Four principles of scientific management

Owners and managers of the new factories found themselves unprepared for the challenges accompanying the change from small-scale crafts production to large-scale mechanized manufacturing. Many of the managers and supervisors had only a technical orientation, and were unprepared for the social problems that occur when people work together in large groups (as in a factory or shop system).

However, the Industrial Revolution brought a need for state intervention and laissez-faire soon gave way and management in industry and business reflected the political stances that were being made.

The Industrial Revolution changed the world utterly and completely and there are very few aspects of everyday day life that have not been irretrievably altered as a result, including management. The Industrial Revolution has given rise to huge urban areas that need vast municipal services and so is responsible for creating a very specialized interdependent economic life. This means that employees within these sectors are far more reliant on the absolute will of their employers than perhaps their historical rural counterparts ever were. This led to many incidences of unrest between capital and the labor force and many organizations sprang up to deal with the changes. One of these was Marxism, and another were the doctrines developed by Adam Smith and David Ricardo and which are referred to as laissez-faire, which takes the view that an economic system will function best if there is no interference from government. This belief is based on the idea that a natural economic order will give maximum well-being for an individual and a community if it is free of artificial regulation or stimulus.

Socio-economic and Cultural Features of Industrial Revolution

Main Features of Industrial Revolution

The main features of the Industrial Revolution were Technological, economic, social, and cultural.

Technological features:

The use of new basic materials -- iron and steel.The use of new energy sources -- both fuels and motive power -- such as coal, steam engine, electricity, petroleum, and internal combustion engine.

The invention of new machines -- spinning jenny and the power loom that permitted increased production with smaller expenditure of human energy.

The new organization of work -- the Factory System -- which entailed increased division of work and specialization of function. (Note that F. W. Taylor’s School of Scientific Management is based on the study of work in the Factory System.) Developments in transportation and communications -- steam locomotive, steamship, automobile, airplane, telegraph, and radio.The increasing application of science to industry.

These technological breakthroughs made possible massive use of natural resources and mass production of manufactured goods.

Agricultural revolution produced surplus production for consumption of industrial, commercial and other non-agricultural population.

Economic shift from land to industry resulted in broader distribution of wealth, especially among the bourgeoisie, the new middle class.

Political changes reflected shift of economic power. Hence, new laws and state policies reflected the economic interests of new power holders.

Sweeping social changes -- growth of cities, development of working class movements, and emergence of new patterns of authority.

Cultural transformations of broader order. The worker acquired new and distinctive skills and relation to task shifted. Instead of craftsman with hands tools, he became a machine operator, subject to factory discipline.

Psychological change -- man’s confidence in his ability to use resources and to master nature was heightened.

What Are The Effects Of Industrial Revolution In Management?

The Industrial Revolution has provided an economic base that has given rise to professions, a huge expansion in the population and an improvement in living standards across the developed world; features that are still being worked towards in less developed countries and as such has provided the basis for many different management models.

In the new economic climate, managers of all types oforganizations—political, educational, and economic—were increasingly trying to find better ways to satisfy customers’ needs. Many major economic, technical, and cultural changes were taking place at this time. The introduction of steam power and the development of sophisticated machinery and equipment changed the way in which goods were produced, particularly in the weaving and clothing industries. Small workshops run by skilled workers who produced hand-manufactured products (a system called crafts production) were being replaced by large factories in which sophisticated machines controlled by hundreds or even thousands of unskilled or semiskilled workers made products.

Managers began to search for new techniques to manage their organizations’ resources, and soon they began to focus on ways to increase the efficiency of the worker–task mix.

1. SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT: ITS CONTENT AND MAIN SCIENTISTS

Scientific management theory originated with the industrial revolution in the late 19th century. At that period managers of organizations began seeking ways to better satisfy customer needs.

Scientific Management theory arose in part from the need to increase productivity. In the United States especially, skilled labor was in short supply at the beginning of the twentieth century. The only way to expand productivity was to raise the efficiency of workers. Therefore, Frederick W. Taylor, Henry L. Gantt, and Frank and Lillian Gilbreth devised the body of principles known as scientific management theory. The core ideas of the theory were developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the 1880s and 1890s, and were first published in his monographs Shop Management (1903) and The Principles of Scientific Management (1911).

Scientific management is often called Taylorism; the terms are often considered synonymous. A discerning view considers Taylorism as the first form of scientific management, which was followed by new iterations. Taylor's own early names for his approach included "shop management" and "process management".

So, briefly to tell, scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows, with the objective of improving labor productivity.

Main purpose: the systematic study of the relationships between people and tasks for the purpose of redesigning the work process for higher efficiency.

2. FREDERICK TAYLOR’S SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Frederick Taylor is known as the “father of scientifc management.” Taylor began work at the age of 18 as an apprentice to a pattern-maker, and as a machinist. He later joined the Midvale Steel Company as a laborer rising in eight years to chief engineer. During this period at the steel mill he performed exhaustive experiments on worker productivity and tested what he called the “task system,” later developing into the Taylor System and eventually progressing into scientific management. His experiments involved determining the best way of performing each work operation, the time it required, materials needed and the work sequence. He sought to establish a clear division of labor between management and employees.

Taylor’s task management methodology rests on a fundamental belief that management, the entrepreneurs in Taylor’s day, were not only superior intellectually to the average employee, but had a positive duty to supervise them and organize their work activities. This would eliminate what Taylor called “the natural tendency of workers to soldier” on the job.

In 1911 a paper Taylor originally prepared for presentation to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers was published as The Principles of Scientifc Management. Taylor positioned scientific management as the best management approach for achieving productivity increases. It rested on the manager’s superior ability and responsibility to apply systematic knowledge to the organizational work setting.

Taylor believed that if the amount of time and effort that each worker expended to produce a unit of output (a finished good or service) could be reduced by increasing specialization and the division of labour, then the production process would become more efficient. Taylor believed that the way to create the most efficient division of labour could best be determined by means of scientific management techniques, rather than intuitive or informal rule-of-thumb knowledge.

Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Method

Taylor adopted a different approach by introducing a step-by-step method to determine best practices or the “one best way” in performing a job and thereby establishing the proper pay-rates for the job. Taylor’s scientific method was of great influence to industrial companies and it completely revolutionized the organization of work in industrial organizations.

Taylor’s methodical approach to determine the “one best way” to perform a job consisted of the following steps:

1.Select a sample of skilled workers and carefully study the job being done.

2.Carefully list each operation including extensive detail on each task being performed.

3.Utilize a stopwatch to time each task being performed. Repeat this step over a period of time to obtain an average of the time it takes to perform each task.

4.Identify and eliminate any unnecessary tasks that are performed to finalize the job.

5.Identify any improvements, tools or techniques that can be adopted to reduce the time in performing the job.

6.Establish new and informed times and pay-rates for the job.

7.Lastly, all workers are trained to perform the job in the “one best way” identified.

Following Taylor’s experiments on the best way to increase productivity in industrial organizations, Taylor proposed his four principles of scientific management:

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