scientific management

Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

scientific management

an approach to JOB DESIGN advocated by F. W. Taylor (1856-1915), an American WORK STUDY engineer. Taylor sought to increase output by improving management competence and by careful attention to job design. Specifically, he advocated close analysis of job tasks through the methods of work study as a basis for achieving an extreme degree of job specialization. All decisionmaking about task performance was to pass to management, who were to create ‘thinking departments’ to analyse and plan work tasks. Supervision of performance was to be undertaken by ‘functional foremen’, responsible for particular aspects of the production process (for example maintenance). Workers would be motivated by pay incentives to work to the full extent of their abilities, and the best workers should be selected for each particular job. Taylor believed that adoption of his system would lead to high levels of efficiency In reality his theory ignored the importance of JOB SATISFACTION. Adoption of his methods led to STRIKES and CONFLICT. See FORDISM, METHOD STUDY.

Mentioned in ?

References in periodicals archive ?

These are also examined against the background of the development of scientific management, both in Italy and elsewhere.

The development of accounting in Europe in the era of scientific management: the Italian engineering conglomerate, Ansaldo, 1918-1940

According to Frederick Winslow Taylor, a complete mental revolution is necessary for scientific management to come into being.

The development of management theory: how it all got started

Consideration of the contextual and institutional influences on HRM practices also moves some way towards explaining the dominance of scientific management in US scholarship.

The drunkard's search: looking for 'HRM' in all the wrong places

FOLLETT'S PHILOSOPHY AS A BRIDGE BETWEEN TAYLOR'S SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT AND DEMING'S TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Edwards Deming, Mary P. Follett and Frederick W. Taylor: reconciliation of differences in organizational and strategic leadership

However, scientific management proved to have less than universal appeal at ASME.

The greater good: as the 20th century began, engineering professionals started to see themselves as agents of change for the better

Leffington's vision of a white-collar work assembly line subject to the rigorous control of the factory floor was now within reach." Although that vision was rooted in the idea of scientific management, the term was eschewed by business and its consultants; "reengineering" was substituted for it, the practice and culture of Taylorism being continued if transformed by new instrumentalities of measurement, control, and deskilling of the operator.

Working in the digital age

Taylor's seminal work--The Principles of Scientific Management (source of all the following quotes)--was published in 1911.

Frederick Winslow Taylor: father of scientific management

The first link between industrial engineering and baseball dates back to the early days of professional baseball, with the application of scientific management to the game.

From scientific baseball to sabermetrics: professional baseball as a reflection of engineering and management in society

After noting how Taylor's own accounts of the experiments changed from a 1901 presentation to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) to the message delivered at the 1903 ASME convention to the 1911 account provided in Principles of Scientific Management, Wrege and Perroni suggested that Taylor had created a "pig-tale." In particular, the authors demonstrated that eight specific details reported by Taylor in his 1911 account of the experiments did not match evidence from other sources.

Using stories to create change: The object lesson of Frederick Taylor's "pig-tale"

This increased influence meant responsibility for rationalizing the human components of these larger systems and was evident in the emergence and legitimacy of such movements as scientific management. From engineering the production line, it was a small step to rationalize other activities of the organization with systems that promise d to reduce uncertainty by identifying and standardizing more efficient routines.

Manufacturing Rationality: The Engineering Foundations of the Managerial Revolution

To understand Brandeis's enthusiasm for policy experimentation, one must look not to his attachment to federalism but rather to his interest in the development of scientifically based public policy and, in particular, his enthusiasm for Scientific Management.

Laboratories of Democracy? Brandeis, Federalism, and Scientific Management

Part of our conditioning comes from Frederick Taylor and his early ideas of scientific management. Taylor viewed companies and organizations as one big machine where everything is neatly predictable and people are but cogs in the system.