AED 4210 Organisation Theory and Management
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
PRINCIPLES: BY F.W. TAYLOR
Dr. M. Luchembe
Scientific Management
Objectives
At the end of this topic, students should be able to:
Discuss the four principles that Taylor proposed to increase
efficiency at work
Explain the strengths and weaknesses of these principles
that were proposed to increase efficiency at work
Describe the benefits of Taylor’s principles to organisations
Identify the drawbacks that arose during the
implementation of the Taylor’s principles to organisations
TAYLOR’S FIRST PRINCIPLE
The four principles were aimed at increasing efficiency at work.
• Study the way workers perform their tasks, gather all the informal
job knowledge that workers possess, and experiment with ways of
improving how tasks are performed. To discover the most efficient
method of performing tasks, Taylor studied in great detail and
measured the ways different workers went about their tasks.
• One of the main tools he used was a time-and–motion study, which
involved the careful timing and recording of the actions taken to
perform a particular task. All the unnecessary movements could be
eliminated in order to produce the best method of doing the job.
TAYLOR’S SECOND PRINCIPLE
• Codify the new methods of performing tasks into written
rules and standard operating procedures.
• Once the best method of performing a particular task
was determined, Taylor specified that it should be
recorded so that this procedure can be taught to all
workers performing the same task.
• These new methods further standardised and simplified
jobs – essentially making jobs even more routine.
TAYLOR’S THIRD PRINCIPLE
• Carefully select workers with skills and abilities that
match the needs of the task, and train them to perform
the task according to the established rules and
procedures.
• To increase specialisation, Taylor believed workers had
to understand the tasks that were required and be
trained to perform the task at the required level.
• Those who could not be trained, would be transferred to
another job where they might perform better.
TAYLOR’S FOURTH PRINCIPLE
• Establish a fair or acceptable level of performance for a
task, and then develop a pay system that provides a
reward for performance above the acceptable level.
• To encourage workers to perform at a high level of
efficiency, and to provide them with an incentive to reveal
the most efficient techniques for performing a task,
Taylor advocated that workers benefit from any gains in
performance.
SUMMARY OF THE STEPS OF THE SCIENTIFIC
APPROACH
a. Develop a science for each operation to replace opinion and rule- of
– thumb.
b. Determine accurately from science, the correct time and method for
each job.
c. Set up a suitable organisation to take all responsibility from the workers
except that of actual job performance.
d. Select and train the workers.
e. Accept that management itself be governed by the science developed
for each operation and surrender its arbitrary power over worker i.e.
cooperate with them.
SOME EXPERIENCES OF TAYLOR AT WORK
• As a worker himself, experience, and I quote: had convinced him that few, if
any, workers put more than the minimum effort into their daily work’. He
described this tendency as ‘soldiering’ and subdivided it into two:
a. Natural soldiering – i.e. man’s natural tendency to take things easy.
b. Systematic soldiering – i.e. the deliberate and organised restriction of the
work-rate by the employees.
• The reasons for soldiering appeared to Taylor to arise from three issues:
a. Fear of unemployment
b. Fluctuations in the earning from piece rate systems
c. Rule- of – thumb methods permitted by management (old way of doing
things)
PROBLEMS ARISING FROM IMPLEMENTING TAYLOR’S PRINCIPLES
Many managers selectively implemented the new principles of scientific
management resulting in the following problems:
a. Some obtained increase in performance which resulted in bonuses. But instead of
sharing these bonuses, they simply increased the amount of work that each worker
was expected to do.
b. Some workers found that as their performance increased, managers needed them
to do more work for the same pay.
c. Workers also learned that increases in performance often meant fewer jobs and a
greater threat of lay-offs because fewer workers were needed (e.g. slow down for
machine operators)
d. The specialised, simplified jobs were often monotonous and repetitive, and many
workers became dissatisfied with their jobs
BENEFITS OF THE SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT SCHOOL
a. Its rational approach to the organisation of work
enabled tasks and processes to be measured with a
considerable degree of accuracy.
b. Measurement of tasks and processes provided useful
information on which to base improvements in
working methods, plant design etc.
c. By improving working methods it brought enormous
increases in productivity.
d. It enabled employees to be paid by results and to
take advantage of incentive payments.
BENEFITS OF THE SCIENTIFIC
MANAGEMENT SCHOOL
e. It stimulated managements into adopting a more
positive role in leadership at the shop-floor level.
f. It contributed to major improvements in physical
working conditions for employees.
g. It provided the foundations on which modern work
study and other quantitative techniques could
soundly be based.
THE DRAWBACKS TO SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
a. It reduced the worker’s role to that of a rigid adherence to methods
and procedures over which he had no discretion.
b. It led to the fragmentation of work on account of its emphasis on
the analysis and organisation of individual tasks or operations.
c. It generated a ‘carrot – and – stick’ approach to the motivation of
employees by enabling pay to be geared tightly to output.
d. It put the planning and control of workplace activities exclusively in
the hands of management.
e. It ruled out any realistic bargaining about wage rates since every
job was measured, timed and rated ‘scientifically’.
Summary
Many of the classical writers were concerned with the
improvement of management as a means of increasing
productivity.
• The development of a true science for each person’s
work;
• The scientific selection, training and development of the
workers;
• Co-operation with the workers to ensure work is carried
out in the prescribed way;
• The division of work and responsibility between
management and the workers.
