Taylorism / scientific management

About one century ago, Frederick Winslow Taylor, known as father of scientific management, hence the term Taylorism was introduced. With the significant contribution of productivity and efficiency in manufacturing improved, scientific management was widely employed in many industry and organizations. Its impacts on management and employees are presented in the following parts. 1) Definition and principles of scientific management Taylorism is also referred to as scientific management, which is defined as: this involves systematically partitioning work into its smallest elements and standardizing tasks to achieve maximum efficiency. Scientific management, or Taylorism, is based on following principles: maximum job fragmentation, the separation of planning and doing, the separation of direct and indirect labour, minimum skill requirements and minimum material handling. 2) One best way and Time and motion study Taylor devised that one best way could be found to do the job in the most efficient way of performing a task. Time and motion study was also pioneered by breaking the work task down into various motions. These represent early contribution to management theory. According to Taylors approach, the focus is to work in a scientific method by classifying the given work into simple, specified, well-controlled and routine tasks that can be done efficiently with little training. That is to say, what each worker needs to do is to perform the task by following exactly what the procedures and instructions required. 3) Taylors influence on the organization of work - Division of labour (separation of doing from thinking, or deskilling the labour process) is conceptually the most important aspect of Taylors legacy. - Standard product & standardised work are the use of scientific management, especially in the service sector. Crew or team members receive simple and limited training. Workers perform a restricted number of tasks by following the instruction. So that job design and technology design have been influenced. - On surveillance part, minimal control over how those tasks are performed is required. - Managements use technology to control how work is performed (computer-controlled equipment that can allocate or direct the task). - Performance related pay is the idea of Taylor. It is a bonus salary increase awarded in line with an employee's achievement over a range of criteria. In conclusion, scientific management can be considered as the most significant changes and developments that affect management and employees. Limitations of Taylorism and Fordism: Simplification led to boredom and dissatisfaction; in turn to absenteeism and quicker staff turnover. Separation of planning and doing encouraged adversarial industrial relations and conflict. Separation of planning created indirect (managerial) labour costs; counteracted gains in worker productivity.