Frederick W.

Taylor: Master of Scientific Management

Management Frederick Winslow Taylor is a controversial figure in management history. His innovations in
Resources industrial engineering, particularly in time and motion studies, paid off in dramatic
improvements in productivity. At the same time, he has been credited with destroying the soul
Overview of work, of dehumanizing factories, making men into automatons. What is Taylor's real legacy?
Classic Tools I'm not sure that management historians will ever agree. But the following article is quite
Leading Methods interesting, and Taylor's keystone book, The Principles of Scientific Management is now
Articles available from Engineering and Management Press, at phone numbers: +1.800.494.0460, or
Thinkers +1.770.449.0460.
George Box What follows is a copy of part of a senior essay, written by Vincenzo Sandrone during the
Philip Crosby course of his studies at the University of Technology in Sydney. His web site can be found at
W. Edwards Deming http://www.ar.com.au/~vince/. We reprint it here with his permission. Copyright 1997.
John Dewey Source for quotes is:
Fredrick Herzberg Taylor, Frederick W., 1964, Scientific Management - Comprising Shop Management, The
Kaoru Ishikawa principles of Scientific Management and Testimony before the Special House Committee,
Joseph M. Juran Harper and Row
Kurt Lewin
Lawrence D. Miles Note: All the quotes are from 'Scientific Management' This needs to be highlighted, since the
Alex Osborne edition restarted page numbers for each separate section. That is, page numbers are not unique.
Walter Shewhart
Genichi Taguchi
Frederick W. Taylor
J. Edgar Thomson
F. W. Taylor & Scientific Management by Vincenzo Sandrone
Links Database
Quotes Database Under Taylor's management system, factories are managed through scientific methods rather
than by use of the empirical "rule of thumb" so widely prevalent in the days of the late
Order PathMaker nineteenth century when F. W. Taylor devised his system and published "Scientific
Order ipathmaker Management" in 1911.
Order Theseus
The main elements of the Scientific Management are [1] : "Time studies Functional or
specialized supervision Standardization of tools and implements Standardization of work
Call us today: methods Separate Planning function Management by exception principle The use of "slide-rules
and similar time-saving devices" Instruction cards for workmen Task allocation and large bonus
800.826.7284 for successful performance The use of the 'differential rate' Mnemonic systems for classifying
(US and Canada) products and implements A routing system A modern costing system etc. etc. " Taylor called
these elements "merely the elements or details of the mechanisms of management" He saw them
 +1.412.371.0680 as extensions of the four principles of management.[2]
(Other countries) 1. The development of a true science
2. The scientific selection of the workman
3. The scientific education and development of the workman
4. Intimate and friendly cooperation between the management and the men.

Taylor warned [3] of the risks managers make in attempting to make change in what would
presently be called, the culture, of the organization. He stated the importance of management
commitment and the need for gradual implementation and education. He described "the really
great problem" involved in the change "consists of the complete revolution in the mental attitude
and the habits of all those engaged in the management, as well of the workmen." [4] Taylor
taught that there was one and only one method of work that maximized efficiency. "And this
Top of Form one best method and best implementation can only be discovered or developed through
Site Search: scientific study and analysis... This involves the gradual substitution of science for 'rule of
thumb' throughout the mechanical arts mana." [5] "Scientific gement requires first, a careful
investigation of each of the many modifications of the same implement, developed under rule of
thumb; and second, after time and motion study has been made of the speed attainable with each
Submit
of these implements, that the good points of several of them shall be unified in a single standard
implementation, which will enable the workman to work faster and with greater easy than he
Bottom of Form
could before. This one implement, then is the adopted as standard in place of the many different
kinds before in use and it remains standard for all workmen to use until superseded by an
implement which has been shown, through motion and time study, to be still better." [6] An
important barrier to use of scientific management was the limited education of the lower level of
supervision and of the work force. A large part of the factory population was composed of
recent immigrants who lacked literacy in English. In Taylor's view, supervisors and workers
with such low levels of education were not qualified to plan how work should be done. Taylor's
solution was to separate planning from execution. "In almost all the mechanic arts the science
which underlies each act of each workman is so great and amounts to so much that the workman
who is best suited to actually doing the work is incapable of fully understanding this science.."
[7] To apply his solution, Taylor created planning departments, staffed them with engineers, and
gave them the responsibility to:
1. Develop scientific methods for doing work.
2. Establish goals for productivity.
3. Establish systems of rewards for meeting the goals.
4. Train the personnel in how to use the methods and thereby meet the goals.

Perhaps the key idea of Scientific management and the one which has drawn the most criticism
was the concept of task allocation. Task allocation [8] is the concept that breaking task into
smaller and smaller tasks allows the determination of the optimum solution to the task. "The
man in the planning room, whose specialty is planning ahead, invariably finds that the work can
be done more economically by subdivision of the labour; each act of each mechanic, for
example, should be preceded by various preparatory acts done by other men." [9]

The main argument against Taylor is this reductionist approach to work dehumanizes the
worker. The allocation of work "specifying not only what is to be done but how it is to done and
the exact time allowed for doing it" [10] is seen as leaving no scope for the individual worker to
excel or think. This argument is mainly due to later writing rather than Taylor's work as Taylor
stated "The task is always so regulated that the man who is well suited to his job will thrive
while working at this rate during a long term of years and grow happier and more prosperous,
instead of being overworked." [11] Taylor's concept of motivation left something to be desired
when compared to later ideas. His methods of motivation started and finished at monetary
incentives. While critical of the then prevailing distinction of "us "and "them" between the
workforce and employers he tried to find a common ground between the working and managing
classes.

"Scientific Management has for its foundation the firm conviction that the true interests of the
two are one and the same; that prosperity for the employer cannot exist a long term of years
unless it is accompanied by prosperity for the employee [sic], and vice versa .." [12] However,
this emphasis on monetary rewards was only part of the story. Rivalry between the Bethlehem
and Pittsburgh Steel plants led to the offer from Pittsburgh of 4.9 cents per ton against
Bethlehem's rate of 3.2 cents per day to the ore loaders. The ore loaders were spoken to
individually and their value to the company reinforced and offers to re-hire them at any time
were made. The majority of the ore loaders took up the Pittsburgh offers. Most had returned
after less than six weeks. [13] The rates at Pittsburgh were determined by gang rates. Peer
pressure from the Pittsburgh employees to not work hard meant that the Bethlehem workers
actually received less pay than at Bethlehem. Two of the Bethlehem workers requested to be
placed in a separate gang, this was rejected by management for the extra work required by
management to keep separate record for each worker. Taylor places the blame squarely on
management and their inability "to do their share of the work in cooperating with the workmen."
[14]

Taylor's attitudes towards workers were laden with negative bias "in the majority of cases this
man deliberately plans to do as little as he safely can." [15] The methods that Taylor adopted
were directed solely towards the uneducated. "When he tells you to pick up a pig and walk, you
pick it up and walk, and when he tells you to sit down and rest, you sit down. You do that right
through the day. And what's more, no back talk". This type of behaviour towards workers
appears barbaric in the extreme to the modern reader, however, Taylor used the example of
Schmidt at the Bethlehem Steel Company to test his theories. Taylor admits "This seems rather
rough talk. And indeed it would be if applied to an educated mechanic, or even an intelligent
labourer." [17] The fact that Taylor took the effort to firstly know the workers name and to cite
it is some indication that he empathized with the workforce. This study improved the workrate
of Schmidt from 12.5 tons to 47.5 tons per day showing the worth of Scientific Management.

The greatest abuse of Scientific Management has come from applying the techniques without
the philosophy behind them. It is obvious from Taylor's own observations that the above
discussion would be misplaced in other workers. Taylor acknowledged the potential for abuse in
his methods. "The knowledge obtained from accurate time study, for example, is a powerful
implement, and can be used, in one case to promote harmony between workmen and the
management, by gradually educating, training, and leading the workmen into new and better
methods of doing the work, or in the other case, it may be used more or less as a club to drive
the workmen into doing a larger day's work for approximately the same pay that they received in
the past." [17] Scientific Study and standardization were important parts of the Scientific
Management. One example, was the study undertaken to determine the optimum shovel load for
workers. The figure of 21 pounds [18] was arrived at by the study. To ensure that this shovel
load was adhered to, a series of different shovels were purchased for different types of material.
Each shovel was designed to ensure that only 21 pounds could be lifted. This stopped the
situation where "each shoveller owned his own shovel, that he would frequently go from
shoveling ore, with a load of about 30 pounds per shovel, to handling rice coal, with a load on
the same shovel of less than 4 pounds. In the one case, he was so overloaded that it was
impossible for him to do a full day's work, and in the other case he was so ridiculously under-
loaded that it was manifestly impossible to even approximate a day's work." [19]

Taylor spent a considerable amount of his books in describing "soldiering" the act of 'loafing'
both at an individual level and "systematic soldiering". He described the main reasons that
workers were not performing their work at the optimum. Though worded in a patronizing way
the essence of the descriptions are still valid: [20]
1. The belief that increased output would lead to less workers.
2. Inefficiencies within the management control system such as poorly designed incentive
schemes and hourly pay rates not linked to productivity.
3. Poor design of the performance of the work by rule-of-thumb