2. The scientific selection of the workman
3. The scientific education and development of the workman
4. Intimate and friendly cooperation between the management and the men." (Taylor, Frederick W., 1964, P.130)
Taylor taught that there was one and only one method of work that maximized efficiency. "And this one best method and best implementation can only be discovered or developed through scientific study and analysis... This involves the gradual substitution of science for 'rule of thumb' throughout the mechanical arts." (Kanigel, Robert, 1997, P.75) "Scientific management requires first, a careful investigation of each of the many modifications of the same implement, developed under rule of thumb; and second, after time and motion study has been made of the speed attainable with each of these implements, that the good points of several of them shall be unified in a single standard implementation, which will enable the workman to work faster and with greater easy than he could before. This one implement, then is the adopted as standard in place of the many different kinds before in use and it remains standard for all workmen to use until superseded by an implement which has been shown, through motion and time study, to be still better." (Taylor, Frederick W., 1964, P.119)
An important barrier to use of scientific management was the limited education of the lower level of supervision and of the work force. A large part of the factory population was composed of recent immigrants who lacked literacy in English. In Taylor's view, supervisors and workers with such low levels of education were not qualified to plan how work should be done. Taylor's solution was to separate planning from execution. "In almost all the mechanic arts the science which underlies each act of each workman is so great and amounts to so much that the workman who is best suited to actually doing the work is incapable of fully understanding this science." (Taylor, Frederick W., 1964, P.25) To apply his solution, Taylor created planning departments, staffed them with engineers, and gave them the responsibility to: develop scientific methods for doing work, establish goals for productivity, establish systems of rewards for meeting the goals, train the personnel in how to use the methods and therefore meet the goals.
Perhaps the key idea of scientific management and the one which has drawn the most criticism was the concept of task allocation. Task allocation is the concept that breaking task into smaller and smaller tasks allows the determination of the optimum solution to the task. "The man in the planning room, whose specialty is planning ahead, invariably finds that the work can be done more economically by subdivision of the labour; each act of each mechanic, for example, should be preceded by various preparatory acts done by other men." (Taylor, Frederick W., 1964, P.38)
The main argument against Taylor is this reductionist approach to work dehumanizes the worker. The allocation of work specifying not only what is to be done but how it is to done and the exact time allowed for doing it, is seen as leaving no scope for the individual worker to excel or think. This argument is mainly due to later writing rather than Taylor's work as Taylor stated "The task is always so regulated that the man who is well suited to his job will thrive while working at this rate during a long term of years and grow happier and more prosperous, instead of being overworked." (Taylor, Frederick W., 1964, P.39) Taylor's concept of motivation left something to be desired when compared to later ideas. His methods of motivation started and finished at monetary incentives. While critical of the prevailing distinction of "us "and "them" between the workforce and employers, he tried to find a common ground between the working and managing classes. "The knowledge obtained from accurate time study, for example, is a powerful implement, and can be used, in one case to promote harmony between workmen and the management, by gradually educating, training, and leading the workmen into new and better methods of doing the work, or in the other case, it may be used more or less as a club to drive the workmen into doing a larger day's work for approximately the same pay that they received in the past." (Nelson, Daniel, 1941, P.133)
Scientific Study and standardization were important parts of the Scientific Management. One example was the study undertaken to determine the optimum shovel load for workers. The figure of 21 pounds (Taylor, Frederick W., 1964, P.66) was arrived at by the study. To ensure that this shovel load was adhered to, a series of different shovels were purchased for different types of material. Each shovel was designed to ensure that only 21 pounds could be lifted. This stopped the situation where "each shoveller owned his own shovel that he would frequently go from shoveling ore, with a load of about 30 pounds per shovel, to handling rice coal, with a load on the same shovel of less than 4 pounds. In the one case, he was so overloaded that it was impossible for him to do a full day's work, and in the other case he was so ridiculously under-loaded that it was manifestly impossible to even approximate a day's work." (Taylor, Frederick W., 1964, P.67)
The fear of redundancies within the workforce was a valid argument during the previous style of management. Taylor not only countered this argument by using economic arguments of increased demand due to decreased pricing but put forward the idea of sharing the gains with the workforce. Taylor saw the weaknesses of piece work in the workers reactions to gradual decreases in the piece rate as the worker produced more pieces by working harder and/or smarter. The worker then is determined to have no more reduction in rate by "soldiering". This deception leads to an antagonistic view of management and a general deterioration of the worker and management relationship.
Taylor also was a strong advocate of worker development. It follows that the most important object of both the workman and the establishment should be the training and development of each individual in the establishment, so that he can do the highest class of work for which his natural abilities for him. Taylor's idea on management and workers speaks of justice for both parties. "It (the public) will no longer tolerate the type of employer who has his eyes only on dividends alone, who refuses to do his share of the work and who merely cracks the whip over the heads of his workmen and attempts to drive them harder work for low pay. No more will it tolerate tyranny on the part of labour which demands one increase after another in pay and shorter hours while at the same time it becomes less instead of more efficient." (Nelson, Daniel, 1941, P. 139) Taylor's system was widely adopted in the United States and the world. Although the Taylor system originated in the factory production departments, the concept of separating planning from execution was universal in nature, therefore, had potential application to other areas, such as production support services, offices operations and service industries.
A basic tenet of scientific management was that employees were not highly educated and thus were unable to perform any but the simplest tasks. Modern thought is that all employees have intimate knowledge of job conditions and are therefore able to make useful contributions. Rather than dehumanizing the work and breaking the work down into smaller and smaller units to maximize efficiency without giving thought to the job satisfaction of the working. Encouragement of work based teams in which all workers may contribute. Such contributions increase worker morale, provide a sense of ownership, and improve management-worker relations generally.
Bibliography & References
1. Tony J. Watson, (1995), Sociology, Work and Industry, 3rd Edition,
2. Taylor, Frederick W., (1964), The principles of Scientific Management.
3. Nelson, Daniel, (1941), Frederick W. Taylor and the rise of scientific management.
4. Kanigel, Robert, (1997), The one best way: Frederick Winslow Taylor and the enigma of efficiency.
5. Drury, HB, (1915), Scientific management.
