Management Studies I

Influence of the theory of Scientific Management

in the design of the modern organisation

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 1. Introduction

The theory of Scientific Management was born at the end of the nineteenth
century by Frederick Taylor and entered the mainstream in the first decade of 1900s
(Naylor, 2004). The aim of the theory was to ’’secure the maximum prosperity for the
employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for each employee’’ (Taylor, 1917,
p. 9) and the main objective of it was to improve organization efficiency and
performance of the labour productivity (Mullins, 2007). The purpose of this essay is
to illustrate how principles of Scientific Management affected the design of the
modern organizations and then will go on to analyse through examples what are the
positive and negative effects of Taylorism in these organizations.

2. The principles of Scientific Management

The theory of Scientific Management is based on a few main principles which

consist of a series of methods, adjustments and tools to improve the productivity of
working system by focusing on the best ways to do a task, selecting the best
workmen to do a job and train them to follow the instructions precisely, stimulating
the workers through financial incentives, and finally, concentrating on the
cooperation between workers and managers (Shafritz, Ott, Jang, 2011).

Taylor’s theory became widely adopted by the managers at the beginning of

20th century and the positive effects were the dramatic reduction in the costs of
production which enabled people to buy more products, the employee’s wages rose,
and managers opted for the best ways to achieve the company’s strategic goals
(Mullins, 2007). However, Naylor (2004) suggests that the implementation of
Scientific Management did not consider the social context and neglected employer’s
needs and, in some cases, bad and inhuman working conditions led to multiple
strikes and to the rise of unions. Indeed, Scientific Management had a big positive
impact on working practices and influenced many organizations but we can’t ignore
the fact that it had devalued the psychological needs of work force.

2.1 Advantages

Having established the concept of Scientific Management and its positive and
negative effects in organizations at the beginning of 20th century, this essay will next
consider the application of the theory in organizations today. Although Taylorism in a

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pure sense it is not very much used these days, it encouraged the idea of systematic
organizational design providing the modern companies with an enjoyable
relationship between managers and employees, systematic selection and training
plans, rewards for the best workers, and allowed to educate all the employees, not
just management, about how to use a method and what it means for them (Mind
Tools Team, 2016).

To further understand the role of Scientific Management in today’s

organizations, this section will explore some companies where the theory was
applied successfully. One of the examples is the low-cost airline Ryanair Company
where a part of its success is due to a very well organized process of work. First of
all the ’’management is organised by function’’ (Body, 2017, p. 24) and every
manager is responsible for their tasks such as finding the best method to provide
maximum profit, planning in details where to open new routes, organising the flights
to cut the costs and satisfy the customers, controlling the progress of booked flights
using dynamic pricing (Body, 2017). Secondly, the company hires and trains its staff
to cover all aspects of the job from passenger safety to the highest level of customer
service (Ryanair, 2017). And finally, the crew is motivated with extra revenue by
preparing an aeroplane for its next departure in less time than other companies do or
receiving a bonus by selling in-flight products (Body, 2017).

McDonald’s fast food restaurants also achieved its goals applying Scientific
methods. They have a system which is disciplined and guarantees fast and reliable
service. Each employee at McDonald’s performs their own tasks, having learned the
same job procedure ensuring that the food sent out for the customers has the same
high quality in every franchise around the world. The managers reward their
employees for meeting the objective goals, thereby encouraging them through raised
wages or rewards like ‘’Employee of the month’’ or a simple ‘’Job well done’’ from
managers (Adrianus, 2014). They also provide the employees with regular training
programmes: ’’We believe in investing in our employees to help them fulfil their
potential and progress in their careers’’ (McDonald’s, 2017).

The rational goal model is applied in Apple Company as well and one of its
strongest points is its functional structure. Steve Jobs, the company’s Chief
Executive insisted that people have to be hired and promoted by their ability and ‘’not

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for their managerial skills’’ and followed the principle of ‘’Directly Responsible
Individual a powerful management tool’’ (Body, 2017, p.71) that allows them to know
who is precisely responsible. The company is mainly focusing on producing high-
quality limited products, using the Chinese supplier Foxconn which meets company’s
needs and at the same time it reduces producing costs by hiring cheap labour force.
(Body, 2017). Apple Company is also focusing on motivating their sales employees
by involving them in making important decisions, offering competitive bonuses and
growth opportunities and training them for further career progressing (Blodget,
2012).

The evidence presented has shown that Scientific Management is applied in

many shapes and sizes and had a big impact on the design of modern organizations.
Taylor’s model helped these companies to produce more qualitatively products in
less time reducing their producing costs and motivating their working teams to work
more efficiently. Clearly, the resources analysed have shown only the best sides of
Scientific Management but there is limited conclusive information to support the fact
that the success of these organizations is mainly due to Scientific principles.
According to Naylor (2004), in modern days the managers have to think not only of
how to stimulate their employees but how to satisfy their needs to maintain a
harmonious ambience at the working place.

2.2 Disadvantages

This paragraph will outline the weaknesses of Taylor’s theory and it will show
why it can’t be applied on modern organizations. First of all, Taylor missed one of the
most important things in creating Scientific Management principles. He did not take
in account, as it was said earlier, psychological and physiological needs of the work
force. Even in today’s companies we can see these negative sides. For example the
workers in fast food restaurant McDonald’s dealt with poor working conditions,
drastic cuts of working hours, unfair wages, zero-hour contracts which led to strikes
for worker’s rights in South London in 2017 (Kollewe and Slawson, 2017).

. The same problem can be seen in Apple’s Inc. collaboration with their devices’
manufacturer Foxconn. Due to immense stress, long working days and humiliated
people for their mistakes, in 2010, the company dealt with a high number of suicide
cases (Imogen, 2016).

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 Indeed, these evidences highlight that managers have to be careful and
consider workers needs in the first plan and treat them fairly. However, not all
researches show that the employees were unhappy or mistreated at their work
place. In both cases, to prove this evidence is required a massive effort and a
representative sample of workers because some of the people were bored of their
job or had personal problems which were not directly related to their job (Merchant,
2017).

Another proof of Scientific Management theory’s disadvantage is that today’s

organizations are no longer concentrating on how to produce more with lower costs,
but they are trying to link their internal parts with the outside world by using the open
systems model. This method is very different from the classical one and involves
innovation, adaption and interaction with the environment. The organizations that
have closed boundaries are often considered unhealthy (Body, 2017). One of the
companies that had a big success using open system model is Innocent Drinks
which is unique by selling nothing but fresh fruit – no water, no chemicals or
preservatives (Lester, 2007).Their products and production technique are
environment friendly, the fruits are ensured to be certified, they reduce carbon
emission as much as it is possible and the packages used are ‘’designed for low
environment impact’’ (Body, 2017, p.55).

Ikea is another company that consider not only consumers’ needs but also the
impact that products have on the environment and on the customers’ health. They
are trying to replace their materials with less damaging ones, they are using recycled
plastic, they work on designing flat packaging to put more products in one container
and reduce the number of freight shipments and emissions (Ikea, 2017).

The Innocent and Ikea’s simple strategy has gained the consumers’
confidence, has reduced environmental pollution and at the same time increased
considerably their profit. Moreover, these facts demonstrate that Scientific
Management can’t adapt to modern technologies, innovations and needs because its
main objective it is limited to achieve higher production and productivity without
considering the change and adaptation (Body, 2017).

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 3. Conclusions

Scientific Management has influenced the design of modern organizations to a great

extent by dividing the companies into several departments that focus on
specialization, training and motivating the work force and, at the same time,
improved the co-operation between managers and workers. However, the theory did
not consider people’s needs and its inflexibility did not adapt to changes such as
technology, competition, labour needs or a rational use of resources. In the future,
the ability of organizations to understand and learn from the positive sides of
Scientific theory and not fully apply it in practice, will allow them to achieve their
goals, maximize the productivity and efficiency and adapt more quickly to modern
changes.

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