StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Scientific Management Theory: Organizational Behavior - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
An essay "Scientific Management Theory: Organizational Behavior" outlines that organizational behavior constitutes a broad-ranging area of investigation. Among the most prominent such subdivisions are organizational culture, financial accounting theory, and supply chain management…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER94.1% of users find it useful
Scientific Management Theory: Organizational Behavior
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Scientific Management Theory: Organizational Behavior"

Scientific Management Theory: Organizational Behavior Organizational behavior constitutes a broad ranging area of investigation. Among the most prominent such subdivisions are organizational culture, financial accounting theory, and supply chain management. Scientific management theory is slightly unique in that it draws from a cross-disciplinary sampling of these organizational subdivisions in a management approach that analyzed and synthesized workflows. Frederick Taylor proposed the theory itself, thus it is also known as Taylorism. Taylor was an American mechanical engineer who sought to make productive contributions to industrial efficiency (Boddy 2002). His ideas would go on to make him a seminal figure in the Efficiency Movement and today he is regarded as one of the first management consultants (Boddy 2002). This essay examines the various contextual dimensions of scientific management theory. In understanding Taylor’s scientific management theory it is necessary to first examine foundational elements. The proto-ideas of Taylor’s theory were first developed in the late 19th century. While Taylor was admitted to Harvard University he ultimately decided not to attend the school and instead enter the workforce (Kanigel 1997). Eventually Taylor became a lathe operator and foreman at Midvale Steel (Kanigel 1997). It was during his employment here that the baseline tenants of his theory emerged. Taylor recognized that the various workers all had various levels of productivity. These differing productivity levels were caused by a variety of elements, including personal talents and motivation. While management had general assumptions regarding these differences, no structured or scientific articulation of them had been established. Taylor set about developing a scientific management theory of human productivity. Taylor’s vision was to work towards establishing standardization through careful analysis and synthesis of results. Taylor’s initial steps in working towards this standardization were to abandon previous work reviews for a process that demanded close managerial scrutiny (Kanigel 1997). Indeed, this higher level of micromanagement was one of the major challenges of Taylor’s system. While Taylor’s method is referred to as scientific management theory, it’s other names attest to a variety of divisions in this approach. In addition to scientific management theory, this approach has been referred to as Taylorism. While in practice the two terms of oftentimes used synonymously, in much of the prominent literature a distinction is made between the two concepts (Archibald 1999). The main distinction the literature makes between these two categories is that Taylorism is supposed to refer to the early incarnations of Taylor’s theory, or the ‘first form’ classical perspective. Conversely, scientific management theory is the more developed of the managerial processes. One considers that while Taylorism had been articulated as early as 1895 with Taylor’s text ‘A Piece Rate System’, and in 1903 with his text ‘Shop Management,’ it wasn’t until 1910 that Louis Brandeis first coined the term ‘scientific management’ (Kulliver 2001). The notion of Taylorism as a specific organizational approach died out in the 1930s, but scientific management has emerged and evolved throughout the rest of the 20th century. While scientific management is a specific approach, it fits within the context of late 19th century and 20th century economic efficiency movements. Broadly speaking the efficiency movements sought to increase human efficiency, decrease waste, and implement empirical methodology in doing so. Termed the Efficiency Movement among the prominent organizational elements that emerged during this period were lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, Fordism, and operations management. There are a number of prominent tenants to scientific management theory. One of the major elements of this approach is referred to as soldiering. The notion of soldiering is based on the understanding that while different employees have different levels of talent and intelligence, even the ‘smart’ employees will perform at levels that are beneath their maximum productivity. Specifically, employees whose work responsibility contains repetitive tasks tend to work at the slowest pace possible where they will not be punished (Kanigel 1997). This counter-productive behavior has been observed not only in Western culture, but also in developing regions. It is referred to as soldiering as the employee workflow has a slight metaphorical relation to the structure of an army of soldiers, particularly to the way soldiers follow orders (Dawson 2005). Scientific management theory argues that as employees have a vested interest in their well being it is wrong to assume that they will work any higher than their compensation entails. The response to this realization was to structure the work environment such that compensation was more closely linked to performance. Taylor’s own investigations into these work processes revealed a number of at-times counter-intuitive findings. Through his implementation of rationality and motions studies he came to recognize that if organizations, particularly in labor-intensive positions, included regular work breaks it would ultimately increase employee productivity (Kulliver 2001). The understanding was that the breaks allow employees to recuperate from fatigue and in-turn change their mental state such that they are more prone to engage in productive activities. Taylor also believed that there were different types of competencies that divided worker from administrator. The administrator is understood to have a mind that is more attuned to the science of the work process itself, while the laborer is more fit for the process of production (Taylor 2011). Throughout the 20th century scientific management theory has One considers that some of the early tenants of scientific management theory viewed much of the lower-tier workforce in a condescending way. Taylor himself viewed lower-tier works as having limited intelligence and capacities for higher-level work (Weisbord 2004). One of the prominent criticisms of Taylor’s approach was that it did not properly account for these workers (Weisbord 2004). While he recognized that intervening periods were needed throughout the workday, his vision of the employment cycle did not take into account larger questions of personal meaning and desire. It wasn’t until later evolutions of scientific management theory that these worker’s concerns were addressed (Weisbord 2004). These ideas would eventually culminate in what became the human relations school of management. This version of scientific management theory increasingly established modes of concern for worker’s humanity and attempted to implement increased levels of responsibility in the process. Among other prominent challenges in the implementation of scientific management theory are the approaches to differences in workers. To a great degree Taylor viewed all the people as fundamentally the same in that if the organization were to structure its work processes, it would uniformly achieve higher levels of worker production. In practice, this has oftentimes proven an erroneous assumption. One considers that in reality workers differ in their modes of production, so it is impossible to enact larger scale uniform change without correspondingly decreasing the modes of efficiency for other workers. Another major shortcoming of scientific management theory is that it did not go far enough in recognizing the fundamental interest difference between owners and workers. This difference is such that they regularly work towards opposing interests, further disrupting work efficiency. Later incarnations of scientific management theory attempted to reconcile these challenges by establishing processes where the workers would share in the profit creation. One recognizes some of the prominent such elements in the modern workforce where even lower-tier laborers are frequently offered stock options. High productivity workers are also regularly given bonuses contingent on the amount of profit that they produced for the organization during a given period. Ultimately, such processes would attempt to be fused with more human centered understandings of work that took into account the individual’s personal goals and desires rather than treating them like a simple cog in the work machine. The various incarnations of scientific management theory have had corresponding differences in impacts on the subsequent workforce. Theorists recognize two major periods. Throughout the first period scientific management theory largely ignored human desires and interests for a strict emphasis on productivity. Among prominent occurrences in this period was a 1912 strike at the Watertown Arsenal ("Frederick taylor and," 2009). This occurrence led to an investigation of scientific management theory by the United States House of Representatives. The committee determined that while scientific management theory had a number of strong and meaningful tenants, it gave the upper levels managers far too much uncontrolled power. These perspectives would ultimately lead to fundamental shifts in scientific management processes. Through the earlier challenges, the second form of scientific management theory emerged that took into consideration employee human concerns. Still, workplace and larger-scale economic issues have plagued even later forms of scientific management. In addition to encouraging the rapid emergence of labor unions these increased efficiency measures have been criticized for their automation of the workforce ("Employee motivation," 2010). Such occurrences have had the corresponding negative impact of reducing employee interaction, as well as reducing the amount of available jobs ("Employee motivation," 2010). In conclusion, this essay has examined scientific management theory. In this context of understanding it has examined foundational elements, beginning with founder Fredrick Taylor’s experience as a foreman and lathe operator in a steel plant. From this experience Taylor would go to establish the major foundational element of scientific management theory. Within these understandings the theory would come to consider the varying ways that human productivity is advanced or hindered by workplace elements. Scientific management would go through a variety of alterations, but would its primary concerns would largely remain the same. Ultimately, the fundamental tenants of scientific management theory remain a cornerstone element of modern organizational theory. References Archibald, James. (1999). Organizational Processes. Business Quarterly. 20 (2): 12- 20. Boddy, David (2002). Management: An Introduction (2nd ed. ed.). New York: Pearson Education. Dawson, Michael (2005), The Consumer Trap: Big Business Marketing in American Life (paper ed.), Urbana, IL, USA: University of Illinois Press Employee motivation. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.accel- team.com/scientific/scientific_02.html Frederick taylor and scientific management. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/scientific/ Kanigel, Robert (1997), The One Best Way: Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency, New York, NY, USA: Penguin-Viking Kulliver, Johnson. (2001). Organizational Culture. Watershed Series. 45 (1) 65-70. Rinehart, J.W. (1975). The Tyranny of Work, Canadian Social Problems Series, 17 (1): 35–51. Taylor, F. (2011). The principles of scientific management. Retrieved from http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/taylor/index.htm Weisbord, Marvin (2004). Productive Workplaces Revisited (Chapter 2: Scientific Management Revisited: A Tale of Two Taylors; Chapter 3: The Consulting Engineer: Taylor Invents a New Profession. Templeton Press. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Scientific Management Theory: Organizational Behavior Essay”, n.d.)
Scientific Management Theory: Organizational Behavior Essay. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/management/1445180-scientific-management-theory
(Scientific Management Theory: Organizational Behavior Essay)
Scientific Management Theory: Organizational Behavior Essay. https://studentshare.org/management/1445180-scientific-management-theory.
“Scientific Management Theory: Organizational Behavior Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/management/1445180-scientific-management-theory.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Scientific Management Theory: Organizational Behavior

Critical Thinking in Management

The paper "Critical Thinking in Management" briefly describes articles concerning organizational behavior management, the fad motif in management scholarship, the key factors for success in the management of workers, neo-classical school of management thought.... organizational behavior in management is best handled using behavioral theories that are well discussed by Bucklin et al (2000) and Baron and Greenberg (2008).... These are the pillars of management theory as discussed by Hartley (2006), Tsukamoto-Wagner (2008), and Brownlie et al (2008)....
10 Pages (2500 words) Annotated Bibliography

Organizational Behavior

An essay "organizational behavior" outlines that the study of organizational behavior is an interrelated study with several closely associated subjects like sociology, human resources, and organizational psychology.... Approaches to Management & Organisation The above chart describes the main approaches to organizational behavior (Mullins 2005).... The concept of the management theory... hellip; Organisational behavior is a descriptive subject and it has been under study for so many years....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Role of General Intelligence in Organizational Behavior

organizational behavior (OB) is the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations.... As we can see from the definition above, organizational behavior encompasses a wide range of topics, such as human behavior, change, leadership, teams, etc.... Since many of these topics are covered elsewhere in the leadership guide, this paper will focus on a few parts of organizational behavior: elements, models, social systems, work life, action learning, and change....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Scientific Management Theory

This essay entitled "scientific management theory" deals with the theory of management.... While Taylor's method is referred to as scientific management theory, it's other names attest to a variety of divisions in this approach.... In addition to scientific management theory, this approach has been referred to as Taylorism.... Conversely, scientific management theory is the more developed of the managerial processes.... One considers that while Taylorism had been articulated as early as 1895 with Taylor's text 'A Piece Rate System', and in 1903 with his text 'Shop Management,' it wasn't until 1910 that Louis Brandeis first coined the term 'scientific management' (Kulliver 2001)....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Organizational Structures: Organizations and Behavior

The paper "Organizational Structures: Organizations and behavior" discusses that these cultural values guide the widely dispersed employees of the company across the world.... hellip; The organizational structure of McDonald's is based on a Franchising system in which every Franchisee is left to make strategic decisions for his outlets (McDonalds 2015).... The organizational structure is hierarchical; the CEO of each franchise has subordinates below him who help him, report to him and communicate constantly with him....
14 Pages (3500 words) Assignment

Managing Organisational Behavior

Taylor's scientific management theory states, is a more realistic motivator in contemporary employment than any of the ideas offered by the Needs Theorists.... scientific management developed by Taylor was focused on money as the key motivator for employees to increase their performance.... This essay "Managing Organisational behavior" presents a critique of the recent scandal over MPs expenses claims coupled with, many would argue, the excessive bonuses paid out in the financial sector, which leads one to think that money is a more realistic motivator in contemporary employment than any of the ideas offered by the Needs Theorists....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

The Behavioral Approach in the Management

hellip; The behavioral approach focuses on individuals and group attitudes as well as forms of behavior and performance.... The behavioral approach to management is preferred to other approaches to management because it takes into consideration the behavior of employees.... According to this approach, productivity is improved through a proper understanding of an individual's behavior at work.... According to Tripathi (2008), the behavioral approach to management gives employees more flexibility in terms of autonomy, independence and empowerment in the organizational structure (Barnard, 1962)....
8 Pages (2000 words) Literature review

Organizational Behaviour

The paper "Organizational Behaviour" focuses on the providing main details of the following theories and experiments related to the methods of workers organization: Hawthrone Experiments, Classical Management School, Human resources theory, Systems theory, scientific management theory, Contingency Theory, Group Development and etc.... In addition, workers formed groups, which affected their production, and there were certain codes of behavior were to be adhered to by the members of each group....
5 Pages (1250 words) Report
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us