 : Sanford E. Thompson.

, ''The Golden Book of Management: A Historical Record of the Life and Work of Seventy Pioneers'' (1956)

Activities

The Taylor Society received early support from the British

Fabian Society The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. T ...

. The Society was largely responsible for the research and publication of the first

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

of F.W. Taylor by Frank Copley, published in 1923. The Taylor Society were involved in the Committee on American Participation to the Prague International Management Congress in 1924.

died prior to the conference and his wife, Dr. Lillian Gilbreth, also a Taylor Society member, appeared in his place. This substitution was later made famous by the movie ''Cheaper by the Dozen'' (1950). It had close connections with the Geneva-based International Management Institute (IMI) and

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...

(ILO). From 1928 until its closure in 1933, the IMI was headed by Taylor Society member

Charles D. Wrege Charles D. Wrege (March 11, 1924 – August 19, 2014)Arthur G. Bedeian, Art Bedeian, Daniel A. Wren, Dan Wren and Regina Greenwood Charles D. Wrege Obituary" Academy of Management,at ''aom.org,'' 2014. Accessed 14-05-2017 was an American management ...

, Ronald G. Greenwood, and Sakae Hata, 'The International Management Institute and Political Opposition to its Efforts in Europe, 1925-1934' ''Business and Economic History'' (1987
PDF link
/ref>

Bulletin of the Taylor Society

The Society's regular periodical was the ''Bulletin of the Taylor Society'', full editions of which can be found in the F.W. Taylor archive at the

Stevens Institute of Technology Stevens Institute of Technology is a private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey. Founded in 1870, it is one of the oldest technological universities in the United States and was the first college in America solely dedicated to mechanical ...

Hoboken Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,69 ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

. Its successor publication was the ''Bulletin of the Society of the Advancement of Management''. A 1914-1934 index of articles from the ''Bulletin'', and many ''Bulletin'' articles, is in Donald Del Mar and Rodger D. Collons, ''Classics in Scientific Management: a Book of Readings'' (University of Alabama Press, c.1976).

Engagement with the Bedaux System

Initially, the Taylor Society appears to have been unperturbed by the Bedaux System and its ''

Bedaux Unit The Bedaux Unit emerged from the U.S. scientific management movement. It remains in daily use in measuring and comparing manual labor to this day. F. W. Taylor's time studies While F. W. Taylor remains famous for conducting time studies on employ ...

'': in 1927 a discussion of the ''Bedaux Point System'' appeared in the Society's ''Bulletin'' without additional comment. However, its approach to Bedaux became more antagonistic. In 1929, the Society supported Southern textile workers in their strike against the Bedaux System, which textile workers believed was 'even worse than the old "Taylor Stop-Watch System"'. Soon after the dissolution of the Taylor Society, its long-standing secretary Harlow S. Person responded to the

Charles Bedaux Charles Eugène Bedaux (10 October 1886 – 18 February 1944) was a French-American millionaire who made his fortune developing and implementing the work measurement aspect of scientific management, notably the Bedaux System. Bedaux was friend ...

Duke of Windsor Duke of Windsor was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 8 March 1937 for the former monarch Edward VIII, following his abdication on 11 December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, ...

November 1937 fiasco by stating that the Taylor System, which required much management restructuring, and the Bedaux System, which could be applied 'as is', were 'poles apart'.Michael R. Weatherburn, 'Scientific Management at Work: the Bedaux System, Management Consulting, and Worker Efficiency in British Industry, 1914-48' (Imperial College PhD thesis, 2014). In 1940, C. Bertrand Thompson criticised Bedaux as a 'time study merchant', claiming that one of Bedaux's clients told him that 'if they had found my machines bolted upside down to the ceiling, they would have left them there and time studied them just the same'.C. Bertrand Thompson, ''Advanced Management'' (Oct-Dec, 1940).

Society for Advancement of Management

In 1936 the Taylor Society merged with the Society of Industrial Engineers forming the Society for Advancement of Management (SAM). International presidents of the society have been:''S.A.M. Advanced Management Journal,'' Volume 53, 1988. p. 40-48 * 1936-1937:

Ordway Tead Ordway Tead (10 September 1891 – November 1973)MLW, "Tead, Ordway (1891–1973)," in: ''Encyclopedia of History of American Management,'' Morgen Witzel (ed.), 2005. p. 495. was an American organizational theorist, adjunct professor of industrial ...

* 1937-1939: William H. Gesell * 1939-1941: Myron H. Clark * 1941-1942: Keith Louden * 1942-1944: Percy S. Brown * 1944-1946: Raymond R. Zimmerman * 1946-1947: Harold B. Maynard * 1947-1948: William L. McGrath * 1948-1949: Charles C. James * 1949-1951: Dillard E. Bird * 1951-1952: Leon J. Dunn * 1952-1953: Edward W. Jochim * 1953-1954: Bruce Payne * 1954-1955: George B. Estes * 1955-1956: Frank F. Bradshaw * 1956-1957: John B. Joynt * 1957-1958: Homer E. Lunken * 1958-1959: Phil Carroll * 1959-1960: Dause L. Bibby * 1960-1961: James E. Newsome * 1961-1962: Robert B. Curry * 1962-1963: Fred E. Harrel * 1963-1964: Hezz Stringfield Jr. * 1964-1965: William R. Divine * 1965-1966: Oliver J. Sizelove * 1966-1967: Donald B. Miller * 1967-1968: James L. Centner * 1968-1969: David N. Wise * 1969-1970: Jack E. Wiedemer * 1970-1971: Carl W. Golgart * 1971-1972: Owen A. Paul * 1972-1973: Ernest T. Tierney * 1973-1974: Warren G. Orr * 1974-1975: James W. Bumbaugh * 1975-1976: Hal J. Batten * 1976-1977: W. H. Kirby Jr. * 1977-1978: A. T. Kindling * 1978-1979: James J. Rutherford * 1979-1980: John S. McGuinness * 1980-1981: Clifford J. Doubek * 1981-1983: Tony Brown * 1983-1986: Moustafa H. Abdelsamad * 1986-1987: Thomas R. Greensmith * 1987-1988: S. G. Fletcher One of the main task of the Society for Advancement of Management was the recognition of achievements in the advancement of management. Fot that, the society had initiated an Award Program, which contained the Taylor Key Award, the Human Relations Award, the Gilbreth Medal, the Materials Handling Award, the Phil Carroll Advancement of Management Award, the Industrial Incentives Award, and finally The SAM Service Award Honor Society. Prominent winners of the Taylor Key Awards have been: * Lawrence A. Appley, George W. Barnwell,

Donald C. Burnham Donald Clemens Burnham (January 23, 1915 - April 17, 2005) was an American business executive at Westinghouse Electric Corporation, and recipient of the 1971 Henry Laurence Gantt Medal.Lester Robert Bittel, Muriel Albers Bittel (1978), ''Encyclopedi ...

, Phil Carroll, Morris L. Cooke, Donald K. Davis,

Ralph C. Davis Ralph Currier Davis (December 24, 1894 – c. 1960) was an American industrial and consulting engineer, Professor of Business Organization at Ohio State University, and organizational theorist. He is known for his work on top management, especially ...

, W. Edwards Deming,

Hugo Diemer Hugo Diemer (November 18, 1870 – March 3, 1939)SAM, "Necrology Hugo Diemer, November 18, 1960 - March 3, 1939," in: ''The Society for the Advancement of Management Journal,'' Volume 4, Nr 1-4. 1939. p. 35/56 was an American engineer, management ...

, M. A. Dittmer, Peter F. Drucker, H. P. Dutton, W. M. Gesell, King Hathaway, James L. Hayes, Herbert C. Hoover, Harry A. Hopf, John B. Joynt, Henry P. Kendall,

Dexter S. Kimball Dexter Simpson Kimball (October 21, 1865 – November 1, 1952) was an American engineer, professor of industrial engineering at Cornell University, early management author and president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1922–23.M ...

. Axa S. Knowles,

Harold Koontz Harold D. (Howdy) Koontz (May 19, 1909 - February 11, 1984) was an American organizational theorist, professor of business management at the University of California, Los Angeles and a consultant for many of America's largest business organizatio ...

, Harold B. Maynard,

Robert S. McNamara Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He remains the ...

, John F. Mee, Don G. Mitchell, Allan H. Mogensen,

Frank Henry Neely Frank Henry Neely (January 19, 1884 – May 24, 1979)Nobuo Noda, Harlow S. Person, Henning W. Prentis, F. J. Roethlisberger, Edward C. Schleh, Harold F. Smiddy, Brehon B. Somervell, J. Allyn Taylor, George T. Trundle Jr., Lyndall F. Urwick, and Robert B. Wolf.

Publications

* Frederick W. Taylor, 'Scientific Management and Labor Unions' ''Bulletin of the Society to Promote the Science of Management'' Vol.1, No.1 (December, 1914
online at University of Oklahoma University Library
*Taylor Society, ''Frederick Winslow Taylor: a memorial volume; being addresses delivered at the funeral of Frederick Winslow Taylor'' (1915
online at Archive.org
* Harlow S. Person, 'What is the Taylor Society?' ''Bulletin of the Taylor Society'' (December 1922) * Frank Barkley Copley, ''Frederick W. Taylor, Father of Scientific Management'' (Harper and Brothers, 1923
2 vols. online at Archive.org
*Taylor Society, ''Critical Essays on Scientific Management'' (New York, 1925) *Taylor Society, ''Union-Management Cooperation in the Railway Industry'' (New York, 1926) * Harlow S. Person, ''Scientific Management in American Industry'' (Harper & Brothers, 1929
online at Archive.org