F.W.Taylor’s Scientific Management
Introduction: Point of
Clarification:
At the outset, it must be made clear that
in the world of management, there is no concept of management which might be
called ‘Scientific Management’; capable of universal application and commanding
wide acknowledgment from scholars and practitioners of management.
What Frederick Winslow Taylor calls
scientific management is typically a management philosophy pioneered and
practiced by him (and his followers) according to his own ideology; and is
something like ‘India of My Dreams’ as envisaged by Gandhiji. Accordingly,
Taylor’s Scientific Management is popularly called as ‘Taylorism’.
Introduction to Taylor and His
Work:
F.W. Taylor (1856-1915) was an American,
who joined Midvale Steelworks, Philadelphia (U.S.A.) as a machinist; and
gradually rose to the position of the Chief Engineer-through hard work and
progress. F.W. Taylor conducted his experiments in three companies viz.,
Midvale Steel Works, Simonds Rolling Machine and Bethlehem Steel Works.
Taylor’s Scientific Managements was, in
fact, a movement known as the ‘Scientific Management Movement’ pioneered by
Taylor and carried on by his followers. The important publications of Taylor
are all combined into one book titled ‘Scientific Management’.
Taylor’s Main Observation:
Throughout his life career, Taylor had
observed that there was excessive inefficiency in the management and
functioning of industrial enterprises. In fact, the primary blame for the
inefficient functioning of industrial enterprises was put by Taylor on
management; for it was management who did not know what constituted a fair
day’s task and also the ‘best way’ of doing the same.
Therefore, he came out with his new
concept of management, called scientific management.
F W. Taylor defined scientific management in
the following words:
“Scientific
Management consists in knowing what management wants men to do exactly; and
seeing to it that they do it in the best and the cheapest manner.”
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