The First Conference on Scientific Organization of Labour was held in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in January 1921 to bring together experts in different fields around the study of the problems of human work.

Background

The conference took place in the context of Soviet Russia rebuilding its economy after the war and revolution. The Bolshevik government was very interested in increasing labor productivity and production efficiency to serve the country's industrialization.

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

proposed a competition to produce a manual for the Scientific Organization of Labour following Platon Kerzhentsev's publication of "SOL" (Scientific Organization of Labour). Kerzhentsev outlined a three-fold approach: Subjective approach: Looking at the worker to maximize their efficiency. Objective approach: Focusing on the materials and tools used in the labor process. Integrative approach: Examining how the first two approaches interrelate in a rational method of work organization. This conference was noted for a number of innovations: * input-output analysis * ergology, a fore-runner of

ergonomics Ergonomics, also known as human factors or human factors engineering (HFE), is the application of Psychology, psychological and Physiology, physiological principles to the engineering and design of products, processes, and systems. Primary goa ...

Highlights of the Conference

This conference was noted for a number of innovations: Input-output analysis: This was a new economic approach, applied to analyze the relationships between different industries. Ergology: The conference discussed the importance of designing workplaces and tools to suit human capabilities and limitations, laying the foundation for the later development of ergonomics.

Contributions

Vladimir Bekhterev Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev ( rus, Влади́мир Миха́йлович Бе́хтерев, p=ˈbʲextʲɪrʲɪf; 20 January 1857 – 24 December 1927) was a Russian neurologist and the father of objective psychology. He is best known fo ...

was critical of

Taylorism 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 engineer ...

arguing that "The ultimate ideal of the labour problem is not in it, but is in such organisation of the labour process that would yield a maximum of efficiency coupled with a minimum of health hazards, absence of fatigue and a guarantee of the sound health and all round personal development of the working people." *

Alexander Bogdanov Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov (; – 7 April 1928), born Alexander Malinovsky, was a Russian and later Soviet physician, philosopher, science fiction writer and Bolshevik revolutionary. He was a polymath who pioneered blood transfusion, a ...

has been credited with first posing the

input-output model In computing, input/output (I/O, i/o, or informally io or IO) is the communication between an information processing system, such as a computer, and the outside world, such as another computer system, peripherals, or a human operator. Inputs ar ...

at this conference. His ''The Organizational Principles of a Uniform Economic Plan'' describes how the outputs of one enterprise are the inputs to another enterprise. He pointed out that this then creates chains of production which are only as strong as their weakest link. A shortage in any one input will create a limit for the whole chain. Kerzhentsev was to criticise this in an article in Pravda in 1923. * Vladimir Nikolayevich Myasishchev rejected Frederick Taylor's proposal to turn man into a machine. Dull monotonous work was a temporary necessity until a corresponding machine can be developed.

References

{{reflist Ergonomics Systems analysis Conferences of the Russian Revolution 1921 in Russia Labor in the Soviet Union 1921 conferences