The Messy Link Between Slave Owners And Modern Management

[supernova]

Caitlin C. Rosenthal didn’t intend to write a book about slavery. She set out to tackle something much more mundane: the history of business practices. But when she started researching account books from the mid-1800s, a period of major economic development during the rise of industrialization in the United States, Rosenthal stumbled across an unexpected source of innovation.

Rosenthal, a Harvard-Newcomen Fellow in business history at Harvard Business School, found that southern plantation owners kept complex and meticulous records, measuring the productivity of their slaves and carefully monitoring their profits—often using even more sophisticated methods than manufacturers in the North. Several of the slave owners’ practices, such as incentivizing workers (in this case, to get them to pick more cotton) and depreciating their worth through the years, are widely used in business management today.

As fascinating as her findings were, Rosenthal had some misgivings about their implications. She didn’t want to be perceived as saying something positive about slavery. On the contrary, she sees her research as a critique of capitalism—one that could broaden the understanding of today’s business practices.

....

The evolution of modern management is usually associated with good old-fashioned intelligence and ingenuity—”a glorious parade of inventions that goes from textile looms to the computer,” Rosenthal says. But in reality, it’s much messier than that. Capitalism is not just about the free market; it was also built on the backs of slaves who were literally the opposite of free.

More: http://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2013/01/16/the-messy-link-between-slave-owners-and-modern-management/

Yes, I know it's Forbes. But the article is worth exploring. I found it because it's making the rounds on FB and didn't see it posted at DU before, even though it's from January of this year.

I've had plenty of jobs where "performance metrics" were used, even applied to activities for which it isn't feasible, like pages per day for editorial work. You probably have too. And I never understood where they came from. Who decided that was the best way to get the most out of employees? Never made much sense to me. And incentivizing with cash or prizes to me is disinteresting, rather than motivating.

But this research is very enlightening, indeed. What's your opinion of management practices like performance metrics, incentives, and all the rest? Is there a practice that is good, or are they always bad? I'm asking because I want to know the degree we have internalized this way of working.

[gollygee]

1. That was fascinating

and sobering.

[supernova]

4. I thought so too

No wonder working sucks a good deal of the time, when it doesn't have to.

[awoke_in_2003]

20. Indeed, although the pop ups are Forbes...

are annoying. K&R

[closeupready]

2. Learning psychology is a big area of social sciences with

tons of research studying these kinds of issues. Incentives are, basically, positive reinforcement - sort of like rats in a cage depressing a lever for a snack which is delivered only after they've performed a certain task.

[supernova]

5. That's exactly what it is

Except that over time, human will come to expect bigger and bigger rewards for the same task. That's why incentives don't work in practice, though I can see the allure.

Wouldn't a better bet be to teach people to enjoy the intrinsic value of the work itself?

[closeupready]

12. Depends on what you - as a manager - are aiming for.

As a manager, you are paid by the owners of capital to manage the organization so as to help achieve certain goals. The methods which you employ in order to get from point A to point B are - to some extent - your perogative.

If you don't care about the company's employees, then you aren't going to care whether they value the work or do NOT value the work - you just want results.

[bemildred]

3. Slaves, drugs, and indian gold, that's what built capitalism,

and that's why modern management takes an exploitive view of the situation too, that's where they come from: piracy, theft, and enslavement, and that's who they still are.

[supernova]

6. Oh, you are so right about that

At least the pirates where honest about it, often with letters of mark from the monarch.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Don't forget the alcohol.

That good ole "golden triangle", and 2 Constitutional amendments.

[bemildred]

9. That's one of the drugs.

Others include sugar, tobacco, opiates, tea, and coffee. But the list of drugs is long, and gets longer all the time.

I find it odd, now I think about it, that cannabis is not on that list. I don't want to say it's never been exploited commercially as a drug, that's just wrong, but all the hemp trade was in fiber and feed in the old days, the money was not in ingesting it. You could argue we created the cannabis market by outlawing it.

Needing slaves and personal servants, the need and desire to coerce other people into serving your interests, not their own, is itself a form of addiction or dependency.

But the fundamental criteria is being able to disconnect market prices from the cost of production, those 1000% markups pile up so fast. Drugs are great for that, but any cheap commodity with high demand elsewhere does the job. And best of all is when you have a monopoly.

[Taverner]

30. The problem with making money off of cannabis is that it is very easy to grow

And it needs an artificial block in supply

Once it becomes legal, I doubt anyone will buy it

[bemildred]

32. Yes, it's a commodity, like canola, I think you are right. nt

[FarCenter]

13. Sugar was the most important, first in Brazil and then throughout the Caribbean

Most sugar consumed in Europe was produced by Brazilian and Caribbean slaves. 40% of slaves from Africa went to Brazil. They were essential to the sugar industry, since Native Americans slaves died too fast.

The article says that some of the early accounting records were kept for absentee proprietors of the sugar plantations. These were often owned by the nobility or extremely wealthy individuals who remained in Europe. Their managers were producing detailed reports of the plantations operations for the owners.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. Assembly line prodution doesn't work on some things. Like liquor store clerk....

Not that some jerk liquor store owner hasn't considered it.

[supernova]

10. No they don't

Last edited Fri Oct 11, 2013, 02:45 PM - Edit history (1)

I used to do editorial work at at IT firm. Yes, they even said we editors had to edit X pages per day. I always asked the question, "where did X come from." What studies did you use to support this conclusion?"

Never got a straight answer. And they never understood that editorial work can vary greatly, depending on the quality of the draft you get. Sometimes it's a breeze; the writer knows their stuff. Other times, it's a complete overhaul and you wonder how they managed to pass college let alone get paid for writing.

[bemildred]

11. It's a way to put you under their control, is where X comes from.

A metric they can use to criticize and control the unruly with, like all the blather about testing in the schools, the same logic (how to attack and subdue the proles) and the same methods (introduce standards and metrics that you control); and later you have a handy excuse for whatever "personnel actions" you decide to take.

I used to work in software development, they would blather on and on about lines of code per day (LOC), and anybody who did the work knew that was a recipe for buggy poorly written code. Quantity is the wrong heuristic when it comes to creative work.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. Sure explains Microsoft's bloatware though.

[bemildred]

17. Well, I worked in defense, but yeah, that works too.

I'm always a bit stunned when I switch over to Windoze and everything slows waaaay down.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. It's really obvious with Linux...

MS tells you it'll take 10 gigs of space and the Linux version with all the same features asks you if you can spare 15k.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. Had to chuckle at "very".

[supernova]

26. Thanks, I fixed it

[joanbarnes]

14. This is SO true.

Career employess being fired from AT&Tfor not making 'their numbers.' I have worked in call centers using seven layers of management all designed to monitor, tabulate, graph internally, obsessively play with and report extensive call statistics.

[HoosierRadical]

18. Duh

"Capitalism is not just about the free market; it was also built on the backs of slaves who were literally the opposite of free."

There is nothing "free" about the so called free market, did this Harvard fellow really not know the obvious?!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. Pssst...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1022162

[NRaleighLiberal]

19. In my 25 corporate years - working in one of the largest pharma companies

in a variety of positions - much of what I witnessed made little sense and was amazingly ineffective, often demeaning. Such waste - so many examples of the Peter principle.

I don't think I saw more than a few examples of true leadership (as in inspiring, empowering, encouraging, nurturing creativity) - but I witnessed countless managers and directors utterly devoid of any people or leadership skills whatsoever.

Such wasted talent, wasted money, wasted time.

The clarity of it all is apparent once one leaves it.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

24. I imagine the pecking order was classic too...

The kind of thing where the top people had a debutante ball for their 16 year old daughter's birthday at "the club".

[NRaleighLiberal]

25. it was pretty disgusting....the big off site, tropical location "junkets"

held for the sales teams....which generated so many stories.

Much happier being self employed at a tiny fraction of income, but higher self esteem, peace of mind and satisfaction with my life!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

27. I know the types. They are the target market for shoes that look like they were made in the 1950s.

[supernova]

28. People for whom the Mad Men era

never ended.

They don't even think about how easily they could (and in many cases should) be replaced.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

29. What's funny is they ASSUME their replacement will be a younger clone of themselves....

It never occurred to them that it could be a minority female.

[ErikJ]

23. Our employer-based health care system and tipping came from slavery too

I havent really researched that theory but the US having such a long history of institutional slavery I wouldnt doubt it. We are the only country with employer (slave owner)-based health care system.

And the US is nearly the only country in the world that makes its food servers exist on tips. The slave owners tipped their house slaves so they wouldnt steal from or harm the owners. Employer-based health care makes employees captives of their employer and more loyal especially if they have pre-existing conditions.

[YoungDemCA]

31. Don't many "multinational" corporations still profit off of sweatshop labor?

How is that significantly different or better than slavery?

And yeah, the management of corporations is a field that is highly attractive to predators and sociopaths.

[IDemo]

33. I think there is a military aspect as well

Perhaps just because I've had more than one former military member as a boss, but constant intimidation as a management style, especially in a tech job where one might expect a more professional approach, has always struck me as completely inappropriate.

[supernova]

34. You are probably right about that

I've had some folks who were ex military who were fabulous to work with and others, it was obvious that they missed being authority figures more than they enjoyed working.

[Starry Messenger]

35. Exactly. Why change what works?

Taylorism keeps changing names, but it is based on the same principles.

I think there is a place for measuring performance, but you have to ask how? And whom does it actually benefit?

[supernova]

36. Except that

according to the article, "efficiency studies" are much older than Taylor.