Scientific management has never really gone away, although it is criticised for dehumanising the workplace by its embrace of production line approaches. Systems, technologies and full automation have evolved today in many manufacturing industries, leading to vast safety, efficiency, distribution and profitability improvements for organisations globally. The COVID-19 pandemic further elevated scientific management techniques as people yielded to closed borders and limited movements of populations with strict rules and technological tools to try to control it all. However, the early critique of scientific management being too manipulative of people has cropped up again adding to nervousness. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the natural culmination of full scientific management. Completely automated services are now gathering pace, which brings back the dehumanisation debate. It is sensible to have some products manufactured with machinedriven precision, but do we really want care delivered to our beloved elders and children by robots, or our own movements and behaviours continuously tracked? It is hard enough to trust a driverless car to get us across town without crashing. There are many advantages to machines fulfilling tasks that humans normally find dull, repetitive or tiring, yet a need for the human touch in some of our most valuable service industries, like care, learning and creating, may resist that type of change.
Reflection question
Perhaps AI will continue to overtake jobs we currently do, but will they be done with the humanity we need? Discuss.