Week 2 - Taylorism and Scientific Management(1)

8/13/2019 Week 2 - Taylorism and Scientific Management(1)

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Taylorism and Scientific

Management


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The leading advocate and systematiser of

what he called scientific management wasF.W.Tyalor (1865-1915).

He was an American engineer and aconsultant

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Taylor bequeathed a clockwork of tasks

timed to the hundredth of a minute, ofstandardi[s]ed factories, machines, womenand men (Kanigel, 1997:7 in Thompson,2009:28).

A trend towards systematic management wasalready visible as most of the US firms hadgrown in size with internal functioning was

becoming increasingly chaotic and wasteful

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Taylor was not just in the right place at the righttime; he played a crucial role in theorisingand

popularisingthe new ideas (Thompson, 2009:29).

Therefore, Taylorism can be considered as themost conscious part of systematisation ofmanagement and regulation and control ofproduction

Taylorism encouraged a view of the industrialworker as an economic animal who could beencouraged to act as a self-seeking hired hand andwho would allow managers to do their job-relatedthinking for them (Watson, 2012:35).

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The core object of management is to securemaximum prosperity for the employer which inturn will lead to improved prosperity for theemployee

Everything that takes place in the company must

be in pursuit of these twin goals

Every single act of every workman can be reduced toa scienceTaylor

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Taylor carried out his main work and experimentsat the Midvale Steel Works (owned by a friend ofthe family) starting from late nineteenth century

His work was associated with unskilled labourer tomachinist, clerk, gang boss, foreman, mastermechanic, chief draughtsman and chief engineer

Experiments also were carried out in small numberof other firms

Also by the First World War a small number ofFrench and other European countries includingBritain

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Increased productivity

Increased profitability

Increased wages

8A Virtuous Cycle?

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Taylors ideas were concerned with thecontrol of labour process and developingone best way of organising work.

His ideas were directed at addressing theissue of workers controlling the output(soldiering) observed at steel works Natural soldiering tendency of wanting to take it

easy Systematic soldiering practices purposefully

aimed at maximising rewards and job security

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2. The Scientific selection & training of workers.

The person is taught to do the job in exactly the

way devised by management

Management must find out which job is suited to

each employee & train them until they are first-class

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3. Equal division of work and responsibility

between management and workers, each sidedoing what is best fitted for.

Managers concern themselves with planning &supervision of work & workers carry it out

Managers must demonstrate that they are

subject to the same discipline as workers

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4. Co-operation between management andworkers to ensure that the work is done

according to the science

Its this process that causes the mentalrevolutionin management & the main resistanceto it will come from management

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Taylor was critical about management byinitiative and incentive where workers were

compensated for using their skills andknowledge in the most economical way,without strict managerial determination oftasks.

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Scientific management started from the beliefthat management had to reverse existingpower relations in production: Themanagement assumes, for instance, theburden of gathering together all of thetraditional knowledge which in the past hasbeen possessed by the workmen and then ofclassifying, tabulating, and reducing thisknowledge to rules, laws and formulae(Taylor, 1947:36 in Thompson, 2009:30).

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Taylors work can be located within the process ofbureaucratisation of production

Braverman (1974) makes it clear that Taylors workcan also be seen as a control system based on themonopolisation of knowledge by management andits use to specify each step of the labour process

Separation of conception from execution

all possible brainwork should be removed from the

shopfloor and centred in the planning department (Taylor, quoted in Braverman,1974:113).

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Organisational Behaviour assumption thatTaylorism as the model of economic man islargely misleading (Thompson, 2009).

Taylor also believed workers were motivated by thepursuit of rational self-interest and incentivewages

But

The tendency to restrict output was seen as an unnecessaryproduct of not having scientific authority over workstandards

Incentives as a means to overcome traditional work controlsby workers

However, this strategy proved to be limited and was nevereliminated controls of output by workers

Taylor was more concerned with breaking the power ofgroups and, collective bargaining through individualisticpayment systems

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Scientific management provided atechnocratic rationale for authority in formal

organisations Criticism is such that it was surprising that a

science of management was based onknowledge and skills appropriated from

workers Therefore, some argue it never was a science

but a control system

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Taylors death in 1915 opened up avenues formany others to introduce further versions ofscientific management

In its early years, Scientific Management split offinto pieces and parts in its application and newdisciplines. Taylors disciples such as Gantt and

Gilberths extended his theory

Therefore, above factors and externalenvironmental changes are witness that the

scientific management did not evolve in pure form

Altogether, they have colonised progressivethinking (Thompson, 2009:32).

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In sociological and managerial literature the

two conceptions appear as sharing similartiesand are linked

Henry Ford is significant for his innovationsin technical controls in assembly lines which

is an extension of Taylorism Further Fordism was focused on level of

intensity of labour and speed up of work

High wages for high productivity

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Lack of uniformity in application

Resistance from various groups

Led to strikes and informal work disruptions

Workers were against de-skillingand dehumanisation

Supervisory and managerial resistance

Means of managerial control Over-emphasised the division of labour

One-dimensional view of human nature- people are greedyrobots

Led to alienation Loss in skill level & autonomy of worker

The organisation becomes a machine & the worker a machine

part

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Managers plan & direct the work of others Individuals are economically motivated

Workers are inherently lazy & will only work if

the incentives are right

Workers should not thinkabout the jobthey work as directed by managers

There is one best-way- its the managers jobto find it

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Little doubt that S.M. led to increases inproductivity which in turn..

led to wage increases which in turn

Gave rise to mass consumption which in turn Created mass marketing & all of this.

Gave skilled labour a strong bargaining position

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In most texts, Taylorism sits hand-in-hand with Fordism -

there were links e.g.

technical control of the assembly line

Job fragmentation & greater work intensity

five dollar dayhigh wage for high productivity

Ford used semi-skilled (rather than unskilled workers) & had

own regimes in terms of flexibility & mass production

Both shared a naturalhostility to organised labour

Fordism depended more on the loyalty of the worker andoffered no room for worker participation and involvement

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Division of labour Specialisation

Standardisation

Rationality

Predictability

Calculability

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Week 2 - Taylorism and Scientific Management(1)

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