Scientific Management,
also known as Taylorism is propounded by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the first
decade of the 20th century. It is a theory of management that
analyses and synthesises workflows. Its main objective is improving economic
efficiency, especially labour productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts
to apply science to the engineering of processes and to management.
However, Taylor was not
the originator of the Scientific Management Theory and before him Charles
Babbage, Henry R Towne, Fredrick Halsey and Henry Metcalf developed and used
some scientific management methods and techniques. Though, the term Scientific
Management was first coined by Louis Brandies in 1910. But, it was Taylor who
used the term to give a complete and systematic explanation of scientific
methods and techniques for promoting the organisational efficiency and economy.
Hence, he came to be known as the Father of Scientific Management.
Taylor’s contribution
to growth of Scientific Management is contained in his books like:
- A piece Rate System- 1895
- Shop Management- 1903
- Art of Cutting Metals- 1906
- Principles of Scientific Management- 1911
Taylor was born on 20th
March, 1856 in German town of Philadelphia, USA. Taylor's father, Franklin
Taylor was a Princeton educated lawyer and his mother, Emily Annette Winslow Taylor
was an ardent abolitionist. Early, Taylor was educated by his mother, after
that he studied for two years in France and Germany and traveled Europe for 18
months. Taylor wanted to be a lawyer like his father so that, he entered
Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire in 1872, with the plan of eventually
going to Harvard. In 1874, Taylor passed the Harvard entrance examinations with
honors. However, due allegedly to rapidly deteriorating eyesight, Taylor chose
quite a different path. But Taylor never demoralized, soon he became an
apprentice pattern-maker and machinist in Enterprise Hydraulic Works in
Philadelphia. Later on, he left his apprenticeship for six months and
represented a group of New England Machine Tool Manufacturers at Philadelphia's
centennial exposition and finished his four year apprenticeship here. In 1878,
he became a machine shop worker at Midvale Steel Works. At Midvale, he was
quickly promoted to time clerk then machinist, then gang boss over the lathe
hands, then machine shop foreman, then research director, and finally chief
engineer of the works.
Taylor was awarded an
honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Pennsylvania on 19th
October, 1906. He eventually became a professor at the Tuck School of Business
at Dartmouth College. In 1915, Taylor caught pneumonia and died one day after his
59th birthday on 21st March, 1915.
Development of
Scientific Management:
During apprenticeship in
Enterprise Hydraulic Works, Taylor gained shop-floor experience. During working
in Midvale, Taylor recognised that workmen were not working their machines or
themselves, nearly as hard as they could (which at the time was called Soldiering)
and that this resulted in high labour costs for the company. When he became a
foreman, he expected more output from the workmen. Instant of determining how
much work should properly be expected, he began to study and analyse the
productivity of both the men and the machines. His focus on the human component
of production Taylor labeled scientific management.
In between 1890 to 1893,
Taylor worked as a General Manager and a consulting engineer to management for
the Manufacturing Investment Company of Philadelphia, a company that operated
large paper mills in Maine and Wisconsin. He spent time as a Plant Manager in
Maine. In 1893, Taylor opened an independent consulting practice in
Philadelphia. His business card read "Consulting Engineer- Systematising
Shop Management and Manufacturing Costs a Specialty". Through these
consulting experiences, Taylor perfected his management system.
Taylor joined Bethlehem
Steel in order to solve an expensive machine-shop capacity problem in 1898. As
a result, he with the assistant of Maunsel White, developed high speed steel
which paving the way for greatly increased mass production. After leaving
Bethlehem Steel in 1901, Taylor focused the rest of his career on publicly
promoting his management and machining methods through lecturing, writing, and
consulting.
In 1910, owing to the
Eastern Rate Case, Frederick Winslow Taylor and his Scientific Management
methodologies become famous worldwide. In 1911, Taylor introduced his The
Principles of Scientific Management paper to the American mechanical
engineering society, eight years after his Shop Management paper.
Three Assumptions of
Taylor’s Scientific Management:
The three assumptions of scientific management are as follows:
- The organisational functioning can be improved with the application of scientific method.
- A good worker is one who does not initiate action, but accepts the orders of management.
- Every worker is an economic man, means he is motivated by monetary factors.
Principles of the Scientific
Management:
Taylor elaborated four
principles of the Scientific Management, they are:
- Develop a science for each element of a man’s work, which replaces the old rule of thumb method. By this one best way of doing a task can be decided and the standard output can be determined.
- Scientifically selection and then train, teach and develop workmen.
- Management should fully cooperate with workers, so as to ensure that the work is done in accordance with the scientific principles developed for this purpose.
- There must be equal division of work and responsibility between management and workers. The management should take over all work for which they are better suited.
Taylor summaries the
philosophy of the above principles as:
- Science, not Rule of Thumb.
- Harmony, not Discord.
- Cooperation, not Individualism.
- Maximum output, not Restricted output
- The development of each man to his greatest and prosperity.
Methods of Scientific
Management:
The methods of scientific
management are as follows:
Functional Foremanship:
Taylor advocated the concept of functional foremanship rather than single
foremanship. Under functional foremanship the worker is supervised and guided
by eight functional foremen. Of eight functional foremen four are responsible
for planning and others four are responsible for execution and serve on shop
floor (lower level). They are:
Functional Foremanship |
Functional foremen for planning:
- Order-of-work and route clerk
- Instruction card clerk
- Time and cost clerk
- Shop disciplinarian
Functional foremen for
execution:
- Gang boss
- Speed boss
- Inspector
- Repair boss
Thus, it will
facilitate specialization as well as separation of planning from execution.
Motion Study: It is the
method of standardization of work techniques. Motion study is designed to
determine a preferable work with consideration to tools and equipments, raw
materials, hand and body motion, and so on. In short, it is meant for finding
out the One Best Way to do a work.
Time Study: It is used
to determine the standard time for completion of work. It facilitates planning
of a large daily task and follows the motion study. The use of the Stop Watch
is very necessary in this method.
Differential Piece Rate
Plan: Taylor said the payment should be inspired by motion and time studies,
this pay plan was called as the differential piece rate plan. For example:
workers are paid a low piece rate up to a standard, a large bonus at the
standard and a higher piece rate above the standard. Taylor further suggested
that a worker who is unable or unwilling to produce the standard should be
removed.
Exception Principle:
This principle is involved in set up a large daily task by the management with
reward for achieving targets and penalty for not meeting it. Taylor further
suggested that the manager should not be interested in items that are at
standard performance but should be concerned mainly with exceptional items that
vary from standard performance.
Criticism of the
Scientific Management:
Scientific management
provides innumerable merits but despite that it has been criticised by
different sections of society.
- It was criticised as a partial theory of organization due to its concentration on the shop floor activities and neglect of organizational processes beyond that level. It did not stress the integration and coordination of higher levels of the organization.
- It is criticised as a mechanistic theory of organisation as it neglected the human side. In other words, it interpreted the organizational efficiency in mechanistic terms only. It treated workers as a machine and sought to make him as efficient as the machine itself. That is why it was opposed by the workers.
- It was criticised as it ignores or underestimates the human motivation. It explained human motivation mainly in terms of economic factors and did not emphasise the social and psychological aspects of motivation. This came to be known as the Monistic Theory of Motivation.
- March and Simon described it as Physiological Organisation Theory because scientific management concern with only that range of worker’s behaviour which pertained to production.
- Trade Union also criticised the scientific management because it curtails the involvement of trade union through applying the Mental Revolution. This principle resolves all the disputes between the employers and workers.
- Managers also opposed the theory because they would lose their judgment and discretion and their work and responsibilities increases.
As far as in my view,
Taylorism is a true science as it rests on clearly fixed laws, rules and
principles which have universally applicable in any organisation. It focuses on
shop floor of the organisation and aims at studying the relationship between
the physical nature of work and the physiological nature of workmen. Scientific
Management emphasises on specialization, predictability, technical competence
and rationality for improving the organisational efficiency and economy.