Taylor : The Pioneers Of Scientific Management Theory

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.

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 defined by (Robbins et al., 2012) as ‘an approach that involves using scientific methods to define the “one best way” for a job to be done’. Frederick W. Taylor is said to be the forefather of scientific management, during his time many people criticised Taylor and his work, however it is easy to see that many of his approaches are used in contemporary management systems. This essay will provide a review of the article ‘The Ideas of Frederick W. Taylor’, Academy of Management Review (Locke, E., 1982) which discusses the positives and negatives of Taylor’s theory. A further 3 articles will be analysed on the critiquing or support of scientific management and Taylor.

Let’s begin by analyzing F. W. Taylor. Taylor’s scientific method can be summed up as a systematic study of relationships between people and tasks to increase efficiency (Jones and George 2015). There are four principles involved in this method: (1) Study the way workers perform their tasks, gather all the informal job knowledge that workers possess, and experiment with ways of improving the ways that tasks are performed. This step has the similar attributes of the organizing and controlling tasks discussed earlier in that the controlling task also involves evaluating the division of labor. (2) Codify the new methods of performing tasks into written rules and standard operating procedures. This step is very much about the organizing task. Although there are written rules, this aspect diverges from the leading

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.

For centuries, scholars, philosophers, and lay-persons alike have been concerned about the issue of management. This includes management of processes, people, things, events, and societies all with the focus of the basic motivations that drive individuals to become most productive. Of course, outside of Maslow's Hierarchy, we know that compensation has historical been a great motivator, but in the modern age, there are more complex motivators that focus more on individual actualization. As long ago as Ancient Greece, philosopher Aristotle, in his Metaphysics, developed the thesis that reality is knowable through the senses and through reason. By rejecting mysticism, Aristotle became the father of the scientific method and established the intellectual foundation for the Renaissance and the Age of Reason. Eventually this spirit of scientific inquiry would form a basis for scientific management (Wren, 2005, p. 19)

From the end of 19th Century to the beginning of 20th Century, the United States of America achieved a major breakthrough in some areas of science and technology on the basis of inheriting European science and technology tradition, thus promoting the rapid development of agriculture and industry, even catching up and exceeding the UK. However, in order to further the development of production, it was necessary for America to have a breakthrough on the management. Then Frederick Taylor appeared, he was “the one who suddenly appear to reverse the situation at the crucial moment, and he was the key person to form a thought”.

Taylorism is a scientific management system that was developed by Fredrick Taylor in the 1880s. Taylorism works in a method based on F. Taylor’s scientific study of accomplishing different tasks instead of empirical methods or methods inspired by past experience and knowledge. Taylorism also tends to scientifically train and help develop employees’ skills instead of letting them train themselves during their time in the workplace. Another principle of Taylorism is that it gives comprehensive and detailed guidelines and supervision for each worker to perform tasks. Furthermore, workload must be split equally among the workers, which also allows the manager to apply Taylorism in order to plan their work and perform actual tasks.

Taylorism is a system that was designed in the late 19th century, not only to maximise managerial control, but to also expand the levels of efficiency throughout workplaces. With this being said, productivity levels increased and fair wage distribution was the main result. However, with other, more recent theories and systems, such as Maslow and Herzburg’s theories, these helped to focus on the satisfaction and motivation of the workers rather than the concern of managerial control and empowerment. Fredrick W. Taylor ended up developing 4 main principles to help increase the work efficiency and productivity in workplaces; these will be discussed later on. Other theories relating to this include, Fayol, Follett, Management Science Theory as

Taylor found out that by the use of scientific procedures and methods, the proficiency of workers can be increased and economy can gain substantial growth. The principles of scientific management introduced by Taylor were applied widely across the industries to increase the productivity of the organizations.Various researchers suggest that Taylor’s efforts unlocked the new prospects of management. Taylor created a mental revolution between the workers by outlining crystal guidelines for the improvement of production The principles of scientific management evolved during the embryonic phases of industrial revolution

‘Taylorism’ or ‘Scientific Management’ has been a prevalent idea in business theory since Frederick Winslow Taylor produced his “Principles of Scientific Management’ in 1911. The book was written in response to then President Theodore Roosevelt’s challenge to the American people to introduce new methods to create greater efficiency in the American workplace. Taylor’s idea was to ‘secure maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with maximum prosperity for the employee’1. Meaning companies could not gain high levels of production without an initiative for the work force,

Taylor 's Theory was developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor, it was mainly associated with Scientific Management. Taylor endeavoured to increase labour and productivity in the workplace through a thorough study of a worker 's role and design a more efficient and productive approach to their jobs, this procedure derived from the observation Taylor made of workers 'soldiering ', the term applied if a worker deliberately worked at less than maximum potential. Taylor 's studies would involve analysing and breaking down tasks, reorganising and then simplifying them (Van Delinder, 2005).

He claimed that this theory is to encourage production efficiency and productivity. According to his theory Taylor says that inefficiency can be controlled through scientific management of production. This theory is defined as “concerned with knowing exactly what you want men to do and then see in that they do it in the best and cheapest way". Taylor said scientific management affects both workers and employers, and stresses the control of the labor force by management. This theory is applicable to all kind of organization. Taylor’s scientific theory is based on four principles: (Scientific Management: Theories, Principles & Definition,

This theory focused on the belief that making someone work as hard as they could wasn’t nearly as efficient as optimizing how the person was doing that work. Taylor suggested that if jobs were optimized and simplified productivity would increase and that if management and workers cooperated with one another productivity would increase (MindTools.com, 2016). In his book published in 1909 entitled “The Principles of Scientific Management” Taylor introduced his four principles of scientific management. While scientific management received much criticism it has made many significant contributions in the advancement of management. It provided a way to study workplace efficiency, introduced systematic selection and promoted the idea of systematic organizational design (MindTools.com,

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.