The Manifestation Of Frederick Taylor's Theory Of Scientific Management

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 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).

The fundamental theory behind scientific management is breaking down each part of a job to its science (Taylor). In the Principles of Scientific Management, Taylor talks about pig iron handlers, shoveling and bricklaying as a few examples in which he implemented scientific management. He proposed four important elements that are essential to scientific management. In this example Taylor discusses the science of bricklaying. First management must develop the science of bricklaying with standard rules of each task. Every task is designed to be perfect and standardized. The second element is selection and training. This step is important because Taylor wants an employee who is “first class,” meaning that they are the best at what they do, follow instructions and will not refuse to listen or adopt the new methods that management is executing. The third element is teaching the first class employee the science of bricklaying broken down by management. At this stage management is instructing the employee what to do, how to do it, and the best way to do it. Management is there to help them and watch that they are doing it “their” way and not

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.

On the other hand, scientific management also has significant limitations. It is obvious that Taylorism only targets and focuses on individual performance rather than group efforts. However, this is only good when applied to specialisation and repetitive work, because in these work fields, personal performance has higher significance and importance than group work. In this situation, other types of companies might miss out the benefits that group work is often able to bring. The theory of scientific management has stated out that the motivation built up for workers was with money as rewards,

When I am appointed as a consultant by the Government to research and suggest improvements for the organization, I would put forward the following points that are mandatory to be changed and as mentioned in the question, I shall find and suggest measures to improve the company policy and rules as it is being criticized for “Taylorism”, which in it’s own way has pros and cons.

Despite many criticisms, and a wealth of newer theories on the topic of managing people, Taylorism (i.e. Scientific Management) is alive and well in the 21st century.

‘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,

Fredrick Taylor, another management theorist invented the principle of scientific management showing five simple management principles: 1. Shift all responsibility for the organisation of work from the worker to the manager. Managers think, plan, and design work, while the workers does the implementation, 2. Use scientific method to determine the most efficient way of doing work. Design worker’s task accordingly, specifying the precise way in which the work is to be done, 3. Select the best person to perform the job thus designed, 4. Train the worker to do the work effectively, 5. Monitor worker performance to ensure that appropriate work procedures are followed and that appropriate results are achieved. (Morgan 1997)

The scientific management approach has originated from the work of Frederick Winslow Taylor and his colleagues in an attempt to resolve the problems and needs of organisations during the industrial revolution. According to Taylor, there are six main characteristics of this approach. Firstly, the speed at which the employees perform their tasks is determined by the speed of the conveyor line instead of their natural rhythm (Mullins, 2005). Secondly, each worker is meant to perform the same task

The scientific approach was created by Fredrick Taylor, who use scientific measures in analyzing assignments determine ways of increasing work efficiency (Benders, 2004). Taylor developed four philosophies of scientific management (Benders, 2004). First, managers should create a scientific perspective to work, and it should replace work guidelines. Second, managers need to hire and train employees in order for the right duty to be performed by the right person. Third, managers need to cooperate with workers in orders for jobs to match specific strategies. Finally, management needs to guarantee a suitable division of duties between employees and managers. Scientific management focuses on the need for teamwork between

Taylorism, the principles or practice of scientific management, was introduced by a devout Quaker and a mechanical engineer, Frederick Taylor, whose main focus was how a business could survive. In his essay The Principles of Scientific Management, Taylor writes “the principal object of management should be to secure the maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for each employee” (1911). The application of science management came at a time when scientific discovery and natural science was branching off and most work was still manual. It took the personalization out of the employer-employee relationship and brought together a productive partnership between management and labour. Time and motion study assessed the output a normal worker could achieve at normal speed for a given time. Rationality, objectiveness, analyticity, and science were the keys to the methodology behind the scientific management theory leading to a more measureable approach

Frederick Taylor (1856 – 1915) called the father of scientific management and the ancestor of the entire system of scientific organization of production, and more than a hundred years, the whole modern theory and practice in the field of scientific labor organization uses “Taylor “heritage. And it is no coincidence that the theory was based management engineer, thoroughly knowledgeable technology industrial enterprise and their own experience to know all the features of the relationship between workers and managers. “The goal of scientific management was to use systematic study to find the one best way of doing each task” (Williams, p. 24)

Scientific Management is a theory of management that analyzed and synthesized workflows. Its main objective was improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity.