Fredrick Taylor

Scientific Management
 History
• Was an engineer
• Taylor published a book entitled, The
Principles of Scientific Management, in 1911.
• he proposed that by optimizing and
simplifying jobs, productivity would increase.
• he designed workplace experiments to
determine optimal performance levels
 Workplace experiments
He experimented with shovel design until he
had a design that would allow workers to shovel
for several hours straight. 
With bricklayers, he experimented with the
various motions required and developed an
efficient way to lay bricks.
 4 principles of Scientific Management
• Develop a scientific study of management, with stated rules,
law and principles and replace the out-dated ‘rule of thumb’
methods
• Rather than simply assign workers to just any job, match
workers to their jobs based on capability and motivation, and
train them to work at maximum efficiency.
• Cooperate with workers to ensure that work is done in
accordance with the prescribed scientific principles
• Divide work nearly equally between managers and workers, so
that the managers apply scientific management principles to
planning the work, and the workers actually perform the tasks.
 Other Elements of Scientific
Management
• The separation of planning from the actual
performance of the task
• Carefully observing workers doing the task and
documenting findings
• Providing financial incentives to motivate workers and
pay them based in performance
• Standardisation of the process involved in carrying out
the task based on the job analysis
• Fostering a suitable environment to encourage
cooperation between management and workers
 Critiques of Scientific Management

 Scientific Management Theory promotes the idea that there is "one right way" to do
something. And this way is the best way, which often made the job monotonous and
boring, dampening autonomy and skill variety. Workers should be given autonomy
so they can deal with any situation on hand appropriately and this theory does not
allow for that.

Another criticism of the Scientific Management Theory was his view of the
economic man were he likened humans to machines that would only be satisfied by
money

The idea of extreme specialization does not fit into today’s society and as thus is not
used much as it is contrary to modern ideals of how to provide a motivating and
satisfying workplace. In conclusion the scientific method focuses too much on the
mechanics and fail to value the people side of work that deals with motivation and a
satisfying workplace