Fredrick Taylor’s Theory Of Scientific Management

RELEVANCE OF TAYLOR’S THEORY OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
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Fredrick Taylor’s theory of scientific management was a major development towards the modern management process that replaced the traditional one. However, when the management theory evolved, Taylor’s theory gradually diminished and that is why there are some business that still adopt the principles while others have abandoned. Taylor’s theory was criticised as lacking humanity and inflexibility. It is not difficult to come across companies or industries that still apply the Taylor’s scientific theory of management to day. For example, Toyota Motors applies Taylor theory in dividing workers into teas needed in various steps of production. On the other hand, a company such as Google has abandoned Taylor’s theory and instead adopted Hawthorne theory of management. Nevertheless, both companies still portray Taylor’s concepts in some way. The paper undertakes to establish the extent to which Taylor’s concepts of scientific management are still applicable to businesses today.
Scientific management theory resulted from Taylor’s experience at the Midvale Steel Company where he worked as an engineer. During his experienced in the company, he found that the existence of the ‘rule of thumb’ made labour productivity inefficient. He initiated his experiments with the aim of replacing the traditional ‘rule of thumb’ with factual scientific knowledge in workplace processes and management. He launched ‘Time and Motion Study’ which became the backbone of his theory of scientific management. The experiment aimed at finding out how the number of motions would be reduced at workplace to increase productivity (Jones and George, 2015). His experiments resulted in the theory of scientific management with five main principles;
Clear division of responsibilities and tasks
Application of scientific methods in establishing the one best way of performing a job
Engaging scientific processes in selection of the best person for a newly created job where skills match the job
Training of workers to perform the job in then one best way
stern surveillance of workers through close supervision
Taylor’s theory made him to believe that employees are solely motivated by money prompting his to promote the idea of ‘a fair days pay for a fair days work.’ In this system, the employee is paid for work done. The concept behind that is the belief that a worker will work more to get more pay.
While every company and management will have their own unique style of management, the fact still remains that the selected strategies should be attuned with the nature of the organization as well as the culture. Taylor’s approach was criticized and rebelled for being inflexible and rigid and the fact that the employees do not always welcome change. As a result, every manager has to explore better ways of attaining high flexibility in the organizational management of the workforce. Google no longer applies Taylor’s principles of management and instead apply Hawthorne’s insights of management. Hawthorne undertook his experiments for a period of five years and he had enough facts to draw conclusions where it happened that organizations should treat their employees as part of the assets and allow them freedom so as to motivate them. This wa...