Scientific Management Theory Analysis

Scientific Management Theory AnalysisThe tension on change magnitude productiveness from individual stimulateer impels the emergence of F. W. Taylors scientific management at the beginning of 20th century. His philosophical system of rationalizing work and organization to achieve maximal productivity, cooperation and prosperity has influenced the production and management model of his age profoundly. contempt the past 100 years, the shadow of Taylors philosophy in terms of production approach and management exercise is quieten alive at the times of swearation technology, flexibility of production and the industrial restructuring. As bottom has written, The scientific management of Fredrick Taylor shaped the first coherent school of thought with its twin goal of productivity and efficiency- unperturbed influences management thinking 100 years on. This test will assess the influence of scientific management on coeval organization.Before assessing the influence, it is as w ell important to introduce what scientific management is. It is a set of systematic theory of the correlation between labour and tasks for the purpose of increasing productivity by redesigning the work attend to. Based on the famous time-motion-study, Taylor developed four rulers to increase efficiencyStudy the personal manner workers fulfill their tasks, develop a science for each element of a mans work, which replaces the old rule- of-thumb method.Codify the naked as a jaybird methods of performing tasks into written rules and standard operating proceduresC befully select workers who posses skills and abilities that match the ask of the task, and train them to perform the task gibe to the established rules and proceduresEstablish a fair or acceptable level of deed for a task, and then develop a pay system that provide a reward for carrying out above the acceptable levelScientific management is a complete and interrelated system, but this essay will examine Taylors four p rinciple separately to simply the analysis.One high hat way and social class of labourGenerally, Taylor believes that there is a one best way of each task to achieve maximum productivity and during his age, He firmly believes the division of labour is the best way to achieve this. Though immediately, receivable to the diversification of the market and the organization, the simple one best way fire hardly be defined, such(prenominal) as business adopt mass-production strategy tush have a completely different best method of production than those focus on niche marketing, his spirit of pursuing the best way is exempt vivid presented. Just as the quality circle pioneered by Japanese car manufacturing, modification is be discussed continuously to make the work process much streamlined, more efficient and non wasteful in its activity, which is essentially the goal of Taylors system.(Stoney, 2001p27) Especially when information technology has become the means of analyzing the u nderlying flow of squ ar and information, it is more convenient and prevalent for contemporaneous organization to decide the best redesign of business process to pursuing productivity, quality and competitive posture.Incorporated in his spirit, division of labour is the specific outcome of scientific management, the best way Taylor advocates to minimize skills required, and assembly-line, the creation of his age, atomic number 18 also still utilized successfully in contemporary fast-food industry. Such as MacDonald, the unskilled tasks from broken-down cooking procedure and sophisticated time hand make it a completely sophisticated duplication of Taylorism. The assembly lined production mode underpins the continual work cycle on the line by setting standard times. By doing this, efficiency improves dramatically as unnecessary tasks are eliminated, physical layouts improved, and work speeded up. (Fincham Rhodes, 2005 p678) Despite that deskilling () will de-motivate employees significantly on a general scale, which may result in absenteeism and high staff turnover, its ability of integrating raw workers in production processes and dismissing workers without losing ingest form the organization can successfully overcome it. Besides, the emphasis on touchstone rather than quality (Ritzer, 2004) of the fast food industry also highlights the need of efficiency. Taylors influence goes beyond the jump of manufacturing, the growing army of clerks in the rising service sector are automatically divided into departments and specialize in function. (Fincham Rhodes, 2005 p608) This means the philosophy of division of labour apply to approximately clerical works to cut back the work procedure. A merging instanceistics of clerical and production labour () becomes one remarkable feature of modern society. However, the anomie and alienation brought by the absolute division of labour limit its elevate finishing. The knock-on effect of de-motivate employees o n quality and service can have more significant negative impact on contemporary organization than ever when they become the key to profitability at modern times.Despite the limitation of his method, this principle has a considerable profound and lasting influence because of Taylors preoccupation with the efficient use of resources. This philosophy can intimately apply to every organization because whichever the work structure is taken, such as the prevalent squad work and job enrichment one of its ultimate goals should be improve efficiency. It can be proved by xxs argument that ()quality circles, rather than creation a transformation of labor relations toward democratic participation, are managerial strategy to facilitate workers cooperation with managements goals for efficiency and productivity advances.Standardization and direct cut backTaylor proposes standard rules to capture the best practice and direct chair of workers to maintain efficiency. As Braverman (1974, p. 47) recognised, Taylorism never was a science, but a control system. Due to separate conception and execution, managers should design, allocate tasks and supervise workers performance without consulting employees opinions.(McGeorge Thoery X) Actually the appliance of Taylors efficiency by dint of rationalization (Stoney, 2001 p.27) builds a mechanistic organizations, with strict rules, standardized defined tasks and top-down communication. Contemporarily, there are still cases where mechanistic organization proves to be optimal. A classic font is call centre where standard script must be followed, number of calls per hour is strictly monitored, as well as managers can get wind in calls momentarily. Though it is argued that this complete control will alienate employees as it erodes the sense of freedom and self-determination, solo this mechanic structure, where all tasks are designed to be consistent and coordinated, rigid rules are followed and instructions are obeyed immediately, c an achieve the speedy service and uniform quality. Besides, despite its formalized and hierarchy nature causes inflexibility, organizations, such as call centre, which exist in a relatively stable environment where not overmuch innovation and adjustment are required, has proved to be more effective because of the systematically rationalize procedures. (Burns Stalker, 1961) Thus, it still exists where efficiency dominates effectiveness.More commonly, only element of direct control can be seen in most contemporary organization. For instance, in public accounting firms, supervisor accountants supervise lower-rank accountants assigned with them to each audit. Junior accountants should work under the direct guidance of a senior accountant.(Hall, 1968) This is still due to Taylors inherent advantage, direct control can boost efficiency by rationalizing complex accounting procedure and adopting tasks efficiently and accurately. A further reason is that when meticulousness it the first r equirement and errors may cause serious consequence, it is direct control that can maintain efficiency at the same time safeguard the quality.Efficient as it is, the reasons for not world fully adopted is that the drawbacks of direct control largely limit its influence. As Friedman (1977) points out, it neglects the positive aspects of labour. That means k instanter-how and mulish experience cannot be reflected and diffused. And the formalized system develops passive organization culture which undermines innovation, commitment and flexibility. This contradicts to the requirement of contemporary organization, especially for manufacturing. At modern times, in manufacturing sphere, the key to profitability lies in innovation.(Ackroyd, 2002) It means how to improve application for existing technology, how to create market advantage by good design and exclusivity become the very pivotal issues. This is why most of contemporary organizations only retain elements of direct control and t end to be change to emphases on democratic participation.To a broader extent, Taylors calibration philosophy is more widely used, and the new globalized era makes it an imperative requirement for business. Due to the great advantage of diffuse best practice, standardization becomes the key to facilitate the dissemination of businesss know-how to a new area for achieving a competitive advantage. Meanwhile, it is necessary for coordinating activities on a initiation wide scale and maintaining strict quality to safeguard firms reputation. However, exposed to a greater level of out-of-door complexity, the drawback of rigidity brought by standardization must be overcome, thus standardization is a continuous improvement process nowadays, just as the standard operation in Japanese car manufacturing where work is performed according to standard work sequence to insure quality, meanwhile standard if frequently updated to standardize improvement.(Edwards et al, 1993) To achieve this, sta ndardization tends to be combined with a flatter and organic organization structure highlighting integration and decentralization to keep innovative and flexible.Scientific weft and trainingThis is perhaps the most relevant principle straight off because these processes, selection, performance, as well as appraisal and development have been passing formalized in many another(prenominal) organizations today (Cole, 2004). In the knowledge-based economy, talent has become the very valuable asset of business to achieve competitiveness. overmuch effort is devoted by contemporary organizations on selecting the right person. The contribution of Taylor is that he introduced the importance of selection criteria by management, such as the common competencies (i.e. communication skill, initiative) listed by recruitment department. In line with his emphasis on scientific approach to selection, Taylor advocates scientific training as he argues that it is only when business systematically co operating to train the competent manthat it shall be on the road to national efficiency. (Taylor, 1911 p 98)In the context of the knowledge society, companies are generally encouraged to develop employees skills and knowledge (Hansson, 2007) Such as Nissan UK believes the key way for being the most productive car plant in Europe is its ambitious training scheme involving its integral manufacturing workforce.(Lydon, 2007) Costly as it seems, the long-term benefits of quality, safety performance and manufacturing costs overweight it. Moreover, training is usually positively related to promotion (Bayo-Moriones Ortn-Angel 2006) it means it can motivate employees by satisfying their growth, achievement unavoidably. Overstepping Taylors efficiency idea, nowadays the meaning of training is also related to be flexible and acuity enough for competing in a more complex global market, such as the widely-used management trainee schemes in multinationals to cultivate managers with practical e xperience and global perspective.Money as a motivatorTaylor advocates piece-rate payment scheme based on his premiss that human nature is essentially self-interest, workers would be motivated by obtaining the highest possible wage by working in the most efficient and productive way. (Mullins, 2001 p23) In modern age, despite his method can seldom be seen due to the decadence of manufacturing, Based on his philosophy, money motivation still play a crucial role in other form, such as the incentive-based pay system. One common example is sales bonus. The rush of a sales force to place orders before month end reflects highly targeted performance. Thus there is little doubt that this system will work if designed appropriately. In the new context, when various approaches (i.e. job enrichment, team work) are applied to improve personal commitment, money motivator is not narrowed for efficiency as well. For instance, bonuses assessed on cooperation can represent up to 50% of wage computer software in Japanese system and group bonuses are also given. (cf. Dohse et al., 1985, pp. 137-8) It means money motivator is now used flexibly according to organizations strategy. Ryness study of pay motivation in contemporary organization also support Taylors assumption, as there is overwhelming evidence that money is an important motivator for most people. Furthermore, he found that for high academic achievers, high performing employees and individuals with high self-efficiency and high needs for achievement, pay are the most important motivator.(Rynes et al, 2004) It means nowadays pay maybe more crucial than ever as those kinds of person are just the valuable human resources that organizations compete for. However, it is undoubted that Taylors idea of motivation is narrow tending(p) and not suit as an extrinsic motivator, the emphasis on money will decrease staffs intrinsic motivator. Despite that, contemporary organizations usually adopt compromising approach as nowadays, th e satisfaction of social needs and achievement needs are regarded as almost equality important motivator. Thus, multiple motivators, money in conjunction with other intrinsic motivator are more prevalent. For instance, performance-based pay and challenging work are used in such successful firms as Microsoft.Conclusion remarkIt should be admitted that there is almost no other management theory can overstep the influence of scientific management. As Braverman says, the principle of scientific management is not a failed system, but a set of guiding principles which continue to inform and influence the role and function of modern management. Some of the methods he advocates, such as division of labour, scientific selection and training, have become the features of modern society. More primarily, as efficiency is one of the enduring needs of all organizations, his preoccupation with the efficient use of resources thus becomes the driving force behind the evolution of posterior managemen t theories () and the root of management practice. Due to its extensive and deep influence, it is institutionalized not only in contemporary corporation, but also ideologically embraced in other institutions, modelling the modern world with the character of efficiency, calculability, predictability and control through technology. (Ritzer) However, its inherent drawbacks of inflexibility, dehumanization require modification in current situation. Therefore, it can be argued that management of contemporary organization is based on a modification of Taylorism and a combination with more sophisticated management theories.