Recent history has seen a series of changes in most Western societies of such a magnitude that one might dare to call them major disruptions. Until the 18th century, economy depended mainly on agriculture. Most companies at the time had artisanal processes and, at most, were organised in trade associations.

In the 19th century, the industrial revolution was a disruptive change which affected society’s most basic paradigms. On the demographic level, the massive movement of people from the countryside to the industrial cities culminated in a new class distribution and the emergence of the proletariat. From a technological point of view, processes that had so far been carried out in an artisanal manner were industrialised. At the turn of the century, Frederick W. Taylor drew up the premises of the scientific organisation of labour, a new system designed to optimise production in steel mills. Taylor’s theories explained that, in order to use resources efficiently, it was necessary to assign each employee to a small group of tasks at which they would be efficient. On a practical level, such an abstract concept as people specialisation was essential to structure the functioning of the entire company: from the tasks to be performed by each employee or the hierarchical dependencies between functions, to the design of departmental structures and the objectives to be achieved by each area of the company. Organisational design along these lines seemed so rational, organised and efficient that Taylor’s model was widely accepted in the business world, quickly replacing the more anarchic and artisanal models of the time.

We can say without any fear of exaggeration that the past 20th century was the golden age of scientific organisation. A period of strong growth which has enabled us to reach unprecedented productivity levels. Access to learning skills, the progressive automation of repetitive processes and globalisation, combined with a large availability of funds, have contributed to this era of abundance.

During this period, order (or the search for order) has been a constant. From the clearly defined and hierarchical organisation charts of companies to the job descriptions assigned to each position, all are examples of a rigid organisation perfectly designed to achieve a predefined objective.