Manufacturing Rationality

Management is a powerful mode of thought and code of conduct in the modern world, closely associated with the American way and a natural extension of economic progress. This is a book about the history and development of management and managerial rationality in the United States in the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century.Through careful analysis of contemporary records in the engineering profession, the author shows how management invented itself and carved its own domain in the face of hostility and resistance from both manufacturers and workers. The book demonstrates how the new language and rhetoric of management emerged, and how it confronted and replaced the language of traditional capitalism: 'system' instead of 'individuals'; 'jobs' instead of 'natural rights'; 'planning' instead of 'free initiatives'.Manufacturing Rationality can be read simultaneously as an historical account of the genesis of modern management, a chapter in the history of American capitalism, a critical analysis of industrial engineering, and as a sociology of (managerial) knowledge.

Review from previous edition This book is original and refreshing., the book tells an absorbing story., Yehouda Shenhav shows that the American system of management required elaborate social construction. Managers had to justify thier existence vis-a-vis owners and workers, and it took a great deal of effort to 'normalize' their social power. This book makes an imortant critical contribution to our understanding of how the large corporation emerged in the U.S and deserves to be read by anyone interested in the origins of American 'managerialism'., Yehouda Shenhav rewrites business history in this magisterial account of the role of engineers in the American management revolution. That revolution, Shenhav demonstrates, was spearheaded by engineers, whose rational, calculated precepts of work organization depoliticized the relationship between labor and capital. Modern management's rhetorical claim to neutrality stands on this technical foundation. This elegant and compelling study undercuts conventional efficiency arguments about the rise of modern management.

Yehouda Shenhav is Associate Professor of Sociology at Tel-Aviv University. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Sociology from Stanford University (1985) and an M.Sc. degree from the Faculty of Industrial Engineering at the Israel Institute of Technology (1981). Shenhav taught at several universities in the United States, including Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Iowa. He served as Head of the Department of Sociology andAnthropology at Tel-Aviv University between 1995 and 1998.