#89: Pay-for-output, reward-for-input

Much of modern management stems from Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Management methodology, formally introduced in 1911, almost one hundred years ago.

One legacy of Taylor’s thinking is the idea that workers should be paid for how much they produce in a given time period, and not for the number of hours they actually worked. In other words, pay-for-output and not for time put in.

However, a great deal of what a manager does is intangible, without immediate outputs or results. From a worker perspective, it can appear as if managers are rewarded for merely being at work, for the time they put in. This payment for output-by-workers versus reward for input-by-managers is often at the root of workers feeling that they are being exploited.

This already big gap between pay-for-output and reward-for-input continues to increase as we shift from braun-power to brain-power. And workers’ discontent increases along with it.


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Copyright: 2007 James Henry McIntosh

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