Describing organizations as Fordist captures in a shorthand way the dominant organizational form of the 20th century. Named after industrialist Henry Ford (1863–1947), Fordism is generally understood not only as the emergence and dominance of the large-scale, mass-production organization but also as the development of a whole set of work, organizational, and societal principles that would shape people’s lives for most of the 20th century. Fordism was capitalism’s response to the threats to its legitimacy addressed above. What were these principles, and why were they so important in re-establishing the legitimacy of capitalism?

Fordism involved a technical revolution in which the very nature of work was transformed, going through what might be termed a process of rationalization—the application of rational principles to make work as efficient and productive as possible. Work under Fordism was characterized by extreme division of labor; rather than have a skilled worker complete a number of tasks, many workers each completed a single, repetitive task.

In many respects, the classic Fordist, large-scale industrial organization was characterized by a highly centralized decision-making system, a strong hierarchical structure, and a low level of trust between workers and managers—a distrust that was rooted in part in class differences, with workers often coming from blue-collar, working class backgrounds and managers coming from white-collar, middle class backgrounds. One of the main features of the Fordist organization was its ability to produce vast quantities of products. Everything was done on a large scale.

In addition to fundamentally changing the technical nature of work in the 20th century, Fordism was also the catalyst for a sociopolitical revolution that changed the way that most people lived their lives.