Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving

economic efficiency In microeconomics, economic efficiency, depending on the context, is usually one of the following two related concepts: * Allocative or Pareto efficiency: any changes made to assist one person would harm another. * Productive efficiency: no addi ...

, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineering of processes to management. Scientific management is sometimes known as Taylorism after its pioneer,

Frederick Winslow Taylor Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 – March 21, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer. He was widely known for his methods to improve industrial efficiency. He was one of the first management consultants. In 1909, Taylor summed up h ...

. Mitcham, Carl and Adam, Briggle ''Management'' in Mitcham (2005) p. 1153 Taylor began the theory's development in the United States during the 1880s and 1890s within manufacturing industries, especially steel. Its peak of influence came in the 1910s. Although Taylor died in 1915, by the 1920s scientific management was still influential but had entered into

competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indivi ...

and syncretism with opposing or complementary ideas. Although scientific management as a distinct theory or school of thought was obsolete by the 1930s, most of its themes are still important parts of

industrial engineering Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information an ...

and management today. These include: analysis; synthesis; logic; rationality; empiricism; work ethic; efficiency through elimination of wasteful activities (as in '' muda'', '' muri'' and '' mura'');

standardization Standardization or standardisation is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. Standardization ...

best practice A best practice is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to other known alternatives because it often produces results that are superior to those achieved by other means or because it has become a standard way of doing ...

s; disdain for tradition preserved merely for its own sake or to protect the social status of particular workers with particular skill sets; the transformation of

craft production Craft production is manufacturing by hand, with or without the aid of tools. The term "craft production" describes manufacturing techniques that are used in handicraft trades. They were the common methods of manufacture in the pre-industrialize ...

into

mass production Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batc ...

; and

knowledge transfer Knowledge transfer is the sharing or disseminating of knowledge and the providing of inputs to problem solving. In organizational theory, knowledge transfer is the practical problem of transferring knowledge from one part of the organization to ...

between workers and from workers into tools, processes, and documentation.

Name

Taylor's own names for his approach initially included "shop management" and "process management". However, "scientific management" came to national attention in 1910 when crusading attorney Louis Brandeis (then not yet Supreme Court justice) popularized the term.. Brandeis had sought a consensus term for the approach with the help of practitioners like Henry L. Gantt and

Frank B. Gilbreth Frank Bunker Gilbreth (July 7, 1868 – June 14, 1924) was an American engineer, consultant, and author known as an early advocate of scientific management and a pioneer of time and motion study, and is perhaps best known as the father and ce ...

. Brandeis then used the consensus of "SCIENTIFIC management" when he argued before the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) that a proposed increase in railroad rates was unnecessary despite an increase in labor costs; he alleged scientific management would overcome railroad inefficiencies (The ICC ruled against the rate increase, but also dismissed as insufficiently substantiated that concept the railroads were necessarily inefficient.) Taylor recognized the nationally known term "scientific management" as another good name for the concept, and adopted it in the title of his influential 1911 monograph.

History

The

Midvale Steel Company Midvale Steel was a succession of steel-making corporations whose flagship plant was the Midvale Steel Works in Nicetown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The mill operated from 1867 until 1976. In the 1880s, Frederick Winslow Taylor rose through the ...

, "one of America's great armor plate making plants," was the birthplace of scientific management. In 1877, at age 22, Frederick W. Taylor started as a clerk in Midvale, but advanced to foreman in 1880. As foreman, Taylor was "constantly impressed by the failure of his eam membersto produce more than about one-third of hat he deemeda good day's work". Taylor determined to discover, by scientific methods, how long it should take men to perform each given piece of work; and it was in the fall of 1882 that he started to put the first features of scientific management into operation.

Horace Bookwalter Drury Horace Bookwalter Drury (August 21, 1888 - November 8, 1968) was an American economist, lecturer at Ohio State University, and management author, particularly known for his early work on scientific management. Biography Drury was born in Dayton, ...

, in his 1918 work, ''Scientific management: A History and Criticism'', identified seven other leaders in the movement, most of whom learned of and extended scientific management from Taylor's efforts: * Henry L. Gantt (1861–1919) * Carl G. Barth (1860–1939) * Horace K. Hathaway (1878–1944) * Morris L. Cooke (1872–1960) * Sanford E. Thompson (1867–1949) *

(1868–1924). Gilbreth's independent work on "motion study" is on record as early as 1885; after meeting Taylor in 1906 and being introduced to scientific management, Gilbreth devoted his efforts to introducing scientific management into factories. Gilbreth and his wife Dr Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878–1972) performed micro-motion studies using stop-motion cameras as well as developing the profession of industrial/organizational psychology. *

Harrington Emerson Harrington Emerson (August 2, 1853 – September 2, 1931) was an American efficiency engineer and business theorist,Rock Island Arsenal in early 1911, it was opposed by

Samuel Gompers Samuel Gompers (; January 27, 1850December 13, 1924) was a British-born American cigar maker, trade union, labor union leader and a key figure in labor history of the United States, American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation ...

, founder and President of the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual ...

(an alliance of

craft unions Craft unionism refers to a model of trade unionism in which workers are organised based on the particular craft or trade in which they work. It contrasts with industrial unionism, in which all workers in the same industry are organized into the sa ...

). When a subsequent attempt was made to introduce the bonus system into the government's Watertown Arsenal foundry during the summer of 1911, the entire force walked out for a few days. Congressional investigations followed, resulting in a ban on the use of time studies and pay premiums in Government service. Taylor's death in 1915 at age 59 left the movement without its original leader. In management literature today, the term "scientific management" mostly refers to the work of Taylor and his disciples ("classical", implying "no longer current, but still respected for its seminal value") in contrast to newer, improved iterations of efficiency-seeking methods. Today, task-oriented optimization of work tasks is nearly ubiquitous in industry.

Principles of Scientific Management

Frederick Taylor tackled the challenge of making a business productive and profitable in his years of service and research in a steel company. He believed in a scientific solution. In his “Shop Management” article, Taylor explained that there were two facts that appeared “most noteworthy” in the field of management: (a) “Great unevenness”: the lack of uniformity in what is called “the management”, (b) The lack of relation between good (shop) management and the pay. He added,

“The art of management has been defined, “''as knowing exactly what you want men to do, and then seeing that they do it in the best and cheapest way''”."

In this regard, he highlighted that although there is “no concise definition” for this art, “the relations between employers and men form without question the most important part of this art”. He then continued that a good management must in long run give satisfaction to both managers and workers. Taylor emphasized that he was advocating “high wages” and “low labor cost” as “the foundation of the best management”. Discussing the pays for different classes of workers and what he called a “first-class” workman, he compared different scenarios of workmanship and their pros and cons. For best management, he asserted with ample reasons that managers in an organization should follow the following guideline:

(a) Each worker should be given the highest grade of work they are capable of. (b) Each worker should be demanded the work that a first-grade worker can do and thrive. (c) When each worker works at the pace of a first-grade worker, they should be paid 30% to 100% beyond the average of their class.

While Taylor stated that sharing “the equitable division of the profits” is required in an organization, he believed that management could unite high wages with a low labor cost by application of the following principles:

(a) A large daily task: Each worker in the organization, should have a clearly defined task. (b) Standard Conditions: Each worker should be given standard conditions and appliances that will enable him to perform his tasks. (c) High pay for success: Each worker should be rewarded when he accomplishes their task. (d) Loss in case of failure: When a worker fails, he should know that he would share the loss.

In Scientific Management, the responsibility of the success or failure of an organization is not solely on the shoulder of the workers, as it is in the old management systems. According to Scientific Management, the managers are taking half of the burden by being responsible for securing the proper work conditions for workers’ prosperity. In his book “Principles of Scientific Management”, Taylor formally introduced his methodically investigated theory of Scientific Management. Although he explained the details of Scientific Management in his works, he did not provide its concise definition. Shortly before his death, Taylor approved the following summary and definition of Scientific Management that Hoxie prepared:

“Scientific management is a system devised by industrial engineers for the purpose of serving the common interests of employers, workmen and society at large through the elimination of avoidable wastes, the general improvement of the processes and methods of production, and the just and scientific distribution of the product.”

Taylor indicated that Scientific Management consisted of four underlying principles:

1) the development of a true science: We must scientifically analyze all parts of a job. This consists of examining the elements and steps that required to carry out the work, as well as measuring the optimum time for each task. We also need to know the working time per day for a qualified worker. 2) the scientific selection of the workers: The most suitable person for the job is selected. 3) the scientific education and training of the workers: There is a clear division of work and responsibility between managers and workers. While workers are carrying out the job with quality and workmanship, managers are responsible for planning, supervision, and proper training of the workers. 4) cooperation between managers and workers: Managers and workers scientific cooperation is required to ensure the proper and high-quality execution of the jobs.

There are various tools that would enable us to serve these principles, such as time and motion study, functional foremanship, standardization of tools and movements of workers for each type of work, clear instructions for workers, and cost accounting. There are many other features, tools, and methods that Taylor developed and recommended during his job at the steel plant and research, which have footprints in other fields, such as accounting and Engineering. Some of his concepts, studies, and findings has led to intellectual revolution in organization management. Taylor made contributions to various fields such as work measurement, production planning and control, process design, quality control, ergonomics, and human engineering.

Pursuit of economic efficiency

Flourishing in the late 19th and early 20th century, scientific management built on earlier pursuits of

. While it was prefigured in the folk wisdom of thrift, it favored empirical methods to determine efficient procedures rather than perpetuating established traditions. Thus it was followed by a profusion of successors in applied science, including time and motion study, the

Efficiency Movement The efficiency movement was a major movement in the United States, Britain and other industrial nations in the early 20th century that sought to identify and eliminate waste in all areas of the economy and society, and to develop and implement best ...

(which was a broader cultural echo of scientific management's impact on business managers specifically), Fordism, operations management, operations research,

, management science, manufacturing engineering, logistics,

business process management Business process management (BPM) is the discipline in which people use various methods to discover, model, analyze, measure, improve, optimize, and automate business processes. Any combination of methods used to manage a company's business pr ...

business process reengineering Business process re-engineering (BPR) is a business management strategy originally pioneered in the early 1990s, focusing on the analysis and design of workflows and business processes within an organization. BPR aims to help organizations fundam ...

, lean manufacturing, and Six Sigma. There is a fluid continuum linking scientific management with the later fields, and the different approaches often display a high degree of compatibility. Taylor rejected the notion, which was universal in his day and still held today, that the trades, including manufacturing, were resistant to analysis and could only be performed by

methods. In the course of his empirical studies, Taylor examined various kinds of

manual labor Manual labour (in Commonwealth English, manual labor in American English) or manual work is physical work done by humans, in contrast to labour by machines and working animals. It is most literally work done with the hands (the word ''manual'' ...

. For example, most bulk materials handling was manual at the time;

material handling equipment Material handling equipment (MHE) is mechanical equipment used for the movement, storage, control, and protection of materials, goods and products throughout the process of manufacturing, distribution, consumption, and disposal. The different types ...

as we know it today was mostly not developed yet. He looked at

shovel A shovel is a tool used for digging, lifting, and moving bulk materials, such as soil, coal, gravel, snow, sand, or ore. Most shovels are hand tools consisting of a broad blade fixed to a medium-length handle. Shovel blades are usually made of ...

ing in the unloading of railroad cars full of

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 April ...

; lifting and carrying in the moving of iron pigs at steel mills; the manual inspection of bearing balls; and others. He discovered many concepts that were not widely accepted at the time. For example, by observing workers, he decided that labor should include rest breaks so that the worker has time to recover from fatigue, either physical (as in shoveling or lifting) or mental (as in the ball inspection case). Workers were allowed to take more rests during work, and productivity increased as a result. Subsequent forms of scientific management were articulated by Taylor's disciples, such as Henry Gantt; other engineers and managers, such as

Benjamin S. Graham Benjamin S. Graham, Sr. (1900–1960) was an American organizational theorist and consultant known as a pioneer in the development and application of scientific management and industrial engineering techniques to the office and factory clerical ...

; and other theorists, such as

Max Weber Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas prof ...

. Taylor's work also contrasts with other efforts, including those of Henri Fayol and those of Frank Gilbreth, Sr. and Lillian Moller Gilbreth (whose views originally shared much with Taylor's but later diverged in response to Taylorism's inadequate handling of human relations).

Soldiering

Scientific management requires a high level of managerial control over employee work practices and entails a higher ratio of managerial workers to laborers than previous management methods. Such detail-oriented management may cause friction between workers and managers. Taylor observed that some workers were more talented than others, and that even smart ones were often unmotivated. He observed that most workers who are forced to perform repetitive tasks tend to work at the slowest rate that goes unpunished. This slow rate of work has been observed in many industries and many countries. and has been called by various terms.. Taylor used the term "soldiering", a term that reflects the way

conscripts Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

may approach following orders, and observed that, when paid the same amount, workers will tend to do the amount of work that the slowest among them does.. Taylor describes soldiering as "the greatest evil with which the working-people ... are now afflicted". This reflects the idea that workers have a vested interest in their own well-being, and do not benefit from working above the defined rate of work when it will not increase their remuneration. He, therefore, proposed that the work practice that had been developed in most work environments was crafted, intentionally or unintentionally, to be very inefficient in its execution. He posited that time and motion studies combined with rational analysis and synthesis could uncover one best method for performing any particular task, and that prevailing methods were seldom equal to these best methods. Crucially, Taylor himself prominently acknowledged that if each employee's compensation was linked to their output, their productivity would go up. Thus his compensation plans usually included piece rates. In contrast, some later adopters of time and motion studies ignored this aspect and tried to get large productivity gains while passing little or no compensation gains to the workforce, which contributed to resentment against the system.

Productivity, automation, and unemployment

Taylorism led to productivity increases, meaning fewer workers or working hours were needed to produce the same amount of goods. In the short term, productivity increases like those achieved by Taylor's efficiency techniques can cause considerable disruption. Labor relations often become contentious over whether the financial benefits will accrue to owners in the form of increased profits, or workers in the form of increased wages. As a result of decomposition and documentation of manufacturing processes, companies employing Taylor's methods might be able to hire lower-skill workers, enlarging the pool of workers and thus lowering wages and job security. In the long term, most economists consider productivity increases as a benefit to the economy overall, and necessary to improve the

standard of living Standard of living is the level of income, comforts and services available, generally applied to a society or location, rather than to an individual. Standard of living is relevant because it is considered to contribute to an individual's quality ...

for consumers in general. By the time Taylor was doing his work, improvements in agricultural productivity had freed up a large portion of the workforce for the manufacturing sector, allowing those workers in turn to buy new types of consumer goods instead of working as subsistence farmers. In later years, increased manufacturing efficiency would free up large sections of the workforce for the service sector. If captured as profits or wages, the money generated by more-productive companies would be spent on new goods and services; if free market competition forces prices down close to the cost of production, consumers effectively capture the benefits and have more money to spend on new goods and services. Either way, new companies and industries spring up to profit from increased demand, and due to freed-up labor are able to hire workers. But the long-term benefits are no guarantee that individual displaced workers will be able to get new jobs that paid them as well or better as their old jobs, as this may require access to education or job training, or moving to different part of the country where new industries are growing. Inability to obtain new employment due to mismatches like these is known as structural unemployment, and economists debate to what extent this is happening in the long term, if at all, as well as the impact on income inequality for those who do find jobs. Though not foreseen by early proponents of scientific management, detailed decomposition and documentation of an optimal production method also makes

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

of the process easier, especially physical processes that would later use industrial control systems and

numerical control Numerical control (also computer numerical control, and commonly called CNC) is the automated control of machining tools (such as drills, lathes, mills, grinders, routers and 3D printers) by means of a computer. A CNC machine processes a ...

. Widespread

economic globalization Economic globalization is one of the three main dimensions of globalization commonly found in academic literature, with the two others being political globalization and cultural globalization, as well as the general term of globalization. Econo ...

also creates opportunity for work to be outsourced to lower-wage areas, with

made easier if an optimal method is already clearly documented. Especially when wages or wage differentials are high, automation and offshoring can result in significant productivity gains and similar questions of who benefits and whether or not technological unemployment is persistent. Because automation is often best suited to tasks that are repetitive and boring, and can also be used for tasks that are dirty, dangerous, and demeaning, proponents believe that in the long run it will free up human workers for more creative, safer, and more enjoyable work.

Taylorism and unions

The early history of labor relations with scientific management in the U.S. was described by Horace Bookwalter Drury: In 1911, organized labor erupted with strong opposition to scientific management, including from

, founder and president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Once the time-and-motion men had completed their studies of a particular task, the workers had very little opportunity for further thinking, experimenting, or suggestion-making. Taylorism was criticized for turning the worker into an "automaton" or "machine", making work monotonous and unfulfilling by doing one small and rigidly defined piece of work instead of using complex skills with the whole production process done by one person. "The further 'progress' of industrial development... increased the anomic or forced division of labor," the opposite of what Taylor thought would be the effect. Some workers also complained about being made to work at a faster pace and producing goods of lower quality. The Watertown Arsenal in Massachusetts provides an example of the application and repeal of the Taylor system in the workplace, due to worker opposition. In the early 20th century, neglect in the Watertown shops included overcrowding, dim lighting, lack of tools and equipment, and questionable management strategies in the eyes of the workers. Frederick W. Taylor and Carl G. Barth visited Watertown in April 1909 and reported on their observations at the shops. Their conclusion was to apply the Taylor system of management to the shops to produce better results. Efforts to install the Taylor system began in June 1909. Over the years of time study and trying to improve the efficiency of workers, criticisms began to evolve. Workers complained of having to compete with one another, feeling strained and resentful, and feeling excessively tired after work. In June 1913, employees of the Watertown Arsenal petitioned to abolish the practice of scientific management there. A number of magazine writers inquiring into the effects of scientific management found that the "conditions in shops investigated contrasted favorably with those in other plants". A committee of the U.S. House of Representatives investigated and reported in 1912, concluding that scientific management did provide some useful techniques and offered valuable organizational suggestions, but that it also gave production managers a dangerously high level of uncontrolled power.. After an attitude survey of the workers revealed a high level of resentment and hostility towards scientific management, the Senate banned Taylor's methods at the arsenal. Taylor had a largely negative view of unions, and believed they only led to decreased productivity. Efforts to resolve conflicts with workers included methods of scientific collectivism, making agreements with unions, and the

personnel management Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...

movement.

Relationship to Fordism

It is often assumed that Fordism derives from Taylor's work. Taylor apparently made this assumption himself when visiting the Ford Motor Company's Michigan plants not too long before he died, but it is likely that the methods at Ford were evolved independently, and that any influence from Taylor's work was indirect at best..

Charles E. Sorensen Charles Emil Sorensen (7 September 1881 – 11 August 1968) was a Danish-American principal of the Ford Motor Company during its first four decades. Like most other managers at Ford at the time, he did not have an official job title, but he serve ...

, a principal of the company during its first four decades, disclaimed any connection at all. There was a belief at Ford, which remained dominant until Henry Ford II took over the company in 1945, that the world's experts were worthless, because if Ford had listened to them, it would have failed to attain its great successes. Henry Ford felt that he had succeeded ''in spite of'', not ''because of'', experts, who had tried to stop him in various ways (disagreeing about price points, production methods, car features, business financing, and other issues). Sorensen thus was dismissive of Taylor and lumped him into the category of useless experts. Sorensen held the New England machine tool vendor

Walter Flanders Walter Emmett Flanders (March 4, 1871 – June 18, 1923) was an American industrialist in the machine tool and automotive industries and was an early mass production expert. Early life Flanders was born March 4, 1871 in Rutland, Vermont, the so ...

in high esteem and credits him for the efficient floorplan layout at Ford, claiming that Flanders knew nothing about Taylor. Flanders may have been exposed to the spirit of Taylorism elsewhere, and may have been influenced by it, but he did not cite it when developing his production technique. Regardless, the Ford team apparently did independently invent modern mass production techniques in the period of 1905–1915, and they themselves were not aware of any borrowing from Taylorism. Perhaps it is only possible with hindsight to see the zeitgeist that (indirectly) connected the budding Fordism to the rest of the

efficiency movement The efficiency movement was a major movement in the United States, Britain and other industrial nations in the early 20th century that sought to identify and eliminate waste in all areas of the economy and society, and to develop and implement best ...

during the decade of 1905–1915.

Adoption in planned economies

Scientific management appealed to managers of

planned economies A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, parti ...

because

central economic planning A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, parti ...

relies on the idea that the expenses that go into economic production can be precisely predicted and can be optimized by design.

Soviet Union

By 1913 Vladimir Lenin wrote that the "most widely discussed topic today in Europe, and to some extent in Russia, is the 'system' of the American engineer, Frederick Taylor"; Lenin decried it as merely a "'scientific' system of sweating" more work from laborers. Again in 1914, Lenin derided Taylorism as "man's enslavement by the machine". However, after the

Russian Revolutions The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...

brought him to power, Lenin wrote in 1918 that the "Russian is a bad worker ho mustlearn to work. The Taylor system... is a combination of the refined brutality of bourgeois exploitation and a number of the greatest scientific achievements in the field of analysing mechanical motions during work, the elimination of superfluous and awkward motions, the elaboration of correct methods of work, the introduction of the best system of accounting and control, etc. The Soviet Republic must at all costs adopt all that is valuable in the achievements of science and technology in this field." In the Soviet Union, Taylorism was advocated by

Aleksei Gastev Aleksei Kapitonovich Gastev (russian: Алексей Капитонович Гастев) (8 October 1882, Suzdal, Vladimir Governorate – 15 April 1939, Kommunarka, Moscow) was a Russian revolutionary, a pioneering theorist of the scientif ...

and ''nauchnaia organizatsia truda'' (''the movement for the scientific organization of labor''). It found support in both Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. Gastev continued to promote this system of labor management until his arrest and execution in 1939.. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Soviet Union enthusiastically embraced Fordism and Taylorism, importing American experts in both fields as well as American engineering firms to build parts of its new industrial infrastructure. The concepts of the Five Year Plan and the centrally planned economy can be traced directly to the influence of Taylorism on Soviet thinking. As scientific management was believed to epitomize American efficiency,. Joseph Stalin even claimed that "the combination of the Russian revolutionary sweep with American efficiency is the essence of

Leninism Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishm ...

.", quoting . Sorensen was one of the consultants who brought American know-how to the USSR during this era,. before the Cold War made such exchanges unthinkable. As the Soviet Union developed and grew in power, both sides, the Soviets and the Americans, chose to ignore or deny the contribution that American ideas and expertise had made: the Soviets because they wished to portray themselves as creators of their own destiny and not indebted to a rival, and the Americans because they did not wish to acknowledge their part in creating a powerful communist rival.

Anti-communism Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...

had always enjoyed widespread popularity in America, and

anti-capitalism Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economic system, such as so ...

in Russia, but after World War II, they precluded any admission by either side that technologies or ideas might be either freely shared or clandestinely stolen.

East Germany

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-19361-006, Chemnitz, Normierung im Fräsmaschinenwerkes

By the 1950s, scientific management had grown dated, but its goals and practices remained attractive and were also being adopted by the

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **G ...

as it sought to increase efficiency in its industrial sectors. Workers engaged in a state-planned instance of process improvement, pursuing the same goals that were contemporaneously pursued in

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private p ...

societies, as in the

Toyota Production System The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS is a management system that organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile m ...

Criticism of rigor

Taylor believed that the scientific method of management included the calculations of exactly how much time it takes a man to do a particular task, or his rate of work. Critics of Taylor complained that such a calculation relies on certain arbitrary, non-scientific decisions such as what constituted the job, which men were timed, and under which conditions. Any of these factors are subject to change, and therefore can produce inconsistencies. Some dismiss so-called "scientific management" or Taylorism as pseudoscience. Others are critical of the

representativeness The representativeness heuristic is used when making judgments about the probability of an event under uncertainty. It is one of a group of heuristics (simple rules governing judgment or decision-making) proposed by psychologists Amos Tversky and D ...

of the workers Taylor selected to take his measurements.

Variations of scientific management after Taylorism

In the 1900s

Taylorism was one of the first attempts to systematically treat management and process improvement as a scientific problem, and Taylor is considered a founder of modern

. Taylorism may have been the first "bottom-up" method and found a lineage of successors that have many elements in common. Later methods took a broader approach, measuring not only productivity but quality. With the advancement of statistical methods, quality assurance and

quality control Quality control (QC) is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. ISO 9000 defines quality control as "a part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements". This approach places ...

began in the 1920s and 1930s. During the 1940s and 1950s, the body of knowledge for doing scientific management evolved into operations management, operations research, and management

cybernetics Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson ma ...

. In the 1980s total quality management became widely popular, growing from

techniques. In the 1990s "re-engineering" went from a simple word to a mystique. Today's Six Sigma and lean manufacturing could be seen as new kinds of scientific management, although their

evolutionary Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variati ...

distance from the original is so great that the comparison might be misleading. In particular, Shigeo Shingo, one of the originators of the

, believed that this system and

Japanese management culture Japanese management culture refers to working philosophies or methods in Japan. It included concepts and philosophies such as just in time, kaizen and total quality management. Managerial style The Japanese term "hourensou" (also rendered as " ...

in general should be seen as a kind of scientific management. These newer methods are all based on systematic

analysis Analysis ( : analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (3 ...

rather than relying on tradition and rule of thumb. Other thinkers, even in Taylor's own time, also proposed considering the individual worker's needs, not just the needs of the process. Critics said that in Taylorism, "the worker was taken for granted as a cog in the machinery."

James Hartness James Hartness (September 3, 1861 – February 2, 1934) was an American inventor, mechanical engineer, entrepreneur, amateur astronomer, and politician who served as the 58th governor of Vermont from 1921 to 1923. Early life and education Hartn ...

published ''The Human Factor in Works Management'' in 1912, while Frank Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth offered their own alternatives to Taylorism. The

human relations The concept of interpersonal relationship involves social associations, connections, or affiliations between two or more people. Interpersonal relationships vary in their degree of intimacy or self-disclosure, but also in their duration, in t ...

school of management (founded by the work of Elton Mayo) evolved in the 1930s as a counterpoint or complement of scientific management. Taylorism focused on the organization of the work process, and human relations helped workers adapt to the new procedures.. Modern definitions of "quality control" like ISO-9000 include not only clearly documented and optimized manufacturing tasks, but also consideration of human factors like expertise, motivation, and organizational culture. The

, from which lean manufacturing in general is derived, includes "respect for people" and teamwork as core principles. Peter Drucker saw Frederick Taylor as the creator of knowledge management, because the aim of scientific management was to produce knowledge about how to improve work processes. Although the typical application of scientific management was manufacturing, Taylor himself advocated scientific management for all sorts of work, including the management of schools, universities and government. For example, Taylor believed scientific management could be extended to "the work of our salesmen". Shortly after his death, his acolyte Harlow S. Person began to lecture corporate audiences on the possibility of using Taylorism for "sales engineering". (Person was talking about what is now called

sales process engineering Sales process engineering is intended to design better ways of selling and make salespeople's efforts more productive. It has been described as "the systematic application of scientific and mathematical principles to achieve the practical goal ...

—engineering the processes that salespeople use—not about what we call sales engineering today.) This was a watershed insight in the history of corporate

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to empha ...

In the 2000s

Google's methods of increasing productivity and output can be seen to be influenced by Taylorism as well. The Silicon Valley company is a forerunner in applying behavioral science (such as the motivations of purpose, mastery, and autonomy set out by

Daniel Pink Daniel H. Pink (born July 23, 1964) is an American author. He has written seven books; five of them are ''New York Times'' bestsellers. He was a host and a co-executive producer of the 2014 National Geographic Channel social science TV series '' ...

in his 2009 book '' Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us'') to increase knowledge worker productivity. In classic scientific management as well as approaches like lean management where leaders facilitate and empower teams to continuously improve their standards and values. Leading high-tech companies use the concept of nudge management to increase productivity of employees. More and more business leaders start to make use of this new scientific management. Today's

militaries A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

employ all of the major goals and tactics of scientific management, if not under that name. Of the key points, all but wage incentives for increased output are used by modern military organizations. Wage incentives rather appear in the form of skill bonuses for enlistments. Scientific management has had an important influence in sports, where stop watches and motion studies rule the day. (Taylor himself enjoyed sports, especially tennis and golf. He and a partner won a national championship in doubles tennis. He invented improved tennis racquets and improved golf clubs, although other players liked to tease him for his unorthodox designs, and they did not catch on as replacements for the mainstream implements). Modern human resources can be seen to have begun in the scientific management era, most notably in the writings of Katherine M. H. Blackford. Practices descended from scientific management are currently used in offices and in medicine (e.g.

managed care The term managed care or managed healthcare is used in the United States to describe a group of activities intended to reduce the cost of providing health care and providing American health insurance while improving the quality of that care ("man ...

) as well.. In countries with a post-industrial economy, manufacturing jobs are a relatively few, with most workers in the service sector. One approach to efficiency in information work is called digital Taylorism, which uses software to monitor the performance of employees who use computers all day.

Notes

References

* .

;

* * Bonazzi, G. (2014). ''Geschichte des organisatorischen Denkens''. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien. * * * * * Dumas, M., La Rosa, M., Mendling, J. & Reijers, H. (2013). ''Fundamentals of Business Process Management.'' Berlin Heidelberg: Springer Verlag. * Freriks, R. (1996). ''Theoretische Modelle der Betriebsgröße im Maschinenbau. Koordination und Kontrollmechanismen bei organisatorischem Wachstum''. Opladen: Leske+ Budrich. * . * * * Hebeisen, W. (1999). ''F.W. Taylor und der Taylorismus. Über das Wirken und die Lehre Taylors und die Kritik am Taylorismus''. Zürich: vdf Hochschulverlag AG. * Henke, J. (2004).
Infoblatt Taylorismus. Frederick Winslow Taylor stellte Theorien zur Optimierung der Arbeit bzw. Unternehmen auf.
' Leipzig: Klett Verlag. * * * * Koch, S. (2011). ''Einführung in das Management von Geschäftsprozessen.'' Berling Heidelberg: Springer Verlag. * Laube, H. (2014)

In: ''Der Spiegel.'' * McGaughey, Ewan, 'Behavioral Economics and Labor Law' (2014
LSE Legal Studies Working Paper No. 20/2014
* * * * * * .
Also available from Project Gutenberg
'' * * * *

External links

''Special Collections: F.W. Taylor Collection''
''Stevens Institute of Technology has an extensive collection at its library.'' {{Authority control History of business Organizational behavior Production and manufacturing Theories Industrial and organizational psychology