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Principles of scientific management theory
Principles of scientific management theory
Characteristic of scientific management approach
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Frederick Taylor’s Principles of Scientific Management and the Multiple Frames for Viewing Work Organizations (graphics not included)
Dr. Frederick Winslow Taylor in a speech called "The Principles of Scientific
Management" delivered on March 3, 1915 to the Cleveland Advertising Club exhorts his
audience to take on a new, revolutionary view of the way work should get done. To combat
the time-ingrained attitude of workmen throughout the world that "it is in their best interest to
go slow instead of fast," Taylor proposes four principles of the scientific management of
work. He asserts that even though the average businessman believes that if workers were to
go fast, thus increasing efficiency resulting in a money saving decrease of workforce, just the
opposite would be true. Taylor believes increasing the efficiency of the workman
scientifically would increase the not only the opportunity for more work, but also the real
wealth of the world, happiness, and all manner of worthwhile improvements in the life of the
working person. For Taylor, increased workman output will result in improved quality of life.
Taylor, a mechanical engineer, seeks to apply a positivistic, rational perspective to the
inefficient work organization. A second "misfortune of industry" that impedes the progress of
improving work is what Taylor refers to as the "soldiering" of the worker, which essentially
means to make a show of work not necessarily doing one's best. The worker tries to balance
the inner conflict he feels as a result of worry about job security versus expectations of
productivity. Taylor says that the worker is not to blame for soldiering since, even if given
the opportunity to work harder with greater output, the effect on the labor market is such that
rate of pay is cut. What incentive does management have to pay a man more wages, even for
greater output, when another man will accept less for, albeit, less output. Taylor believes that
scientific management of work will alleviate the common work problems of inefficiency,
slow rate of work, and decreased productivity. Logically, according to Taylor’s view,
soldiering would disappear as workers’ productivity and security improved.
Figure One: Four Principles of Scientific Management
The above chart illustrates Taylor's four principles of scientific management. Taylor
is careful to assert that scientific management is no new set of theories that have been
untried, a common misunderstanding. He says that the process of scientific management has
been an evolution, and in each case the practice has preceded the theory. Further, scientific
management is in practice in various industries: "Almost every type of industry in this
Episode 143: Fredrick Winslow Taylor’s Scientific Management 2013, YouTube, Alanis Business Academy, 19 Nov, retrieved April 4 2014,
According to Taylor (2007) his main objective when developing scientific management was to “maximise prosperity of the employer coupled with maximum prosperity for each of the employees.” In this regard, Taylor assumed that the interests of the management were similar to those of the workmen as each had something to gain fr...
Scientifically select, train, and develop each employee rather than passively leaving them to train themselves.
Taylor was a pioneer who advocated principles of scientific management. He noted that scientific management was a psychological revolution for workers and management through their particular responsibilities to each other (Taylor, 1911). It was an innovative standpoint to the usage of human efforts. Therefore, Taylor advocated a management’s attitude below which organisation would attempt a rudimentary duty of planning and prescribing the regulations to lead the conduct by their employee, in order to help personnel produce at the lowest possible level to the manager and gain more remuneration. He also argued that management ought to develop normal work’s laws and regulations for measurement of work. Managers should train labours in advance in detail. Taylor identified the management to stimulate the staff not purely by giving instructions and showing authority but also educating and evolving the subordinates as well as collaborating with them (Rahman,
One of the early contributors of management theory and known as “The Father of Scientific Management” was Frederick W. Taylor (1856-1915), a mechanical engineer who deemed work deserving of systematic observation and study.
Firstly, the passage states that companies will get/obtain more profits for employees who can work more effectively and make fewer mistakes, leading to increased profits for companies/enterprises. The plan allows employees to have fewer working hours is likely to hire more people to ensure that it meets normal levels of productivity.
Wrege, C. D. and R. G. Greenwood (1991). Frederick W. Taylor, the father of scientific management: myth and reality: Irwin Professional Pub.
Many different theorists and experts had their own views or definitions of scientific management, George Ritzer defines Scientific Management as a method that ”produced nonhuman technology that exerted great control over workers” Ritzer.G, The Mcdonaldization of Society pg. 34 (2004). Although all these definitions are correct in their own way, the establisher of the scientific management style, Frederick Taylors view on management was that ‘the principal object of management should be to secure maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity of the employee’ FW Taylor, The principles of Management pg. 9 (1911). Taylor wanted to replace the ‘rule of thumb’ way of working by studying the relationships between people and tasks for the purpose of redesigning the work process for higher efficiency.
Employees put in their efforts on the perception that their efforts will lead to performance and that effective performance will result in obtaining positive
The final paragraph in Taylor’s book stated ‘‘It is no single element, but rather this whole combination, that constitutes scientific management, which may be summarized as: Science, not rule of thumb. Harmony, not discord. Cooperation, not individualism. Maximum output, in place of restricted output. The development of each man to his greatest efficiency and prosperity’ (Friedman, et al., 2011). Indeed Taylor’s scientific management may have been created in a different time and place but the ideals of his last paragraph still continue to be relevant today.
Scientific Management has always been in my eyes, viewed as a series of steps in the working world for a manager to find a solution to a problem. As time has progressed, I have come to the realization that management, is not only practiced in the workplace, but can be applied to all facets and aspects of my lifestyle. This has shed some light on the uncertainties, inconsistencies, confusions, and questions that arise through a formal step-by-step procedure by which I had initially believed my pertinent field of study involved.
Taylorism is a form of scientific management; it improves production efficiency by breaking down every job, action and task into smaller simpler segments as a way to improve efficiency, which could be easily taught to the workers in the organisation. The effect of Taylorism is aimed to maximise productivity, which relies on more efficient production methods to occur so that the organisation can reduce costs for production to allow for more profit. Initiated by Frederick Winslow Taylor in 1911, Taylorism was a theory-designed to improve efficiency of the production of goods. This method however involved using a divisional skill method, which put one worker on a single task, which was repeated through the day. This method however caused deskilling of workers because there was no skill aspect to working a repetitive action all day long. The use of taylorism allowed for control over the workers, which allowed for increased productivity. The focus of taylorism was to control and manipulate the decisions that were made by the workforce in order to increase the productive capacity of the organisation without having to increase the wages of the workers.
There are several theories that examine an organization and it’s approach to managing work in an effort to develop efficiency and increase production. Two classical approaches to management are Taylor’s scientific management theory and Weber's bureaucratic management theory. Both men are considered pioneers of in the study of management.
Taylor developed scientific management theory after observing organizational problems in his workplace, workers intentionally slacking, and adverse employer-employee relations (Taneja, Mildred, & Toombs, 2011). Through identifying the best equipment and people, then scrutinizing the production process Taylor was successful in improving production. Some of Taylor’s contributions include industrial efficiency and work measurement; standardization of tool, machines, motions, and tasks; task delineation and management; and organizational behavior.
...uate is fortified by an inclination of being let around the non-satisfaction of the hopeful estimates in the 1980s concerning the rise of more human-focused work environments in the post-Tayloristic time that might enhance the nature of working life for everyone (Piore and Sabel,1984). They bring up that the actuality for some employees, today, is a rebirth of Taylorism as neo-Taylorism or possibly disguised in the situation "lean-creation" or "flexible working" (Nyhan, et al., 2004). There is another critics said that the learning organization concept is already out of date and being replaced with theories of knowledge management (Brown and Keep, 2003).