|
Scientific management, Taylorism or the Classical Perspective is a method in management theory which determines changes to improve labour productivity.
The idea first coined by Frederick Winslow Taylor in his The Principles of Scientific Management who believed that decisions based upon tradition and rules of thumb should be replaced by precise procedures developed after careful study of an individual at work.
In management literature today, the greatest use of the concept of Taylorism is as a contrast to a new, improved way of doing business.
Fordism
Taylorism is often mentioned along with Fordism, because it was closely associated with mass production methods in manufacturing factories. Taylor's own name for his approach was scientific management. This sort of task-oriented optimization of work tasks is nearly ubiquitous today in menial industries, most notably in assembly lines and fast-food restaurants.
Critisim - Why Taylorism Failed?
Applications of scientific management sometimes fail to account for two inherent difficulties:
- It ignores individual differences: the most efficient way of working for one person may be inefficient for another;
- It ignores the fact that the economic interests of workers and management are rarely identical, so that both the measurement processes and the retraining required by Taylor's methods would frequently be resented and sometimes sabotaged by the workforce.
Both difficulties were recognized by Taylor, but are generally not fully addressed by managers who only see the potential improvements to efficiency. Taylor believed that scientific management cannot work unless the worker benefits.
In his view management should arrange the work in such a way that one is able to produce more and get paid more, by teaching and implementing more efficient procedures for producing a product.
Although Taylor did not compare workers with machines, some of his critics use this metaphor to explain how his approach to be made efficient by removing unnecessary or wasted effort.
13 Principles Of Scientific Management - Taylorism
1. To regularize operations in a manner which will conserve the investment, sustain the enterprise, and assure continuous operation and employment.
2. To assure the employee of continuous operation and employment by a planned and balanced continuous earning opportunity while on the payroll.
3. Thru waste-saving management and processing techniques, entitle the workers and management to increased wages and profits.
4. To make possible a higher standard of living to workers.
5. To assure a happier home and social life to workers.
6. To assure healthful and socially agreeable conditions of work.
7. To assure the highest opportunity for individual capacity thru scientific methods of work analysis and of selection, training, assignment, transfer, and promotion of workers.
8. To assure by training and functional foremanship the opportunity for workers to develop new and higher capacities, and eligibility for promotion to higher positions.
9. To develop self-confidence and self-respect among workers.
10. To develop self-expression and self-realization among workers thru an atmosphere of research and validation.
11. To build character thru the proper conduct of work.
12. To promote justice thru the elimination of discrimination in wage rates and elsewhere.
13. To eliminate factors in the environment which are irritating and cause frictions, and to promote common understanding, tolerances, and the spirit of team work.
|