Taylorism and Scientific

Management

Aims of Session:

To outline some of the key features of Scientific Management To provide a context for the emergence & growth of Scientific Management To address and anticipate debates in considering the relevance of Scientific Management to contemporary management thinking

The leading advocate and systematiser of what he called scientific management was F.W.Tyalor (1865-1915). He was an American engineer and a consultant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slfFJXVAe pE

Taylor bequeathed a clockwork of tasks timed to the hundredth of a minute, of standardi[s]ed factories, machines, women and men (Kanigel, 1997:7 in Thompson, 2009:28). A trend towards systematic management was already visible as most of the US firms had grown in size with internal functioning was becoming increasingly chaotic and wasteful

Taylor was not just in the right place at the right time; he played a crucial role in theorising and popularising the new ideas (Thompson, 2009:29).
Therefore, Taylorism can be considered as the most conscious part of systematisation of management and regulation and control of production Taylorism encouraged a view of the industrial worker as an economic animal who could be encouraged to act as a self-seeking hired hand and who would allow managers to do their job-related thinking for them (Watson, 2012:35).
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The core object of management is to secure maximum prosperity for the employer which in turn will lead to improved prosperity for the employee

Everything that takes place in the company must be in pursuit of these twin goals

Every single act of every workman can be reduced to a science Taylor

Taylor carried out his main work and experiments at the Midvale Steel Works (owned by a friend of the family) starting from late nineteenth century His work was associated with unskilled labourer to machinist, clerk, gang boss, foreman, master mechanic, chief draughtsman and chief engineer Experiments also were carried out in small number of other firms Also by the First World War a small number of French and other European countries including Britain

3.

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Increased wages

Increased productivity

2.

Increased profitability

A Virtuous Cycle?

Taylors ideas were concerned with the control of labour process and developing one best way of organising work. His ideas were directed at addressing the issue of workers controlling the output (soldiering) observed at steel works
Natural soldiering tendency of wanting to take it easy Systematic soldiering practices purposefully aimed at maximising rewards and job security

1. The Development of a True Science of Work. Each part of a job is analysed scientifically & one best-way of working is devised Based on the maximum amount a first class-worker could do in a day & workers are expected to do this amount every day

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2. The Scientific selection & training of workers.

The person is taught to do the job in exactly the way devised by management Management must find out which job is suited to each employee & train them until they are firstclass

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3. Equal division of work and responsibility between management and workers, each side doing what is best fitted for. Managers concern themselves with planning & supervision of work & workers carry it out Managers must demonstrate that they are subject to the same discipline as workers

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4. Co-operation between management and workers to ensure that the work is done according to the science
Its this process that causes the mental revolution in management & the main resistance to it will come from management

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Taylor was critical about management by initiative and incentive where workers were compensated for using their skills and knowledge in the most economical way, without strict managerial determination of tasks.

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Scientific management started from the belief that management had to reverse existing power relations in production: The management assumes, for instance, the burden of gathering together all of the traditional knowledge which in the past has been possessed by the workmen and then of classifying, tabulating, and reducing this knowledge to rules, laws and formulae (Taylor, 1947:36 in Thompson, 2009:30).

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Taylors work can be located within the process of bureaucratisation of production

Braverman (1974) makes it clear that Taylors work can also be seen as a control system based on the monopolisation of knowledge by management and its use to specify each step of the labour process Separation of conception from execution all possible brainwork should be removed from the shopfloor and centred in the planning department (Taylor, quoted in Braverman, 1974:113).

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Organisational Behaviour assumption that Taylorism as the model of economic man is largely misleading (Thompson, 2009). Taylor also believed workers were motivated by the pursuit of rational self-interest and incentive wages But
The tendency to restrict output was seen as an unnecessary product of not having scientific authority over work standards Incentives as a means to overcome traditional work controls by workers However, this strategy proved to be limited and was never eliminated controls of output by workers Taylor was more concerned with breaking the power of groups and, collective bargaining through individualistic payment systems
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Extensive work measurements to determine tasks Large increase in number of non-productive employees to enforce, record and monitor new work arrangements Functional foremanship to report to allpowerful planning department Many criticism on Taylor being a practical failure Eg: Palmer 1975, Edwards, 1979, Goldman and Van Houten, 1980

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Scientific management provided a technocratic rationale for authority in formal organisations Criticism is such that it was surprising that a science of management was based on knowledge and skills appropriated from workers Therefore, some argue it never was a science but a control system

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Many flaws, misunderstandings and confusions in practical application and success of SM in other firms
Companies refused and failed to follow all the complexities of schemes None of the firms fully represented the original principles Though time studies and planning departments were found to be common many issues related to the incentives schemes used Functional foremanship entailed many layers of responsibility However, widespread application of (uneven and diffused) key aspects Tayloristic principles in industry
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Taylors death in 1915 opened up avenues for many others to introduce further versions of scientific management In its early years, Scientific Management split off into pieces and parts in its application and new disciplines. Taylors disciples such as Gantt and Gilberths extended his theory
Therefore, above factors and external environmental changes are witness that the scientific management did not evolve in pure form Altogether, they have colonised progressive thinking (Thompson, 2009:32).
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In sociological and managerial literature the two conceptions appear as sharing similarties and are linked Henry Ford is significant for his innovations in technical controls in assembly lines which is an extension of Taylorism Further Fordism was focused on level of intensity of labour and speed up of work High wages for high productivity

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Lack of uniformity in application Resistance from various groups Led to strikes and informal work disruptions Workers were against de-skilling and dehumanisation Supervisory and managerial resistance Means of managerial control Over-emphasised the division of labour One-dimensional view of human nature- people are greedy robots Led to alienation Loss in skill level & autonomy of worker The organisation becomes a machine & the worker a machine part
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Managers plan & direct the work of others Individuals are economically motivated Workers are inherently lazy & will only work if the incentives are right Workers should not think about the job they work as directed by managers There is one best-way - its the managers job to find it

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Little doubt that S.M. led to increases in productivity which in turn.. led to wage increases which in turn Gave rise to mass consumption which in turn Created mass marketing & all of this. Gave skilled labour a strong bargaining position

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In most texts, Taylorism sits hand-in-hand with Fordism there were links e.g. technical control of the assembly line
Job fragmentation & greater work intensity five dollar day high wage for high productivity

Ford used semi-skilled (rather than unskilled workers) & had own regimes in terms of flexibility & mass production Both shared a natural hostility to organised labour Fordism depended more on the loyalty of the worker and offered no room for worker participation and involvement

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Division of labour Specialisation Standardisation

Rationality Predictability Calculability

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