Modern Times Linked With Scientific Management Theory Essay Example

difficult times during 1936 gravitated by the Great Depression (Cravens, 2009). The Great Depression had a great impact on the economic, industrial, scientific, and political landscape of US. Increased capitalism as a result of economic strain can depicted from the film in terms of how employees were motivated for high profits at the expense of the workers in case where factory workers underwent forced labour illustrated with Chaplin screwing nuts at an alarming speed without rest (YouTube 2016, 0:40). It was in 1936 in the US history that there was increased industrial unrest as workers complained of forced labour and low pay as shown by the striking workers that made Chaplin to be arrested. Communism call for sanity in the US marked the political environment to overthrow capitalism. Additionally, this period coincided with the machine age that revolutionalised the scientific world in terms of machine use.

The movie, Modern Times is a show of the how capitalism due to economic strains turned people into machines without dignity. The unjust treatment of workers in the 1936 led to increased industrial strikes as workers raised concern over force labour and low wage. From the view of the organisational management theory, Chaplin wanted to show how the management had high expectation in their workers in terms of productivity without laying down the strategies on how the actual work could be achieved (Miles, 2012). The dysfunctions within the organisation were the cause of the much unrest that faced many industries as it was the case with the many times Chaplin was arrested by the police (YouTube 2016, 10:50). Communism arose at this time due to the view of how the

capitalism was taking a toll on the workers in terms of organisation management.

The “Modern Times” depicts “times” in terms of transition from one time to the other. From the film, Chaplin is arrested as the mastermind behind the communist demonstration as a show of changing times where people felt that there was need to end capitalism and assume communism. Towards the end of the “The Factory scene, Chaplin convinces Ellen that the struggle was not over despite the many arrests with an assurance of victory at the end as they walked down the road depicting the changing times (YouTube 2016, 13:20). The “Modern Times” from the perspective of the relative theory illustrates the many changing things that the twentieth century has on the twenty first century and how people are reacting towards the changes (Stewart, 2005).

References

1. Cravens, H. (2009). Great Depression: People and perspectives. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.
2. Miles, J. A. (2012). Management and Organization Theory: A Jossey-Bass Reader. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
3. Modaff, D. P., Butler, J. A., & DeWine, S. (2012). Organizational communication: Foundations, challenges, and misunderstandings (3rd ed). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon
4. Stewart, M. (2005). The special theory of relative time (plural): The presence in the quantum world : gravity has been conquered. New York: iUniverse.
5. YouTube,. (2016). Chaplin Modern Times - Factory Scene (HD - 720p). Retrieved 8 February 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfw0KapQ3qk