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Taylorism and fordism
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The prevalent discussion of the nature of workplace settings has been the central focus of many studies by scholars who look at the management approaches used and its influence on the way employee’s respond to the strategies implemented by management. Considered as fundamental ‘dominant traditions of work organisation’ (Noon et al, 2013, p.140), Taylorism and Fordism are of great importance as they transformed the organisation of work in the 20th century. The principles of these two dominant ideologies have been influential in the nature of work tasks and skill levels in the labour force. It can be argued that these approaches changed the work process by introducing greater amounts of formality and structure. This in effect, has contributed to the unresolved conflict among scholars on whether work is becoming less or more skilled. Taylorism and Fordism principles are still apparent in today’s modern work settings, thus in this essay I will aim to explore and critically analyse the impact and influence of these approaches on modern management practices and the well being of employees...
Henry Ford, founder of Ford motor company, is most well known as an icon of American manufacturing and ingenuity. A lesser known aspect of Ford’s history is his fascist leanings and blatant anti-Semitism. Ford ruled over Dearborn Michigan as a de facto dictator, employing fascist tactics to control his workforce. His anti-Semitic writings influenced Adolf Hitler, who expressed admiration for the famed automobile industrialist. Ford’s company was instrumental in supplying the German military with vehicles during World War II even as they refused to assist the allies. Ford’s racist and corporatist views made him an idol of the National Socialists.
Industrial capitalism transformed greatly in a century; however work continued to decline with the advancement of time. Therefore, work was better in 1750 then it was in 1850. " The worker therefore only feels himself outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself" (134.).
Currently, human beings are thinking more on the line of they need work in order to make a living. For that reason, work has become meaningless, disagreeable, and unnatural. Many view work as a way to obtain money and not a meaningful human activity that one does for themselves. The author states that there are two reactions of the alienated and profoundly unsatisfactory character of the modern industrial work. One being the ideal of complete laziness and the other, hostility towards work. Fromm believes the reason why people have animosity regarding work is due to their unconscious mind. Subconsciously, a person has “a deep-seated, hostility towards work and all that is connected to it” says Fromm. I believe what Fromm is saying to be true, after all I witness it everyday. Millions of people each day goes to a work which they are dissatisfied with and that can negatively impact their attitude
. The greed of money has overtaken Freeman and he has no sense of compassion or being kind.
This essay will analyse the publication “Hawthorne, the myth of the docile worker, and class bias in psychology”, an article by Bramel and Friend (1981). It will subsequently go on to further critique six more academic articles that either support or disagree with the primary publication and demonstrate how the Hawthorne studies have influenced my perception on contemporary management functions and the employer-employee relationship.
Taylorism is a system that was designed in the late 19th century, not only to maximise managerial control, but to also expand the levels of efficiency throughout workplaces. With this being said, productivity levels increased and fair wage distribution was the main result. However, with other, more recent theories and systems, such as Maslow and Herzburg’s theories, these helped to focus on the satisfaction and motivation of the workers rather than the concern of managerial control and empowerment. Fredrick W. Taylor ended up developing 4 main principles to help increase the work efficiency and productivity in workplaces; these will be discussed later on. Other theories relating to this include, Fayol, Follett, Management Science Theory as well as Organisational-Environmental Theory. All theories listed have an influence on the way businesses work effectively and put their skills to action. This essay will highlight how Taylorism was designed to maximise managerial control and increase productivity, furthermore, showing how more recent theories were developed to focus on empowering employees and to extend the use of organisational resources.
Maniates’ views on what he refers to as work are effectively mirrored by Woodhouse’s article. Maniates’ concept of “quality of Work” refers to how individuals inherently care about various aspects of their job, such as “questions about job security, worker satisfaction, downsizing, overtime, and corporate responsibility” (47). He also relates this concept more directly to environmental issues by claiming that when workers feel powerless in their jobs, they prefer to wield their power as consumers instead of attempting to resolve issues in a vocational capacity (48). Woodhouse relates to the first point by discussing the working conditions of engineers. “Engineers work within a web of constraints created by employers,
Many comparisons can be made between the two theories, such as the mechanisation, fragmentation and specialisation of work and that a lack of intellectual or skilled content will speed up the work at hand. Fordism's mechanisation of mass production further emphasised many of Taylor's popular beliefs about management being divorced from human affairs and emotions, using 'humans as instruments or machines to be manipulated by their leaders' (Hersey p.84). Fordism fused and emphasised the scientific methods to get things done by Ford's successful mass-production processes. Contrasts also exist between the two theories. Fordism dehumanisied the worker whereas scientific management convinced the workers that their goals could be readily achieved along with their employers goals, therefore they should all work together in this direction. Fordism suited industrial companies participating in mass production, whereas Scientific Management could be used in many types of organisation. Large companies such as Ford Motors, The Reichskuratorium fur Wirtschaftkichkeit (RKW) in Germany examples these theories in practice. These theories of the past are lessons for the way modern organisations are run today. Managers now realise that they should treat their workers more democratically and since the mid-70's, sweeping changes in markets and technology have encouraged managers and manufacturers to use greater product diversity and more flexible methods of production. Movements towards a more flexible organisation have become apparent. Examples of orgainisations such as Nissan, NASA and Toyota serve as modern day examples of post-Fordism and depict movement towards a modified Scientific Management.
“Management is a process of planning, organisation, command, coordination, and control” (Morgan 2006, p.18). Rational organisation design is a bureaucratic method of management which emphasizes efficiency to achieve the end goal and the management of multiple companies have taken upon this system. Figures such as Frederick Taylor and Henry Ford have both shown and laid a path way for Rational Organisation which has become known as Taylorism and Fordism. The design has received criticism and both Taylor and Ford have been portrayed as villains with Taylor being called “enemy of the working man” (Morgan 2006, p.23) as the system dehumanised workers by taking all of the thought and skill from them and giving it to the managers this is because the tasks given were simple and repetitive. As staff needed little training they became an easily replaceable asset and thus more machine than human.
Companies work towards reducing the control and limits that they place on employees in order to let them feel more comfortable, provided that they are working efficiently. This is to encourage employees to have their own sense of authority. In the past, formal communication was important, although as the business industry has evolved a more informal sense of communication has taken its place. The largest impact which this business model has affected businesses, is the informal attitude and involvement that employers have with their employees. In the past employees were simply seen as machines who were “programmed” to do simple repetitive tasks for an incredibly long time, but nowadays employees are given opportunities on a regular basis in which they can contribute their creative ideas towards the company, and even possible get more involved in order to move up the chain of
This paper takes a look at the ways in which the ideas of Fordism and Taylorism helped the success of the U.S motor vehicle industry. The motor vehicle industry has changed the fundamental ideas on the process of manufacturing and probably more expressively on how humans work together to create value.
This essay will discuss the relevance of Taylor’s Principles of Scientific Management to organisations today. Taylor’s theory of Scientific Management is based around how efficiently a member of staff works in order to improve their productivity, the theory was introduced in 1911 and has four principles which were tested to determine optimal work methods, and are still seen in organisations today such as fast-food restaurants. Taylor believed that workers left to their own devices would restrict their output and not progress with the task, this was called ‘soldiering’ and it was described in two forms; natural
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)
In Today’s world, the composition and how work is done has massively changed and is still continuing to change. Work is now more complex, more team base, depends greatly on technological and social skills and lastly more mobile and does not depend on geography. Companies are also opting for ways to help their employees perform their duties effectively so that huge profits are realized in the long term .The changes in the workplaces include Reduction in the structure of the hierarchy ,breakdown in the organization boundaries , improved and better management tactics and perspectives and lastly better workplace condition and health to the employees. (Frank Ackerman, Neva R. Goodwin, Laurie Dougherty, Kevin Gallagher, 2001)
...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).