Taylor’s Scientific

Management
Junyx Onrubia
Human Resource Management
MAEd ELM
Efficiency
Background: Frederick Taylor
• Known as the father of modern management
• Taylor was a firm believer in using science and raw data to determine the
most efficient course of action
• Born into an affluent Philadelphia family
• Studied Engineering at Steven’s Institute of Technology in New Jersey
• Began career as an apprentice foreman and common laborer, later becoming a
chief Engineer
Scientific Management
• Taylor’s direct observations of men at work led him to develop “motivation
theory”, but Taylor’s version is scientific management
• Taylor saw human labor analogous to machine work– something to be
engineered to achieve efficiency
• His theories on management are promoted worldwide (mgmtguru.com)
Background towards Inception
• The industrial revolution had been underway for nearly 100 years before Taylor took
his first job as and Engineer at Philadelphia’s Midvale Steel Company in 1878
(Nelson, p. 29)
• The foreman had near absolute authority over the workers. He was responsible for
hiring and firing personnel, training them, arbitrating grievances, worker
promotion/demotion
• The foreman set the wages using the “rule of thumb” (Nelson, p. 8)
• When piece workers were so productive that they earned more than the prevailing day
wage, the manufacturer would order price rate cut, removing incentive to produce
more (Nelson, p.9)
• This resulted to strikes and violence (Nelson, p. 9)
Background towards Inception
• In 1903, Taylor wrote Shop Management, where he theorized that workers
were inefficient because they tended to ration their workload or work less than
they could to prevent the job tasks from running out, resulting to loss of
wages
• Management also failed to structure work effectively and to provide
appropriate incentives (mgmtguru.com)
Principles of Scientific Management
1. Replace the “rule of thumb” work methods with methods based on a
scientific study of the tasks
2. Scientifically select and then train, teach, and develop the workman
3. Provide detailed instruction and supervision of each worker in their given
task
4. Divide work nearly equal between managers and workers, so that the
managers apply scientific management principles to panning the work and
the workers actually perform the tasks
Scientific Management Principles
• Revolutionized the industry as it explains how to increase production by
working smarter, not harder
• Uses basic logic to show how standardization, productivity, and division of
labor painted a picture of efficiency that resonates today
• Creating standards is the core or why scientific management is a beneficial
organizational model
– Standards should be looked as a benchmark/level or point of reference
– Measurement allows for an analysis of productivity to identify how efficiently
employees, processes, and procedures met or exceed the standard
Classic Scientific Management Examples
• Pig-iron experiment
• Shoveling Experiment
– Using time study, the study used to reduce the number of motions in performing a task
– Taylor was able to gather the raw data needed to analyze
– Used a stop watch and observed what the machinery would do and the time it took
– He recorded how long each process took and determined processes that took the most
amount of time, discovering bottlenecks
– “One best way”
Classic Scientific Management Examples
• Taylor observed however, that they workers could not keep a sustained output
– By the fourth day, the workers were too exhausted to function at his normal pace
– Through his experiments and research, it was determined the rest breaks were needed in
order to prevent diminished results
– “The men were made to take a rest, generally by sitting down after loading 10 to 20 pigs”
(Taylor, p. 61)
– Even if they men were not tired, they were forced to to take the recommended rest in
order to sustain the output throughout the workweek
– Workers today continue to benefit from breaks during the course of their shifts
Scientific Management in Organizations
• Scientific management also laid the foundations of how businesses should be
run from an organizational standpoint
• Separating workforce from management proved to be a recipe at that time
– An employee was matched to a specific job that suited him, while management was left
to improve other aspects of the business

• ”The idea that every part of a factory or a whole organization should be

scientifically analyzed and redesigned to achieve the most efficient output”
(Wrege, p. 255)
Adopters of Scientific Management
• USSR: Vladimir Lenin
– Believed that Taylor’s methods could be used to manage the entire nation
– The Soviet Union’s five year plan were a direct result of scientific management principles
(Wren p.4)

• Japan: Ueno Yoichi

– He became the leading proponent of scientific management in Japan
– In the years leading up to the second World War, many Japanese industry embraced
“Taylorism” (Tatsui p. 446)

• Worldwide
– Military: Most armies around the world employ scientific management. Every facet of armed
forces, there is standard method of performing each job.
Backlash
• In 1911, workers from the Watertown Arsenal went on strike in support of a
worker who refused to allow engineers to time what he was doing with a
stopwatch
– This led to Congressional hearings in which Taylor was called to testify

• Charlie Chaplin’s movie ”Modern Times” parodied scientific management

– Charlie’s character is even fed food by a machine, and later gets sucked into and becomes
part of another machine (McKenna, p. 37)

• Today, the ”one size, fits all” approach to motivation, the consuming focus on
efficiency disregarding quality, and the deaf ear held by management seems
very outdated
Key Points
• Frederick Taylor was on of the first people to view management as a science
to be studied
• He was the first person to study motivational theory, and apply statistical
techniques to manufacturing
• Frederick Taylor helped make the modern organization possible. He provided
the foundation upon which much of what came after is built
Summary
Thank you!
 References
• Images
• https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=efficiency&rlz=1C5CHFA_enPH758PH758&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKtePR0a3bA
hVFOrwKHcz9CeQQ_AUICigB&biw=1440&bih=826#imgrc=-uJ_KnPWeKSPuM
:
• https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=frederick+taylor&rlz=1C5CHFA_enPH758PH758&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi9wpza1
K3bAhWIvrwKHQyoC8IQ_AUICigB&biw=1440&bih=826#imgrc=s2hiqWBAMs-CTM
:
• Frederick Winslow Taylor, Father of Modern Management Frederick Winslow Taylor: Father of Modern Management, web article found at
http://www.mgmtguru/mgt301/301_Lecture1Page8.htm
• Kanigel, Robert (1997). Taylor-Made. The Sciences Volume 37 Issue 3, May/June. Kanigel, Robert (1997). The One Best Way. Viking: New York.
• McKenna, Christopher D. (2006). The World’s Newest Profession—Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press.
• Nelson, Daniel (1980). Frederick W. Taylor and the Rise of Scientific Management. Madison Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.
• Nixon, Frank (1962). Quality Achievements in Japan. The Statistician, Volume 12, Number 2. Schwartz-Cowan, Ruth (1997). A Social History of American
Technology. New York: Oxford
• University Press.
Swiss Deming Institute comparison chart web page at http://www.deming.ch/E_index.htm. Taylor, Frederick W. (1911). The Principles of Scientific
Management. New York: Norton.
• Tsutsui, William M. (2001). The Way of Efficiency: Ueno Yoichi and Scientific Management in
• Twentieth Century Japan. Modern Asian Studies, Volume 35 Number 2.
Tsutsui, William M. (1998). Manufacturing Ideology: Scientific Management in Twentieth Century
• Japan. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Wrege, Charles D. (1991). Frederick W. Taylor: The Father of Scientific Management. Irwin.
• Wren, Daniel A. (1980). Scientific Management in the U.S.S.R., with Particular Reference to the Contribution of Walter N. Polakov. Academy of Management
Review, Volume 5 Number 1, January.