‘All they lose is the scream’: Foucault, Ford and mass production

McKinlay, A. and Wilson, J. (2012) ‘All they lose is the scream’: Foucault, Ford and mass production. Management and Organizational History, 7(1), pp. 45-60. (doi: 10.1177/1744935911427219)

Abstract

Henry Ford insisted that his development of mass production owed nothing to Taylorism. But Ford and Taylor can only be understood as part of a wider revolution in American management that prioritized efficiency, experimentation and flow. Following Foucault, Henry Ford represented the rationalizing capability of ‘sovereign power’. Ford’s radical innovations in production techniques depended upon parallel innovations in administration and accounting. The development of the moving assembly line in Highland Park depended upon an ssemblage of organizational innovations, not just the practical experiments of Ford engineers. In 1921 Ford’s complex knowledge base was brutally dismantled in Ford’s giant new River Rouge plant. Incremental productivity gains were now squeezed from the line by supervisory pressure. The Ford experience suggests the interweaving of ‘sovereign’ and ‘disciplinary’ forms of power/knowledge.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Wilson, Dr James
• Authors: McKinlay, A., and Wilson, J.
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management
• Journal Name: Management and Organizational History
• Journal Abbr.: M&OH
• Publisher: Sage Publications
• ISSN: 1744-9359
• ISSN (Online): 1744-9367