Hyper-Taylorism and third-order technologies: Making sense of the transformation of work and management in a post-digital era

In this chapter, the authors propose that the search for productivity and efficiency through the implementation and use of so-called third-order digital technologies – that is, technologies that communicate directly with each other with no human involvement – is leading to a shift in how work and management are understood. Drawing on previous and ongoing empirical research, they argue that this shift reinforces a Taylorist logic in the design of work, in which the norms of rationality and division of labour are central, leading to what they call “hyper-Taylorism.”