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In the early 1900s, American engineer and efficiency expert Frederick W. Taylor experimented with methods of improving work processes, including the use of quantitative measurement, to increase production. The goal was to make these processes more efficient by simplifying the work, thereby reducing labor costs. The presumption was that since the task was simpler, employers could use cheaper, less educated, less skilled workers.

What resulted in many organizations was a workforce that functioned not as integrated units benefiting the whole but as separate units focused on their own existence. The engineers ignored what they couldn’t measure. They could measure the material realm: product quality, levels of service, production and sales activity, and even profit.What they couldn’t measure was the ethereal realm: the vision, values, ethics, and culture. In this case, engineering didn’t guarantee anything but successful engineering. What Taylor did, in effect, was cut workers off from the ethereal qualities of their work by focusing their contribution on the task. This explains why assembly-line workers frequently describe their work as mindless and soulless. Today’s organizations are going to have to unlearn some of Taylor’s lessons since the new economy will have little to do with putting widgets together. Technology is reducing the role of manual labor by automating much of it with robotics. To accomplish the organization’s vision, employees operating in the new economy will need a holistic understanding of the business in partnership with other stakeholders.