Frederick Winslow Taylor & Scientific Management.

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Riyaz A Sayed                                                                                                        MD2018

Frederick Winslow Taylor & Scientific Management

Frederick Taylor is the individual who is often associated with the system regarded as scientific management, and without a doubt, he was the mastermind of these concepts. Nonetheless, there were also others in the field of scientific management who had as much, if not greater effect on the workplace. According to Sullivan (1987), Taylor's efforts were not only the start of the managerial era in industrial production but also the conclusion of the craft ages in the United States.

Taylor was an American mechanical engineer, who focused on the relation between the worker and the machine based production system which at that time was widespread. He wrote that ‘the principal object of management should be to secure the maximum prosperity for the employer, couple with the maximum prosperity for each employee’ (Taylor, 1917). He believed that the method to attain this was to make sure that workers achieve their highest state of efficiency. And it was the managements responsibility to find out the optimum way of performing any job, through the use of precise scientific testing which involved the breaking down of each activity in to their smallest components, and systematically analysing each step (Noon & Blyton, 2002).  Once the best way of performing the job was allocated, it was the management’s duty to fit the right person to each job. The employee should have the required skills-acquired by systematic training- to complete the job, and no more then those required by the job.

As part of a general plan for increasing the planning functions of management, Taylor advocated fundamental principles intended to help managers to attain this great control and predictability, such as using scientific methods to determine the one best way of doing a particular task, rather then rely on older ‘rule of thumb’ methods, and give financial incentives to make sure that all work is completed in accordance with the set method.  All the responsibility for planning and organising work was shifted from the worker to the manager (Boddy & Paton, 1998). These systems required that management should take a more active role in the factory and, through engineers and salaried foremen, take greater control over operations. Skilled craftsmen and foremen had to give up their power (Hirschhorn, 1984).

Taylor’s underlining philosophy was that fact and the scientific analysis should inform managers and not the guesswork. Like Smith and Babbage prior to him, he assumed that if tasks were as routine and predictable as possible efficiency will rise. He therefore advocated the use of techniques such as time and motion studies, standardised tools and individual incentives (Boddy & Paton, 1998). Control would be increased if work would be broken down into small, specific tasks. Specialist managerial staff, would design these, and generally plan the work of manual staff:

The work of every workman is fully planned out by the management at least one day in advance, and each man receives in most cases complete written instructions, describing in detail the task which he is to accomplish, as well as the means to be used in doing the work… This task specifies not only what is to be done but how it is to be done and the exact time allowed for doing it. (Taylor, 1917, p.39)

It was at Bethlehem Steel Corporation, where Taylor was appointed as a management consultant, that he applied his ideas on scientific management to the handling of pig iron. A group of 75 men were loading an average of 12.5 tons per man per day. Taylor decide to employ Schmidt, a Dutch labourer, whom he said was a ‘high-priced’ man with a status for placing a high value on money, and a man of restricted mental ability. By carrying out thorough instructions, as when to pick up pig iron and walk, and when to sit and rest, and with no back talk, Schmidt output was increased to 47.5 tons per day, which he maintained through out the three years of the testing. In return Schmidt received a 60% increase in wages compared to that paid to the other men (Mullins, 2002).

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As time passed other men were also selected and trained to handle pig iron at the rate of 47.5 tones per day and in return they would received 60% extra wages. Taylor drew attention to the need for the scientific selection of the workers (Mullins, 2002). With no loss of production, Taylor managed to cut down the workforce from 500 to 140, and it was this that made Taylor a well-known individual in the eyes of the public.

Taylor believed industrial productivity was poorer than it should be because of intentional absence of the workforce and unscientific design of work ...

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