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: scientific management, general administrative theory, quantitative approach, organizational behavior, system approach, and contingency approach. This essay is going to focus on why is scientific management is still used in today’s organization although there has some drawbacks.
As stated by Cole (2004), during industrial revolution in the 19th century, employers in the Western world had the problem which was how to organize to resources such as new factories, new plants and labors to get the efficient and profitable operation. Frederick W. Taylor who worked in the Midvale and Bethlehem Steel Companies in Pennsylvania, realized workers’ inefficiencies because employees used enormously different methods to do same job and believed that worker output was only about one-third of what was possible (Robbins et al., 2006). Taylor thought that he should find more efficient methods and procedures for co-ordination and control of work.
Scientific management became from his idea “Taylor’s Four Principles of Management”. Taylor said that both managers and workers needed a complete mental revolution. The first principle is the development of a true science for each person’s work. Cole (2004) stated that Taylor produced the best method of doing a
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: scientific management, general administrative theory, quantitative approach, organizational behavior, system approach, and contingency approach. This essay is going to focus on why is scientific management is still used in today’s organization although there has some drawbacks.
As stated by Cole (2004), during industrial revolution in the 19th century, employers in the Western world had the problem which was how to organize to resources such as new factories, new plants and labors to get the efficient and profitable operation. Frederick W. Taylor who worked in the Midvale and Bethlehem Steel Companies in Pennsylvania, realized workers’ inefficiencies because employees used enormously different methods to do same job and believed that worker output was only about one-third of what was possible (Robbins et al., 2006). Taylor thought that he should find more efficient methods and procedures for co-ordination and control of work.
Scientific management became from his idea “Taylor’s Four Principles of Management”. Taylor said that both managers and workers needed a complete mental revolution. The first principle is the development of a true science for each person’s work. Cole (2004) stated that Taylor produced the best method of doing a
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