The Contingency Theory : The Importance Of 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

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.

Compare and contrast the management theories of Frederick Taylor, Henri Fayol, Elton Mayo and Douglas McGregor. In what sense(s) are these theories similar and/or compatible? In what sense(s) are these theories dissimilar and/or incompatible? How would a contingency theorist reconcile the points of dissimilarity and/or incompatibility between these approaches?

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.

Classical management theory or scientific management came to prominence in the early 1900 hundreds and Fredrick Taylor’s work was pioneering in this area of management theory (Taneja, 2011). One definition of scientific management that Taylor endorsed was that it is “a system devised by industrial engineers for the purpose of serving the common interests of employers, workmen and society at large through the elimination of avoidable wastes, the general improvement of the processes and methods of production, and the just and scientific distribution of the product” (Hoxie, 1915:140). Delving deeper into classical management theory, this paper looks at two more recent proponents of management theory, namely Henri Fayol and Henry Mintzberg. Both had their theories on classical management theories which will be critically analysed. It will also be shown how these theories apply to modern day organisations.

Scientific Management Theory by Frederick W. Taylor – Throughout the industrial world employees are the large part of the organisation and Fundamental interests of employees are necessarily aggressive. So as a manager it is necessary to arrange mutual relations with employees so their interests become identical. In case of any single individual the greatest prosperity can exist only when that individual has reached his highest state of efficiency and that is, when he is turning out his largest daily output (Frederick Winslow Taylor, 2007).

Scientific management is an organizational theory that was discovered by Frederick Taylor. He was concerned with scientifically developing the worker to become more efficient. Taylor wrote a book called, The Principle of Scientific Management (Rimer, Waring, Wrege, & Greenwood, 1993). In this book he highlights four major principles to his theory. The first is that there is one best way to do every job. This is determined through time and motion studies to determine what’s the most effective way. The second point is proper scientific selection of workers. Thirdly, is properly training the workers in what is deemed as the best practice. The last point is defining the inherent differences and relationships between manager and worker. Managers should be in charge of administrative tasks, as well as being the thinkers, and planners of the organization. Workers on

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

The scientific management approach to leadership, which Tony follows, is a “mechanistic” (Mele, 2003, p.77) approach of management which gives Tony greater control within the organisation. Freedman (1992) argues that this management style guarantees maximum efficiency in workplaces as it allows managers to identify the ‘one best method’ for completing tasks. Managers then create standardised procedures for workers to follow (Freedman, 1992) which allows for increased productivity. Similarly, Coy (2007) suggests that jobs and tasks should be defined in detail so that employees are not using their discretion to complete tasks. In implementing strict rules and procedures for employees to follow, Tony is attempting to simplify tasks for employees by defining their duties specifically. Tony believes that by exerting greater control over organisational processes, he’s ensuring that productivity is at its peak and output is maximised.

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

Management cannot be simply defined, there are several different definitions, and factors influencing whether it is successful. One definition of management is “the ability to forecast and plan, to organise, to command and to co-ordinate” (Naylor 2004, p. 25). In addition, Tony Watson believes management is the ability to organize and pull things together in order to create long-term survival to the organisation (Needle 2010, p. 228). Authority can be defined as the power or right to give orders and make decisions, whereas influence is the ability to affect ideas and actions. In terms of being successful, it can be defined in terms of monetary rewards, whereas others may say it can be defined by having a positive impact on others. In this essay I will assess the idea of management, and the ways in which it can be successful, and whether influence or authority is the key determinist.

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,

Although the contingency theory argues completely against Management as being referred to science and especially Taylors ‘one best way’ as contingency theory “takes a situational (rather than a one-best-way) view of organisation structure and managerial activity” (Bowditch, J. and Buono, A (1990)) which means that instead of a singlesolution to way of management there is actually different methods for different

The business environment of developing economies is constantly changing and organisations must learn that adaption is the key to survival. The purpose of this investigation is to assess whether the perspective of scientific management or that of the human relations model of management best explains why some organisations fail whilst others thrive in an ever changing environment. Management models help to simplify reality and have been adopted by several areas from business to astronomy. The purposes of the models are to be guides to organising and effectively managing an organisation. The scientific management model created by Taylor et al was a response to the problem of how to organise factory production efficiently (Moxen, 2015). Whereas the human relations model was created as a response to Mayo and Hawthorne’s experiments which identified that humans are social beings with several needs and wants which has since been adapted by others such as Mary Parker Follet (Moxen, 2015). Throughout this essay how capable each model is to reacting to change will be investigate this will allow to decipher on the best approach for organisations to adopt. Therefore this will allow further discussions of both management models, the contrast existing between them and their individual aims. Also by investigating why some organisations can fail whilst others thrive through the changes will allow for a structured argument.