Are scientific management and human relations approaches still applicable to organisations of the 21st century?

Frederick W. Taylor worked across the United States in the first 15 years of the 20th century looking to solve production problems (Owens & Valesky, 2011, p. 67). He was an engineer in steel manufacturing and studied developed what what is now known as the four principles of scientific management. These principles spell out what both managers and workers are to do. Two important principles include having the management set goals, plan, and supervise workers, and the workers perform the work, and that organizations should establish the standard where management “sets the objectives and the workers cooperate in achieving them” (p. 67). Taylor’s principles are still used today by some organizational leaders who fight the movement that management should work as a team with the workers (pp. 67-68). Taylor’s principles have led to things such as strict discipline, the idea that workers must focus on their task with little or no interaction with colleagues, and the idea of incentive

Let’s begin by analyzing F. W. Taylor. Taylor’s scientific method can be summed up as a systematic study of relationships between people and tasks to increase efficiency (Jones and George 2015). There are four principles involved in this method: (1) Study the way workers perform their tasks, gather all the informal job knowledge that workers possess, and experiment with ways of improving the ways that tasks are performed. This step has the similar attributes of the organizing and controlling tasks discussed earlier in that the controlling task also involves evaluating the division of labor. (2) Codify the new methods of performing tasks into written rules and standard operating procedures. This step is very much about the organizing task. Although there are written rules, this aspect diverges from the leading

To briefly summarize the theoretical contributions, we must first look at Frederick W. Taylor’s theory of Scientific Management which started in the early 20th century. Taylor’s most significant example of the Scientific Management theory was exercised by Henry Ford with the introduction of mass car production which revolutionized the car industry in America. Ford not only used Taylor’s idea of systematization but expanded on his theory to use machines that would decrease the input of the workers by minimizing discretion with the creation of a conveyor belt allowing cars to come to the worker. Ford’s rationale for this was based on enhancing the efficiency with

Frederick Taylor (1917) developed scientific management theory (often called "Taylorism") at the beginning of this century. His theory had four basic principles: 1) find the one "best way" to perform each task, 2) carefully match each worker to each task, 3) closely supervise workers, and use reward and punishment as motivators, and 4) the task of management is planning and control.

Frederick Taylor is the originator of the system labeled scientific management. In his book, The Principles of Scientific Management (1911) Taylor examines the struggle between management and labor for the control of production. To control production, he developed techniques for the measure and design of machining methods as part of a general plan for increasing the planning functions of management. Taylor's fundamental concept and guiding principle was to design a production system that would involve both men and machines and that would be as efficient as a well-designed, well-oiled machine. Time studies were used to allow management to take control of the operations, thereby controlling production methods, and, by default, production. This system required that management take an active role in the factory and through engineers and salaried foremen take greater control over operations (Backer, 1998).

Scientific management (also called Taylorism, the Taylor system, or the Classical Perspective) is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflow processes, improving labor productivity. The core ideas of the theory were developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the 1880s and 1890s, and were first published in his monographs, Shop Management (1905) and The Principles of Scientific Management (1911).[1] Taylor believed that decisions based upon tradition and rules of thumb should be replaced by precise procedures developed after careful study of an individual at work.

Management principles are needed for the efficient and effective operation of organizations, regardless of the level of the manager or the industry in which they operate. This is true for today’s organizations now more than ever. The global environment of today ensures that organizations will face staunch competition. Failure and weakness on the part of management ultimately lead to loss of market share and organizational closure. Also, gone are the days when managers could ‘bluff’ their way through their dealings with employees who have become more demanding and aware of their legal rights.

The year 1911 saw Frederick Winslow Taylor publish a book titled ‘The principles of scientific management’ in which he aimed to prove that the scientific method could be used in producing profits for an organization through the improvement of an employee’s efficiency. During that decade, management practice was focused on initiative and incentives which gave autonomy to the workman. He thus argued that one half of the problem was up to management, and both the worker and manager needed to cooperate in order to produce the greatest prosperity.

The theory of scientific management was not invented by one day. It took many times for Frederick W. Taylor to understand that time’s organizational structure; workers behavior machinery tools etc. the idea was generated in his mind because he worked in various firms during the late 19th century, starting in 1878 with Midvale steel company. He worked there several years & recognized some of the process of the factory operation. He realized, at that time the management had no clear knowledge of working responsibilities or management responsibilities. There wasn’t any organized or structured work standard. The managers were taking their decision with guess, past experience, intuition which in many time resulted in failure. The workers efficiency level didn’t grow.

Although his work emphasized the technical rather than purely human side of management, he did point out the role of specific incentives in motivating workers and the value of specialization. Perhaps Taylor’s greatest contribution to the study of management and organizational behaviour was his approach of applying the scientific method to industrial problems. (Colonel Samuel H Hays and Lieutenant Colonel William N Thomas,Taking Command, Stackpole Books, USA, 1976, p 93). This scientific approach has been adopted by several theorists and applied to the filed of organizational behaviour.

Managers therefore acquired knowledge of the work process, reduced them down to a simple set of “rules, laws and formulae” (Burnes, 2009, p. 34) and then laid down the standard rules and procedures for workers carrying out their tasks, thereby reducing the workers’ discretion and control of how they get the job done.

The scientific management theory have an assumption that workers are lazy, not smart in analyzing tasks, only prefers simplified work and only works for money (Miller & Form, 1964). According to Taylor (2004), workers are unable figure out the most efficient way in doing work. Therefore, they are thought as replaceable working parts like a machine in the production line and can be trained to specialize in a certain procedure in the production. They are assumed to adopt the Protestant work ethic, working for long hours and not taking any breaks. Whenever a worker or a ‘part’ failed to perform its tasks, they

The fourth principle was equal division of work and the responsibilities of employers and employees. Taylor designed a way of having management ensure that workers had knowledge of the job, the amount of time to do the job and how to do the job. These management principles aimed at finding the optimum performance value in an organization. Taylor’s principles were adopted in several enterprises but during the second half the century the theory started receiving criticism due to lack of flexibility and inhumanity.

“Scientific Management” and “Human Relations” are two different management approaches. In Scientific Management, managers are responsible to think and workers do. Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) develops the Principles of Time and Motion Study, which leads to a conclusion that certain people have a higher work efficiency compared to the others. In his means, cooperation is “to do what workers are told to do without asking questions or making suggestions.” (as cited in Miller & Form, 1924).

“The principle object of management should be to secure maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for the employee…” (Taylor, 1911, p.9)