A system of production characterized by the division of factory work into the smallest and simplest jobs, while closely coordinating the sequence of tasks in order to achieve maximum efficiency, as, for example, on a production line. Skilled managers and technicians oversee semi-skilled or unskilled workers who are engaged in simple, repetitive chores. Ellem (2005) Asia Pacif. J. Hum. Resources 43, 2 observes that ‘most people would say that the biggest change in work towards the end of the last century was the abandonment of Taylorism’. However, Lorenz and Valeyre (2005) J. Indus. Relations 47 observe that traditional Taylorist forms of work organization are holding their own in certain nations and sectors of the EU.