Scientific Management Was the Product of 19th Century Industrial Practices and Has No Relevance to the Present Day. Discuss.
1st Formal, Assessed, Essay Topic:
Scientific Management was the product of 19th Century industrial practices and has no relevance to the present day. Discuss.
“In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first” said Frederick Winslow Taylor, creator of a new management theory: Scientific management or Taylorism. It emerged in the end of the 19th century in the industrial context and was experimented and then applied in plants.
This organisation of the workflow is based on some principles.
First, the use of science to evaluate each task in order to establish ‘scientific laws’ about how to do each particular part of the work. The managers, using time and motion studies and precise measurements of the workplace, of the workers themselves, decide “the one best way” for the workers to execute the tasks. This is the standardization of work. Scientific management promotes co-operation over individualism. Interests of employers and employees are not antagonist, they are one and the same, prosperity for employer can not exist without employee’s one (F.W. Taylor, 1911).
The managers attempt to theorize employees’ work and supervise them. This is also creating harmony within the company: all work groups should work together, in a team spirit. It is also based on the specific training of the workers for the task they have been assigned to. Taylorism’s principal aim is to achieve the maximum productivity by promoting the development of each employee.
During the 19th and 20th century, scientific management resulted in massive production cost reductions, increases in profit, productivity and improvement in working conditions, environment.
Although it has revolutionised management theories, these methods were developed for the last century with different industry, social relations and global aims. Thus we can discuss if scientific management has or not relevance to the present day.
‘Today, the challenges for management have changed
Scientific Management was the product of 19th Century industrial practices and has no relevance to the present day. Discuss.
“In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first” said Frederick Winslow Taylor, creator of a new management theory: Scientific management or Taylorism. It emerged in the end of the 19th century in the industrial context and was experimented and then applied in plants.
This organisation of the workflow is based on some principles.
First, the use of science to evaluate each task in order to establish ‘scientific laws’ about how to do each particular part of the work. The managers, using time and motion studies and precise measurements of the workplace, of the workers themselves, decide “the one best way” for the workers to execute the tasks. This is the standardization of work. Scientific management promotes co-operation over individualism. Interests of employers and employees are not antagonist, they are one and the same, prosperity for employer can not exist without employee’s one (F.W. Taylor, 1911).
The managers attempt to theorize employees’ work and supervise them. This is also creating harmony within the company: all work groups should work together, in a team spirit. It is also based on the specific training of the workers for the task they have been assigned to. Taylorism’s principal aim is to achieve the maximum productivity by promoting the development of each employee.
During the 19th and 20th century, scientific management resulted in massive production cost reductions, increases in profit, productivity and improvement in working conditions, environment.
Although it has revolutionised management theories, these methods were developed for the last century with different industry, social relations and global aims. Thus we can discuss if scientific management has or not relevance to the present day.
‘Today, the challenges for management have changed
References: Buchanan, D. and Huczynski, A. (2010). Organizational Behaviour. 7th ed. Harlow: New York Financial Times. Chapters 14-15. Grönroos, C. (1994) From Scientific Management to Service Management. International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 5, issue 1, pp. 5-20. Herrigel, G. (2000) Review of Manufacturing Ideology: Scientific Management in Twentieth-Century Japan. Chicago: University of Chicago, acting through its Press. Francis, A. (1986) New technology at work. New York: Clarendon Press. Freedman, D. (1992) Is Management Still a Science ? Harvard Business Review. Pugh, D. S. (2007) Scientific Management. Organization Theory: Selected Classic Readings. London: Penguin. pp276-95.