Edwards, John Richard ![]() ![]() |
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Abstract
The governable worker, in Britain, is defined by the existing literature as a creation of the scientific management movement of the early twentieth century and, within the accounting domain, through standard costing as a disciplinary practice. This paper studies actions taken by the administrators and managers of Britain’s government military manufacturing establishments (GMMEs), from the 1850s onwards, to create a more governable workforce. This objective was achieved through the imposition of disciplinary practices, most importantly the use of time records to ensure attendance at the workplace and expert knowledge-based piece rates to monitor and control labour intensity. The absence of scientifically-established labour standards at GMMEs is acknowledged but, in other important respects, accounting is shown to have played a key role in the formulation of disciplinary practices designed to construct a governable labour force some decades before standard costing became the mechanism for rendering visible efficiency within the workplace.
Item Type: | Article |
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Date Type: | Publication |
Status: | Published |
Schools: | Business (Including Economics) |
Subjects: | D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D204 Modern History H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Accounting, Foucault, Governable worker, Piece rates |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
ISSN: | 1045-2354 |
Date of First Compliant Deposit: | 4 May 2017 |
Date of Acceptance: | 1 May 2017 |
Last Modified: | 06 Nov 2023 13:48 |
URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/100311 |
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