MODULE 2-SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

Scientific Management

Scientific management also called Taylorism is a theory of management that analyzes and
synthesizes workflows, improving labour productivity. The core ideas of the theory were
developed by F W Taylor in the 1880s and 1890s, and were first published in his monographs,
“Shop Management “(1905) and “The Principles of Scientific Management” (1911).

In the early 1900s, the US was swept up with a drive for improved ‘efficiency’ in every field of
endeavour; a drive that was significant enough to earn its own title: the Efficiency Movement.

Frederick Winslow Taylor, founder of Scientific Management and prime mover of the Efficiency
Movement, quoted President Theodore Roosevelt in the introduction to his 1911 paper, The
Principles of Scientific Management that “The conservation of our national resources is only
preliminary to the larger question of national efficiency.”He was a mechanical engineer by
training.

Taylor’s modern, ‘scientific’ approach was to analyse industrial tasks in great detail in order to
discern the most efficient, ‘one best way’ of carrying out that task.

In 1878, he began working at the Midvale Steel Company, Philadelphia and there he observed
that workmen were not working their machines, or themselves, nearly as hard as they could and
that this resulted in high labour costs for the company.He called this as Soldiering.

Soldiering essentially means to make a show of work not necessarily doing one's best. According
to Taylor’s view, soldiering would disappear as workers’ productivity and security improved.

Frederick realized that the only way he could effectively improve outputs at Midvale he would
need to know how much work would be expected from each of his resources, both machines and
people. Because he was one of the first known men to study the "human" component of production,
Taylor's studies and methods of management were given the name scientific
management. Frederick's efforts in applying engineering principles to factory environments were
some of the first to later develop into what we know today as industrial engineering.

Taylor had identified serious flaws while observation of operations at factories. Some of them
were:

• management lacked clear understanding of worker-management responsibilities;

• lack of effective standards of work;
• restricted output and failure to design jobs properly;
• unscientific decisions by management;
• lack of proper studies about division of work among departments

He posited that there was one best method for performing a particular task, and that if it were
taught to workers, their productivity would go up.

His framework for organization was:

• clear delineation of authority and responsibility
• separation of planning from operations
• incentive schemes for workers
• management by exception
• task specialization

Frederick Taylor identified 4 principles of Scientific Management:

Develop a science of work- The science of work would be achieved by measuring output, and by
performing detailed studies of time and human movement. With these studies, improvements could
be made to the tools and workstation designs used by workers, which would increase effectiveness.

Scientific selection and training- Workers should be scientifically selected and trained. Frederick
Taylor theorized that workers had different aptitudes, and that each worker should be fitted to the
job. The task of management was therefore to select the workers fitting to the specific job, and
also to scientifically train every worker in the most productive way of performing the specific
task. By doing this correctly, every worker would be selected and trained to achieve his/her utmost
potential.

Educate workers and managers in the benefits of Scientific Management-Both workers and
managers should be educated in understanding the benefits of scientific management.

Specialization and collaboration between workers and managers - Management should focus
on developing, designing and supervising improved systems, whereas workers should concentrate
on performing their manual duties. If everyone fulfils their respective role, no conflict would arise
between management and workers, since the Scientific Management approach would find the best
solution for all parties concerned.

Frederick Taylor strongly believed that the Scientific Management approach would solve conflicts
between workers and managers, and that the approach had the potential of highly increasing the
productivity of organizations.

The assumptions underlying his work were:

• the presence of a capitalist system and a money economy, where companies in a

free market have as their main objective the improvement of efficiency and the
maximization of profit;
• the Protestant work ethic, that assumes people will work hard and behave
rationally to maximize their own income, putting the perceived requirements of
their organization before their own personal objectives and goals;
• that an increased size is desirable in order to obtain the advantages of the division
of labor and specialization of tasks.
The basic tenets of Taylor’s theory were:

1) Physical work can be scientifically studied to determine the optimal method of performing a
job.
2) Workers can be made more efficient by prescribing how to do their jobs.
3) Workers will be willing to adhere to these prescriptions if paid appropriately. People are
primarily motivated by economic rewards (read money) and will take direction if offered the
opportunity to better their economic positions.

By experimenting with different designs of shovel for use with different material, (from 'rice' coal
to ore,) he was able to design shovels that would permit the worker to shovel for the whole day. In
so doing, he reduced the number of people shoveling at the Bethlehem Steel Works from 500 to
140. This work, and his studies on the handling of pig iron, greatly contributed to the analysis of
work design and gave rise to method study. The piece rate system on production management
suggested by Taylor in shop management, and later, in 1909, he published the book for which he
is best known titled ‘Principles of Scientific Management’. This book features Taylor's work was
stop-watch timing as the basis of observations. He started to break the timings down into elements
and it was he who coined the term 'time study’.

Perhaps the most prominent single element in modern scientific management is the task idea. The
work of every workman is fully planned out by the management at least one day in advance, and
each man receives in most cases complete written instructions, describing in detail the task
which he is to accomplish, as well as the means to be used in doing the work.
And the work planned in advance in this way constitutes a task which is to be solved, as explained
above, not by the workman alone, but in almost all cases by the joint effort of the workman and
the management.

This task specifies not only what is to be done but how it is to be done and the exact time allowed
for doing it. And whenever the workman succeeds in doing his task right, and within the time
limit specified, he receives an addition of from 30 per cent. to 100 per cent. to his ordinary
wages.Efficiency managers or “speed bosses” would coach workers to remove wasteful steps or
even movements from the production process. Instruction cards would be placed near workers’
stations while they trained.Taylorism can be seen performed in many modern companies, such as
fast food restaurants, today, and is oftentimes highly reflected in the work processes of many
modern service and manufacturing companies Eg. Mc Donalds .
Criticisms of Taylorism

• Individuals are different from each other: the most efficient way of working for one person
may be inefficient for another;

• The economic interests of workers and management are rarely identical, so that both the
measurement processes and the retraining required by Taylor's methods are frequently
resented and sometimes sabotaged by the workforce.

• Workers, under Taylorism, had been reduced to pre-programmed automatons, mindlessly

following the instructions of a supposedly superior managerial class.

Frank and Lilian Gilbreth

Two of the most interesting figures in the early years of I/O psychology were the husband and wife
team of Frank Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth. The Gilbreths were among the first, if not the
first, scientists to improve productivity and reduce fatigue by studying the motions used by
workers.
They were the founders of the modern Motion Study Technique, which may be defined as the
study of the body motions used in performing an operation, to improve the operation by eliminating
unnecessary motions, simplifying necessary motions, and then establishing the most favorable
motion sequence for maximum efficiency. Frank Gilberth became famous for developing
improvements in bricklaying that reduced the number of motions needed to lay a brick from 18 to
4 ½. They developed what they called therblig (‘Gilbreth’ spelled backwards), a classification
scheme comprising the basic elements of human motion-– searching for an object with eyes or
hands, grasping an object with hands, assembling and disassembling two parts, etc. From there,
they’d figure out which motions were necessary, then eliminate any unnecessary motions to
increase efficiency. For example, during surgery, doctors ask for instruments that are then handed
to them by a nurse instead of searching for the instrument themselves. Because nurses and doctors
have separate tasks, they can focus on them and perform them in a skillful, timely manner. They
studied body motions to increase production, reduce fatigue, and instruct operators in the best
method of performing an operation. They developed the technique of filming motions to study
them, in a technique known as Micromotion Study. Additionally, they developed the Cyclegraphic
analysis and Chronocyclegraphic Analysis techniques for studying the motion paths made by an
operator. Micromotion study is the study of the fundamental element or sub-divisions of an
operation by means of a motion picture camera and a timing device which accurately indicates the
time intervals on the motion picture film. It is possible to record the path of motion of an operator
by attaching a small electric light bulb to the finger, hand, or other part of the body and
photographing, with a still camera, the path of light as it moves through space. Such a record is
called a cyclegraph.If an interrupter is placed in the electric circuit with the bulb, and if the light
is flashed on quickly and off slowly, the path of the bulb will appear as a dotted line with pear-
shaped dots indicating the direction of the motion. The spots of light will be spaced according to
the speed of the movement, being widely spaced when the operator moves fast and close together
when the movement is slow. From this graph it is possible to measure accurately time, speed,
acceleration, and retardation, and to show direction and the path of motion in three dimensions.
Such a record is called a chronocyclegraph.

As a couple, they had 12 children, and the efficiency methods they used to raise their children
while having busy careers were the inspiration for the book and the movie Cheaper by the Dozen
(the 1950 version of the movie).

Henry Laurence Gantt Developed simple graphs that would measure performance while visually
showing projected schedules. He invented a Wage Payment sytem that rewarded workers for
above-standard performance, eliminated any penalty for failure, and offered the boss a bonus for
every worker who performed above standard. He also emphasized Human Relations and promoted
Scientific Managemet as more than an inhuman ‘Speed up’ of labor.

Max Weber a German sociologist, proposed a nonpersonal, objective form of organisation called
‘bureaucracy’. He suggested organisations develop comprehensive and detailed standard operating
procedures for all routinized tasks. Henri Fayol, a French mining engineer, developed a general
theory of management (1949), independent of Taylor’s scientific management. He proposed that
there are six primary functions of management: forecasting, planning, organising, commanding,
coordinating, and controlling; and fourteen principles of management.

Bureaucracy

Scientific management and theory of bureaucracy mark the first major developments in the theory
of organisation. These theories were responding to the needs of industrial organisations. Theory
of bureaucracy was needed to bring the efficiency in its functioning. As stated by Weber ‘no
special proof is necessary to show that military discipline is ideal model for the modern capitalist
factory. (Clegg and Dunkerley, p.75). The example of most developed form of organisation,
bureaucracy, the theory of which Weber found, is developed from the Prussian military forces, and
which enterprises such as the British Railway Companies actually found in the ranks of the British
Army, was to become the specific form of management of big business.

The major elements of Weberian model of bureaucracy are:

1. Impersonal Order

2. Rules

3. Sphere of Competence

4. Hierarchy

5. Separation of Personal and Public Ends

6. Written Documents
 7. Monocratic Type

Impersonal Order

Weber emphasised that the official should perform their duties in an impersonal manner. The
subordinates should follow both in the issuance of command and their obedience impersonal order.
According to Merton, “authority, the power of control which derives from an acknowledged status,
inheres in the office, not in the particular person who performs the official role”. (Prasad. et. al.
p.82). It talks about the de-personalisation of relationship in the organisations.

Rules

Rules are the basis for the functioning of the legal-rational authority. Officials are bound by the
rules. The rules regulate the conduct of an office. Their rational application requires specialised
training. In this regard Merton felt that adherence to rules originally conceived as a means,
becomes an end in itself. Rules become more important than the goals of the organisation.

Sphere of Competence

It involves a sphere of obligation to perform functions, which have been marked off as a part of a
systematic division of labour. It also implies provision of the incumbent with the necessary
authority to carry out the functions.

Hierarchy

According to Weber every office and every official is a part of a hierarchy. Under this system the
lower office functions under the control of higher office. He attaches greater importance to the
principle of hierarchy in the organisation of office.

Separation of Personal and Public Ends

Weber pleads for separation of officials from their ownership of the means of administration.
Officials cannot use his office position for personal ends. The office property is separated from
personal property; at the same time the official is accountable for the use of office property.
Written Documents

Written documents are the heart of Weberian bureaucracy. All administrative acts, decisions and
rules are recorded in writing. These documents make the administration accountable to the people
and provide a ready reference for future action.

Monocratic Type

It means certain functions performed by bureaucracy cannot be performed by any other

organisation. They monopolise certain functions and only the authorised official can perform that
function, makes them monocratic in nature.

Henri Fayol and 14 principles of management

Henri Fayol was known as the father of modern management. He gave us the famous 14 principles
of management. Henry Fayol’s 14 principles of management look at an organization from a top-
down approach to help managers get the best from employees and run the business with ease.

1. Division of Work

The first Henry Fayol principle of management is based on the theory that if an employee is given
a specific task to do, they will become more efficient and skilled in it. This will help them to
become more productive, skilled, and efficient in the long run.

2. Authority

This henry fayol principle of management states that a manager needs to have the necessary
authority in order to ensure that his instructions are carried out by the employees. If managers did
not have any authority, then they would lack the ability to get any work done. However, this
authority should come along with responsibility.
3. Discipline

This principle states that discipline is required for any organization to run effectively. In order to
have disciplined employees, managers need to build a culture of mutual respect. There should be
a set of organizational rules, philosophies, and structures in place that should be met by everyone.

4. Unity of Command

This principle states that that should be a clear chain of command in the organization. The
employees should be clear on whose instructions to follow. According to Fayol, an employee
should receive orders from only one manager.

5. Unity of Direction

This Henry Fayol principle of management states that the work to be done should be organized in
such a way that employees work in harmony towards the same objective, using one plan, under
the direction of one manager. For example, if you have a range of marketing activities such as
advertising, budgeting, sales promotion, etc., there should be one manager using one plan for all
the marketing activities. The different activities can be broken down for different sub-managers,
but they should all work towards a common goal under the direction of one main person in charge
of the whole thing.

6. Collective Interest Over Individual Interest

This principle states that the overall interest of the team should take precedence over personal
ones. The interest of the organization should not be sabotaged by the interest of an individual. If
anyone goes rogue, the organization will collapse.
7. Remuneration

This henry fayol principle of management states that employees should be paid fair wages for the
work that they carry out. Any organization that underpays its workers will struggle to motivate
and keep quality workers. This remuneration should include both financial and non-financial
incentives. Also, there should be a structure in place to reward good performance to motivate
employees.

8. Centralization

Centralization refers to the concentration of power in the hands of the authority and following a
top-bottom approach to management. In decentralization, this authority is distributed to all levels
of management. In a modern context, no organization can be completely centralized or
decentralized. Complete centralization means that people at the bottom have no authority over
their responsibilities. Similarly, complete decentralization means that there will be no superior
authority to control the organization. To use this effectively today, there should be a balance of
centralization and decentralization. The degree to which this balance is achieved will differ from
organization to organization.

9. Scalar Chain

A scalar chain refers to a clear chain of communication between employees and their superiors.
Employees should know where they stand in the hierarchy of the organization and who to go to in
a chain of command. To implement this in the workplace, Fayol suggests that there should be an
organizational chart drawn out for employees to see this structure clearly.
10. Order

This principle states that there should be an orderly placement of resources (manpower, money,
materials, etc.) in the right place at the right time. This ensures the proper use of resources in a
structured fashion. Misplacement of any of these resources will lead to misuse and disorder in the
organization.

11. Equity

Equity is a combination of kindness and justice. This principle states that managers should use
kindliness and justice towards everyone they manage. This creates loyalty and devotion among the
employees towards the organization they work for.

12. Stability of Tenure of Personnel

This principle states that an organization should work to minimize staff turnover and maximize
efficiency. Any new employee cannot be expected to get used to the culture of an organization
right away. They need to be given enough time to settle into their jobs to become efficient. Both
old and new employees should also be ensured job security because instability can lead to
inefficiency. There should also be a clear and effective method to handle vacancies when they
arise because it takes time and expense to train new ones.

13. Initiative

This principle states that all employees should be encouraged to show initiative. When employees
have a say as to how best they can do their job, they feel motivated and respected. Organizations
should listen to the concerns of their employees and encourage them to develop and carry out plans
for improvement.
14. Esprit de Corps

Esprit de Corps means “Team Spirit”. This henry fayol principle of management states that the
management should strive to create unity, morale, and co-operation among the employees. Team
spirit is a great source of strength in the organization. Happy and motivated employees are more
likely to be productive and efficient.