S

Scientific Management Theory

of Organizations Introduction

Jeri Anne Hose-Ryan Several theories exist pertaining to how to best

Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA
Synonyms
Administrative Theory of Management; Manage-
rial Hierarchy Organizational Effectiveness;
Organizational Theory and Behavior; Scientific
Management Movement; Taylorism
Definitions
Workflow The process of performing
specific tasks
Efficiency The rate at which work is
completed coupled with the
quality of work produced
Design of Unlike Taylor’s
Organization micromanagerial approach,
examines the entire
organization as a whole to
determine efficiency
PODSCoRB Acronym of Gulick’s guiding
principles pertaining to the
roles of managers and
executives
manage the workflow in organizations. In 1909,
Taylor published “The Principles of Scientific
Management,” in which he theorized the most
efficient way to manage production of a complex
product is by simplifying the workflow and pro-
viding the best tools/methods for which to com-
plete the work to maximize profits for both the
company and the wage earner (whose primary
objective Taylor assumes is to be wages and fails
to take into account other factors that may moti-
vate workers, including but not limited to personal
job satisfaction, physical working conditions, or,
in the more modern-day workplace, the availabil-
ity of a family-friendly schedule, commute time,
tuition reimbursement, the ability to work from
home, health insurance coverage, and the like.)
Taylor’s focus was primarily industrial and was
adopted by automotive industry giant Henry Ford.
At the time, management at these factories had
very little (if any) contact with workers unless
errors needed to be addressed or disciplinary
action needed to be taken.
Taylor outlines breaking the process down into
departments with managers overseeing specific
tasks and the implementation of workflow pro-
cess. Scientific Theory of Management’s four
guiding principles are as follows:

# Springer International Publishing AG 2017

A. Farazmand (ed.), Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_79-1
2 Scientific Management Theory of Organizations
• Replace working by habit/common sense with
a scientific method to study work and deter-
mine the most efficient way to perform tasks.
• Match workers to their jobs based on capability
and motivation, and then train them to work at
maximum efficiency.
• Monitor worker performance and provide
instruction/supervision to ensure maximum
efficiency.
• Allocate the work between managers and
workers in a manner that allows managers to
spend their time planning and training while
allowing workers to focus on assigned tasks
(Taylor 1917). As a case study, Taylor ana-
lyzed the productivity of pig iron handler
laboring for the Bethlehem Steel Company.
Upon evaluation of their current workload,
pig iron handlers were found to move an aver-
age of 12.5 tons of pig iron per day. Based on
the strength of the average pig iron hauler and
the workplace environment in which they
performed their work, Taylor’s calculations
estimated each pig iron handler should be
able to move not 12 tons of pig iron per day
but 47 tons per handler. In order to form a
workforce able to reach this daily capacity,
Taylor studied each pig iron handler individu-
ally and established a team of the strongest
most efficient men and gave them the goal of
47 tons of pig iron per day with a monetary
wage incentive of $1.85 versus the $1.15 the
men were currently being paid. Once the pig
iron handler agreed he was a “high priced
man,” a specific pig iron hauling daily sched-
ule was established. These men reached their
goal, and other workers strived to reach that
goal so they, too, could make 60 cents more
per hour.
Beyond Taylor: Governmental
Administration and the Influence
of Fayol
One of the main facets of a workplace dominated
by human beings was overlooked in the formation
of scientific management theory: the very com-
plex nature of humankind, including but not
limited to an expanse of government-provided
services.
Henry Fayol, also known as the “Father of
Classical Theory” wrote “Administration
Industrielle et Generale” in 1916 France and its
English counterpart “General and Industrial Man-
agement” a little over a decade later. Fayol
equated administration with management and
helped pave the way for a hierarchical structure
of management. Fayol’s contributions to manage-
ment theory can be applied to both the private and
the public arena with roughly the same percentage
of implementation success. He also considered
and accounted for the human aspect of asset
management.
He outlined six rather broad organizational
activities: technical, commercial, financial, secu-
rity, accounting, and managerial (Fayol 1930). Of
these six activities, he further examined the com-
plex, multifaceted role of the manager, which he
classified it into five parts and proposed the acro-
nym POCCC: planning, organizing, command-
ing, coordinating, and controlling.
He gave 14 principles (through which these
activities can be performed), and these principles
became the basis for classical organizational
theory:
1. Division of work: Workers were evaluated on
an individual basis and matched to positions
suiting their physical and mental capacities
while keeping an eye on maximizing profits.
2. Authority and responsibility: A manager
must be endowed with an appropriate degree
of authority, and with that authority comes the
need to administer parts of that organizational
power to members of his team as he deems
necessary in the pursuit of organizational
goals.
3. Discipline: The dual nature of discipline
according to Fayol is the worthiness of the
manager coupled with the respect of his
employees.
4. Unity of command: Employees should be
clearly able to identify who is responsible
for their oversight and is based on a hierar-
chical organization with little consideration
of organizational overlap.
Scientific Management Theory of Organizations
5. Unity of direction: The organization in ques-
tion should have clear, defining concise goals
and objectives all managers and employees
can work toward.
6. Subordination of individual to general inter-
est: Managers are responsible for holding
their own personal interests second to the
greater good of the clearly stated organiza-
tional goals versus fulfilling personal agendas
contrary to the good of the organization.
7. Remuneration of personnel: Employees com-
pensated appropriately for their work, be it
monetarily with wages or non-monetarily
with titles and increasing responsibility, are
inclined to be loyal and dedicated employees
and more invested to assist with implementa-
tion of organizational goals.
8. Centralization: Top management should
come from a central governing executive
board to ensure the clarity of organizational
goals. (Fayol does argue, however, that a
balance of centrally located decision making
and input from lower level managers is key to
ensuring the centralized governing board
remains in tune with those individuals admin-
istering the decisions and goals.)
9. Scalar chain: Organizational hierarchy should
be a transparent line making employees
clearly see who is responsible for which
parts of the organization.
10. Order: Managers are responsible for provid-
ing the tools/training for employee success.
11. Equity: To maintain a smoothly operational
workplace, each employee must be treated
with not only kindness and respect but also
with managerial impartiality and with a focus
on achieving the goals set for employees.
12. Stability of tenure: A high rate of employee
turnover can be expensive to the organization
in terms of training and placement of new
employees into the positions where they can
most help achieve the organizational goals.
13. Initiative: In the course of managing
employees, managers will develop innovative
strategies to improve workflow and organiza-
tional efficiency. Managers should feel secure
enough to share these ideas with upper
management.
3
14. Esprit de corps: As Fayol was French, the
concept of morale and cooperation does not
adequately translate to English. Managers are
responsible for cultivating a spirit of unity
both for the individual employee and his
team of workers as a whole.
The Fayol principles of management became
the basic essence of administrative design used in
the US federal government (Van Vliet 2010).
Mooney and Reiley
James D. Mooney and Alan C. Reiley, in their
work Onward Industry! The Principles of
Organization and Their Significance to Mod-
ern Industry (1931), aided in the development of
organizational effectiveness theory by analyzing
and condensing the myriad theories of several
administrative management pioneers into univer-
sal principles:
1. The coordinative principle
2. The scalar principle and the directionally fluid
scalar chain, in which superior and subordinate
relationships are able to flexibly communicate
both up and down the chain for maximum
efficiency and the introduction of ideas that
may well have a positive impact on the orga-
nization as a whole
3. The functional principle, including line and
staff principal as well as vertical vs horizontal
coordination
The Contributions of Gulick and Urwick
Taylor’s development of managerial theory began
at the very basic level of the workplace and exam-
ined the very act of managing each task efficiently
with training workers to complete their tasks
quickly and accurately.
Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick were mem-
bers of a committee to the US President and
published a report named “Papers on the Science
of Administration,” in which they outlined a man-
agerial approach that evaluated the organization
4 Scientific Management Theory of Organizations
as a whole to determine best management
practices.
Gulick, a French mining engineer, developed
managerial theory based on his experiences with
the US Military and within the company in which
he worked his way into a management position.
He had circumstantial experiences with both civil
and industrial organization (whereas Taylor
remained firmly rooted in the industrial sector).
Gulick outlines his principles of administration
as follows: division of work (a Taylor concept),
base of departmentalization, coordination through
hierarchy, deliberate coordination, coordination
through committees, decentralization, delegation,
line and staff, chain of command, and span of
control. From these administrative principles, he
together with Urwick developed the PODSCoRB
theory of the most efficient managerial style
possible:
P: Planning – Deciding what to do, i.e., setting
agenda
O: Organizing – Allocating and organizing activ-
ities, i.e., setting up of organizational structure
S: Staffing – Personnel managements and its
related activities
D: Directing – Decision and giving orders to
convert into work
Co: Coordinating – Establishing connectivity and
cooperation between the parts
R: Reporting – Providing status and reports to the
concerns (e.g., managers)
B: Budgeting – Fiscal planning and management,
accounting, and control (Gulick 1937)
Lyndall Urwick, born in late nineteenth-
century Britain, was educated at Oxford Univer-
sity and served as a Lt. Col. in the British army
during the First World War. His life experiences
within those diverse hierarchical structures
assisted him in his development of the ten princi-
ples of administration:
1. The Principle of the Objective: All parts of
the organization are responsible for working
together to execute the goals of the
organization.
2. The Principle of Specialization: The activities
of each member of the organization should be
as single-function minded as possible to
ensure an ultrafine focus on their specific
tasks at hand.
3. The Principle of Coordination: Unity of effort
within the organization must be emphasized
with a clear eye on the organizational goals.
4. The Principle of Authority: Workers should
be able to identify precisely who and where
the supreme authority in their
organization lies.
5. The Principle of Responsibility: Superiors
and subordinates alike are able to establish
transparency in which responsibilities fall
under which organizational positions.
6. The Principle of Definition: Superiors and
subordinates alike are able to clearly define
their specific responsibilities within the
organization.
7. The Principle of Correspondence: Managers
and workers need to maintain open lines of
communication.
8. The Principle of Span of Control: This prin-
ciple places limits on the number of subordi-
nates a manager can effectively and
efficiently manage.
9. The Principle of Balance: Acknowledging an
organization can have several specialized
units which work together to maintain orga-
nizational cohesion, the power and authority
of all units should be at comparable levels in
order to ensure the achievement of organiza-
tional goals.
10. The Principle of Continuity: A wise manager
will realize the need for structural reorganiza-
tion as both the organizational goals and out-
side forces demand them (Urwick 1930).
Criticisms of the Scientific Theory
of Management
Scientific Theory of Management has many criti-
cisms expounded upon by many scholars of man-
agement theory and administrative theory. The
most common is as follows:
Scientific Management Theory of Organizations
John Hobson, English economist and one of
Taylor’s peers, cited, “evident that when we pass
from technical improvement of tools to improved
methods of working, we open possibilities of
opposition between the business and the human
interest” (Hobson 1914: 207). Also, “the liberty,
initiative, judgement and responsibility of the
individual workman are reduced to a minimum”
(Hobson 1914: 209). Social considerations are
lacking in scientific theory; workers are viewed
as easily replaced cogs in the machine of industry.
Conclusion
Taylor began a workplace revolution when he
published The Principles of Scientific Manage-
ment. Workplace administration now had a theo-
retical guide backed by successful experiments in
increasing workflow productivity and therefore
increasing profits.
The theories are rudimentary and view workers
in terms of work efficiency while negating their
social/human aspects that inevitably impact the
worker throughout the course of their careers.
A marked distance between management values
and worker values contributes to workplace dis-
cord and labor unrest.
5
Cross-References
▶ Administrative Policy Making
▶ Causes of Organizational Conflict
▶ Groupthink Processes and Problems
▶ Leadership Development in Organizations
▶ Organizational Burnout
References
Fayol H (1930) General and industrial management. Sir
I Pitman & Sons LTD, London
Gulick L (1937) Papers on the science of administration.
Institute of Public Administration/Columbia Univer-
sity, New York
Gulick L, Urwick L (eds) (1937) Papers on the science of
administration. Institute of Public Administration/
Columbia University, New York
Hobson, J (1914). Work and Wealth: A Human Valuation.
(Macmillian and Company) New York.
Mooney J, Reiley AC (1931) Onward industry! The prin-
ciples of organization and their significance to modern
industry. Harper & Brothers, New York
Taylor F (1917) Principles of scientific management.
Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York
Urwick L (1930) Industrial and general administration
(trans: Coubrough JA). Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons,
London
Van Vliet V (2010). Henri Fayol. Retrieved 31 Dec 2016
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