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Scientific Management Essay
1. Essay on Scientific Management
What are the main features of Taylor's approach to 'Scientific Management" and what criticisms have
been made of it? Do firms use scientific management today?
Frederick Winslow Talyor developed a theory called the Scientific Management. It is a theory of
management that analyse and improve work process, aiming to increase labour productivity.
Scientific management methods are used to optimize productivity and simplifying the jobs so that
workers could be trained to perform their task in one "best" way.
Prior to the development of scientific management, works were performed by skilled craftsmen who
had learned their jobs by apprenticeships and they made their own decisions about how their job was
to be carried out. Scientific management...show more content...
Using a stopwatch, he timed each element for each worker. Identifying and eliminating useless
operations that do not have contribution to the task. He then select the quickest methods discovered
in each element and fit them into a sequence and teach the other workers this sequence, forbidding
any differences. Lastly, add up the times for each element and include allowance for resting, this
will be the "quickest and best" method for the job. Since, it is the "best way" all the workers have to
practise it. (Rose, Rational Workmen and Incompetent Managers, 1978)
Designing of tools to suit the work process is important to increase work productivity. Materials,
weight, length of the tool are taken into consideration of designing a better tool. Taylor experiments
with shovel design until he had a design that would allow workers to shovel for several hours
straight.
Worker will get tired after working for long hours and productivity will decrease. Hence, study
could determine the number of hours or maximum amount of work a worker can do in a day before
fatigue sets in.
Lastly is labour selection and motivation. Taylor said that every task should be performed by a 'first
class man' for a specific task. "First–class" men should be given "a fair day's pay for a fair day's
work". (Rose 1978: 36) "First–class" man can be both born and trained. Workers should go for
training and development courses
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2. Scientific Management Essay
Scientific Management
Before we can dive into the subject of managerial styles –– what they were and where they've come,
we first need to distinguish what a management style is. A management style, to us, and therefore, to
the rest of this paper, is defined as a set of expectations an individual has, as to how they are to use
their leadership position to involve themselves and to involve other people in the achievement of
results. Various aspects, such as value systems, technology, organizational design, and globalization,
all affect the culture of an organization and come into play when determining what managerial style
is best to use. As we move through the years, these components develop, resulting in the need for
managerial...show more content...
The many writers and theorists of management philosophies are placed throughout these categories
and will be mentioned in this paper. We will now briefly consider in rough chronological order
each of these key management ideas. Bureaucracy Weber's theory of bureaucracy is often
presented alongside the works of Fayol and Urwick who, discuss administrative management. We
will go into more depth with them later. Weber's main interest was in the process of social change
and in the effect of rationality on religious thought and capitalism. The key to bureaucracy is
authority. From a historical perspective authority is based on the belief in the sacred or the
extraordinary characteristics of the person giving the orders (e.g. Christ). In a more traditional form,
authority was established through the belief that the person giving the orders had done so through
tradition (e.g. King or Duke). Finally, the legal form of authority implied that the person giving the
orders was acting in accordance with or under established rules or laws. The Weberian model of
bureaucracy offers a stable and predictable world that provides the blueprint for rationally designed
structures in which rational individuals carry out their prescribed actions and tasks. The bureaucratic
form of the organization posses specific features such as specialization, hierarchy, rules,
impersonality, full time
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3. Scientific Management
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT AND CONTRIBUTION TO ECONOMY
Scientific management is a theory of management that analysis and synthesizes workflows, with the
objective of improving labour productivity. The core ideas of the theory were developed by
Frederick Winslow Taylor in the 1880s and 1890s, and were first published in his monographs, Shop
Management (1905) and The Principles of Scientific Management (1911). He began trying to
discover a way for workers to increase their efficiency when he was the foreperson at the Midvale
Steele Company in 1875. Taylor believed that decisions based upon tradition and rules of thumb
should be replaced by precise procedures developed after careful study of an individual at work. Its
application is contingent on...show more content...
Taylor 's own name for his approach was scientific management. This sort of task–oriented
optimization of work tasks is nearly ubiquitous today in industry, and has made most industrial work
menial, repetitive and tedious; this can be noted, for instance, in assembly lines and fast–food
restaurants. Taylor 's methods began from his observation that, in general, workers forced to
perform repetitive tasks work at the slowest rate that goes unpunished. This slow rate of work has
been called by various terms, including "soldiering", (reflecting the way conscripts may approach
following orders), "dogging it", or "goldbricking". Managers may call it by those names or
"loafing" or "malingering"; workers may call it "getting through the day" or "preventing
management from abusing us". Taylor used the term "soldiering" and observed that, when paid the
same amount, workers will tend to do the amount of work that the slowest among them does. 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 compensation. 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 rational
analysis and synthesis could uncover one best method for performing any particular task,
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4. Scientific management
Scientific management
Introduction
Nowadays, scientific management plays an important role in our workplaces. Nevertheless, to draw
a conclusion that whether scientific management is appropriate in nowadays workplaces, the essay
will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of scientific management. First of all, as to the
definition of management, the answer to this problem varies from people to people. Some people
like Frederick Winslow Taylor, thought that management is a discipline that involves the calm and
systematic tasks of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Maybe, from this point of view,
we can basically understand what the managers do. However, others such as Jaffee have questioned
whether scientific management...show more content...
For their leadership, the managers have to encourage their companies to fight with them. In order to
gain enough information for their team to achieve their work, the managers should establish a strong
network of contact. In short, there are three roles in the managers' interpersonal group (Thompson &
McHugh 2002, p. 56). They are figurehead, liaison and leader.
The second one is information processing roles. As the managers, they may not know every detail
function as his subordinates who specializes it. However, as the leaderships in his organization, the
manager will collect all kinds of information from his subordinates and he will know more about his
organization's information than any companies in his organization. Hence, the manager is the nerve
centre of information system in his organization.
The last one role is decision–making roles. The manager has to make many important decisions for
his organization for he knows more information about his organization than any of his subordinates.
He must be responsible for his organization and he must do the important choices represent his
organization. What he do will decide the development or failure of his organization, not just himself.
Thus, in the manager is at the heart of the decision–making system.
Motivation of worker and manager
As we know, there can be huge differences between the quality and quantity of our work
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5. Scientific Management
Critically discuss the notion that Scientific Management was a 'good' idea in the history of
management thinking.
Since the thousands of years, people use the management in the great projects such as the Egyptian
pyramids and the Great Wall of China. According to Robbins, et al. (2006), Henri Fayol said that all
managers perform five functions: planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling in
the early part of the twentieth century. Robbins stated that, in the mid–1950s, management functions
changed to planning, organizing staffing, directing and controlling. However, management functions
have been reduced to four such as planning, organizing, leading and controlling.
There are six major approaches to management:...show more content...
Cole (2004, p–20) stated that Gantt introduced a payment system that although the employee's
performance was below on the individual's instruction card, he still qualified for the day–rate but
performance of all the work allocated on the card qualified the individual for bonus. Gantt found
that when one worker found that he could achieve the task, the rest quickly followed. As a result,
supervision improved, breakdowns were minimized. Gantt's bonus system also allowed for the
employee to challenge the time allocated for a particular task.
There are a lot of benefits from scientific management. First, the productivity increases dramatically
by improving the working method. Second, the supervisors can measure the performance base on the
working methods. Third, it motivates the employees by incentive payments base on the results on
the performance. Finally, the physical working conditions for employees also improved because of
scientific management. (Cole, 2004)
Although scientific management has a lot of benefits, it also has some disadvantages. Firstly, the
worker's role is reduced by the rigid methods and procedures. Another drawback is the employees
will be bore because of same steps of procedures. Next one is scientific management generates a
'carrot–and–stick' approach to the motivation of employees by enabling pay to be geared tightly to
output (Cole, 2004). As stated by Buren (2008), proponents of
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6. Scientific Management
The Principles of Scientific Management (1911) by Frederick Winslow Taylor, M.E., Sc. D.
CHAPTER II: THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT THE writer has found that
there are three questions uppermost in the minds of men when they become interested in scientific
management. First. Wherein do the principles of scientific management differ essentially from those
of ordinary management? Second. Why are better results attained under scientific management than
under the other types? Third. Is not the most important problem that of getting the right man at the
head of the company? And if you have the right man cannot the choice of the type of management
be safely left to him? One of the principal objects of...show more content...
The problem before the management, then, may be briefly said to be that of obtaining the best
initiative of every workman. And the writer uses the word "initiative" in its broadest sense, to
cover all of the good qualities sought for from the men. On the other hand, no intelligent manager
would hope to obtain in any full measure the initiative of his workmen unless he felt that he was
giving them something more than they usually receive from their employers. Only those among
the readers of this paper who have been managers or who have worked themselves at a trade
realize how far the average workman falls short of giving his employer his full initiative. It is well
within the mark to state that in nineteen out of twenty industrial establishments the workmen
believe it to be directly against their interests to give their employers their best initiative, and that
instead of working hard to do the largest possible amount of work and the best quality of work for
their employers, they deliberately work as slowly as they dare while they at the same time try to
make those over them believe that they are working fast. [note 1] The writer repeats, therefore, that
in order to have any hope of obtaining the initiative of his workmen the manager must give some
special incentive to his men beyond that which is given to the average of the trade. This incentive
can be
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7. Scientific Management
'Federic Taylor 's Scientific Management reflects an approach to managing that is no longer
appropriate for today's managers '.
Critically evaluate this statement with particular reference to an example from workspace with
which you are familiar. Guidance: Many management textbooks claim that Taylor 's ideas are no
longer appropriate, but consider whether an organization can operate without clear rules, hierarchy
and division of labor. Many large and successful organizations, such as McDonalds hamburger chain
or call centers, appear to use a modern version of scientific management. It would also be a good
idea to consider whether these sort of generalizations can be applied in a global manner, or whether
they tend to reflect the...show more content...
[3]
Using these three reasons Taylor developed the four principles of the scientific management [4]:
Develop a science for each element of a man's work and replace the "rule–of–thumb" method.
Scientifically select, train and develop workers instead of allowing them to choose their own tasks,
decide the best way to complete the job and carry out their own training.
Provide "Detailed instruction and supervision of each worker in the performance of that worker 's
discrete task" [5].
Split the work in the same proportions between the management and workers. Managers will use the
scientific methods to plan and organize the work and workers will actually perform the tasks.
The productivity under Taylor's method dramatically increased and costs of the manufactured goods
were reduced by 1/10 to 1/20 of the previous manufactured cost. These changes allowed more people
to purchase the goods [6]. It looks like the scientific management theory was the perfect solutions to
the problems in organizations in the 20th century. But is scientific management appropriate in a
modern world? The next section will look at pros and cons of this theory and the use of scientific
management in today's organizations.
The appropriateness of Scientific Management for today's managers
Taylor's functions of management highlighted the importance of carefully practicing
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8. Scientific Management
THE EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT For thousands of years, managers faced the same issues
and problems confronting executives today. Around 1100 B.C., the Chinese practiced the four
management functions–planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Between 400 B.C. and 350
B.C., the Greeks recognized management as a separate art and advocated a scientific approach to
work. The Romans decentralized the management of their vast empire before the birth of Christ.
During the Medieval Period, the Venetians standardized production through building warehouses and
using an inventory system to monitor the contents. But throughout history, most managers operated
strictly on a trial–and–error basis. Communication and transportation constraints hindered...show
more content...
3.ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT APPROACH
This approach focused on how a business should be organized and the practices an effective manager
should follow. It emphasized the perspective of senior managers within the organization, and argued
that management was a profession and could be taught.
While pioneers of scientific management tried to determine the best way to perform a job, those in
the administrative management explored the possibilities of an ideal way (rule of thumb) to put all
jobs together and operate an organization. Thus the main focus of administrative school or general
management theory is on finding "the best way" to run organizations. Administrative management
school is also called "traditional principles of management.
Henry Fayol, a French industrialist, is the chief architect and the father of the administrative
management theory. He believed that techniques of effective management could be defined and
taught and that managerial organization hold as much importance as management as workers
organization. He was the first to identify functions of management. According to Fayol, the five
functions of managers were:
Plan
Organize
Command
Coordinate
Control
Fayol identified 14 principles of management which he wanted to be applied flexibly. Here are
Fayol's 14
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9. Scientific Management
Course: Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS)
Module: Principals of Management
Title: Explain Scientific Management. Comment on the contribution of this approach to the
development of management thought. What are its limitations?
33
Submission Date: 8th of March 2010
Word Count 2183
"The Principal object of management should be to secure the maximum prosperity for the employer,
coupled with the maximum prosperity for each employee" (Taylor, 1947)
Introduction
The Author will discuss Scientific Management under the following headings: Section 1 An
explanation on Scientific Management. Section 2, The contribution of Scientific Management to the
development of Management thought and Section 3 looks at the limitations...show more content...
Division of Labour
Scientific management gives managers control and this can be seen in many of our call centres
whether its directory enquires or calling the bank 'thank you for calling and how may I direct your
call?' these scripts show us 21st Century management control. Management see these scripts as
necessary to keep workers efficient and consistent but it is just modern day Taylorism which
assumes that workers are dim and lazy.
Selection and training of workers
Finding the 'best' person for the job is still a challenge for many companies. Many companies now
use automated curriculum vitae processing by computers with scientific personality testing to try
and match the job to the right person. Employers are looking for employees to work hard, be
flexible and to be skilled. It is imperative to get the right people, with the right skills in the right
positions and at the right time. Choosing the right people may increase an organisations competitive
advantage which is after all central to competitive success of any organisation.
Limitations of scientific management
10. Scientific management has been in a state of constant evolution since its adoption. The objective of
the scientific management movement was to increase efficiency by carefully planning workers'
movement in the most
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