Scientific Management

Chapter 2: The classical approaches (scientific management, administrative principles, and bureaucratic organization) share a common assumption: people at work act in a rational manner that is primarily driven by economic concerns. Scientific Management: in 1911, Fredrick W. Taylor published The Principles of Scientific Management, in which he made the following statement: “The principle object of management should be to secure maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for the employee. He noticed that many workers did their jobs their own ways and without clear and uniform specifications. He believed this caused them to lose efficiency and underperform. He believed the problem would be fixed by scientific

Revans, R. (1958). On "Management and the Scientific method" The Journal of the British Institute of Management. Retrieved May 12, 2015.

Over the years many articles have been written regarding scientific management and Frederick w. Taylor, 3 examples of these articles will be analysed and discussed in the further paragraphs of this essay. Wrege, C. D. and Stotka, A. M. wrote an article concerning the relationship between Taylor and his assistant Morris L. Cooke and the evidence that shows Taylor used much of Cooke’s own research and study for his publication of ‘Principles of Scientific Management’. Blake A. M. and Moseley J. L. undertook research which discovered that Taylor’s principles are still being used in business systems one hundred years after Taylor’s death. Darmody, Peter B. wrote his article regarding Henry L. Gantt and Frederick Taylor as the pioneers of scientific management, Darmody speaks highly of Taylor and Gantt, and agrees with many of their opinions.

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).

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

Prior to the development of scientific management, works were performed by skilled craftsmen who had learned their jobs by apprenticeships and they made their own decisions about how their job was to be carried out. Scientific management

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.

In todays modern era of business, with its exploding technological advances, easier access to materials and a much more skilled and specialized labor force the ideology behind using scientific management is fast becoming as dated a method as the industries that still heavily rely upon its principles to function efficiently. Considering that the fundamental principles of scientific management consist of breaking down manufacturing into its constituent parts allowing unskilled, simple minded, untrained workers to do any one of the multiple tasks that produce a product. This method functions in a manner that maximizes laborers potential and thus company profits by using an assembly line type system. Under this system only management however

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

Fredrick Taylor, another management theorist invented the principle of scientific management showing five simple management principles: 1. Shift all responsibility for the organisation of work from the worker to the manager. Managers think, plan, and design work, while the workers does the implementation, 2. Use scientific method to determine the most efficient way of doing work. Design worker’s task accordingly, specifying the precise way in which the work is to be done, 3. Select the best person to perform the job thus designed, 4. Train the worker to do the work effectively, 5. Monitor worker performance to ensure that appropriate work procedures are followed and that appropriate results are achieved. (Morgan 1997)

a, Example: Scientific management is still applied by many types of today organizations. There are a considerable number of well-known companies that still apply scientific management to their business operation. The fist typical example is Mc Donald (MCD)- the world’s largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurant which serving around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries. The principles of scientific management have been applied by MCD in its business operation for 3 functions: the development of the workman and the scientific education, the method of performing every job and the system of rewarding in order to achieve goals as shown on Mc Donald’s corporate website, 2008. Specifically, MCD provides an incentive system of wages, in which offers bonuses for workers base on the amount of work that they produce. Long term incentives are offered to

It could be said that Fredrick Winslow Taylor’s scientific management theory is still significantly relevant to management practices the 21st century. By analysing both critics and advocates of Taylor’s theory, we are able to gain a comprehensive insight into Taylor’s contribution to the improved productivity, higher efficiency and greater consistency in the current business world. In conjunction with this, suggestions have been made that scientific management exercises poor working conditions, dehumanizing effects and in this century is rather diminishing in importance. Considering both of these views allows for the development of understanding as to what extent scientific management has had a relevant impact on management practises

The scientific management theory gives the managers the job to systematically divide the work into smaller tasks and to assign them to the workers. These tasks are scientifically determined to increase the productivity and efficiency of the organisation. Also, the workers are recruited to fit exactly their designed tasks. In addition to this, employees would be trained and taught to follow the procedures of the job specifically. This being said, workers do not contribute to how the work is done inside the organisation instead they just implement higher management orders. Taylor explains this by saying: “The work of every workman is fully planned out by the management at least one day in advance”(Taylor, 1917, p. 39) And, in order to increase the motivation of the workers the theory emphasises on putting a link between performance and pay and give bonuses to high achievers. The scientific model of management believed that the only incentive for a worker’s productivity is a higher

Scientific management has a number of important principles. First, it calls for the application of the scientific method at work for accomplishing

The early study of management as we know today began with what is now called the classical perspective. Scientific management that is the focus of this essay is branched from classical perspective. This essay will argue the annexation of scientific management concept to the context of knowledge-based economy and its effectiveness in the modern learning organisations. The essay will begin by explaining the background of scientific management followed by highlighting its core principles and the reason for its effectiveness that time. It will then explain the