Management thought and practice in 1920s China
本文修正了对1920年代中国‘科学管理’的理解，指出泰勒主义被中国精英重新诠释为促进工业化和‘科学精神’的工具，且上海周边企业对其实验比以往认为的更广泛。
This article significantly revises our understanding of ‘scientific management’ in 1920s China. First introduced in 1911 via transpacific networks, scientific management gained traction among Chinese elites of the 1920s as a method of both national industrialisation and social change in line with the May Fourth spirit of ‘Mr. Science’ and ‘Mr. Democracy’. As such, Chinese discourse re-interpreted Taylorism as a capacious but progressive tool to encourage the ‘scientific spirit’ among ordinary Chinese. Industrialists around greater Shanghai engaged with these re-interpretations and more of their firms experimented with these ideas than previously thought. Yet, they did so in diverse ways that reflected managers’ layered commercial, political, and intellectual motivations.