Taylorism Management

Fredrick Winslow Taylor was one of the major proponents of the early management theories. He developed four principles of management, called Scientific Management or Taylorism. It was one of the first attempts to integrate the workers and their managers.

Post the Industrial Revolution, factories were no better than a state ruled by a dictator. The managers or the factory owners would prepare a to-do-list for the workers, who were bound to do it. Workers had no say in any matter related to their work: working hours, production speed, method of production. There was a wide disconnect between the workers and their managers due to a lack of communication between the two. Workers were treated like machines, devoid of humane emotions and cognition.

Context of Taylorism

Taylor began his work on developing the principles of scientific management in the late 1880s. He was based in the United States of America and worked mainly within the steel industry, where he worked as a foreman. He noticed that his team was inefficient in meeting targets. Often they would be able to produce only a third of the daily target. This made him ponder. He contemplated that method of work, daily targets and pay structure of the workers needed to be revisited. His work mainly focused on the time aspects, popularly known as the time studies.

Being a mechanical engineer, Taylor’s primary interest was on the factory floor. He soon found out that the managers who directed how work should be done knew very little about the realities of the factories. Taylor also noticed the points of improvement in the workshop. For instance, some workers were much faster and better than others. Yet they received the same pay. He wanted to motivate all the workers to work better and money was probably the best motivator. He believed that a worker’s pay should be tied to the number of units he produced. This would encourage better work to be even more efficient because producing more units would mean earning more money.

What is Taylorism?

What exactly is Taylorism? Taylor himself defined scientific management as:

“Scientific Management consists in knowing what you (i.e. management) want men to do exactly; and seeing to it that they do it in the best and the cheapest manner.”

FW Taylor

Principles of Scientific Management

1. Science, not rule of thumb
2. Harmony, not discord
3. Cooperation, not individualism
4. Development of each and every person to his or her greatest efficiency or prosperity.

Science, not rule of thumb

Taylor noticed that many of the work norms were old and not very efficient. In addition, the rules of thumb were not scientifically validated. As a result, the productivity of the workers remained low and they were easily fatigued. This scenario is not desirable in any factory.

Hence, Taylor proposed that managers need to discard following their hunches and heuristics. Instead, they need to be up-to-date with the latest scientific discoveries. Discarding the rule of thumb would also imply that there would be considerable standardization of working protocols. All workers would have to follow the same operating procedures for production. Taylor hypothesized that fatigue could be reduced if the standard operating procedures were developed scientifically. It would also increase units of production and speed of production.

Harmony, not discord

According to Taylor, the second source of inefficiency was a lack of communication between the managers (those who devised the plan of work) and the workers (those who executed the plan). Thus, the second principle of Taylorism was harmony between the two parties.

Taylor referred to this harmony as the “Mental Revolution”, wherein the managers and workers would change their mindset towards each other. Such harmony and cooperation between the two stakeholders would also lead to an increase in production. Most modern theories of management agree that an open channel of communication between managers and workers is beneficial for all.

Cooperation, not individualism

According to Taylor, mutual cooperation is the key to better productivity. Workers assigned different roles must help each other. In addition, managers and workers should not consider each other as opponents. They need to work together as a team to increase production.

Development of each person to his greatest efficiency

Taylor believed that the right allotment of tasks would increase workers’ productivity. Each and every person has a set of skills and abilities and interests. If their work is congruent with their interests, they are likely to thrive.

In addition, all workers need to be trained regularly so that they can brush up their existing skills as well as learn new skills. Such an attitude will increase work motivation and productivity.

Advantages of Taylorism

1. Scientifically validated operating procedures are more likely to be efficient, increase productivity and speed of production. At the same time, it also reduces fatigue and burnout in workers.
2. Reduction in cost of production: Both unproductive workers and a long time per unit production are likely to increase the cost of production. Therefore, Taylorism has the potential to reduce the cost of production.
3. The component of variable pay incentivizes workers to increase their speed and reduce their errors.
4. It is economically beneficial to adopt the division of labor on the basis of abilities. Therefore, following the principles of scientific management is economically beneficial for firms.
5. Better working conditions. Scientific principles determine daily targets. Workers actually enjoy better workplace facilities. This reduces physical and mental health problems among workers.

Criticisms

1. Following Taylorism would mean that workers would have to work at the peak of their ability all day long. This greatly reduces breaks between works. Further, the likelihood of strain injuries increases due to working long hours without taking customized breaks.
2. The component of variable pay increases the chance of workers over-straining to earn more money. In addition, it discriminates against workers who have a lesser physical ability to work faster.
3. The creation of scientific and standard procedures are difficult for smaller firms, who have lesser workers and finances.
4. Loss of autonomy and job control can reduce motivation in many workers. In addition, the division of labor means that a worker would not be responsible for producing one full unit. This reduces meaning in work. All this is detrimental to workers.
5. Monotony: Since Taylorism entails specialization of labor, workers perform the same task for days, months and even years. The resulting monotony may prove to have negative consequences.

In sum, Taylorism is a production-focused approach. There is no emphasis on the emotions of the workers. Workers are means of production, who have no feelings. Later management theories would slowly take the emotions of the workers into consideration.

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