Scientific Management

Scientific Management
Course: Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS)
Module: Principals of Management
Title: Explain Scientific Management. Comment on the contribution of this approach to the development of management thought. What are its
limitations?
33
Submission Date: 8th of March 2010
Word Count 2183
"The Principal object of management should be to secure the maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for each
employee" (Taylor, 1947)
Introduction
The Author will discuss Scientific Management under the following headings: Section 1 An explanation on Scientific Management. Section 2, The
contribution of Scientific Management to the development of Management thought and Section 3 looks at the limitations...show more content...
Division of Labour
Scientific management gives managers control and this can be seen in many of our call centres whether its directory enquires or calling the bank 'thank
you for calling and how may I direct your call?' these scripts show us 21st Century management control. Management see these scripts as necessary to
keep workers efficient and consistent but it is just modern day Taylorism which assumes that workers are dim and lazy.

Selection and training of workers
Finding the 'best' person for the job is still a challenge for many companies. Many companies now use automated curriculum vitae processing by
computers with scientific personality testing to try and match the job to the right person. Employers are looking for employees to work hard, be
flexible and to be skilled. It is imperative to get the right people, with the right skills in the right positions and at the right time. Choosing the right
people may increase an organisations competitive advantage which is after all central to competitive success of any organisation.
Limitations of scientific management
Scientific management has been in a state of constant evolution since its adoption. The objective of the scientific management movement was to
increase efficiency by carefully planning workers' movement in the most
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The Principles of Scientific Management (1911) by Frederick Winslow Taylor, M.E., Sc. D. CHAPTER II: THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC
MANAGEMENT THE writer has found that there are three questions uppermost in the minds of men when they become interested in scientific
management. First. Wherein do the principles of scientific management differ essentially from those of ordinary management? Second. Why are better
results attained under scientific management than under the other types? Third. Is not the most important problem that of getting the right man at the
head of the company? And if you have the right man cannot the choice of the type of management be safely left to him? One of the principal objects of
...show more content...
The problem before the management, then, may be briefly said to be that of obtaining the best initiative of every workman. And the writer uses the
word "initiative" in its broadest sense, to cover all of the good qualities sought for from the men. On the other hand, no intelligent manager would
hope to obtain in any full measure the initiative of his workmen unless he felt that he was giving them something more than they usually receive
from their employers. Only those among the readers of this paper who have been managers or who have worked themselves at a trade realize how
far the average workman falls short of giving his employer his full initiative. It is well within the mark to state that in nineteen out of twenty
industrial establishments the workmen believe it to be directly against their interests to give their employers their best initiative, and that instead of
working hard to do the largest possible amount of work and the best quality of work for their employers, they deliberately work as slowly as they
dare while they at the same time try to make those over them believe that they are working fast. [note 1] The writer repeats, therefore, that in order to
have any hope of obtaining the initiative of his workmen the manager must give some special incentive to his men beyond that which is given to the
average of the trade. This incentive can be

Scientific management
Scientific management
Introduction
Nowadays, scientific management plays an important role in our workplaces. Nevertheless, to draw a conclusion that whether scientific management is
appropriate in nowadays workplaces, the essay will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of scientific management. First of all, as to the definition
of management, the answer to this problem varies from people to people. Some people like Frederick Winslow Taylor, thought that management is a
discipline that involves the calm and systematic tasks of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Maybe, from this point of view, we can
basically understand what the managers do. However, others such as Jaffee have questioned whether scientific management...show more content...
For their leadership, the managers have to encourage their companies to fight with them. In order to gain enough information for their team to achieve
their work, the managers should establish a strong network of contact. In short, there are three roles in the managers' interpersonal group (Thompson &
McHugh 2002, p. 56). They are figurehead, liaison and leader.
The second one is information processing roles. As the managers, they may not know every detail function as his subordinates who specializes it.
However, as the leaderships in his organization, the manager will collect all kinds of information from his subordinates and he will know more about
his organization's information than any companies in his organization. Hence, the manager is the nerve centre of information system in his organization.
The last one role is decision–making roles. The manager has to make many important decisions for his organization for he knows more information
about his organization than any of his subordinates. He must be responsible for his organization and he must do the important choices represent his
organization. What he do will decide the development or failure of his organization, not just himself. Thus, in the manager is at the heart of the
decision–making system.
Motivation of worker and manager
As we know, there can be huge differences between the quality and quantity of our work

Scientific Management Essay
Before we can dive into the subject of managerial styles –– what they were and where they've come, we first need to distinguish what a management
style is. A management style, to us, and therefore, to the rest of this paper, is defined as a set of expectations an individual has, as to how they are to
use their leadership position to involve themselves and to involve other people in the achievement of results. Various aspects, such as value systems,
technology, organizational design, and globalization, all affect the culture of an organization and come into play when determining what managerial
style is best to use. As we move through the years, these components develop, resulting in the need for managerial...show more content...
The many writers and theorists of management philosophies are placed throughout these categories and will be mentioned in this paper. We will
now briefly consider in rough chronological order each of these key management ideas. Bureaucracy Weber's theory of bureaucracy is often
presented alongside the works of Fayol and Urwick who, discuss administrative management. We will go into more depth with them later. Weber's
main interest was in the process of social change and in the effect of rationality on religious thought and capitalism. The key to bureaucracy is
authority. From a historical perspective authority is based on the belief in the sacred or the extraordinary characteristics of the person giving the orders
(e.g. Christ). In a more traditional form, authority was established through the belief that the person giving the orders had done so through tradition
(e.g. King or Duke). Finally, the legal form of authority implied that the person giving the orders was acting in accordance with or under established
rules or laws. The Weberian model of bureaucracy offers a stable and predictable world that provides the blueprint for rationally designed structures in
which rational individuals carry out their prescribed actions and tasks. The bureaucratic form of the organization posses specific features such as
specialization, hierarchy, rules, impersonality, full time

'Federic Taylor 's Scientific Management reflects an approach to managing that is no longer appropriate for today's managers '.
Critically evaluate this statement with particular reference to an example from workspace with which you are familiar. Guidance: Many management
textbooks claim that Taylor 's ideas are no longer appropriate, but consider whether an organization can operate without clear rules, hierarchy and
division of labor. Many large and successful organizations, such as McDonalds hamburger chain or call centers, appear to use a modern version of
scientific management. It would also be a good idea to consider whether these sort of generalizations can be applied in a global manner, or whether
they tend to reflect the...show more content...
[3]
Using these three reasons Taylor developed the four principles of the scientific management [4]:
Develop a science for each element of a man's work and replace the "rule–of–thumb" method.
Scientifically select, train and develop workers instead of allowing them to choose their own tasks, decide the best way to complete the job and carry
out their own training.
Provide "Detailed instruction and supervision of each worker in the performance of that worker 's discrete task" [5].
Split the work in the same proportions between the management and workers. Managers will use the scientific methods to plan and organize the work
and workers will actually perform the tasks.
The productivity under Taylor's method dramatically increased and costs of the manufactured goods were reduced by 1/10 to 1/20 of the previous
manufactured cost. These changes allowed more people to purchase the goods [6]. It looks like the scientific management theory was the perfect
solutions to the problems in organizations in the 20th century. But is scientific management appropriate in a modern world? The next section will look
at pros and cons of this theory and the use of scientific management in today's organizations.
The appropriateness of Scientific Management for today's managers
Taylor's functions of management highlighted the importance of carefully practicing

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT AND CONTRIBUTION TO ECONOMY
Scientific management is a theory of management that analysis and synthesizes workflows, with the objective of improving labour productivity. The
core ideas of the theory were developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the 1880s and 1890s, and were first published in his monographs, Shop
Management (1905) and The Principles of Scientific Management (1911). He began trying to discover a way for workers to increase their efficiency
when he was the foreperson at the Midvale Steele Company in 1875. Taylor believed that decisions 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...show more content...
Taylor 's own name for his approach was scientific management. This sort of task–oriented optimization of work tasks is nearly ubiquitous today in
industry, and has made most industrial work menial, repetitive and tedious; this can be noted, for instance, in assembly lines and fast–food restaurants.
Taylor 's methods began from his observation that, in general, workers forced to perform repetitive tasks work at the slowest rate that goes
unpunished. This slow rate of work has been called by various terms, including "soldiering", (reflecting the way conscripts may approach following
orders), "dogging it", or "goldbricking". Managers may call it by those names or "loafing" or "malingering"; workers may call it "getting through the
day" or "preventing management from abusing us". Taylor used the term "soldiering" and observed that, when paid the same amount, workers will tend
to do the amount of work that the slowest among them does. This reflects the idea that workers have a vested interest in their own well–being, and do
not benefit from working above the defined rate of work when it will not increase their compensation. He therefore proposed that the work practice that
had been developed in most work environments was crafted, intentionally or unintentionally, to be very inefficient in its execution. He posited that
rational analysis and synthesis could uncover one best method for performing any particular task,

THE EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT For thousands of years, managers faced the same issues and problems confronting executives today. Around
1100 B.C., the Chinese practiced the four management functions–planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Between 400 B.C. and 350 B.C., the
Greeks recognized management as a separate art and advocated a scientific approach to work. The Romans decentralized the management of their vast
empire before the birth of Christ. During the Medieval Period, the Venetians standardized production through building warehouses and using an
inventory system to monitor the contents. But throughout history, most managers operated strictly on a trial–and–error basis. Communication and
transportation constraints hindered...show more content...
3.ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT APPROACH
This approach focused on how a business should be organized and the practices an effective manager should follow. It emphasized the perspective of
senior managers within the organization, and argued that management was a profession and could be taught.
While pioneers of scientific management tried to determine the best way to perform a job, those in the administrative management explored the
possibilities of an ideal way (rule of thumb) to put all jobs together and operate an organization. Thus the main focus of administrative school or general
management theory is on finding "the best way" to run organizations. Administrative management school is also called "traditional principles of
management.
Henry Fayol, a French industrialist, is the chief architect and the father of the administrative management theory. He believed that techniques of
effective management could be defined and taught and that managerial organization hold as much importance as management as workers organization.
He was the first to identify functions of management. According to Fayol, the five functions of managers were:
Plan
Organize
Command
Coordinate
Control
Fayol identified 14 principles of management which he wanted to be applied flexibly. Here are Fayol's 14

Critically discuss the notion that Scientific Management was a 'good' idea in the history of management thinking.
Since the thousands of years, people use the management in the great projects such as the Egyptian pyramids and the Great Wall of China. According
to Robbins, et al. (2006), Henri Fayol said that all managers perform five functions: planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling in
the early part of the twentieth century. Robbins stated that, in the mid–1950s, management functions changed to planning, organizing staffing, directing
and controlling. However, management functions have been reduced to four such as planning, organizing, leading and controlling.
There are six major approaches to management:...show more content...
Cole (2004, p–20) stated that Gantt introduced a payment system that although the employee's performance was below on the individual's instruction
card, he still qualified for the day–rate but performance of all the work allocated on the card qualified the individual for bonus. Gantt found that when
one worker found that he could achieve the task, the rest quickly followed. As a result, supervision improved, breakdowns were minimized. Gantt's
bonus system also allowed for the employee to challenge the time allocated for a particular task.
There are a lot of benefits from scientific management. First, the productivity increases dramatically by improving the working method. Second, the
supervisors can measure the performance base on the working methods. Third, it motivates the employees by incentive payments base on the results on
the performance. Finally, the physical working conditions for employees also improved because of scientific management. (Cole, 2004)
Although scientific management has a lot of benefits, it also has some disadvantages. Firstly, the worker's role is reduced by the rigid methods and
procedures. Another drawback is the employees will be bore because of same steps of procedures. Next one is scientific management generates a
'carrot–and–stick' approach to the motivation of employees by enabling pay to be geared tightly to output (Cole, 2004). As stated by Buren (2008),
proponents of

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