Changes

In Denmark, a variant of Fordism called "productivism" was expounded by Danish economists in the 1920s. The law of increasing returns appeared in contemporaneous journals on economic theory, and it revealed the connections and contradictions between mass production, employment, wages, and economic growth in both society and the business community. Productivist ideas spread to the political parties, unions, and employers' associations. Productivism and Fordism promised economic growth and prosperity for all, but workers and employers accused each other of enriching themselves at the expense of the others. There was a movement toward consensus about productivism in the late 1920's1920s, and productivism was adopted in the party program of the Social Democrats in 1927. The onset of economic world crisis halted further debate, but by 1943-45 the idea of productivism was broadly accepted by all political parties. Due to the so-called "Danish Model," the labor market was regulated without participation of the state. The political ideas of productivism thus could not succeed without a labor market compromise. This compromise was achieved by the creation in 1946-47 of shop committees ("samarbejdsudvalg"), where rationalization and cost reductions could be discussed. The transparencies of the rationalization process were thought to reduce distrust and create a situation in which both employers and employees could reap the benefits of rationalization.<ref>Soren Toft Hansen, "Den Voksende Kage: Ideerne Om Vaekstsamfund Og Produktivisme 1920-1947," [The Expanding Cake: Economic Growth and Productivism in Denmark, 1920-47]. ''Jyske Historiker'' [in Danish] 2003 (102-103): 154-179. Issn: 0109-9280</ref>

The Bedaux system was a specific program of rationalization with elements of Taylorism and Fordism. Based on the work of Charles E. Bedaux, the system represented a method of time and motion studies with aspects of both wage management and business management. Regarding wages, Bedaux was a simple premium system based on guaranteed hourly wages. Regarding business management, however, the Bedaux system emerged to be a rather modern system of managing and accounting. Bedaux started as a special system for work measurement and wage determination but turned out to be effective above all as a general system for the management of business organization, manufacturing, and cost controlling. It covered both blue- and white-collar workers, especially of middle management. During the 1920s-1930s there about one thousand companies in 21 countries adopted Bedaux, mainly in the United States but also in Britain and France. In Germany, however, the Bedaux system operated only in the rubber and tire industry, because most German businessmen were reluctant to adopt this new "American system" and preferred the German "Refa" system, ignoring that the rationalization effects of the Bedaux system were much more far-reaching than only the reduction of labor costs. Furthermore , there was strong resistance in the German labor movement to the Bedaux system. Continental, the leading rubber company in Germany, was open minded about the system and profited heavily from it, thus surviving the Great Depression relatively undamaged and improving its competitive capabilities.<ref>Paul Erker, "Das Bedaux-system: Neue Aspekte Der Historischen Rationalisierungsforschung" [The Bedaux System: New Aspects of Research on the History of Rationalization]. ''Zeitschrift für Unternehmensgeschichte'' 1996 41(2): 139-158. Issn: 0342-2852</ref>