Taylor’s Theory of Scientific Management: Analytical Essay

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1. Introduction

“In the past, the man has been first; in the future, the system must be first…The first object of any good system must be that of developing first-class men.” by Frederick Winslow Taylor (Pg. No.7, Taylor, 1919).

The experience of Taylor at the Midvale Steel Company led to the beginning of the scientific approach in management. When employed there, he admitted that the efficiency of labours was essentially insufficient due to a workforce that operated by “rules of thumb”. He started experiments at his workplace in order to replace the traditional “rules of thumb” by factual scientific knowledge (UKEssays.com, 2016). This led to a rise in the scientific approach in the management field.

The main goal of management should be to ensure maximum employer prosperity,

combined with the maximum prosperity for each employee, said Taylor (Caramela, 2018). The ideology of Frederick Taylor’s theory of scientific management was the biggest breakdown in the traditional approach to the management process. When the management theory started evolving Taylor’s theory was criticized due to its concept of maximum efficiency and profit for the owners and did not give a maximum interest towards the employee. So, this caused loss of scope to Taylor’s theory.

Aim of this research is to know about what the main principles of Taylor’s theory were as well as to know whether the industries are still using this approach and are, they successful. Also, to know about what fields of management have been influenced by Taylor’s theory.

2. Definition of Scientific Management

Scientific management is a management theory where the workflows are analyzed and synthesized. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labour productivity (Taylor, 1919). Scientific management is sometimes known as Taylorism (Eyr, 2010).

3. Principles of Scientific Management

The four principles of scientific management can be described as follows (Taylor, 1919; Eyr, 2010)

Replace work with ‘thumb rule’ or simple habit and common sense, and use the scientific method instead to study work and determine how to perform specific task most effectively (Taylor, 1919; Eyr, 2010).
Rather than simply assigning employees to any task, matching employees to their skill and motivation, and teaching them to maximize efficiency (Taylor, 1919; Eyr, 2010).
Monitor worker performance and provide instructions and supervision to ensure that they’re using the most efficient ways of working (Taylor, 1919; Eyr, 2010).
Allocate the job between managers and employees so that managers can spend their time planning and prepare on the other hand employees can perform their tasks efficiently (Taylor, 1919; Eyr, 2010).

4. Outcomes on Implementation

After accepting and implementing the principles of scientific management theory there were few outcomes.

4.1 Positive outcome

On implementation of scientific management theory, both the company and the works were benefitted in many ways which are stated below (Nyanchama, 2019).

Encouraging teamwork proper coordination was established between the workers.
Distribution of work gave rise to better planning and decision making.
The companies could achieve good profits and improve work efficiency.
Labours were trained for free into skilled labour.
Better utilization of the resource which leads to increased productivity.
Reduce inaccuracy by better planning, supervision, and implementation leads to the minimisation of the error.
Quick decision making.

4.2 Negative outcome

There were many negative impacts on workers by the principles of scientific management theory. They are

Labours were under great pressure due to
Demotivation of workers.
There was no space for innovation.
Labours had no freedom of opinion.

5. The Business Still Implementing Taylorism

Taylorism still widely used by managers today, which is evident in McDonald’s, who use one standardised process e.g. to make a burger, which workers must follow. This standardized process and the principles of scientific management put together have been used and proved to be the best way for such organisations to reach their ultimate productivity as they are the world-leading fast-food chain. In locations such as Dubai or India, consumers are guarantee their order within 60 sec and this assurance can only be given by implementing Taylor’s Time and Motion study. Taylor’s experiment led him to think, workers are motivated solely by money and he promoted the idea of “A fair days pay for a fair day’s work” (UKEssays.com, 2016).

During my work time in the manufacturing industry, Toyota industries engine India private limited use the Taylorism in their production line which uses a set of code being executed by the machine and quality check being done by the workers in between the production line in a standardised process. To reach their target without compromising on their quality. In this case here the workload is distributed between machines as well as the workers but both of them are following a set of rules here we can see the usage of Taylorism evidently where both machine and workers are Monitor worker performance and provide instructions and supervision to ensure that they’re using the most efficient ways of working. Allocate the work between machines and workers so that the machine spends their time on executing the codes and allowing the workers to perform their tasks efficiently.

6. Other Managements theories influenced by the Taylorism.

The effect of scientific management techniques on the management of today’s human resource on the staff selection process.

A workplace’s productivity is primarily determined by the quality of its workers. After developing management a sicence, Taylor gave priority to the recruited staff, since according to Taylor, employee performance is crucial to the productivty of the workplace (Turan, 2015). Hence the Human Resources management uses Taylor’s Principle of assigning the workers based on their skill assessment, capability, motivation and also by providing extra training.

Table 1. The state of Taylor’s insight and techniques in modern management (Turan, 2015)

7. Conclusion

Winslow Taylor is the father of the scientific management had to face many criticisms due to its concept of maximum efficiency and profit for the owners and did not give a maximum interest towards the welfare of an employee. But this method is still being used in many developing countries where there are more manpower and need for employment. Even though the theory was criticised, but it still has been influencing many business theories mentioned above. Although he had no idea about the process’s automation, his ideas regarding scientific methods are used to automate the process to maximum efficiency (Henshall, 2018).

8. Reference

Caramela, S. (2018). The Management Theory of Frederick Taylor – business.com. [online] business.com. Available at: https://www.business.com/articles/management-theory-of-frederick-taylor/ [Accessed 15 Nov. 2019].
UKEssays.com. (2019). To what extent is Taylor’s theory of scientific management still useful in today‘s business. [online] Available at: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/is-taylors-theory-of-scientific-management-still-useful-today-business-essay.php#citethis [Accessed 15 Nov. 2019].
Taylor, F. (1919). The Principles of Scientific Management. New York: Harper.
Eyr, E. (2019). Frederick Taylor and Scientific Management: Understanding Taylorism and Early Management Theory. [online] Mindtools.com. Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_Taylor.htm [Accessed 15 Nov. 2019].
Nyanchama, V. (2019). Scientific Management Theory definition, advantages and disadvantages. [online] Tuko.co.ke – Kenya news. Available at: https://www.tuko.co.ke/287488-scientific-management-theory-definition-advantages-disadvantages.html [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].
Turan, H. (2015). Taylor’s “Scientific Management Principles”: Contemporary Issues in Personnel Selection Period. [online] Available at: https://www.academia.edu/35181959/Taylors_Scientific_Management_principles [Accessed 15 Nov. 2019
Turan, H. (2015). Table 1. Taylor’s “Scientific Management Principles”: Contemporary Issues in Personnel Selection Period. [online] Available at: https://www.academia.edu/35181959/Taylors_Scientific_Management_principles [Accessed 15 Nov. 2019
Henshall, A. (2018). Taylorism and The History of Processes: 6 Key Thinkers You Should Know | Process Street | Checklist, Workflow and SOP Software. [online] Process Street. Available at: https://www.process.st/taylorism/ [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].

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