Preview

Fredrick W. Taylor Ideas in Today's Organisation

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2493 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Fredrick W. Taylor Ideas in Today's Organisation
Fredrick W. Taylor (1856 – 1915), pioneered the scientific management movement which studies a job carefully, breaking it into its smallest components, establish exact time and motion requirements for each task to be done, and then train workers to best complete these tasks in the same ways over and over again (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, 1998). These efforts are the forerunners of modern industrial engineering approaches to job design that focus on process efficiencies, the best methods and smooth workflows. Despite these efforts, there were critics that criticized Taylor 's assertion that there is no such thing as "skill" in making and moving things and for not asking the workers he studied on how they thought their jobs could be improved.

The purpose of this essay is to identify how relevant are Taylor 's ideas to the survival of today 's organizations. Firstly, this essay will briefly discuss Taylor 's four principles of management. Next, the essay will compare Taylor 's four principles with other theorists ' such as Hawthrone and Weber; and mainly on Ford and Fayol, to discover out the relationship among their theories. Following that, the essay will demonstrate Taylor 's principles, which have succeeded in managing organisations, particularly the Japanese organisations. Also, it will investigate the development of Taylor 's principles from the past to today 's management rules.

Taylor 's four components of management are summarized as follows: Firstly, developing a science for each element of work that has to be accomplished, which replaces the old rule-of-thumb method. Secondly, scientifically, select, train, teach and develop each employee to accomplish his or her task. Thirdly, sincerely cooperate with employees to ensure implementation of the scientific principles that have been developed accordingly. Lastly, dividing the work and the responsibility equally between management and workers (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg & Coulter, 2003).

According to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Choose to write a 2 to 3 page paper addressing ONE of these two questions. Your paper should be typed, double-spaced with 1 inch margins, Times New Roman font. Cite your sources using APA format. This assignment is worth 100 points.…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Changes were brought through the ideas of men like Frederick Taylor and also through the development in production from the assembly line. Frederick Winslow Taylor embraced the new principals of “scientific management,” which is also known as “Taylorism”. Taylorism is a theory of management that analyzes and combine workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. “Taylor urged employers to reorganize the production process by subdividing tasks.…

    • 1422 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The theories of Frederick W. Taylor’s Scientific Management proposed in Edwin A. Locke’s (1982) “The Ideas of Frederick W. Taylor An evaluation” point to Taylor’s tremendous influence on modern-day management. Because Taylor developed this principle in the early 1900’s focusing mainly on scientific decision-making and individualized work while working with manufacturing industry, it poses questions on it’s validity in the modern-day management and how effective his techniques in employer-employee relationship. this posed a lot of Locke indicates that Taylor’s Scientific Management theory led to the beginning of modern management principles and methods that are still being used by many managers around the world (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg & Coulter, 2012).…

    • 881 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    The chosen article that will be explored through this essay, by Locke, Edwin A. (1982) The Ideas of Frederick W. Taylor: An Evaluation. Academy of Management Review, 7(1). This main source believes that Taylor was the Founding father of Scientific Management, being his key principle, featuring the one best way. However in order to understand the reasoning and logic behind Taylors principles, one must understand the context of the time to make informed decision of the validity of the principles. Fifty percent of the sources believe that Taylor’s principles have transcended through time, forming the basis for modern day contemporary organizations, such as IBM. However the other half of the sources believe that Taylor’s principles have been a detriment to society, which have dehumanized the workforce, creating men as machines, believing that this has established the elements of today’s bureaucratic society.…

    • 1566 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Taylorism

    • 1751 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Frederick Winslow Taylor published a book in 1911 recommending his theory of scientific management which altered the management model later. There are many management theories willing to improve workers’ efficiency but not influential while Taylor used scientific methods to sum up standardized rules and the theory was spread till today and still available. In the following text, three key elements of the Taylorism and their applicability in contemporary organizations will be presented and analysed.…

    • 1751 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Taylor was a believer in the rational–economic needs concept of motivation. He believed that if management acted on his ideas, work would become more satisfying and profitable for all concerned. Workers would be motivated by obtaining the highest possible wages through working in the most efficient and productive way. Taylor was concerned with finding more efficient methods and procedures for co-ordination and control of work. He set out a number of principles to guide management. These four principles of scientific management process are;…

    • 2905 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The aim of Scientific management is to increase the productivity of human labour. Taylor believed that a science had to be developed for each element of a man's work, replacing the rule-of -thumb method. Managers would have to select, train and develop workmen, where as in the past, they had to train themselves. Taylor developed a number of principles by analysing controlled experiments under various work conditions. He considered the time and motion to carry out a specific task, the choice of tool and the payment for workers. Taylor would identify the fastest worker in the organization and he would examine his movements on the job, which helped Taylor eliminate useless and…

    • 1605 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frederick Taylor

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Taylor believed that it was the manager’s duty to understand workers and their jobs. He wanted to come up with a way to ensure that workers complete their tasks with maximum production and minimum costs (Madeheim, Mazze, Stein 1963). In order to achieve that he came up with a concept known as scientific management to try and improve industrial efficiency.…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Personal Ethics

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Frederick Taylor (1856-1915) was the founder of the scientific management theory during the time of the Industrial Revolution. The management theory developed to organize and teach work process in a scientific manner increased productivity and profit. Taylor believed that using a scientific method for each element or task of an individual’s work would increase productivity. A worker’s job could be measured with scientific accuracy by using time and motion studies and the expertise of experienced workers (managers). A scientific system was established to hire, train, and promote workers based on their competence and abilities and match them to the most appropriate job. Productivity would be improved through scientific selection and progressive development of the worker. The relationship between the managers and workers needed to be cooperative and interdependent. The manager was to plan, prepare and supervise. The workers were to do the work. Financial incentives were used as a reward and workers were reimbursed according to their level of production (Marquis & Huston, 2009).…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Taylorism and Fordism

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Taylorist and Fordist management control methods have had the most influence impact on organisational production till present day. Taylorism, also know as scientific management was developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856 – 1915) based on making labour more efficient. Taylor believed that “the best management was true science ‘resting upon clearly defined laws, rules and principles’” (Wilson, 2004). In order to gain control over the workforce, all three key principles needs to be achieved. Taylor’s principles are, produce rules, laws and formulae, take brain work away form the factory floor, and plan out, give written instructions to every worker on exactly what to do (Braveman, 1974). Fordism was named after Henry Ford, an American car manufacturer who pioneered mass production based on direct controls over the workers. According to Braverman, there are three principles to Taylorism, “the dissociation of the labour process form the skills of the workers, the separation of conception (the thinking about how work is done) form the execution (doing) of the work, and the managerial use of the monopoly of this knowledge to control each step of the labour process and its mode of execution”. (Braverman, 1974). In this essay, the claim of that Taylorist and Fordist management control methods increased organization productivity at the expense of employee job-satisfaction will be evaluated by using various case studies.…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The two African Fables that will be looked at in this paper are, "Anansi Tries to Steal All the Wisdom of the World" and "How We Got the Name "Bug Tales"". The general topic of "Anansi Tries to Steal All the Wisdom of the World" is that one needs to pick up insight by having experiences. The general subject of "How We Got the Name"Spider Tales", is that one essentially needs to work to get what they need. The reason for this exposition is to look at the topic of shrewdness in these two tales with respect to individuals,the impact on society, and diligent work.…

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In public administration and as well as other entities, organizational success largely depends on its structure. Over the years many theories have been developed regarding the structure of organizations. In this paper, I will be focusing on Fredrick Taylor, Adam Smith, Henri Fayol, Luther Gulick, Max Weber and Gilbreth. These "structuralists" provide with different models of organizational structural theories.…

    • 960 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Argument Against Taylorism

    • 1970 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Frederick Winslow Taylor is the person who discovered scientific management, also known as ‘Taylorism’. It is a theory about management that analyses and synthesize the workflow of a work place but the main objective is to improve the efficiency of the economy, especially in labour productivity based on five principles as described by Buchanan(2010, pg 423).The first principle of Taylorism is to have ‘A clear division…

    • 1970 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Nowadays, research in management and organizational theory plays an important part in how business operates. By for the most influential person of the time and someone who has had an impact on management service practice as well as on management thought up to the present day, was Frederick W. Taylor. Taylor was the first modern efficiency expert in world history. Around the Twentieth Century, he formalized the principles of Scientific Management and developed a set of ideas designed to get employees in manufacturing industries to produce more output. Taylor contracted with companies to rearrange their production processes to simplify the tasks each employee performed. Instead of doing many different things, workers in Taylorized factories would execute the same simple tasks over and over. The principles of Scientific Management still have an important impact globally and there are still many evidences which show some New Zealand companies apply the Scientific Management principles in their business operations. McDonald's is one of the world's most well-known and valuable brands and holds a leading share in the globally branded quick service restaurant segment of the informal eating-out market in virtually every country and the leading global foodservice retailer with more than 30,000 local restaurants serving nearly 50 million people in more than 119 countries each day. This essay proves the Scientific Management principles in McDonald's business operations from three perspectives: systems of rewards for meeting the goals, scientific education and development of the workman and standard method of performing each job.…

    • 1393 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Although it maximized efficiency and productivity but its main limitation was ignoring human aspects of employment. This is manifested in the following:…

    • 2094 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics