- What is scientific management?
- Creator of scientific administration
- Origin of scientific administration
- The “Taylor principles” and their characteristics
- Advantages of scientific management
- Disadvantages of scientific management
- Taylorism over time
We explain what scientific administration or Taylorism is, origin, history, advantages and disadvantages. Also, the principles of Taylor.
What is scientific management?
Scientific management is a stream of the knowledge, also called Taylorism, which unites the business sector with the scientific investigation. It arose as a result of a monograph published in 1911 by Frederick Winslow Taylor, who established the organizing principles for the Business industrial.
The name of scientific administration is due to the application of science methods to the problems of the management business, with the aim of achieving greater efficiency in industrial production. Main Scientific methods applicable to management problems are the observation and the measurement of results.
Creator of scientific administration
The American Frederick Winslow Taylor was the creator of the principles of scientific management, having investigated manufacturing operations in a systematic way. Hence the name his work received: "Taylor principles" or "Taylorism."
Taylor was born in 1856 in Pennsylvania, United States. He was manager of manufacture, engineer, mechanic and, after his research, he also became a management consultant.
During his adolescence he began to lose part of his sense of sight and his body was weak, so he could not participate in sporting events. Those conditions prompted him to think about how to improve physical exertion performance. For him, the important thing was to measure the effort, the place and the movements to obtain the highest possible efficiency.
Origin of scientific administration
The theory of scientific administration arises at the end of the 19th century in the United States, given the need to increase the productivity due to the scarce supply of workforce.
The only way to increase productivity was to increase the efficiency of the workers And, for that, the scientific administration focused on the tasks. Taylor conducted a research study and found the following common problems in the industries of the time:
- There was no effective system of work.
- There were no financial incentives for workers to improve their work.
- Decisions were made arbitrarily, rather than by scientific knowledge.
- The workers were incorporated into their work without taking into account their abilities Y aptitudes.
Taylor drew up several hypothesis that, in practice, allowed solutions to these problems. Through the analysis From how work was done and from direct observation of how that work affected productivity, he found the answers.
His philosophy was based on the fact that making people work hard was not as efficient as optimizing the way they did their work. Taylor's complete work demonstrated that all the principles set forth there could be applied in any type of organization.
The “Taylor principles” and their characteristics
In 1911 Taylor published "the principles of scientific management", a document that explained the guidelines that business activity should follow to achieve more efficient industrial production. Taylor's four principles were:
- Reorganization of work. It involved replacing inefficient work systems with methods that reduced labor costs. time production and the amount of machinery required, among others. Taylor investigated various ways to achieve optimal levels of performance, for example, he designed a shovel that could be manipulated for several hours at a time.
- Appropriate selection of the worker. It involved evaluating the worker's ability to designate a suitable position, rather than assigning roles without regard to their ability. In this way, professional performance could be improved because the employee felt more motivated and satisfied with their work, which ended up impacting the productivity of the organization.
- Cooperation between managers and the campus. It implied the creation of intermediate positions to act as those responsible for directly supervising and advising teams of workers. In this way, managers and operators could act under the same purpose and achieve the proper functioning of the organization.
- Division of work between managers and collaborators. It implied clearly defining the role of each member of the organization. It was necessary for managers to be responsible for the planning and the direction of the organization while the workers were dedicated to the execution of said decisions. This articulation made it possible to achieve greater efficiency in work processes.
- Motivation from the workers. It involved optimizing the salary of the worker in order to improve their performance in addition to occupying a position suitable to their abilities. Taylor promoted the idea of "a fair wage for a fair day's work," that is, if a worker failed to produce enough in one day, they should not be paid as much as another worker who was highly productive.
Advantages of scientific management
The main advantages were:
- Generate greater specialization in the workplace.
- Generate higher efficiency by each individual.
- Propose a division of labor that allowed planning and obtaining better results.
- Distinguish between manual and intellectual work.
- Help reduce the pressures that used to be placed on a single worker, by appointing a manager per area.
- Promote personal development through economic stimulus as an incentive.
Disadvantages of scientific management
The main disadvantages were:
- The principle of unity of collective command faded, leading to conflict between workers.
- Communication was descending and the employee did not have the technical capacity to comment.
- Employee participation was null and individuality was promoted as an efficiency mechanism.
Taylorism over time
The "Taylor Principles" were the foundation of global corporate governance and cooperation The resulting outcome among workers and managers had a marked influence on the philosophy of the teamwork. Starting in the 21st century, some ideas put forward by Taylorism became obsolete or were improved. Among the new guidelines, the following stand out:
- The biggest autonomy from the workers. So that they can apply more appropriate approaches in their work, breaking with the pyramidal or descending structure of Taylorism where the worker could not give his opinion.
- Management by objectives. It establishes that managers must participate in the strategic planning process and unify the consensus between managers and employees, unlike Taylorism that maintained a single structure in which managers they made the decisions and the workers executed them.
- Continuous improvement initiatives. They involve the company questioning all productivity methods (not just the employee's work) in order to find innovations, unlike Taylorism that maintained that the maximum efficiency in production fell on the physical performance of the worker.
- Motivation through assessment. Of the person for his individual contribution was not contemplated in the scientific management of Taylorism that only focused on mechanics and its economic reward.