TEXTO DE APOIO (clique para abrir / fechar)
THE CONSULTING BUSINESS
The roots of the consulting business go back to 1911, when Frederick Winslow Taylor, a mechanical engineer who had become the manager of a steel plant, wrote the monograph Principles of Scientific Management. Taylor was obsessed with efficient manufacturing and the output of individual workers – what we today call “productivity.” He concluded that manufacturing should be separated into individual tasks, timed rigorously, and carried out by workers selected “scientifically” and trained appropriately.
In this new world, workers were treated more as resources than individuals. And while managers and workers were theoretically equal (in the early part of his career, Taylor had worked as a factory laborer), the managers were in charge of planning and supervision. This emerging executive class was responsible for the results and, implicitly, entitled to a greater share of the rewards.
Taylorism spawned [gerou] a generation of consulting firms in the U.S. and Europe. Large-scale manufacturers such as the auto, chemical, and steel industries were desperate to improve efficiency. The consultant, armed with charts and numbers, showed up [apareceu] to provide the answer.
Taylorism even found support in the Soviet Union. Initially, the Bolsheviks (the Marxist revolutionaries that established the Soviet Union) thought management consultancy was a pseudoscience aimed at squeezing the working class. But Lenin himself acknowledged in 1918 that “the Russian is a bad worker [who must] learn to work.” By the mid-1920s, Lenin and Trotsky embraced Taylorism, contracting the U.S.-based consultant Walter Polakov for advice on developing the Soviet Union’s first five-year plan. The Bolsheviks were happy to adopt some of the latest capitalist methods – and that included Taylorism – to build their new socialist society.
QUESTÃO
According to the information in the passage, which of the following probably best describes the Soviet Union’s relationship with Taylorism?
Although the Bolsheviks at first were suspicious of Taylorism, they later saw its potential to contribute to the Soviet Union’s economic growth.
By the mid-1920s, Lenin and Trotsky were convinced that Taylorism would help the Soviet Union’s economy to surpass the economies of the capitalist Western countries.
Even before the Bolsheviks had definitively established the Soviet Union, Lenin was convinced that Taylorism was the key to industrial productivity.
Taylorism appealed greatly to workers in the Soviet Union, who believed it would increase their wages and improve working conditions.
Bolshevik leaders admitted that without the massive application of Taylorism, the Soviet Union’s first five-year plan would have failed.
🔐 Gabarito (clique para revelar)
🧭 Leitura orientada
A questão pede a alternativa que melhor descreve a relação da União Soviética com o Taylorismo, conforme apresentada no texto. É fundamental observar a evolução da postura dos bolcheviques ao longo do tempo.
🔍 Reconstrução do percurso histórico
O texto informa que, inicialmente, os bolcheviques viam a consultoria de gestão e o Taylorismo como uma pseudociência capitalista, voltada à exploração da classe trabalhadora. Contudo, em 1918, Lenin reconheceu problemas de produtividade e, nos anos seguintes, ele e Trotsky passaram a adotar o Taylorismo, inclusive contratando consultores americanos.
🧠 Núcleo de sentido
A relação da União Soviética com o Taylorismo foi, portanto, progressiva e pragmática: partiu da desconfiança ideológica inicial para a aceitação de seu potencial econômico como ferramenta para desenvolver o novo Estado socialista.
🔍 Análise alternativa por alternativa (com pegadinhas)
(A) ✅ Correta — GABARITO
A alternativa reflete exatamente o texto:
houve suspeita inicial,
seguida pelo reconhecimento de que o Taylorismo
poderia contribuir para o
crescimento econômico soviético.
(B) ❌ Errada
Pegadinha: o texto não afirma
que o objetivo fosse superar economias capitalistas,
apenas desenvolver a economia soviética.
(C) ❌ Errada
Pegadinha: Lenin só reconhece
o valor do Taylorismo após a Revolução,
não antes da consolidação do regime.
(D) ❌ Errada
Pegadinha: não há menção
ao apoio entusiasmado dos trabalhadores,
nem a melhorias salariais ou de condições de trabalho.
(E) ❌ Errada
Pegadinha: o texto não afirma
que o plano quinquenal teria fracassado sem o Taylorismo,
apenas que ele foi adotado como uma ferramenta útil.
🧠 Resumo B3GE™ Master
✔ A postura soviética mudou ao longo do tempo.
✔ Houve rejeição inicial e adoção posterior.
✔ A motivação foi pragmática, não ideológica.
🔎 Gabarito confirmado: (A)