Evaluate the Contribution of the Hawthorne Studies to the Development of Management Theory and Practice

Frederick Taylor’s fundamental thoughts on scientific management dated back to early 1880s when he was employed at Midvale Steel Company and observed his coworkers “soldiering” at work. In the following two decades, he moved around different companies while developing his management theory

Scientific management or "Taylorism" is an approach to job design, developed by Frederick Taylor (1856-1915) during the Second World War. With the industrial revolution came a fast growing pool of people, seeking jobs, that required a new approach of management. Scientific management was the first management theory, applied internationally. It believes in the rational use of resources for utmost output, hence motivating workers to earn more money. Taylor believed that the incompetence of managers was the major obstacle on the way of productivity increase of human labour. Consequently, this idea led to the need of change of management principles. On the base of research, involving analysing controlled experiments under various working

Scientific Management is also known as Taylorism. Fredrick Winslow Taylor wanted to divide the work process into small, simple and separate steps (Division of Labor). Division of Labor meant every worker only had one or two steps, this was created to boost productivity. Taylor also believed in Hierarchy, he wanted a clear chain of command that separated the managers from workers. He did this so managers would design work process and enforced how the work was performed and employees would simply follow directions. Taylor wanted to select and train high performing workers or first-class employees and match them to a job that best suited them. Taylor believed the most productive workers should be paid more. Employees who could not meet the new higher standard were fired.

While scientific development emphasised principles to improve worker effectiveness, another branch within the classical school arose, administrative management, with its main contributor being French industrialist Henri Fayol. He is regarded as the father of administrative management as he proposed fourteen principles of management intended to assist managers in determining what to do to manage an organisation more effectively (Rodrigues, 2001). Fayol’s ideas are still valid in today’s organisations and his definitions of management are widely used in this field of study. In his book General and Industrial Management, published in 1916, he defined management as “to manage is to forecast and plan, to organise, to command, to coordinate and to control” (Fayol, 1916). This definition yielded the now known functions of management. Fayol’s approach to management has several similarities with Taylor’s scientific management theory. Included in Fayol’s fourteen principles is the division of work, which outlined the need for workers to specialise in specific jobs (Rodrigues, 2001). This idea of work specialisation has been derived from Taylor’s principles of scientific management. Furthermore, the empowerment of managers, proper training of employees and the use of a reasonable rewards system were principles that originated

People and processes are the main elements under management purview, and it is interesting to learn how managerial philosophy pertaining to these two elements has evolved from the Industrial Revolution throughout the Progression Era and into the modern workplace. The purpose of this paper will focus on Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Management, also known as the Taylor System, and Elton Mayo’s Human Relations business models and how they relate to this

Taylor introduced scientific management, which has formed the theory of management and examines work in order to improve productivity of labour. He

Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) is known as a lead developer of scientific management. As a manufacturing manager, a mechanical engineer, and later a management consultant in American, Taylor spent his life to find out ways to improve industrial efficiency. In the book The Principles of Scientific Management (Taylor, 1914), he revealed and summarized his efficient and effective principles as well as techniques.

The Hawthorne Studies were a series of early experiments that focused on behaviour in the workplace. In one experiment involving a particular group of workers, for example, researchers observed how productivity varied as a result of changes in working conditions. The Hawthorn Studies and sunsequent experiments lead scientists to the conclusion that the human element is very important in the workplace.

- Although Taylor’s method led to dramatic increase in productivity and higher pay in number of instance workers and unions began to oppose his approach because they feared that working harder or faster would exhaust whatever work was available causing layoffs.

First theory is Frederick Winslow Taylor’s Principle of Scientific Management that was published in 1911. It was part of the Classical Approach which refers to the first studies of management that occurred in the early 20 century that emphasised predominantly on rationality and efficiency. It was believed that effectiveness and efficiency are essential to maintain a competitive edge. Taylor’s theory is accepted and have been applied worldwide, as a result, he became known as the ‘father’ of scientific

Frederick W. Taylor is considered to be the father of scientific management, which arose within the field of industrial engineering during the late 1800s and

First, I will discuss the exemplary management theories that transpired around the twentieth century. These involve scientific management, which center of attraction was on associating per-sonnel and jobs to increase effectiveness; and administrative management, which center of atten-tion is on recognizing the principles that will impel to the beginning of the nearly adept structure of management and organization. Next, you have behavioral management theories which was estab-lished both prior and subsequently the Second World War, which spotlight was on supervisors should guide and supervise their personnel to optimize their effectiveness. Then you have man-agement science theory, which was current during the Second World War and which has evolved to be very

Taylor brought a breakthrough in management by his experiments which focused on the analysis of individual tasks and the rationalization of labor to increase the productivity of the workforce. He tested this at the Bethlehem Iron where he increased production over 350% and reduced workers by 70% by increasing the shovel size. Hence, he advocated rationalization to create thriving organizations. He argued that problems such as low productivity, soldiering, high-turnover and conflicts in relationships of workers and managers caused a great amount of loss in productivity and therefore resulted in mismanagement and a loss of efficiency. As a solution, he proposed his theory of Scientific Management. His theory had four basic principles: finding the one "best way" to perform each task, carefully matching each worker to

This study aims to analyze and discuss both industrial benefits and social implications of Frederick Taylor’s scientific management approach. A brief biography of the “Father of Efficiency” will be outlined, followed by an overview of Frederick Taylor’s framework for Scientific Management. Discussions within will focus on positive effects of production with the aid of scientific management and the negative social

Frederick Taylor (1856 – 1915) called the father of scientific management and the ancestor of the entire system of scientific organization of production, and more than a hundred years, the whole modern theory and practice in the field of scientific labor organization uses “Taylor “heritage. And it is no coincidence that the theory was based management engineer, thoroughly knowledgeable technology industrial enterprise and their own experience to know all the features of the relationship between workers and managers. “The goal of scientific management was to use systematic study to find the one best way of doing each task” (Williams, p. 24)