2
Mechanization Takes Command
Organizations as Machines
The Chinese sage Chuangtzu, who lived in the fourth century B.C., relates the
following story:
As Tzugung was traveling through the regions north of river Han, he saw an old man working in
his vegetable garden. He had dug an irrigation ditch. The man would descend into the well, fetch up a
vessel of water in his arms, and pour it out into the ditch. While his efforts were tremendous, the
results appeared to be very meager.
Tzugung said, "There is a way whereby you can irrigate a hundred ditches in one day, and whereby
you can do much with little effort. Would you not like to hear of it?" Then the gardener stood up,
looked at him, and said, "And what would that be?"
Tzugung replied, "You take a wooden lever, weighted at the back and light in front. In this way you
can bring up water so quickly that it just gushes out. This is called a draw-well."
Then anger rose up in the old man's face, and he said, "1 have heard my teacher say that whoever uses
machines does all his work like a machine. He who does his work like a machine grows a heart like a
machine, and he who carries the heart of a machine in his breast loses his simplicity. He who has lost
his simplicity becomes unsure in the strivings of his soul."
"Uncertainty in the strivings of the soul is something which does not agree with honest sense. It is not
that I do not know of such things; I am ashamed to use them."
If the old man were to visit the modern world he would no doubt be very dismayed.
Machines now influence virtually every aspect of our existence. They have increased our
productive abilities a thousandfold, but they have also done much more, shaping almost
every aspect of our lives. The debate initiated by Tzugung and the old man continues. In
the view of many, mechanization has brought mainly gain, raising mankind from
competitors with nature to virtual masters of nature. For others, the old man's vision of
human alienation recurs in various forms, as they contemplate the high price of
mechanical progress in terms of the transition from craft to factory production, the
exchange of rural community for urban sprawl, the general degradation of the
environment, and the assault of rationalism upon the human spirit.
Regardless of the stand one takes, the wisdom of the old man's vision regarding the
pervasive influence of machines remains beyond dispute. The use of machines has
radically transformed the nature of productive activity and has left its mark on the
imagination, thoughts, and feelings of humans throughout the ages. Scientists have
produced mechanistic interpretations of the natural world, and philosophers and
psychologists have articulated mechanistic theories of human mind and behavior.
Increasingly, we have learned to use the machine as a metaphor for ourselves and our
society and to mold our world in accordance with mechanical principles.
This is nowhere more evident than in the modern organization