Analysis of Taylor Claim on Scientific Management Principles - Coursework Example

Name Class Unit Introduction Fredrick W. Taylor published the famous book on principles of scientific management in 1911. In the book, he suggested new principles of industrial organisation which were meant to take advantage of extreme labour division and mechanisation. Taylor theory of scientific management became very vital on the factory system during the 20th century. The theory led to an efficient mode of working in the industries and was spread throughout Europe and America (Hough & White, 2001). Taylor was an engineer and manager and his work was based on what he thought would be important for the management of modern enterprises. His proposal was based on a functional scheme which would improve the plant management. He proposes changes into the ways in which the individual tasks are performed (Payne, Youngcourt and Watrous, 2006). The essence of Taylor scientific principle is division of labour, simple repetitive movements, minimum training, monetary incentives, time optimisation and predetermined work. This was aimed at attaining high profits, high wages and harmony between employers and employees. (Caldari, 2007). This report analyses Taylor claim on scientific management principles that it would lead to maximum prosperity for both workers and employees. Taylor’s scientific management is still relevant in the modern business world. This is seen through the use of several principles that were proposed through scientific management. The scientific selection and development of workers has been one of the most relevant principles today. This is seen in the efforts that are placed when hiring the employees in modern organisation. There is use of psychologists in the interview process and a lot of emphasis is placed on the applicant suitability in the position. When an organisation has selected the suitable employee, training is carried out to develop the employee’s skills (Caldari, 2007). Organisations have been using training programmes to ensure that their employees are up to date with the job trends. This has been a major benefit for both employees and workers through use of Taylor’s principles. The employer is able to get the right employee for their job while the employee gains through continuous job training (Myers, 2011). Human relations through use of Taylor’s principle have been another benefit to organisations. This is based on Taylor’s third principle where science and trained worker is brought together for the better treatment and expression for the employee’s needs (Caldari, 2007). Scientific management can be related to human relations through the point that it found resting in the workplace to be very beneficial to productivity. Maintaining a happy and healthy workforce has been in the forefront of the modern organisations. This ensures that there is prosperity for both employer and employee in an organisation (Giannantonio & Hurley-Hanson, 2011). This has led to legislations such as health and safety Acts in workplace. The employee is protected from unsafe work environment and their happiness is ensured. This also helps in reducing the staff turnover and thus improves the workplace efficiency. In most of organisations, work is divided into two large components (workers and management). This helps the organisations to ensure that responsibility for both management and workers is enforced. The management is able to concentrate on planning, organising, controlling and leading. This has been enabled by the scientific management principles (Caldari, 2007). Scientific management principles have been very vital in the development of the contemporary business. An example of modern use of Taylor’s principles is seen in group technologies. This is where improved quality and efficiency is attained. This is through use of part simplification, standardised processes and production control. The use of group technology was introduced by Taylor in 1919 and became important part of automaton in industries. This is especially in factories where multiple standardised parts are produced. This has been very beneficial to both the employer and employees. The industry is able to benefit from mass production while the employees benefits from simplified processes (Bell & Martin, 2012). Modern accounting is shaped by scientific management. This is especially the method of management by exception (Pruijt, 2000). This can be attributed classical management where deviations are reported to the management. In accounting, budgets are used as guides to success or failure of a business practice. For example, when there is budget overrun, the accountant informs the higher management (Myers, 2011). The use of continuous improvement in the modern organisations can be cited to be same with quality management initiative in the modern organisations. This has led to production of cost effective goods and services which ensures that there is a unique offer. Management accounting rose in the industrial revolution. Information regarding workers efficiency became vital in the mass production market. Underperformance was prominent in the labour market which led to high costs (Giannantonio & Hurley-Hanson, 2011). Taylor work focused on scientific sustainability while at the same time ensuring a social system. There is a lot of evidence that Taylor had attention to the human factor in his work. He had a global vision of social development in the workplace (Myers, 2011). This is through the combination of the wealth generation, competition, consumer and labour management. There was also the micro organisation of the labourers’ daily work. Through Taylor’s work the relationship between the employer and business systems is enhanced. Individualism in the workplace has been replaced with cooperation and discord with harmony through Taylor’s scientific principles. Through use of scientific principles, science has become superior to applied methods and techniques. The goods are cheaper to the larger segment of the population (Giannantonio & Hurley-Hanson, 2011). Through use of Taylor’s scientific it has become possible to shift the focus from division the surplus to increasing the production. The use of principle made the goods which were previously considered a luxury to the consumers to become available (Giannantonio & Hurley-Hanson, 2011). The increasing demand meant that the number of workers had to increase. This was in line with the need to produce the proper offer. The harmony between the workers and employers was ensured by the consumers. This is through making purchases for the products which paid both wages and profits for the employers (Bell & Martin, 2012). To attain control in the industries, Taylor proposed the standardisation of processes and operations. This implies high level of control for machines, tight control of operations and standardisation of operations (Myers, 2011). This led to elimination of variation within the shop. The machines became less variable and more precise control was achieved. This was the first step in establishment of predictable and interchangeable parts. This was a major step in the evolution of the mass speed production. The technology has been instrumental in the shaping of quality of life in 20th century. This helped both the employers and employees across the globe (Giannantonio & Hurley-Hanson, 2011). In a business, success is driven by the level of efficiency. This is a major factor that Taylor discovered during his work. Taylor discovered that there is need for efficient use of resources for the business to succeed (Myers, 2011). This is a principle that is in use with modern business. Use of scientific management has been able to assist in evaluating both internal and external factors in an organisation to ensure there is efficiency. Business becomes capable of earning higher income from a given set of resources. This rise in incomes from business has been made possible through having management that is efficient in their operations (Giannantonio & Hurley-Hanson, 2011). Taylor discovered that the sources of inefficiency could be easily corrected through use of scientific management. Through use of scientific management principles, Taylor was able to create a metal revolution for the management and employees. This made it possible to come up with a new mind-set that enabled greater economic prosperity for employees and management. The quest for efficiency went further than just overcoming the mental resistance (Giannantonio & Hurley-Hanson, 2011). The use of scientific management led to efficient, ergonomic and economic activities that were carried out in a proper and sequential manner. This increased the firm output several times. This application of scientific management was a major departure from the traditional approach to management. Business which wanted to gain more output through use of lesser resources adopted the Taylor’s principles. It is thus evident that Taylor was able to attain higher efficiencies in the workplace through scientific basis of management (Bell & Martin, 2012). In the entrepreneurial context, both employers and employees have benefited from Taylor’s principles. For most start-ups, the business is small and the owner has to endure liabilities in the initial stages. Start-ups have limited space and few sources of funding, technology and human capital as compared to the larger firms (Giannantonio & Hurley-Hanson, 2011). Thus, these businesses operate in constrained resources. The entrepreneur is thus required to ensure that the production is not slowed down due to lack of resources. The need for efficiency has been a major focus for those in entrepreneurship. Efficiency becomes vital as the entrepreneur is forced to work on limited resources. Through working efficiently on the available resources, entrepreneurs are able to grow their business and become successful. Thus, the quest for efficiency becomes a major business driver in the case of an entrepreneur. This shows a direct benefit of entrepreneurship from scientific management (Derksen, 2014). Another benefit of Taylor management principle to the employers was lead into the lean manufacturing. Through use of scientific management, it was possible to standardise costs, materials, accounting systems and handling controls among others (Giannantonio & Hurley-Hanson, 2011). In the later part of 20th century, there were extreme changes in the manufacturing environment. Goods were customised for mass markets and product life cycles decreased as demand for goods rose. Business started utilising efficient worker movement and use of equipments. The main objective was to use the scientific principles to ensure that there is maximum profit for both employer and employee. The use of scientific management made it possible for the ordinary employees to attain maximum performance (Derksen, 2014). Each job in the organisation had its performance standard and management took an active role in employee supervision, development and compensation. Employees who were unable to meet the expected standards earned lower than those who were able to meet the standards. The use of lean manufacturing has been utilised by large firms such as Toyota Motor Corporation. This was in response to the scarce resources in the Japanese motor industry. The outcome was beneficial to both employers and employees (Crainer, 2003). With the rising demand for high quality products and timely delivery in the global market, Taylor principles continues to have relevance and benefits to both workers and employers in the 21st century (Pruijt, 2000). Managers are able to have timely access to information and more accurate cost estimates. The use of technology has modernised Taylor’s principles of scientific management (Crainer, 2003). The main loss to employers and workers is unity of command. Taylor principle emphasized on the functional foremanship where workers had to report to several bosses. This principle led to breaking of unity of command (Derksen, 2014). This has been a major drawback as it can lead to confusion in the workplace. Taylor principles also gave a lot of importance to efficiency. In doing so, he failed to consider the human element. Workers in this case are seen as robot and were supposed to speed up work at any cost. This is a major drawback of Taylor’s scientific principles to workers (Caldari, 2007). Taylor’s principles have an individualistic approach instead of group performance. This is a loss to the employer since the perfoamcne of an organisation does not only depend on individual performance but also group performance (Pane Haden, Humphreys, Cooke & Penland, 2012). Wrong assumptions made by Taylor’s principles have negative implications to both employers and employees. It is assumed that workers are only motivated by financial gains. In reality, financial gains are not the sole motivator to employees. Employees require financial, social and personal needs among others for motivation. This is a major loss since it may lead to the organisation failing to motivate workers appropriately (Derksen, 2014). Lastly, Taylor’s scientific principles had narrow application. The principles are only applicable in cases where workers performance can be measured in a quantitive manner. This implies that this can only be applied to factories where performance can be measured. In the service sector where performance cannot be measured in a quantitive manner, the principles cannot be applied effectively (Derksen, 2014). Conclusion To sum up, Taylor’s claim that his scientific management principles has led to maximum prosperity for both workers and employers is supported by various benefits. Employers and workers are able to attain benefits as well as losses as a result of the Taylor’s principles. The main benefits to both employers and workers are; scientific selection of workers, human relations, division of labour, group technologies, modern accounting, process standardisation and high level of efficiency. Taylor’s principles have also been beneficial through efficiency in entrepreneurship and lean production. The main area of losses includes; loss of unity in command, failure to consider human element, individualist approach instead of group approach, assumptions and narrow application all which affects workers and employers in a negative way. It is thus evident that Taylor’s management principles has both benefits and loses to employers and workers. References Bell, RL & Martin, JS 2012, ‘The Relevance of Scientific Management and Equity Theory in Everyday Managerial Communication’, Journal of Management Policy & Practice, vol. 13(3), pp. 106-115. Caldari, K 2007, ‘Alfred Marshall’s critical analysis of scientific management’, The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 14:1, March, pp. 55-78. Crainer, S 2003, ‘One hundred years of management’, Business Strategy Review, vol. 14, issue 3, pp. 41-49. Derksen, M 2014, ‘Turning Men Into Machines? Scientific Management, Industrial Psychology, and the “Human Factor”’, Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences, vol. 50(2), Spring, pp. 148-165. Giannantonio, CM & Hurley-Hanson, AE 2011, ‘Frederick Winslow Taylor: Reflections on the Relevance of the Principles of Scientific Management 100 Years Later’, Journal of Business and Management, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 7-10. Hough, J.R., & White, M.A. 2001. “Using stories to create change: the object lesson of Frederick Taylor’s “Pig-tale”.” Journal of Management, Vol.27, no.1, p.585-601. Myers, LA 2011 ‘One Hundred Years Later: What Would Frederick W. Taylor Say?’ International Journal of Business and Social Science, vol. 2, no. 20, pp. 8-11. Pane Haden, SS, Humphreys, JH, Cooke, J, & Penland, P 2012, ‘Applying Taylor’s Principles to Teams: Renewing a Century-Old Theory’, Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, vol. 90(4), pp. 11-20. Payne, S. C., Youngcourt, S. S. and Watrous, K. M. 2006, “Portrayals of F. W. Taylor Across Textbooks”, Journal of Management History, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 385-407. Pruijt, H. 2000, “Repainting, Modifying, Smashing Taylorism”, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 13, pp. 439-451. Read More