Scientific Management - Taylorism Essay

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

The aim of this essay is to describe and evaluate the application of Taylors Scientific Management approach by the chosen manager in his organization and in the 21st century and to discuss about the relevancy of this management approach with the manager. Taylor’s Scientific Management method marked the beginning of modern management in 1911. Taylor came up with this management approach to reduce the inefficiency in the workplace. Taylor’s Scientific Management Theory involves the implementation of scientific methods to illustrate the “one best way” of doing a specific job. According to Nawaz (2011), “Frederick Taylor thought that there was one and only one method of work that maximized the competence or efficiency” (p. 5542). Many managers

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.

Equal work for equal pay is a term we hear more frequently now that in previous decades. While this particular inequality still takes place by many employers, it has gotten better. Other issues concerning the gender wage gap such as job accessibility for women and pay in relation to education level are issues receiving more attention now than in recent years because of the times we now live in. Even with the strides our country and others have made in laws, the pay inequalities women suffer are still seen when comparing their wages to those of men. The wage gap continues to be wide between both genders as the reality that men hold powerful positions and are offered advantages that women are still not privy

Throughout the history women have not received the same treatment as men in terms of education, status and profession, in fact one of the issues that still exist is the gender pay gap, which is a social problem that still exists not only across the UK, but also across the world. The main issues are that women are equally trained and educated as men but in general women’s salaries in some situations are usually lower.

“Annual data for 2012, the latest year for which data are available, estimate that women earn 77 percent of what men do for working full-time, year-round, while weekly data put the estimate at 82.1 percent” (Glynn). As time has progressed, the wage gap has greatly increased due to gender segregation. When the median wages of both men and women have been averaged together, men have been found to have a significant advantage in their pay over women. Moreover, the wage gap between males and females can be used as a representation that expresses the difference in pay in today’s society. This pay gap can be used as an indication to measure the inequality between genders. The impact of the wage gap has been a controversial issue between men and

Frederick Winslow Taylor, a mechanical engineer born in Philadelphia, was responsible for putting together the system called Scientific Management. Taylor’s introduction of new ideas and methods in industrial engineering, distinctly in time and motion study, proved to be fruitful in improving productivity. Taylor outlined the methods and techniques of Scientific management in his book which was published in 1911. Taylor was not an admirer of the ‘rule of thumb’ principle. The rule of thumb concept means that management would implement methods within the enterprise, based on their past experiences. Hence, Taylor found this to be flawed, as specific outcomes were not guaranteed. Taylor’s main objective was to ensure that wastage and inefficiency

Scientific management, which is also known as Taylorism, is based on the systematic study of work relations in contrast to reliance on preconceived notions and hunch. One of the underlying assumptions concerning this management approach is that the worker is a biological machine; the “typical economically motivated worker” (Frederick Winslow Taylor, Miller and Form, 1964). The four principles devised by Taylor were: 1. Using science for each element of work to replace old unwritten rules by setting up accurate time and motion study. 2. Managers should select and train workers based on controlled experiments. 3. Both managers and workers are adhering to a system based on scientific equality and using “wages and other rewards linked to achievement of „optimum goals. – measures of work performance and output; failure to achieve these would in contrast result in loss of earnings” (Modern Management Theories and Practices, 2004). 4. Job fragmentation is important because this approach aims for optimum efficiency which could be achieved by deskilling.

For centuries, human beings have constantly dealt with various forms of discrimination; whether it is religion, race, gender or other factors that make individuals different from one another, discrimination occurs every day. Inequality in the work force is a type of discrimination that is prevalent globally. Females, who are as equally educated, trained and experienced as their male colleagues, are not receiving equal pay — resulting in a gender wage gap. According to a study conducted by Christianne Corbett, M.A. and Catherine Hill, Ph.D. (2012), women, around the age of 23, who graduated from the same post-secondary school as men in 2008 and who were employed full-time in 2009 earned 82 cents for every dollar that men earned. Moreover, after many years of a consistent female to male earnings ratio of approximately 60%, the relative salary of females started to increase sharply in the late 1970s, with a continuous, yet slower and more fluctuated rise thereafter (Blau and Kahn, 2016). The Institute for Woman’s Policy Research (IWPR) has tracked this trend and predicted that it will likely take 45 more years for females to ultimately reach wage parity with males (Hegewisch and DuMonthier, 2010). With the increased opportunity for careers and contribution in the workplace by men and women, alike, the gender wage gap continues to be an important social issue in modern society.

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.

Women workers in society have been and still are deemed as the weaker and inferior sex in the workforce. This idea is reinforced as women in the workforce are not given the same opportunities to advance in their careers as men or experience the ‘glass ceiling’ effect, women are forced into education or domestic responsibility and are seen to pursue in feminized or feminine sectors of the workforce (Cool, J, 2010). Thus saying, I argue this thinking is validated thorough the practices of gender inequality, most importantly thorough the existence of the gender wage gap. The gender wage gap is defined as “the gap between the median wages for men and women. The gap between men 's and women’s wages exists in nearly every occupation, in all

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

There is an apparent gender wage inequality in the wage industry. According to National Women’s law center, if single mothers able to work , their wage is 22 cent less than males who work same job. There is also race discrimination and this trend is fueled by connections inside and outside of the labor market. These relationships are translated into shaping of work roles and economic power either by women's choice or because men prefer it to be that way (Polakow