Frederick Taylor’s Principles of Scientific Management and the Multiple Frames for Viewing Work Organizations

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