Question

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Now that you know a little bit about scientific management (Taylorism), I would like you to think about where you can see the principles of scientific management at work in the world today. In your place of work? In schools, colleges, and other educational institutions? In restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacies, and other retail establishments? In your classroom? Give me a few examples of what you have encountered personally.

Answer 1

Taylor’s Scientific Management is based on four principles. According to Mindtool the four principles are as follows:

1. Replace working by “rule of thumb,” or simple habit and common sense, and instead use the scientific method to study work and determine the most efficient way to perform specific tasks.

2. Rather than simply assign workers to just any job, match workers to their jobs based on capability and motivation, and train them to work at maximum efficiency.

3. Monitor worker performance, and provide instructions and supervision to ensure that they’re using the most efficient ways of working.

4. Allocate the work between managers and workers so that the managers spend their time planning and training, allowing the workers to perform their tasks efficiently.

The first principle which is to replace “rule of thumb,” or simple habit and common sense, working methods with methods based on a scientific study of the tasks is still relevant in the modern workplace. Miller (2010), postulate that management first needs to break each job into individual tasks and determine which steps don’t contribute to the end product. While I was working for a small manufacturing company, management decided that our department was due for an overhaul to streamline the work process and increase production. Our main job each day was to fill 80-100 bins with various parts. We walked about 10 miles on average each day. So, management redesigned the layout of the warehouse racks to reduce our walking distance by about 66% and cut 2 hours from our work day”.

The second principle which basically stated that scientific selection of the worker of organization should be: select, train, teach and develop the most suitable person for each job scientifically, rather than passively leaving them to train themselves (Priestley 2005). The second principle of the Taylor’s Scientific Management can still be found in today’s world. In must organization mangers or senior employees are responsible for selecting the right people for each job and overseeing their training. This will ensures that the training is conducted correctly.

In majority of today’s workplaces after the workers and job processes are put in place, the managers of the company stay involved and provide supervision to each worker to ensure the job is done in the best way to suit the organization goal. This is very important. Just because a department is designed to be efficient does not prevent workers from falling back into bad work habits. The last principle of Taylor’s Scientific Management state that work should be divided between managers and workers. The mangers apply management principles to planning and supervising the work, and the workers carry out tasks. This theory has been utilize in most modern organization and has lead to an increase in production and also takes some of the pressure off the workforce, but allows managers to stay involved in the daily processes of the department (Miller, 2010).

Taylor also advanced a theory of motivation which is just the same as incentive theory – that is, the theory that workers are motivated by money. Hence, he advocated that productivity improvements should result in improved pay. Workers are paid according to the number of items they produce in a set period of time- piece-rate pay. As a result workers are encouraged to work hard and maximize their productivity (Priestley 2005). However this theory still exists in the modern workplace especially in factors and for truck drivers’. For example a sweet factor near to my house use this theory; employees’ get paid according to amount of sweet they can rap over a set period of time. Workers who are more efficient will always earn more money; however this will motivate or encouraged the inefficient worker to work harder.

According to Stoner (2003) Employers who pay workers more will get better, happier, more efficient workers who make better products in increasing quantity. But like most academic theory, reality never seems to behave as predicted on paper. If employers have more efficient workers, profit margins increase. Thus, according to Taylor, employers can pump some of this increased profit into worker’s paychecks in order to keep them happy and efficient.

Another example of scientific management:

George Ritzer in his book “The McDonaldization of Society” notes a similar philosophy in a McDonalds staff manua, “It told operators… precise cooking times for all products and temperature settings for all equipment…It specified that French fries be cut at nine-thirty-seconds thick…Grill men…were instructed to put hamburgers down on the grill moving left to right, creating six rows of six patties each”

In many ways McDonalds is the archetypical example of an organization employing Scientific Management in production. Within this restaurant chain, uniformity is complete; no matter what country you are in every branch of McDonalds is the same, as are the methods used to prepare food, clean floors, promote staff and lock up on closing. It is this ability to efficiently supply standard food and service throughout the world that has allowed McDonalds to become the biggest restaurant chain on the planet