Taylorism

Noun

Taylorism (usually uncountable, plural Taylorisms)

1. (usually) The Reformed school of theology developed by Nathaniel William Taylor.
   • Rev. Edward Beecher, a strenous advocate of Taylorism, has been equally explicit on this point.1834, Tyler Thacher, Taylorism Examined: Or a Review of the New Haven Theology, page 83
   • In the first half of the 19th century, under the lead of Nathaniel W. Taylor (q.v.) , the Divinity School of Yale became nationally prominent for "Taylorism" or New Haven Theology.1911, Hugh Chisholm, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, page 900

   Synonyms:

   New England theology

2. (usually) Scientific management; a theory of management of the early 20th century that analyzed workflows in order to improve efficiency, originally developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor.
   • One of the ideological supporting pillars of systems thinking in the 1920s had been Lenin's analysis of Taylorism.1982, Ilmari Susiluoto, The Origins and Development of Systems Thinking in the Soviet Union, page 146
   • The separation of planning and control from work execution is constitutive for Taylorism.1993, Ulrich Jürgens, Thomas Malsch, Knuth Dohse, Breaking from Taylorism, page 50
3. (countable, usually) One of the witty, epigrammatic remarks on international relations for which the historian Alan John Percivale Taylor was well-known.
   • The brisk and lively narrative is spiced with Taylorisms: ' Hitler lost , as someone has to do in war, and has therefore been written off as a psychopath'.1975, British Book News, page 432
   • It is full of what friends of mine at Oxford used to call 'Taylorisms', and as research students there we used to collect them — from his 'except the Italians ' in The Struggle for Mastery to his famous claim at the end of The Origins of the Second World War that Hitler 'became involved in war...1983, Peter Quennell, History Today - Volume 33, page 30