Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) consolidated a system of managerial authority, often referred to as scientific management, that encouraged a shift in knowledge of production from the workers to the managers.

His system broke up industrial production into very small and highly regulated steps and required that workers obey the instructions of managers concerning the proper way to perform these very specific steps. Taylor determined these steps through careful scientific observations, his most significant individual contribution to scientific management. He used these observations to compare the pace at which various workers completed tasks. Taylor's system of management atomized, or separated workers from each other. Workers in his system were given highly detailed work instructions that Taylor's scientific studies had determined to be the very best--that is most efficient--way to perform the specific, isolated, task. Workers became parts of a larger machine and they were expected to understand that their...