Taylor's Scientific Management Principles in Current Organizational Management Practices
Firstly, big companies are often divided into several departments to focus on specialization, since the change in structure “allows them to divide the tasks of the whole organization into manageable sub-tasks and allocates them to organisational units that are responsible for their completion” (Rollinson, 2005: 461). However, when the organization’s structure does not include specialized jobs concerned with analysing the environment, the companies usually fail to adapt to changing circumstances (ibid: 463). So, scientific management works better with small companies which do not usually need to react to change (Caldari, 2007: 74). This lack of flexibility, the main defect attributed to the Fordism model (which adopted Taylorism’s Principles with just a different philosophy during 1960-1970) was the key word for the development of Post-Fordism (Caldari, 2007: 72).
Although it may seem that Post-Fordism, which emerged from the crisis of Fordism (Amin, 2008: 18), surged to challenge Fordism tenets, core principles of scientific management neglected under Fordism were implemented through the search of flexibility, applying rationalist ideas like standardization and efficiency (Crowley et al, 2010: 423). Thus, this movement is “perhaps more aptly termed Neo-Taylorist than Post-Fordist management” (Crowley et al, 2010: 422), which shows Taylorism still influences it a lot.
Secondly, every “standard operating procedure” has its basis in Scientific Management (Kanigel, 1996: 45). Many employees are trained to become machines in certain parts of their jobs to improve efficiency and profitability (Bell, 2012: 106) and standardization of tasks plays a big role in it. Two examples of this can be seen, as Bell and Martin (ibid: 107) indicated, when workers cook a hamburger at McDonald’s or when a technical support representative answers a call under pressure from a 90/10 protocol (which is a set of procedures that demands 90 percent of all calls to be answered within 10
Although it may seem that Post-Fordism, which emerged from the crisis of Fordism (Amin, 2008: 18), surged to challenge Fordism tenets, core principles of scientific management neglected under Fordism were implemented through the search of flexibility, applying rationalist ideas like standardization and efficiency (Crowley et al, 2010: 423). Thus, this movement is “perhaps more aptly termed Neo-Taylorist than Post-Fordist management” (Crowley et al, 2010: 422), which shows Taylorism still influences it a lot.
Secondly, every “standard operating procedure” has its basis in Scientific Management (Kanigel, 1996: 45). Many employees are trained to become machines in certain parts of their jobs to improve efficiency and profitability (Bell, 2012: 106) and standardization of tasks plays a big role in it. Two examples of this can be seen, as Bell and Martin (ibid: 107) indicated, when workers cook a hamburger at McDonald’s or when a technical support representative answers a call under pressure from a 90/10 protocol (which is a set of procedures that demands 90 percent of all calls to be answered within 10
References: Amin, A. (Ed.). (2008). Post-Fordism: a reader. Oxford: Balckwell. Bakan, J. (2004). The corporation: The pathological pursuit of profit and power. New York: Free Press. Barley, S. R., and Kunda, G. (1992). Design and devotion: Surges of rational and normative ideologies of control in managerial discourse. Administrative Science Quarterly, 37, 363-399. Bell, R. L., and Martin, J. S. (2012). The relevance of scientific management and equity theory in everyday managerial communication situations. Journal of Management Policy and Practice, 13(3), 106-115. Boone, L. E., and Bowen, D. D. (1987). The great writings in management and organizational behavior. New York: Mcgraw-Hill, Inc. Burrell, G., and Morgan, G. (1979). Sociological paradigms and organisational analysis, 248. London: Heinemann. Caldari, K Certo, S. C. (2003). Supervision: Concepts and skill-building. New York: McGraw-Hill. Crowley, M., Tope, D., Chamberlain, L. J., and Hodson, R. (2010). Neo-Taylorism at work: Occupational change in the post-Fordist era. Social Problems, 57, 421–447. Freedman, D. H. (1992). Is management still a science?. Harvard Business Review, 70(6), 26-33; 36-37. Guillen, M. F. (1994). The age of eclecticism: Current organizational trends and the evolution of managerial models. Sloan Management Review, 36, 75-75. Hodgetts, R., (1995). Frederick Taylor: Alive and Well and Ready for the 21st Century. Academy of Management Proceedings, 55, 218-222. Holman, D., Wall, T. D., Clegg, C. W., Sparrow, P., and Howard, A. (Eds.) (2005). The essentials of the new workplace: A guide to the human impact of modern working practices. West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons. Kanigel, R. (1996). Frederick Taylor 's Apprenticeship. The Wilson Quarterly Summer, 44-51. Kondrasuk, J. N. (1981). Studies in MBO effectiveness. Academy of Management Review, 6(3), 419-430. Locke, E. A. (1982). The ideas of Frederick W. Taylor: an evaluation. Academy of Management Review, 7(1), 14-24. Morgan, G., (2006). Images of organization. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Nyland, C. (1996). Taylorism, John R. Commons, and the Hoxie Report. Journal of Economic Issues, 30, 985-1016. Peaucelle, J-L. 2000: From Taylorism to Post-Taylorism: Simultaneously Pursuing Several Management Objectives. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 13(5), 452–467. Price, A. (2011). Human resource management (4th ed.). Hampshire, UK: Cengage Learning EMEA. Rollinson, D. (2005). Organisational behaviour and analysis: An integrated approach. Essex, UK: Pearson Education. Rousseau, D. M. (Ed.). (2012). The Oxford handbook of evidence-based management. New York: Oxford University Press. Taylor, F. W. (1911). The principles of scientific management. New York: Harper and Brothers. Wagner-Tsukamoto, S. (2007). An institutional economic reconstruction of scientific management: on the lost theoretical logic of Taylorism. Academy of Management Review, 32(1), 105- 114. Waring, S. P. (1992). “Peter Drucker, MBO, and the corporatist critique of scientific management”. In D. Nelson (Ed.). A mental revolution: Scientific management since Taylor: 205-236. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Wilson, T. D. (2002). The nonsense of knowledge management. Information research, 8(1), 8-1.