Taylorism

“ All for One”

An Introduction…
 Frederick Winslow
Taylor (20 March 1856–
21 March 1915), widely
known as F. W. Taylor,
was an American
mechanical engineer who
sought to improve
industrial efficiency. He is
regarded as the father of
scientific management,
and was one of the first
management consultants.
EQUITABLE ATTITUDE:

 "The old fashioned dictator does not exist

under Scientific Management. The man at
the head of the business under Scientific
Management is governed by rules and
laws which have been developed through
hundreds of experiments just as much as
the workman is, and the standards
developed are equitable."
SOLDIERING:
 More Productivity Fewer requirement
 Elimination of jobs.
 Non Incentive Wage system i.e.
Payment was regardless of
Productivity.
 Workers relied more on rule of thumb
methods rather than on optimal scientific
methods.
 To scientifically determine the optimal way
to perform a job, Taylor performed
experiments that he called time studies,
(also known as time and motion studies).
These studies were characterized by the
use of a stopwatch to time a worker's
sequence of motions, with the goal of
determining the one best way to perform a
job.
Following are examples of some of the
time-and-motion studies that were
performed by Taylor:

2) Pig Iron
3) The Science of Shoveling
4) Bricklaying
The assumptions underlying his work were:

3) 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;
2) 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;
3) That an increased size is desirable in order to obtain the
advantages of the division of labour and specialization
of tasks.
KEY FUNDAMENTALS OF TAYLORISM:

 Mass production methods

 Division of labour
PRINCIPLES OF TAYLOR:
 Replace rule-of-thumb work methods with methods
based on a scientific study of the tasks.
 Scientifically select, train, and develop each employee
rather than passively leaving them to train
 Cooperate with the workers to ensure that the
scientifically developed methods are being followed.
themselves.
 Divide work nearly equally between managers and
workers, so that the managers apply scientific
management principles to planning the work and the
workers actually perform the tasks.
According to Taylor, Management should :-

establish specific work targets

pay workers for the tasks and goals met,

and

provide regular feedback.

 The main elements of his
theory were:-
1.Management is a true science. The
solution
to the problem of determining fair work
standards and practices could be
discovered by experimentation and
observation. From this, it follows, that there
is "one right way" for work to be performed.
2. The selection of workers is a science.
Taylor's "first class worker" was someone
suitable for the job. It was management's
role to determine the kind of work for
which
an employee was most suited, and to hire
and assign workers accordingly.
1.Workers are to be developed and trained. It
is management's task to not only engineer
a job that can be performed efficiently, but
management is responsible for training the
worker as to how the work is to be
performed and for updating practices as
better ones are developed. This
standardizes how the work is performed in
the best way.
4. Scientific management is a collaboration
of workers and managers. Managers are
not responsible for execution of work, but
they are responsible for how the work is
done. Planning, scheduling, methods, and
training are functions of the manager.
Taylor's scientific management consisted of four
principles:
1.Replace rule-of-thumb work methods with methods
based on a scientific study of the tasks.
2.Scientifically select, train, and develop each
employee rather than passively leaving them to
train themselves.
3.Provide "Detailed instruction and supervision of
each worker in the performance of that worker's
discrete task" (Montgomery 1997: 250).
4.Divide work nearly equally between managers and
workers, so that the managers apply scientific
management principles to planning the work and
the workers actually perform the tasks
 These principles were implemented in
many factories, often increasing
productivity by a factor of three or more.
Henry Ford applied Taylor's principles in
his automobile factories, and families even
began to perform their household tasks
based on the results of time and motion
studies.
His framework for organization
was:
 Clear delineation of authority
 responsibility
 separation of planning from operations
 incentive schemes for workers
 management by exception
 task specialization
PROBLEMS DUE TO
TAYLORISM:
1) It lead to some unscrupolous practices
like Rate Cutting.
2) In 1911-12, the US House of
Representatives passed a law banning
use of stopwatches.
3) It assumes that human beings are like
machines and workers are satisfied by
money alone.
 Taylor's impact has been so great
because he developed a concept of
work design, work-measurement,
production control and other functions,
that completely changed the nature of
industry. Before scientific management,
such departments as work study,
personnel, maintenance and quality
control did not exist. What was more, his
methods proved to be very successful.
A Brief
Review
Taylor’s theories
were based on a
simple interpretation
of human behaviour,
that people are
motivated solely by
money – his term
was “rational man”
The 4 main principles of the
Taylor system
 Scientific task design
 Scientific selection
 Management-worker
co-operation
 Equal division of work
 Ford’s Model T
 The assembly line: A
number of small technical
changes and more
extensive use of the
assembly line allowed
Ford to raise wages to 5
dollars a day.
 Originally manufactured in
1909, by 1926, Ford
lowered the price of the
Model T to $300.
Smart Shoveling
 Taylor experimented with the shape, size,
and weight of shovels to determine the
impact on productivity. His experiments
showed that no one shovel was best for all
materials. By designing task-specific
shovels, Taylor tripled the amount of
material a worker could shovel in a day.
This dramatically improved morale as well
since workers were paid by the ton.
Increasing productivity meant increasing
income.
A relic of the past???
 Taylorism may have been good during the
industrial revolution, but not so much in the
technology revolution.
 Automation has resolved many problems
which Taylor sought to address.
 The man power requirement has been
lowered.
How so?
 Each worker was a cog in the wheel.
 He could not do without the wheel, but wheel
could easily replace him.
 They became replaceable and de-skilled.
 But in these times, skilled workers are required
to operate machines.
 Result: A few skilled workers’ earnings increase,
the rest are booted out, unemployment
increases.
Repetition is Ennui:
 It was assumed that due to worker
specialisation of repeated tasks,
productivity would increase.
 One of Taylor's aims was the drive for
cheaper labour costs, which was to be
achieved through deskilling and
rationalization of the workforce. This also
involved reducing the industrial muscle of
the workforce.
“I know what you had to do last
hour…”
 These measures meant that management
increased control over production costs,
furthermore, Taylorist techniques aimed to
make managers solely responsible for
organising and directing work, as it was
considered if the tasks were to be carried
out efficiently the workers had to follow
managerial directions exactly.
“Separating planning from doing"
 The performance of the tasks was to be
carried out by the workers but all the
aspects of planning were to be taken over
by management.
 If the workforce was left to plan its own
work, both efficiency and production would
fall.
Who gets more leverage?
With a reduction in
the skill level of
tasks, the market
power of groups
and individuals
meant employees
had less leverage
over negotiations
with employers
“K.I.S. is not always the best
option…”
 Absolute belief that de-skilled workforce
allowing themselves to be led without
question by management, accepting any
task they are asked to perform.
 Taylor has a tendency to over-simplify the
relationship between the employer and the
workforce, seeing it as largely based on
the production line.
“Fair day's pay for a fair day's work"
 This is constantly under review by both the
workforce and management. Also the
price of labour may be determined by
external factors such as scarcity, product
demand and economic
conditions within the country, all out of the
direct control of management.
Unrealistic?
 The managers are looked upon as having
unwavering loyalty towards the company.
Taylorism denies the fact that managers
can chose from a variety
of strategies and in many cases can be
flexible in their approach to the workforce.
Socialism pro-Taylorism?
 Lenin believed in and applied Taylorist
techniques to Russian industry. Scientific
management provided the worker
discipline, control and methodology that
was accepted by the communist world.
 Think “ centralization”. Power rests with
the management.
“Responsible Autonomy"
 Through responsible autonomy, the
workforce are given a degree of
independence once they have been made
aware of the importance of their tasks and
performance. One of the aims is to keep
supervision to a minimum and yet
maintain overall control.
Paternalism:
 Large corporations can take advantage of
the dependency of employees on the
company by offering incentives such as
free medical insurance or free private
schooling for families of employees. If
employees leave or produce
unsatisfactory work, the benefits can be
withdrawn.
Wakon Yosai
 Scientific Management was introduced
into Japanese industry on a wide scale in
the inter-war years. Taylorism became an
important factor in the creation of what has
been held by some observers to be a
uniquely Japanese system of organization
and management
 Japanese employers set out to build
organizational cultures, involving high
levels of worker commitment, and
flexibility, in the inter-war period within for
example the cotton textile industry.
But he really believed in his ideas…
 To his very death he maintained that, “The
major beneficiary of fruits of productivity
has to be the worker and not the owner.”
 “The new way is to teach and help your
men as you would a brother; try to teach
him the best way and show him the
easiest way to do his work.”
-- Frederick Winslow Taylor
“Organizing is the art of achieving
extraordinary things with ordinary
people.”
Thank
You