SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

1. Pioneers of Scientific Management
• Late 1800’s : era of transition from era of craftsmen & guilds
to factories
• Scientific Management first mentioned by Charles Babbage
in 1832 but implemented by Taylor in the early 1900’s
Babbage
Taylor

2. What is scientific management?
• Craftsmen’s skill was passed down orally; no codification
and skills were dependent on the worker
• The job was analysed in a ‘scientific’ manner & broken
down into its components or tasks
• These tasks could then be done by individuals who were
trained do tasks – separation of worker from craft
• Objective was to ensure efficiency in execution of the job
flow and maximum output

3. Scientific Management Era
• Separation of roles for Manager & workers : Managers
involved in planning while workers involved in execution
• Managers will select & train workers for tasks
• Advocated higher rewards for higher worker outputs
• Paved the way for other scientific methods - like the
GANNT chart & PERT / CPM

4. Scientific Management Era: Soldiering
• Taylor talked about conflict within the organization:
o Manager Opportunism
o Worker opportunism (systematic soldiering )
• He analyzed worker opportunism as a problem of
inadequate incentive structure, inadequate training
system and a reflection of the social condition.

6. Emerson’s 12 principles of
efficiency

8. • Maximum Output and Efficiency
• ‘How’ the tasks can be done better by Physiological
Factors
• Therblig, ergonomics, work/life balance, job enrichment,
and job placement
• Term fatigue was further explained well and was
segregated and studied
• Appreciation of the Human element in task throughput
Gilbreth’s Contribution

9. Scientific Management: GAPS
The unit of analysis in this period is the ‘task’. Some
questions that emerged:
• How do we manage large groups of workers in the best
possible way?
• How do we motivate workers to produce their best given
the ‘routine’ nature of most tasks?