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Applicability of scientific management theory
Applicability of scientific management theory
Summary of the scientific management theory
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Introduction
As one of the founding fathers of Scientific Management Theory, Frederick Winslow Taylor’s concepts have seen a tremendous evolution of branching into minor concepts that have been developed over time by theorists and are even used today in many large management practices. In the first part of this essay, I will explore how the underlying theories and objectives have changed over time, whilst in the subsequent part, I will provide examples to present day global corporations who make use of Taylorist applications in their day to day production and management system to explain influence on contemporary organizational behaviour. Finally, the essay will come to a conclusion; as to whether these changes have been a force for good and whether they are directly down to the introduction of Taylorism at all.
Development of Taylorism in Organisational Management
Taylor’s Objectives in Industrial Practices
Frederick Winslow Taylor firmly believed that to increase production, industrial practices needed to excel in 3 main areas: the efficiency of workers, the standardization of tasks and the maintenance of hierarchal authority (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2013, p. 466). By improving the efficiency of the workers, Taylor ensured that the average worker used time management effectively and was maximising their level of output, ensuring full potential per worker. Workers were selected according to the skills they possessed which could be offered to the practice, rather than the amount of experience gained. For example, exceptionally talented workers were favoured over highly qualified workers who were trained by workers in the practice (Peaucelle, 2000, p. 455). Secondly, through predictability, tasks were divided into sub...
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...improving efficiency and productivity gains, rather than finding new methods. Hence, it may be discerned that these ‘developments’ could arguably only be further enhancements to Taylorist objectives rather than his actual theories.
Through the observation of contemporary workplace practices, it can be observed that Taylorism has influenced the practice in terms of its production system. Although some of these systems may appear rather as a direct branch of lean production, it must be remembered that lean production is an indirect development from Taylorism. Ultimately, Taylorism has branched into various segments that each relate to the individual objectives – each industrial practice explored in this essay appears to focus directly on influencing the key concepts of standardizing work, dividing work into sub tasks and ensuring a strong manager-worker relationship.
Compare and contrast the management theories of Frederick Taylor, Henri Fayol, Elton Mayo, and Douglas McGregor. In what sense(s) are these theories similar and/or compatible? In what sense(s) are these theories dissimilar and/or incompatible? How would a contingency theorist reconcile the points of dissimilarity and/or incompatibility between these approaches? The twentieth century has brought in a number of management theories which have helped shape our view of management in the present business environment.
Crowley, M., Tope, D., Chamberlain, L. J., & Hodson, R. (2010). Neo-Taylorism at Work: Occupational Change in the Post-Fordist Era. Social Problems, 57(3), 421-447
Frederic Taylor`s theory of scientific management: Taylor`s theory was the one of the pioneer scientist who attempts to merge scientific notions and findings in managerial operations. Taylor`s theory was built in 1890s and reached its popularity in 1910s. The th...
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.
The founding father of scientific management theory is Fredrick Winslow Taylor. He was an American mechanical engineer and an inventor. Modern management theorist Edward Deming credited Taylor for his contributions while Joseph Juran criticized his work for extracting more work from workers. However a careful reading of Taylor’s work will disclose that he placed workers interest as high as the employer’s in his studies. Before the principles of management are discussed it is very important to understand the causes which led Taylor to derive the four principles of management. The three causes are as follows:
“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.
This assignment discusses the applicability of the ideas of scientific management theory by Frederick Taylor and general administrative theory by Max Weber in today’s organisations and managements. These theories have been constantly debated on whether their theories are still applicable to modern management in various countries, typically in the USA. Our research stance is partially agree which means agree but not completely agree to the extent that Taylor’s theory is more relevant in today’s organisations as his theory includes the mental aspects for workers. Gupta (2000) believes ‘every worker has a potential for development’. Nevertheless, Weber’s theory apportions a management system which is based on standardized procedures and a clear
Frederick Taylor is recognised for being the first person to study work as a science. His work has been hugely influential on the study of management and continues to be studied in management courses. He is consistently ranked as the most influential person in management and business history (Wren, 2011). His book The Principles of Scientific Management has been translated into many languages. Indeed within the first two years of publication in 1911 it was translated into French, German,Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Italian, and Japanese (Wren, 2011). There is no doubt that Taylor’s work is of great importance but how relevant is it to today’s modern management arena? According to Konosuke Matsushita founder of Sanyo, Technics and Panasonic “We are beyond the Taylor model. Business is now so complex and difficult…..survival depends on the day to day mobilisation of every ounce of intelligence” (Unknown, n.d.). Yet there is no doubt that Taylor’s theories have been hugely influential on many aspects of modern management. Is his scientific management theory indeed for a ‘different time and place’?
Frederick Winslow Taylor is the father of scientific management. In the 20th century, he formulized the principles of scientific management and the theory of his approach by using scientific methods to define the “one best way” for a job to be done. Frederick studied various jobs, and breaking them into smaller task, determined the most efficient way of accomplishing them. Before Taylor’s effort, workers performed jobs according to their intuition and techniques, which lead to inefficiency and inconsistent performance standards (Montana & Charnov, 2008, p. 15). Scientific management has influenced the way business operates and many big companies today are still using the principles of scientific management to run their organization.
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 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...
With more recent management systems focusing on empowerment and promoting employee initiative, is there any role for Taylorism, Scientific Management and Fordism?
Taylor’s scientific approach is based on the planning of work to achieve efficiency, standardization, specialization and simplification. Factories are managed through scientific methods and productivity is increase through a mutual trust between management and workers. Weber's bureaucratic approach embellishes the scientific management theory and focuses on dividing organizations into hierarchies, establishing strong lines of authority and control. Weber believed that organizations are accountable to and part of a broader the social order.
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)