Scientific Management - Research Paper Example

Scientific Management From the past few decades, scientific management has been given huge emphasis owing to its varied and unignorable implications in the organizational context and business activities as well. There were numerous studies undertaken during the early 19th century regarding the usefulness of scientific management due to which various useful purposes of the term could be identified. Initially, scientific management was considered as a tool of mental revolution for workers and management of organizations. Notably, the term, ‘scientific management’, evolved with the intention of enhancing the overall performance of manufacturing facilities (Nelson, n.d.). Referring to these notions, the essay primarily focuses on exploring the effectiveness of scientific management in the organizational context. The essay also aims at determining the usefulness of scientific management in order to manage organizational behavior and plan for changes within an organization. In a broader sense, the term ‘Scientific management’, can be referred as a managerial theory that is principally used for evaluating and synthesizing the workflow in an organization. The principal use of the notion underlying the theory of scientific management has been to enhance the financial efficiency and overall productivity level of an organization. This theory was developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the year 1911 with the aim of reconfiguring the management and engineering processes within manufacturing units with emphasis to better use of resources and obtainment of productivity. According to Trist, the concept of scientific management raises two questions, “what is science” and “what is management”. From a generalized perspective, answers to these questions might be plural and vague if thought philosophically. While from a historical perspective, the answers to these questions are single and clear. Contextually, scientific management can be mentioned as the movement that is related to the measurement of work, which was developed by Taylor during the initial phase of industrial revolution (Trist, n.d.). According to the research conducted by Celik (2011), it was believed that Taylor was the first person to study management as a scientific subject through which, he obtained the idea to “Theory of Scientific Management”. It was revealed that the ideas developed by Taylor had a huge influence on various academics and scientists studying organizational management during the period. It would be worth mentioning that the ideas developed by Taylor in his concept of scientific management had been used by a large number of public and private organizations for several years. It was witnessed that the ideas developed by Taylor was highly emphasized, but these ideas were also criticized by many authors during that period. As argued in Locke (1982) and Locke (1978), Taylor’s ideas primarily judged workforces as working engines. Arguably, Taylor’s scientific management theory lacked capability to provide any importance to the human factors and was only intended towards enhancing the productivity level in an organization. However, these criticisms were overlooked as the idea developed by Taylor was based upon strong foundation. According to the study of Wagner-Tsukamoto (2007), it could be derived through the study conducted by Taylor that organizations can actually benefit from the workers and the overall output can be increased by initiating a systematic process. Scientific management was developed by analyzing certain factors about the workers, through which it could be derived that workers tend to be lazy and they have less inclination towards their work. It could also be revealed that workers might become unproductive and de-motivated if a systematic process is not initiated within an organization. Moreover, they would not have well-defined goals and mission if appropriate motivation is not provided through a systematized approach. It was observed by Taylor that unproductive workforce would harm organizations to a huge extent that would adversely affect the economy of a nation (Celik, 2011). Thus, the theory of scientific management was developed, which was based following the assumption that managers and employees must carry out their business activity based upon the scientific principles instead of working unsystematically. It was also believed that business activities of organizations must be synchronized and consistent that would result in higher productivity making complete use of scientific management notion. It is assumed under this theory that the activities to be carried out by workers must be segregated based upon their insights and experiences along with a set of scientific methods. The physical and intellectual skills of the workers must be given huge consideration and accordingly their work should be standardized. In addition, this theory also assumes that certain specialization must be defined for each and every labor that would determine the performance that is expected from them assisting in better organizational management (Celik, 2011). Considerably, the introduction of scientific management has resulted in providing several benefits for organizations, as this concept has been useful in providing clear description of authority among the managers and workers within an organization. Scientific management has also been useful in assigning certain tasks and responsibilities to each and every member in an organization. It also separates planning process from the operational activity that helps in enhancing the overall quality of work within an organization. Furthermore, scientific management has been useful in effective recruitment processes for an organization, wherein right individuals are placed at the right job more efficiently by managers, making better utilization of the resources. The concept also involves incentive schemes for the workers so as to ensure that they are motivated and committed to the workplace. Task specialization has also been another useful aspect, which is induced by initiating scientific management approach within an organization (Baloch & Inam, n.d.). Another contemporary paradigm of scientific management is identified as the dimension of Total Quality (TQ). TQ is viewed as an extension of scientific management. Therefore, it can be considered that TQ has a huge linkage with scientific management. In relation to the usefulness of scientific management, it has been derived that the theory is based upon the assumption of continuous improvement among workers and team work. These assumptions are similar to that of TQ, due to which, it can be stated that the usefulness of scientific management would be quite similar with that of TQ. It would be worth mentioning that TQ is aimed towards the management and workforce perspectives, which is alike –he stated aim of scientific management. Thus, it can be asserted that both the concepts are beneficial in enhancing the management process and increasing productivity level of the organizations. Moreover, both TQ and scientific management are inclined towards increasing the overall performance of organizations, which provides evidence regarding how these concepts are used in an organizational perspective (Dean, Jr. & Bowen, 1994). Scientific management has undoubtedly played a prime role in framing certain standards in the contemporary business environment. These standards have further helped in positively influencing various businesses today. It would be worth mentioning that scientific management has laid the foundation for systematic business operations that has been undertaken in various organizations currently. Emphasizing this connotation, McKinnon (2003) asserted that there are four principles of scientific management. The first principle herein includes “the development of laws and scientific principles for work tasks to replace old-fashioned or traditional methods”. This principle is mainly focused towards setting certain standards of work within an organization that has improved the way in which, business activities are carried out today. The second principle includes “scientific selection and development of workers”, which has been in extensive application in the present day era, as it has contributed towards effective recruitment of right employees for right job. It can therefore be considered that this particular aspect has shaped the entire recruitment process being undertaken by several organizations in the contemporary business scenario. Likewise, the third principle includes “bringing together of science and the trained worker by offering better treatment and an opportunity for the expression of employee needs” (McKinnon, 2003). This principle has been applied within the organizations today, maintaining employee relations, which in turn has contributed towards increasing the overall productivity level of the employees. The fourth principle includes correspondingly includes “dividing up the work in an organization into two large components, one for the workers and one for management”. According to this principle, management of an organization must be responsible for planning, directing, organizing and controlling, whereby the workers must be responsible for executing the planned actions and tasks designed by the management. It has also been viewed that this principle has been widely used by organizations, as it has enhanced the quality level of both the management and workers with increased efficiency and standardization approaches (McKinnon, 2003). Apparently, scientific management has created new set of values and techniques for private organizations due to which, it is considered that government organizations must also adopt scientific management in their operational practices (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2000). Therefore, it is suggestible that organizations must effectively implement scientific management in their business function so as to improve the productivity level and performance that would induce growth with due significance to its various principles and dimensions. In order to implement scientific management efficiently, it is recommended that a need analysis must be undertaken that would determine the actual requirements of scientific management within an organization. After the analysis is completed, an appropriate design for scientific management must be created by the managers to ensure its complete and efficient implementation. The next step would be appraising the scientific management design, so as to understand its effectiveness. Once the appraisal process is completed, scientific management must be implemented and accordingly, it should be monitored to ensure that scientific management is capable of positively influencing the business in relation to its overall productivity (Mary & et. al., n.d.). References Baloch, Q. B. & Inam, M. (n.d.). Role of Scientific Management at Work Place: Perceptions and Misperceptions. Journal of Management Sciences, 1(1), 102-112. Celik, M. (2011). A Theoretical Approach to the Science of Management. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 1(3), 65-69. Dean, Jr., J. W. & Bowen, D. E. (1994).Management Theory and Total Quality: Improving Research and Practice through Theory Development. The Academy of Management Review, 19(3), 392-418. Denhardt, R. B. & Denhardt, J. V. (2000). The New Public Service: Serving Rather Than Steering. Public Administration Review, 60 (6), 549-557. Locke, E. A. (1982). The Ubiquity of the Technique of Goal Setting in Theories of and Approaches to Employee Motivation. The Academy of Management Review, 3(3), 594-601. Locke, E. A. (1982). The Ideas of Frederick W. Taylor: An Evaluation. The Academy of Management Review, 7(1), 14-24. Mary, M., Ugwuanyi, U. & Eze, J. (n.d.). Application of Scientific Management Theory as Right Based Approach in the Administration of Ngo’s. Department of Business Administration, 1-12. McKinnon, A. (2003). The Impact of Scientific Management on Contemporary New Zealand Business. Retrieved from http://homepages.inspire.net.nz/~jamckinnon/business/The%20Impact%20of%20Scientific%20Management%20in%20Contemporary%20New%20Zealand%20Business.pdf Nelson, D. (n.d.) Scientific Management in Retrospect. Retrieved from https://ohiostatepress.org/Books/Complete%20PDFs/Nelson%20Mental/02.pdf Trist, E. (n.d.) A Socio-Technical Critique of Scientific Management. TRIST: Socio-Technical Critique, pp. 1-29. Wagner-Tsukamoto, S. (2007). An Institutional Economic Reconstruction of Scientific Management: On the Lost Theoretical Logic of Taylorism. Academy of Management Review, 32(1), 105–117. Read More