Scientific management theory

 Introduction and definition

Scientific management theory (Frederick Winslow Taylor in the 1880s and 1890s) is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows and arose from the need to increase productivity when there was short supply at the beginning of the twentieth century. Frederick W Taylor, Henry L Gantt and Frank and Lillian Gilberth stated that the only way to expand  productivity was to raise the efficiency of workers (Sree Rama Rao, 2008).

Today's managers owe Frederick Winslow Taylor a debt for having laid much of the foundation of their profession. Taylor's work is responsible for workplace phenomena such as re-engineering and total quality management. Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) was an American engineer who made major contributions to the development of organizational theory and practice nd is considered as the father of scientific management. His publication of “The Principles of  Scientific Management” in 1911 was a major milestone in the evolving management theory  (Rose, 1988, Kanigel, 1999).

According to Taylor, work performance affected worker productivity. Taylor’s philosophy focused on the belief that making people work as  hard as they could was not as efficient as optimizing the way the work was done. Further he developed the four principles of scientific management, where he proposed that by

optimizing and simplifying jobs, productivity would increase. He argued that workers and managers needed to cooperate with one another. This changed the way work was previously done.

Before then workers and employers had very little contact and workers were left to produce on their own. There was no standardization and a worker’s main motivator. Taylor believed that all workers were motivated by fair days pay for a fair days pay. This means that workers would work better if they received a better pay.

However, he also claimed that the true mark of scientific management was a “complete mental revolution” on the part of Management and the workers. Taylor espoused collaboration between management and workers in building a larger surplus, instead of quarreling over how to divide the existing profit pie. Along with Henry Ford, he became a personification of American efficiency and industrial might. 

Formation and the development of the theory.

Although born to a wealthy family, Taylor began his work life when he signed on as an apprentice (trainee) at a small Philadelphia pump works. Four years later, at a plant in Midvale, he developed the basic elements of what later came to be known as scientific management the breakdown of work tasks into constituent elements, the timing of each element based on repeated stopwatch studies, the  fixing of piece rate compensation based on those studies, the standardization of work tasks on detailed instruction cards, and generally, the systematic consolidation of the shop floor's brain work in a planning department (Taylor F.W., 1911).

Frederick’s Scientific Management theory was presented to achieve this principal objective, by

eliminating waste and inefficiency. He believed that through methodical study and scientific

principles it w0as possible to establish the one-best-way of carrying out a  task or job, with the

focus being on the design and analysis of individual tasks, and once this method of work had

been established it had to be adhered to consistently, as opposed to the rule-of-thumb approaches

adopted by many managers at that time which the scientific management theory was advanced

from.

A rule of thumb is a general guidepost for determining behavior, or a rule that allows a person to

make a quick mathematical calculation or remember a formula. It exists to recall something else,

whether general or scientific in nature (Sharon Fenick, 1996).

The key elements in developing the ‘one-best-way’ being, firstly it is the accumulation of

knowledge about work tasks and then the creation of a set of basic rules and practices or the

development of a ‘science’, for each element  of a man’s work by simplifying the work and

breaking down the task into smaller tasks, which replaces the old rule-of-thumb method. “In the

past man has been first; in the future the system must be first,” (Taylor F.W. 1911). Secondly to

select, and then train, teach and develop workman, whereas in the past workman chose his own

work, trained himself as best  he could. Thirdly, management  cooperates with the workmen to

ensure all the work being done in accordance with the principles of the ‘science’, which has been

developed. Fourthly, segregation of the ‘work’ and ‘responsibility’ between the ‘workmen’ and the ‘management’, the management takes over all work for which they are better fitted than the

workmen. With this, maximum output is achieved instead of restricted output and the

development of each man to his greatest efficiency, higher wages and prosperity.

Taylor was concerned by what he saw as considerable inefficiency in the typical workplace of

his era. He posed the question: "What is the cause of this inefficiency?" He was curious about

why workers were often to be seen slacking. He concluded that some slacking is natural -- that

all persons have a natural inclination to take it easy.

Workers also tend to see their relationship with management as a fundamental conflict of

interest. If managers discover that work can be done faster, then piece rates tend to be reduced.

In essence, a worker's attempts to earn more money by increasing his/her own output is self-

defeating: The piece rate will be reduced, and then the worker and everybody else will have to

work harder just to stay in place.

Further, he concluded that there is systematic slacking where the working group controls output

through the enforcement of norms. Workers who don't adhere to group norms can expect

ostracism if not physical abuse. Workers, according to Taylor, thus evolve rational ways of

promoting their own (not the company's) best interests.

From his observations, management must also carry a large part of the blame. Too often, he

argues, they lack information about worker abilities. For example, they have rarely studies the

work itself to determine how long it takes to do  tasks. Managers engage in guess-work that is

frequently inaccurate. When management discovers that a job is too easy (that the worker

completes it too quickly) they often unilaterally/autocratically alter the times required to

complete the task. Not surprisingly, workers then collude to deceive management in order to

ensure maximum rewards for minimum effort (Taylor 1911).

Taylor's conceptualization is clearly a function of the era in which he lived in work. The early

industrial factory mixed the dynamism of new industrial technologies with the backwardness of

the medieval guild. Capital and labor were seen to be separated by a fault line of irresolvable20,

zero-sum conflict --  Management knew it was being cheated but couldn't prove it, while workers

knew that management was trying to cheat them. Frederick Taylor lived this conflict as an

apprentice and, later, resolved to do something about it. Taylor recognized that knowledge is power. Management had to understand what was happening

on the factory floor. Thus, the starting point of scientific management, according to Taylor, was

"the deliberate gathering in on the part of those on the management's side of all of the great mass

of traditional knowledge, which in the past has been in the heads of the workmen, and in the

physical skill and knack of the workmen, which he has acquired through years of experience."

Through his notorious time studies Taylor allowed those who ran the business to pierce the veil

of shop practice secrecy.

Taylor’s scheme was rational. Perhaps it was too rational. There was no place in Scientific

Management for workers as human beings. Essentially, Taylor saw the worker as but one

element in a work and work control system -- the worker was to do the work and the

management was to exercise control. For Taylor, the relationship between the worker and the

company was a straightforward economic transaction: pay in return for work performed. Factors

such as meaning, a sense of identity, or  empowerment were not part of Taylor’s

conceptualization. His models are based on assumptions about a "typical, economically

motivated" worker (Taylor 1911).

Brief history of the theory

In 1911, in America, F.W. Taylor published  his famous book, Principles of Scientific

Management, in which new principles of industrial organization are suggested and the

advantages of an extreme division of labour and mechanization are stressed. Taylor’s theory of

scientific management played a very important role in shaping the early twentieth century

factory system, both in America and in Europe. It produced an efficiency ‘mode’, which spread

throughout Europe before the First World War (Alfred Marshall, 1919).

According to Stephen Waring (1991), most business management theory descends from either

Frederick Taylor's bureaucratic theory of scientific management or Elton Mayo's corporatist idea

of human relations.

Frederick Taylor believed that decisions are based upon tradition and rules of thumb should be

replaced by precise procedures developed after  careful study of an individual at work. Its

application is contingent on a high level of managerial control over employee work practices. As its name suggests, scientific management theory was invented at a time when scientific to a

process was still novel or fresh enough to count as its own thing. Fundamentally, it’s a system

for exploiting your manpower to its maximum  potential and streamlining your production to

improve efficiency. It aims to bring to bear logic, rationalism, and other basic scientific values to

the world of business management by carefully analyzing production methods and standardizing

an ideal. 

The theory aims to get the most out of your workforce and reduce the general cost of labor. To

do so it puts into place systems that have been optimized and methods that can be followed by

anyone. Hence the theory states you can get the same results from unskilled labor, and pay them

less.

Scientific management theory tends to improve business efficiency in the short term. By

applying rigorous methods to production, it emphasizes results and disgusts anything done for its

own sake. Entrenched managers with a lifestyle  to maintain, workers who would prefer to idle

the day away, and production codes that waste resources are all disdainful to this view. Often this

can mean quick boosts in earning potential for the owners and managers. 

Frederick W Taylor’s basic principles (Sree Rama Rao , 2008)

The benefits of scientific management lie within its ability to coordinate a mutual relationship

between employers and workers. His treatise (thesis) records for posterity his four principles of

scientific management include:

1.  Scientific job analysis. Replace working by “rule of thumb” or simple habit and common

sense and instead use the scientific method to study work and determine the most

efficient way to perform specific tasks.

2.  Management cooperation. Rather than simply assign workers to just any job, match

workers to their jobs based on capability and motivation, and train them to work at

maximum efficiency.

3.  Functional supervising. Monitor worker performance, and provide instructions and

supervision to ensure that they’re using the most efficient ways of working. 4.  Selection of personnel. Allocate the work between managers and workers so that the

managers spend their time planning and training allowing the workers to perform their

tasks efficiently.

Taylor contended that the success of these principles required a complete mental revolution on

the part of management and labor. Rather than quarrel over profits, both sides should try to

increase production; by so doing  he believed profits would to such an extent that labor and

management would no longer have to fight over them. In short Taylor believed that management

and labor had a common interest in increasing productivity.

Taylor based his management  system on production-line time studies. Instead of relying on

traditional work methods, he analyzed and timed steel workers’ movements on a series of jobs.

Using time study as his base, he broke each job down into components and designed the quickest

and best methods of performing each component. In this way he established how much workers

should be able to do with the equipments and materials at and. He also encouraged employers to

pay more productive workers at a higher rate than others using a ‘scientifically correct rate’ that

would benefit both company and worker. Thus, workers were urged to surpass their previous

performance standards to earn more pay. Taylor called his plan the differential rate system.

Frederick W. Taylor’s assumptions 

Frederick assumptions in his scheme of things stated that workers would receive extraordinary

increases in wages in return for extraordinary increases in output. Thus, Taylor argued that the

unit costs would decrease significantly, making possible reduced prices and increased profits. It

was a positive move for higher wages, higher profits, and lower prices (Rose, 1988).

In addition Taylor made basic assumptions that were crucial to his theory of scientific

management (Friesen Group, 2010). They include:

1.  Unlike management, workers are of limited intelligence, innately idle, and driven by a

need for immediate gratification. 

2.  The presence of a capitalist system and a money economy, where companies in a free

market have as their main objective the improvement of efficiency and the maximization

of profit  3.  The Protestant work ethic, that assumes people will work hard and behave rationally to

maximize their own income, putting the perceived requirements of their organization

before their own personal objectives and goals 

4.  That an increased size is desirable in order  to obtain the advantages of the division of

labour and specialization of tasks 

Importance of scientific management theory

Scientific management is essential for any type of business these days. It aims at introducing new

and improved methods of production and removal of wastage and inefficiency in undertaking the

production activities. 

1.)  Increase in productivity. Aims at introducing new and improved methods of production

and removal of wastage and inefficiency in undertaking the production activities.

2.)   Increase in efficiency in quality and  quantity. Aims at introducing new and improved

methods of production and removal of wastage and inefficiency in undertaking the

production activities.

3.) Easy to keep track records of total  production, individual production and other

information’s in tabulated or calculated manner.

4.)  Improves relationship between employees, employers or other management authorities by

creating a friendly environment.

5.) Provides a formal environment and opportunity to improve social networking.

6.) Decrease in working hours which led to decrease in stress and improves efficiency.

7.) Providing opportunity to earn more for every individual in  form of incentives, referral

bonuses, and other bonuses.

8.) Decrease in rate of depletion of resources or reduces the wastage of resources.

9.) Profit margin at every turn over of a company also increases.

10.)  Employee satisfaction rate of a company also increases.

Critiques of taylorism

Taylorism promotes the idea that there is one right way to do something .As such, it is at odds

with current approaches such as MBO (Management By Objectives), Continuous Improvement

initiatives among others. These promote individual responsibility and seek to push decision making through all levels of the organization. The idea here is that workers are given as much

autonomy as practically possible, so that they can use the most appropriate approaches for the

situation at hand.

Teamwork is another area where this theory differs with modern practice, Taylorism breaks tasks

down into tiny steps and focuses on how each person can do his or her specific series of steps

best. Modern methodologies prefer to examine work systems more hectically in order to evaluate

efficiency and maximize productivity. The extreme specialization that Taylorism advocates for 

is contrary to modern ideals of how to provide a motivating and satisfying work place.

Where Taylorism separates manual from mental work, modern productivity enhancement

practices seek to incorporate workers ideas, experience and knowledge into best practice

.Scientific management in its pure form focuses  too much on the mechanics, and fails to value

the people side of work, whereby motivation and workplace satisfaction are key elements in an

efficient and productive organization.

Objectives of scientific management theory

1.  To revolutionalize the whole process of marketing

2.  To help increase the levels of profit by ensuring highest degree of customer service.

3.  To help labourers in overcoming problems and organization difficulties.

4.  To give a positive effect of new scientific techniques in production.

5.  To help alleviate mental, physical and technical issues of workers.

Taylor concluded that certain people could work more efficiently than others through a research

he conducted often called the shovel experimental design. These people were the people whom

managers should seek to hire where possible. Therefore, selecting the right people for the job

was another important part of workplace efficiency.

Taking from what he learnt from these workplace experiments, he developed four principles of

scientific management. These are: The rule of  the thumb which involves the use of scientific

methods to study work and determine the most efficient way to perform specific tasks, matching workers to their jobs based on capability and motivation and training them to work at maximum

efficiency and lastly monitoring worker performance and allocating the work between managers

and workers.

Conclusion

The data from these early examples suggest that first-line supervisors lost much of their authority

to higher-level managers and their staffs, the proportion of the work day devoted to production

increased as delays were eliminated, fewer decisions depended on personal judgments, biases,

and subjective evaluations, individual jobs were more carefully de-fined and some workers

exercised less discretion, in most cases earnings rose, but there were enough exceptions to blur

the effect, the level of skill required in production did not change, though the most highly skilled

employees, like foremen, lost some of their de facto managerial functions, and  some unskilled

jobs disappeared as improved scheduling and accounting reduced the need for labourers.

Though the initial impact of scientific management would have seemed surprisingly modest to a

contemporary reader of The Principles, in retrospect it is clear  that Taylor and  his associates

provided a forecast and a blueprint for changes  that would occur in most large industrial

organizations over the next many years to com.

 References

Aitken, Hugh G. J. Taylorism at Watertown Arsenal: Scientific Management in Action, 1908–

1915. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960. Case study of famous incident at the

height of Taylor's career.

Kanigel, Robert. The One Best Way: Frederick W. Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency. New

York: Viking, 1997. A readable, comprehensive biography.

Nadworthy, Milton J. Scientific Management and the Unions, 1900– 1932. Cambridge, Mass.:

Harvard University Press, 1955. Traces the great controversy of Taylor's later years.

Nelson, Daniel. Frederick W. Taylor and the  Rise of Scientific Management. Madison:

University of Wisconsin Press, 1980. Taylor's career as a manager and a theorist.

A Mental Revolution: Scientific Management since Taylor. Columbus: Ohio State University

Press, 1992. The evolution of scientific management after 1915.

Schachter, Hindy Lauer. Frederick Taylor  and the Public Administration Community: A

Reevaluation. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989. Scientific management and

government administration.

Taylor, Frederick W. Scientific Management. New York: Harper, 1947. A collection of Taylor's

major publications.