Scientific Management and Taylorism

Introduction

Over 100 years ago, the American mechanical engineer Frederick

Taylorpublished his ideas about scientific management in 1911, to
encourage industrial companies to proceed to mass production. As one of
the founders of the scientific management movement called Taylorism or
Taylor’s Principal, Frederick Taylor aimed at deploying workers as efficiently
as possible because at the time, people were looked at as an extension of
the machinery.

What is Scientific Management?

As a mechanical engineer at a steel corporation in Philadelphia, Frederick

Taylor thought about how workers could perform their tasks as efficiently as
possible, he studied human labour and analysed the work of workers on the
work floor. This resulted in activity analyses, time studies and methodology
studies, the start of Taylorism.

Through the activity analyses, he was able to identify what activities workers
had to perform when carrying out their tasks. He also conducted time
measurements for all kinds of activities that were carried out by workers
during the production process. In the methodology studies, he evaluated
which working method could best be used to ensure maximum productivity.

Elementary division of labour

Frederick Taylor aimed at continuously increasing the efficiency of the

production process. He divided labour into an elementary division of labour
in which every worker was allocated their own tasks that had to be repeated
constantly. Everyone was assigned their own programme that consisted of
 successive actions and this was aimed at worker’s levels of knowledge and
skills.

This brought about considerable time savings and because of this routine,
productivity increased rapidly. Frederick Taylor felt it was important to select
the right person for the right job and to leave the planning and thinking to
the specialists.

Eight bosses system

As a result of his endeavours for specialization, Frederick Taylor divided the

management tasks into a number of subtasks. This meant that every worker
had a different manager for each of the managerial subtasks.

In this, Frederick Taylor distinguished between preparatory and

executive/control tasks. Within this two-way classification, he added another
allocation of jobs which resulted in the eight bosses system or functional
organization system. He immediately applied this eight bosses system to the
production unit of an engineering works.

Bethlehem experiment

Frederick Taylor wanted to eliminate as many inefficient working methods as

possible. He therefore carried out the famous Bethlehem experiment at the
Bethlehem Steel Company. After having observed the workers, he thought
that the 12.5 tonnes of pig iron a worker had to load onto a railway wagon
per day could be increased to approximately 48 tonnes per worker per day.

To prove this theory, Frederick Taylor experimented with working hours, rest
periods, weight moved in a given period, working methods and tools. He
selected the so-called “Pennsylvania Dutchman” for this purpose, a very
strong, industrious man of Dutch origin, who had to carry out all of his work
directions accurately. In return, he was promised a higher wage per unit
performance, which resulted in the fact that the man was able to handle
47.5 tonnes a day. This was followed by many other worker who also wished
to earn about 60% more pay.

However, Frederick Taylor was met with hostility. Many workers were afraid
that this increased productivity would lead to unemployment and the labour
unions called on them to carry out a systematic production output and work
at their own pace only.

Healthy management

According to Frederick Taylor, a healthy management is based on the

scientific management approach to work in which objective standards are set
by means of time, method, motion and fatigue studies.

In addition, it was necessary to consider which work would best suit a

worker. A continuous and close cooperation between management and
workers would be of vital importance in this. A smooth production planning,
cost analysis and remuneration system would enhance productivity
substantially.

Modern scientific management

Even today, scientific management and Taylorism is still applied to

production processes and unnecessary movements and/or actions that
threaten to reduce productivity are examined carefully. Employees are cogs
in the organization and they jointly determine the level of productivity.

Critics believe that Taylorism undervalues the social needs of people such as
appreciation and recognition. Decisions are purely made on rational grounds
in which performance measurement is a central component. Nevertheless, in
commercial organizations, appreciation is linked to the extra performance
that is delivered.
In addition to basic pay, bonuses can be earned and targets and premiums
are used. This system is based on Scientific management called Taylorism.