The Standardization of Efficiency and
Its Implications for Organizations
by Harry T. Hall, Jr. University of
ABSTRACT
Time has become increasingly utilized as
a tool for organizations to increase productivity and control workers. Since
the advent of the mechanical clock in the fourteenth century, time has
structured organizational experience. This increased precision has lead to the standardization
of efficiency. The struggle for greater efficiency creates an organizational
environment where the worker is associated and dehumanized—subsumed by the
machine. Time and technology work in concert to improve efficiency. In addition
to the mechanical clock, computers and the Internet have also contributed to the
conquering of time in the organizational sense. It is the instantaneousness of
communication that has lead to the initial feeling of time being conquered.
Social interaction is one of the fundamental drives of humanity, and this
interaction is threatened by the standardization of efficiency. Implications for
organizations are discussed, followed by an exemplar involving the changing nature
of investing. Finally, ideas for reclaiming the pre-modern conceptualization of
organizing are suggested.