Friday, February 3, 2017

Why We Work by Barry Schwartz, Chapter 1

Book: Why We Work
Author: Barry Schwartz
ISBN: 978-1-4767-8486-1
U-$1.00-B-0.003856699-BE-260

Comments:  Enjoyed this book!

Go to Why We Work Table of Contents
Go to Directory of Authors and Books

Chapter 1: The False Rationale


Page 5

1. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith published in 1776

Page 6

2. "Scientific Management" Movement by Frederick Winslow Taylor

Page 7

3. What Smith was telling us is that the only reason people do any kind of work is for the payoffs it produces
4. And as long as it produces adequate payoffs, what the work itself consists of doesn't matter.
5. But as capitalism developed in his shadow, under the sway of the "incentive theory of everything," a mode of work evolved in which all the other satisfaction that might come from it were neglected or eliminated.

Page 8

6. But the work of farmers, craftsmen, and shopkeepers, hard though it may have been, offered people a fair amount of discretion, autonomy, and variety in what they did each day.
7. Work gave them a chance to use their ingenuity to solve problems as they arose and to develop more effective ways to get their work done.
8. What people come to seek in work largely depends on what their work makes available.

Page 9

9. The lesson here is that just how important material incentives are to people will depend on how the human workplace is structured.
10. Theory "Y" by Douglas McGregor

Page 10

11. Forty years ago, the distinguished anthropologist Clifford Geertz said that human beings are "unfinished animals."
12. That human nature is more created than discovered.
13. We "design" human nature, by designing the institutions within which people live.


No comments:

Post a Comment