Taylor's Scientific Management Approach

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

Scientific Management, or Taylorism, is a theory of management by F. W. Taylor that analysed how the highest economic efficiency, especially labour productivity, can be achieved, hence the greatest prosperity for both employers and employees. The four principles that he brought forward are the replacement of the ‘rule of thumb’ work method with a scientific way to study work, matching and training the most suitable person to do each particular job scientifically instead of leaving the workers to choose their own work and teach themselves, the provision of detailed instructions and standard operating procedures by the managers to workers to ensure “all of the work being done in accordance with the principles of the science” and the division of work between workers and managers, which managers are responsible for planning and supervising while workers are to complete the tasks they are assigned to.

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.

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?

“The principle object of management should be to secure maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for the employee…” (Taylor, 1911, p.9)

Today, there is increasing evidence of scientific management becoming dated as we become more focused on incorporating ideologies of modern management approaches. Chowdhury claims that, “There is much truth in the saying that every living practitioner is prisoner to the ideas of a dead theorist.” (2000, pp. 21). It is emphasised here how our view of theorists has dramatically changed over time and one of the reasons for this different perspective as seen in this century is discussed by Grint, “Management theory, especially American management theory, has generally been construed to represent this rational development towards a more effective system over time.” (1997, pp. 48). Due to gradual changes in management practices, it is evident that Taylor’s theory is arguably becoming less significant.

Frederick W. Taylor’s stared working in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He started the Scientific Management movement, and he and his associates were the first people to examine the work process scientifically. They all developed scientific management the earliest people of scientific management were Frederick W. Taylor’s (1856-1915), Frank Gilbreth (1868-1924), and Lillain Gilbreth (1878-1972). They studied how the work was performed, and they looked at how this affected worker productivity. He believed that increased efficiency could be achieved by selecting the right people for the job and training them to do it in exact terms in the one best

Frederick W. Taylor was recognized as the father of the "scientific management" theory. Taylor's Scientific Management Theory is not just a collection of purely technical principles and practices, but also the cooperation and harmonization of fundamental relationships between people and machines and techniques; between people in the production process, especially between the manager and the employee. Thanks to this theory applied in the industrial enterprises, the labor productivity has increased dramatically; The final result is high profitability, both employers and workers are high income. His scientific approach requires detailed observation and measurement of routine work, in order to find the best working way. Taylor’s approach is categorized as the bottom up approach.

For Scientific Management Theory, one of Taylor’s four principles was the rule of thumb where managers should think and use scientific method to increase production by

Taylorism, additionally known as Scientific Management, is a theory of management methodology that emphasizes on maximising work efficiency. Developed and named after an American industrial engineer, Frederick Winslow Taylor. Through thorough use of a stopwatch and a clipboard, Taylor put all his research and outcomes into a book called the Principles of Scientific Management, which was later published in 1911. In the monograph Taylor’s notion was to mend the economical proficiency, principally in the labouring output. He believed that there were great losses, when “the whole country is suffering through inefficiency in almost of all of our daily acts” (Taylor 1911) and that “remedies in inefficiency lies in systematic

In management literature today, the greatest use of the concept of Taylorism is as a contrast to a new, improved way of doing business. In political and

Scientific management theory was developed in the late 19th century by Fredric Winslow Taylor. At that time, the business environment was experiencing a revolution from agricultural to industrial dependency. As a result, a majority of the workers migrating from rural to industrial areas seeking employment opportunities were untrained and generally less effective. Taylor therefore sought to establish how an organization can enjoy maximum efficiency and productivity. He did this by scientifically studying the work flow process. Particularly, he was interested on how work was being conducted and the effect this had on individual productivity. He concluded that the level of efficiency and productivity between individual varied

Nowadays Taylor 's scientific management approach can still be found in many organizations, offices and firms. For example, McDonald 's hamburger chain, which the labor forces are often made up by high school or college students, is well adopt the Taylor 's principles. Because the students would be happy to be designed to fit for the organization. The work in McDonald 's is often organized in the minutest detail. Through the analysis of the production process, manager can find the most efficient procedures so that workers are trained in a very accurate way and then they are allocated to specialized duties. Such a system of work was great represented at the scientific management.

The innovation of the world today is towards its deal of materialistic presence of flow of nature. This era of modernization and innovation of the world as at its present view of today has given a chance and has helped to promote organizations whom seek to improve their businesses through efficiency and effectiveness with the help of the classical management theory which is Taylor’s management. Before getting into the depths about Taylor’s Management, let’s get a glimpse about the idea of management. Management is elaborated as an individual or a group of people that can take and follow the responsibilities to run a business or an organization in order to achieve the objectives and goals (Kaylan city life, 2011). The concept of management

Frederick W. Taylor is considered to be the father of scientific management, which arose within the field of industrial engineering during the late 1800s and