<P> By factoring processes into discrete, unambiguous units, scientific management laid the groundwork for automation and offshoring, prefiguring industrial process control and numerical control in the absence of any machines that could carry it out . Taylor and his followers did not foresee this at the time; in their world, it was humans that would execute the optimized processes . (For example, although in their era the instruction "open valve A whenever pressure gauge B reads over value X" would be carried out by a human, the fact that it had been reduced to an algorithmic component paved the way for a machine to be the agent .) However, one of the common threads between their world and ours is that the agents of execution need not be "smart" to execute their tasks . In the case of computers, they are not able (yet) to be "smart" (in that sense of the word); in the case of human workers under scientific management, they were often able but were not allowed . Once the time - and - motion men had completed their studies of a particular task, the workers had very little opportunity for further thinking, experimenting, or suggestion - making . They were forced to "play dumb" most of the time, which occasionally led to revolts . </P> <P> The middle ground between the craft production of skilled workers and full automation is occupied by systems of extensive mechanization and partial automation operated by semiskilled and unskilled workers . Such systems depend on algorithmic workflows and knowledge transfer, which require substantial engineering to succeed . Although Taylor's intention for scientific management was simply to optimize work methods, the process engineering that he pioneered also tends to build the skill into the equipment and processes, removing most need for skill in the workers . Such engineering has governed most industrial engineering since then . It is also the essence of successful offshoring . The common theme in all these cases is that businesses engineer their way out of their need for large concentrations of skilled workers, and the high - wage environments that sustain them . This creates competitive advantage on the local level of individual firms, although the pressure it exerts systemically on employment and employability is an externality . </P> <P> Taylor often expressed views of workers that may be considered insulting . He recognized differences between workers, stressed the need to select the right person for the right job, and championed the workers by advocating frequent breaks and good pay for good work . He often failed to conceal his condescending attitude towards less intelligent workers, describing them as "stupid" and comparing them to draft animals in that they have to have their tasks managed for them in order to work efficiently . </P> <P> Other thinkers soon offered more ideas on the roles that workers play in mature industrial systems . These included ideas on improvement of the individual worker with attention to the worker's needs, not just the needs of the whole . James Hartness published The Human Factor in Works Management in 1912, while Frank Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth offered their own alternatives to Taylorism . The human relations school of management evolved in the 1930s to complement rather than replace scientific management, with Taylorism determining the organisation of the work process, and human relations helping to adapt the workers to the new procedures . Today's efficiency - seeking methods, such as lean manufacturing, include respect for workers and fulfillment of their needs as integral parts of the theory . (Workers slogging their way through workdays in the business world do encounter flawed implementations of these methods that make jobs unpleasant; but these implementations generally lack managerial competence in matching theory to execution .) Clearly a syncretism has occurred since Taylor's day, although its implementation has been uneven, as lean management in capable hands has produced good results for both managers and workers, but in incompetent hands has damaged enterprises . </P>

How is the worker envisaged in taylor’s scientific management
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