Scientific Management

Scientific management was introduced by Fredrick Winslow Taylor in 1898. The basic attributes of this perspective were giving incentives to employees, training them in a standard method and developing a standard procedure of performing a task. These procedures were established by numerous studies and observations (Samson et al., 2012).

Scientific management theory is where the goal when it comes to managing an organization through this theory, is to provide proper facilities to the employees in order to maximize the total efficiency of all employees, and thereby leading on to an increase in productivity (Terry,

The fundamental theory behind scientific management is breaking down each part of a job to its science (Taylor). In the Principles of Scientific Management, Taylor talks about pig iron handlers, shoveling and bricklaying as a few examples in which he implemented scientific management. He proposed four important elements that are essential to scientific management. In this example Taylor discusses the science of bricklaying. First management must develop the science of bricklaying with standard rules of each task. Every task is designed to be perfect and standardized. The second element is selection and training. This step is important because Taylor wants an employee who is “first class,” meaning that they are the best at what they do, follow instructions and will not refuse to listen or adopt the new methods that management is executing. The third element is teaching the first class employee the science of bricklaying broken down by management. At this stage management is instructing the employee what to do, how to do it, and the best way to do it. Management is there to help them and watch that they are doing it “their” way and not

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.

“While Mangers complain about lack of motivation in their workers, they might as well consider the possibility that the reward systems they’ve installed are paying off for the opposite”.

Scientific management was first developed by an American, Frederick Winslow Taylor in the1880s ~1910s and has evolved a lot since then. It is a theory or school of thoughts about process improvement and management. It aims at maximizing efficiency, productivity, output with least cost and minimizing wastes. It was criticized as inhuman by many organizational theorists. However, it is widely applied in manufacturing industry and service industry in both developing and developed countries nowadays. This article is to investigate the reasons why scientific

With those evocative words, Frederick W. Taylor had begun his highly influential book; “The Principles of Scientific Management” indicating his view regarding management practices. As one of the most influential management theorists, Taylor is widely acclaimed as the ‘father of scientific management’. Taylor had sought “the ‘one best way’ for a job to be done” (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg & Coulter, 2003, p.39). Northcraft and Neale (1990, p.41) state that “Scientific management took its

Successful management requires an understanding of the fundamental concepts of effective management techniques and principles. In order to gain such insight, and manage effectively and efficiently, managers must develop an awareness of past management principles, models and theories. From the turn of the 20th Century, the

Scientific management is split into four different groups which as listed above in the introduction but I will be going into detail of how these work. It allows for managers to to improve the organization's production by following the four headings:

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.

2. Describe and evaluate the key elements of Frederick Taylor 's approach to 'scientific management’ and comment on its applicability in contemporary organisations (You might select a particular industry or occupational area for this analysis).

While this theory has made many positive contributions to management practice, there have also been negative implications. On a positive note, Taylorism has made an impact on the introduction of the 8 hour working day, minimum wage rates and incentive and bonus schemes, and more importantly, highlighted management as an important area of study, allowing for other theorists to improve on, or provide alternative management theories in response to scientific management such as more worker orientated theories, namely behavioural management. Taylor’s ideals have however been under constant scrutiny as managers highlight the shortfalls of scientific management. While the highly mechanistic way of practice may lead to increased productivity, it

Scientific management has played a significant role in how workers are managed to provide efficiency to production lines. The question here is whether or not this approach has improved or worsened the experience for the workers in the modern day and how this approach has been adapted to fit the technological advances of this day and age. I will consider what the scientific management includes and how this may affect the non-managerial workers. In the approach to answering this question I will use McDonalds as one of the main companies which still use scientific management and how successful it is.

Scientific management is a management theory developed by Frederick W Taylor. Its main purpose is to improve an organization’s efficiency in production through analyzing workflow systematically using quantitative analysis to improve task completion efficiency. Reducing waste, increasing methods of production and create a just distribution of goods are goals of the scientific management theory. On the other hand, human relations theory attributed by Elton Mayo counteracts with scientific management theory that ignored human issues of behavior. In human relations theory, a worker is treated as an individual and what motivates and cultivates them in their achievement is analyzed. Both scientific management and human relation theory aims to improve efficiency in the workplace and it still applies to the workforce in the modern days despite the opposing ideas of both theories.

Taylor’s theory was more applicable to manufacturing industry than the current service industry, hence why it needs modification. He did not foresee the future of service industry and telecommuting jobs. Telecommuting jobs are currently increasing in availability and popularity. These jobs require innovative skills, promote managerial flexibility, autonomy, and use high level of technology, which do not demand physical power like manufacturing industry. Presently, more companies have shifted their focus from extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation, which matches the needs of today’s workforce. Nowadays companies employ different motivation strategies to motivates their employees. For example, they use job rotation, job enlargement, and empowerment, which Taylor did not mention. Job rotation is a temporary switching of job assignments, while job enlargement is increasing the variety and number of tasks within a job (DuBrin, 2011). Based on the above argument, the theory’s problem is its failure to utilize other motivation strategies like job rotation, job enlargement, and empowerment.