Taylors Philosophies: Contemporary Management and Employee-Employer Relationship - Coursework Example

Taylor’s Philosophies: Contemporary Management and Employee-Employer Relationship Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Introduction The aspect of contemporary management functions and employee-employer relationship statuses are well-expounded by Taylors’ techniques. Modern management functions are fairly expounded by way of narrowing them down to scientific models of making decisions. He also made sure to make his scientific contributions in regards to the strife that had been ongoing between the management and laborers of a firm. This misunderstanding between management and employees was marred with a common element of violence hence believe that the conflict was actually virtually-inevitable (Locke, 1982). However, Taylor’s formulation of techniques guiding management through the aforementioned conflicts made it possible for existence of a progressive relationship. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to put up a discussion on the concepts of scientific management in relation to modern management as well as in tackling the argument of employee-employer relationship. First, Taylor emphasized on the aspect of time and motion study. Basically, this involved the immediate determination of the pace at which a specific job could be completed (Locke, 1982). Previously, management only used past experience of employees to guide their jobs. This technique helped to eliminate wastes in time hence increasing the expected rate of production for each assigned job. In the modern management platforms, this aspect has found its way into companies operating within industrialized countries where it has facilitated the improvement of production and also, reduction of unnecessary time and motion wastage (Giannantonio and Hurley-Hanson, 2011). Second, Taylor stipulated that there was need for standardized tools and procedures. In the traditional operations, workers were made to carry and own their own tools for work. These tools were ineffective given that the materials used for their construction was not recommended. Taylor however; postulated that there was need for standardization of tools in regards to their usage and designs in order to come up with effective ones (Locke, 1982). In fact, the process of tool design underwent stringent experimental procedures in order to come up with exact shapes and sizes that would effectively execute a given job. In the modern times, the Taylor’s technique of standardization has been used effectively to influence effective management decisions. It is important to realize that this model has been improved in the modern management platform to activities of human engineering. Significantly, its usage has been widened to involve other organizational procedures especially in multi-national companies where standard procedures are used for similar activities regardless of the firm’s position. Third, Taylor’s technique made emphasis on assigning workers specific level of work of given quality within each day of activity that was focused on the end results of time study (Locke, 1982). This specific requirement for work apportionment was named as a task. In the modern management environment, this form of apportionment is postulated as goal-setting for given jobs. The current integration of both cost and accounting platforms are developed from the task concept that had been developed by Taylor. Another significant theory that developed from the concept is the management by objective, which plays a critical role in enhancing such firm’s functionalities as feedback, performance measurement as well as the concepts of cost accounting. Modern managers use this technique to influence major decisions likely to affect a company’s immediate level of operations (Locke, Cartledge & Koeppel, 1968). Fourth, in a bid to counter the management and laborer intensive strife, Taylor advocated for a money bonus technique to handle the situation that was already out of hand (Locke, 1982). He claimed that any given laborer should be made to enjoy at least 30 to 100 per cent higher level of wages in return for having taken the commitment to learn the best way to execute their respective jobs in relation to scientific management standards and also, because of the abilities to complete their regular forms of work in accordance with their specifics (Locke, 1982). Money is perceived as being the most important factor that both management and laborers want hence a significant base of their conflicts. It is considered to be the most important motivator factor in a work relationship (Chung, 2013). In the modern management platforms, the issue of money wages continues to play a significant motivating role aimed at job enrichment and optimum participation. Modern theories developed from Taylor’s principle continue to take root into company performances. For instance, Fein formulated a distinctive plant-wide incentive model; Improshare, that is now receiving significant levels of attention in industrialized companies wage structures (Sykes, 1965). Unlike in the past where employee-employer relationships were significantly marred with intense violence due to overexploitation claims, the modern manager operates under a scientific platform that dictates their wage-pay structures (Shih, Chiang & Lin, 2008). Fifth, Taylor embarked on advocating for a management responsibility for training technique that was aimed at increasing production rates (Locke, 1982). He postulated that employees should be allowed to acquire skills from the management experts rather than experienced workers that might be executing tasks in an effective and wrong way (Wren, 2011). In the modern times, immediately after the selection and hiring of employees, management always perceive the need for training new recruits into familiarizing themselves with scientific company procedures. Notwithstanding, the aspect of objective-oriented evaluation processes in regards to training is now integrated within a company’s procedural activities (Brennan and Orwig, 2000). Other notable principles advocated enhancing management activities as well as tone-down conflicts between management and employees are directed towards scientific selection of personnel and also, the promotion of individualized work (Phelps, Parayitam & Olson, 2007). In conclusion, it can be ascertained from the discussion above that Taylor’s principles were devised accordingly to tackle the idea of misunderstandings commonly perceived between management and workers as well as also, evaluate contemporary management functionalities in regards to the aforementioned principles. It is established that the conflict between managers and laborers results from poor wage structures and poor working conditions resulting from non-standardized tools and procedures. Thus, this strife could be eliminated by way of integrating Taylor’s principles in regards to work performance. References Brennan, L.L. & Orwig, R.A. (2000). A tale of two heuristics: Conflicting approached to work allocation. Engineering Management Journal, 12(3): 18-25. Chung, C. H. (2013). The Road Not Taken: Putting "Management" Back to Taylor's Scientific Management. Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (1947-2900), 5(1), 45-56. Giannantonio, C, M and Hurley-Hanson, A, H. (2011). Fredrick Winslow Taylor: Reflections on the relevance of the principles of scientific management 100 years later. Journal of Business Management, 17(1), 1-121. Locke, E. (1982), The ideas of Frederick W. Taylor: An Evaluation, Academy of Management Review, 7(1), 14-24. Locke, E. A., Cartledge, N., & Koeppel, J. (1968). Motivational effects of knowledge of results: A goal setting phenomenon? Psychological Bulletin, 70, 474-485. Phelps, L. D., Parayitam, S., & Olson, B. J. (2007). Edwards Deming, Mary P. Follett and Frederick W. Taylor: Reconciliation of Differences in Organizational and Strategic Leadership. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 61-14. Sykes, A. J. M. (1965). Economic interest and the Hawthorne researchers. Human Relations, 18, 253-263. Shih, D., Chiang, H. & Lin, C. (2008). Data mining methods in the detection of spam, Journal of Business and Management, 14(2): 117-129. Wren, D. A. (2011). The Centennial of Frederick W. Taylor's the Principles of Scientific Management: A Retrospective Commentary. Journal of Business & Management, 17(1), 11-22. Read More