Consultancies, Institutions and the Diffusion of Taylorism in Britain, Germany and France, 1920s to 1950s

Abstract

This essay compares and analyses the evolution of Taylorist consultancies in the three major European economies. It shows that institutions established by the business community, often with government support, can provide an alternative channel for the dissemination of new management methods. Unlike private consultancies, they immediately benefit from a high level of trust, facilitate inter-firm comparisons, and ensure a relatively uniform application of these methods. This was the case in Germany where institutions such as the REFA and RKW trained a large number of work study engineers and collected benchmark data. In Britain on the other hand, the diffusion of scientific management relied much more on consultancies. Institutions served at best as intermediaries for the establishment of a trust-based relationship and provided some sort of quality control. In France, institutions had ambitions similar to the German 'model'. But they were weakened by splits and competition among themselves and thus left sufficient room for the development of consultancy activities.