CONCEPT
Production Model versus Growth Model
Franklin's distinction between work organized to maximize output (production model) and work organized to develop the worker (growth model)—a choice embedded in every incentive structure.
Every organization makes a choice, rarely explicit, between two models of work. In the production model, work is organized to maximize output; the worker is a means to an end, and the end is the product. Efficiency governs. Success is measured by volume, speed, margin. The worker's development matters only insofar as it contributes to output. Training is investment in future productivity; rest is maintenance for the productive apparatus. In the growth model, work is organized to develop the worker; the process of doing work is itself the primary product, because through process the worker grows in understanding, skill, and judgment. Output is a consequence of growth, not its purpose. The apprentice spending a year learning to plane a board is not wasting time—she is developing judgment that will allow her to produce furniture worth making. The models are not mutually exclusive, but when pressure mounts, the production model almost always prevails. Applied to AI-augmented work, the distinction cuts through productivity claims with uncomfortable precision.
