Historical introduction

New historical introduction that links the work with the trends in the digital economy and algorithmic management. Critical outline of core principles and assumptions on which this work is based. Essential links between the founding principles of management and the future of work. The Principles of Scientific Management is a tremendously important book, the essence of which has had irreversible impact on the way we think about organised labour and management today. It is a product of many years of experimentation, uncertainty and hard work, fused with thoroughly modernist ideals of a pedantic mind. This book is a culmination of Frederick Winslow Taylor’s career as, perhaps, the most famous management consultant. It stands on the shoulders of his previous examinations of the wage system and the operational characteristics of machine tools. In it, he recounts the four principles of scientific management, compares them to what he considers the most developed form of non-scientific management, and gives a number of examples and anecdotes to illustrate how the former is superior to the latter in every way and circumstance.