Scientific Management
This essay will critically evaluate the scientific management’s importance and its contribution in the current management context. In this era of rapid economic development and industrial expansion of different nations, scientific management has enabled every nation to be involved in this global market. Scientific management is the theory which serves as the ‘backbone’ to many current management theories. Scientific management will be briefly described initially. After that, the essay will identify why scientific management is an important contribution to management theory when Frederick Taylor proposed it. Finally, the essay will investigate why scientific management continues to be significant in this rapid changing business world.
According to Bartol, Tein, Matthews and Sharma (2008, p. 43), scientific management is one of the management approaches of classical viewpoint. Scientific management is an approach which emphasizes the scientific study of work methods to improve worker efficiency (Bartol et al, 2008, p. 43). Each process of the activities such as the manufacturing process is being sorted into smaller process and will be studied and research scientifically so that the process can be undergone efficiently in terms of saving time and reduce cost and wastage. Basically, scientific management is based on four main principles which are study of each task scientifically, selection of worker scientifically, cooperation with worker and division of work scientifically (Bartol et al, 2008, p. 43).
Each task is studied scientifically through various experiments and tests. The experiments are done to evaluate which ones are the best moves and solution so that the task can be done efficiently in the ...
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...ries, costs and time. Management methods being proposed by various theorists were mostly based on Taylor’s ideas. With the contribution of scientific management to the management theory, most of the countries being mentioned are still using Taylor’s management methods in various manufacturing and working performance.
References
Bartol, K., Tein, M., Matthews, G., Sharma, B. (2008), Management: a pacific-rim focus, 5th edition, McGraw-Hill, Australia
Caldari, K. (2007), ‘Alfred Marshall’s Critical Analysis of Scientific Management’, The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 14(1), pp. 55-78
Witzel, M. (2005), ‘Where Scientific Management Went Awry’, European Business Forum, Spring2005, Iss. 21, pp. 89-91
Wren, D.A. (1994), ‘The Evolution of Management Thought’, John Wiley and Sons, New York.
Sachs, A. (2010). Management, Plain and Simple. Time, 175(15), Global 4. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.
Episode 143: Fredrick Winslow Taylor’s Scientific Management 2013, YouTube, Alanis Business Academy, 19 Nov, retrieved April 4 2014,
Institutions are crucial for our society to be successful because it is a social and academic construction of a community in that institutions help us interact with each other and promote scientific research and findings, regardless of the cultures and values that each individual believes in; without institutions, there would be no order and stability in society. However, in the essay “Rent Seeking and the Making of an Unequal Society” by Joseph Stiglitz, Stiglitz disagrees by arguing that institutions actually prevent scientific research to evolve into scientific discoveries because monopolists and dominant forms such as Microsoft suppress innovation; however, this statement is unconscionable
Fordism and Scientific Management are terms used to describe management that had application to practical situations with extremely dramatic effects. Fordism takes its name from the mass production units of Henry Ford, and is identified by an involved technical division of labour within companies and their production units. Other characteristics of Fordism include strong hierarchical control, with workers in a production line often restricted to the one single task, usually specialised and unskilled. Scientific management, on the other hand, "originated" through Fredrick Winslow Taylor in 1911, and in very basic terms described the one best way work could be done and that the best way to improve output was to improve the techniques or methods used by the workers. (Robbins p.38)
In “The Nature and Necessity of Scientific Research” it says, “they are the source of the methods, problem-field, and standards of solution accepted by any mature scientific community at any given time.” These new discoveries can lead then to advancements and as a result can lead them to build a better society. Human beings will be able to reconstruct a better institutional framework which will bring them a prosperous and happy
Urwick, L. F. and E. F. L. Brech (1966). The making of scientific management: Pitman.
Scientific management is a way that an organisation regulates their staff within a workplace. The theory behind this is accomplished by selecting the ‘best person for the best role’, who will undertake the training to train each worker to do a ‘specific role the right way’ (Frederick Taylor). This extracts the responsibility from the employee whilst handing over executive decisions to the employer to make strategic directions. Frederick Taylor required the managers to set the tasks for the employees in advanced and that each task was to be detailed to each employee, to be done in a certain way and completed by an exact time no less.
In the article entitled “The Human Side of Enterprise” by Douglas Murray McGregor , McGregor stated that industry has fundamental know how to utilize physical and technology science. The conventional view of management consisted of three propositions which are called Theory X (Shafritz & Hyde,2012).
The major change came through the work of Fredrick Winslow Taylor and his theory of scientific management system. It was not that Taylor was unique or completely new; only time and motion study could be put in that category. The trend was already moving towards systematic management such as formal management methods or by cost ...
The evolution of management though the decades can be divided into two major sections. One of the sections is the classical approach. Under the classical approach efficiency and productivity became a critical concern of the managers at the turn of the 20th century. One of the approaches from the classical time period were systematic management which placed more emphasis on internal operations because managers were concerned with meeting the growth in demand brought on by the Industrial revolution. As a result managers became more concerned with physical things than towards the people therefore systematic management failed to lead to production efficiency. This became apparent to an engineer named Frederick Taylor who was the father of Scientific Management. Scientific Management was identified by four principles for which management should develop the best way to do a job, determine the optimum work pace, train people to do the job properly, and reward successful performance by using an incentive pay system. Scientifi...
Robbins, S.P., & Coulter, M. (2009). Management (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
With Taylor’s scientific approach decisions are based on science or exact measurements. Estimations made according to convenience are inaccurate and inefficient. Each job is broken down into smaller functions, intern analyzed and timed to the tenth of a second. Through the use of scientific method the best possible way to perform a function is established and put into practice until a time comes when a better method or tool is devised.
In the past, managers considered workers as machinery that could be bought and sold easily. To increase production, workers were subjected to long hours, miserable wages and undesirable working conditions. The welfare of the workers and their need were disregarded. The early twentieth century brought about a change in management and scientific management was introduced. This sort of management, started by Frederick Winslow Taylor, emphasised that the best way to increase the volume of output was to have workers specializing in specific tasks just like how a certain machine would perform a particular function. His implementation of this theory brought about tremendous criticism by the masses arguing that the fundamentals of Scientific Management were to exploit employees rather than to benefit them (Mullins, 2005)
Taylor, Frederick Winslow (1911). The Principles of Scientific Management. New York, NY, US and London, UK: Harper & Brothers. Print. 8 Feb. 2014.
Frederick Taylor and Henri Fayol are both considered classical contributors to management theory. Both were developing and expression their viewpoints at similar time period with the aim of “raising standard of management in industry” (Brodie,1967, p7) in a period were very few publications and theories on management. While both theories were developed with the same influencing factors such as war, social struggles and industrial revolution (Urwick. 1951, p7) each developed quite different management theories. Frederick Taylor is considered the Father of Scientific management and he developed scientific principles of management, focusing on the individual,...