Principles of

Management –
ME3104D
Evolution of Management
Evolution of Management
Pre Scientific • Ancient Monuments
Management Period • War Strategies

Classical Management • Scientific Management

School • Administrative Management

Neo-Classical • Hawthorne Experiments

Management School

Modern Management • Systems Approach

School • Contingency Approach

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Classical Management Theories

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Industrial Revolution
▪ Late 1700s to 1800s

▪ Industry = work

▪ Revolution = rapid
change

▪ From farms to factories

▪ From small shops to large

companies
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Industrial Revolution - Innovations

1. Power

2. Machinery

6 3. Transport
Emerging Issues

▪ Large groups working together

▪ People working alongside machinery
▪ Increasing pace of industry

Companies were looking for answers

1. How to organise all of this?
2. How to maximise productivity?
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3. How to manage all these people?

Classical Management Theories
▪ Emerged around the 19th century
▪ Management problems related to factory systems
during the industrial revolution
▪ Employees have only economical and physical needs
▪ Social needs and job satisfaction not considered
▪ Specialisation of labour, centralised leadership and
decision-making, and profit maximisation

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Classical Management Theories

1. Scientific Management
(Taylor)

2. Bureaucratic
Management (Weber)

3. Administrative Principles
(Fayol)
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Classical Management Theories

Assumptions
1. Employees act in a rational manner at the
workplace
2. Employees are basically driven by
monetary concerns

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Scientific Management Theory
Fredrick Winslow Taylor

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Frederick Winslow Taylor
▪ 1875 – started as apprentice pattern
maker and machinist
▪ 1878 – machinist at Midvale Steel
Company, Philadelphia
▪ 1893 – independent management
consulting practice
▪ 1898 – Bethlehem steel plant
“
In the past, man has been
first; in the future, the
system must be first

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Scientific Management Theory
▪ “Principles of Scientific Management”
in 1911
▪ Father of scientific management
▪ Commonly referred to as Taylorism
1. Applying science to work
2. Break away from inefficient “rules of
thumb”
3. Broke up human activity into small
parts – analysed the most efficient way
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to do work
Scientific Management Theory
▪ Increase industrial productivity by
increasing individual productivity
▪ Training workers
▪ Dividing tasks between
management and workers
▪ Eliminate unnecessary movements
in the workplace

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Scientific Management Theory – Basic
Principles

1. Science (organized knowledge), not rule of thumb

2. Harmony, not discord

3. Cooperation, not individualism

4. Work for maximum output

5. Each worker to his/her greatest efficiency

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Scientific Management Theory – Basic
Principles
1. Taylor believed that there was only one best method to
maximise efficiency. This method can be developed through
study and analysis. The method so developed should
substitute ‘Rule of Thumb’ throughout the organisation.
Scientific method involved investigation of traditional
methods through work-study, unifying the best practices and
developing a standard method, which would be followed
throughout the organisation.
2. Taylor emphasised that there should be complete harmony
between the management and workers. Both should realise
that each one is important. Eg: Japanese work culture
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Scientific Management Theory – Basic
Principles
3. There should be complete cooperation between the labour and the
management instead of individualism. For this, management should not
close its ears to any constructive suggestions made by the employees.
They should be rewarded for their suggestions which results in
substantial reduction in costs. At the same time workers should desist
from going on strike and making unreasonable demands on the
management.
4. Development of each and every worker to his/her greatest efficiency
and prosperity. Taylor was of the view that the concern for efficiency
could be built in right from the process of employee selection. Each
person should be scientifically selected. Then work assigned should suit
her/his physical, mental and intellectual capabilities. To increase
efficiency, they should be given the required training. Efficient
18 employees would produce more and earn more. This will ensure their
greatest efficiency and prosperity for both company and workers.
21.5 lb

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 Ford Model T assembly line
1903

12 h  93 min

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Advantages
▪ Improves economic efficiency of the company
▪ Increase labour productivity
▪ Assigning workers to positions based on their skill
▪ Division of jobs between managers and workers
▪ Incentives given to increase the productivity of
labours
▪ Only one right method to do things
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Criticism
▪ Companies often failed to pay employees more
▪ “Managers think, employees do” philosophy became
normal
▪ Separated workers from the greater meaning of work
▪ Deskilled employees and made them expendable
▪ “Survival of the fittest”  harsh atmosphere
▪ Employee burnout, dehumanisation, mental anguish
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Criticism
▪ Though it promotes individual productivity, it doesn’t
develop a sense of responsibility in an individual for
what he/she does and does not push decision making
through all levels of the organisation
▪ Front line workers need to be flexible to adjust to a
rapidly-changing, rigid, rules-driven production floor
and may struggle to adjust to it
▪ It focus too much on the mechanics of the production
line and fails to value humans involved in it
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