Scientific Management Essay

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’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

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

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

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).

What are the main features of Taylor’s approach to ‘Scientific Management” and what criticisms have been made of it? Do firms use scientific management today?

This essay is going to analyze the article titled ‘What’s the Evidence on Evidence-Based Management?’ by Trish Reay, Whitney Berta, and Melanie Kazman Kohn that was written in 2009. The article was a systematic review of the available literature in response to increasing advocacy for the application of evidence-based management (EBMgt). The authors were driven by three overarching research objectives: (I) to find out whether there was adequate literature about the concept of EBMgt, (II) to evaluate the quality of existing evidence (literature) concerning EBMgt, and (III) to find out whether there is a correlation between employing EBMgt and improved organizational performance.

Frederik Winslow Taylor, one of the most famous pioneers of management gave the theory of Scientific management or what is now referred to as Taylorism. Scientific management or Taylorism refers to “a form of job design which stresses short, repetitive work cycles; detailed, prescribed task sequences; a separation of task conception from task execution; and motivation based on economic rewards.” (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2013). The applicability of Scientific management to this day is a controversial topic as there is still debate whether scientific management is beneficial to apply to organizations for smooth functioning or not. This paper discusses his theory of scientific management. While it highlights the strengths and weaknesses of this theory, it mainly expands on the criticisms of this theory and the reasons as to why the theory is not highly relevant now. This paper does this by using theorists like Abraham Maslow, Elton Mayo & Douglas Mcgregor and by stating modern day examples of companies with different principles of management as compared to Taylorism.

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

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

Taylor sought out Scientific management by diving the work process into small simple separate steps were each step was performed by one person. Scientific management came with its principles whereby there was a separation between worker and management. Management did “all of the thinking and job design” and the workers were to simply to follow orders and “do”. Taylor also believed that workers should be selected, trained and compensated as he believed in economic incentives. Scientific management brought about positive and negative feedback even though it was thought to be the rational solution to the new industrial revolution in America. It boosts productivity by 200% to 400%. More work was accomplished with fewer people, which meant more profit for the company. However, Taylor failed to understand that economic benefits was not the only motivation for workers.

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.

Scientific management was created and nurtured after industrial evolution in an era that science is regarded as a way of life and living. Frederick W. Taylor was a central figure in the development of scientific management theory. He and his contemporaries provided the early impetus for scientific management movement, which is also regarded as Taylorism. Following the urging of Fayol and Weber, who developed the management

This theory was formed by F.W Taylor who is known as father of scientific management. This theory focused on increasing productivity by increasing employee productivity. It focuses on organization of work at work place and staffing so that men, material, machines should be able to work in coordination with each other and high productivity to achieve organization goal. This theory help business to carefully select the workers with required skills, provide them training so that they can achieve efficiency and effectiveness in work.