Taylor's Scientific Management Theory

Study Notes

Management is the performance of conceiving and achieving desired results by means of group effort, utilizing resources, to determine the success and failure of an organization.
Management involves getting things done through people.

Management theory began in the industrial revolution in the late 19th century.
Adam Smith observed that firms manufactured pins in one of two different ways: • Craft - Style: each worker did all steps. • Production: each worker specialized in one step.
Job specialization resulted in higher efficiency and productivity.
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth refined Taylor's work and made improvements to methodologies of time and motion studies.
Max Weber developed the concept of bureaucracy as a formal system of organization and administration designed to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.
Weber's Five Principles of Bureaucracy:
1. Authority is the power to hold people accountable for their actions.
2. Positions in the firm should be held based on performance, not social contacts.
3. Position duties are clearly identified so people know what is expected of them.
4. Lines of authority should be clearly identified such that workers know who reports to whom.
5. Rules, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and norms guide the firm's operation.

Scientific Management Theory analyzes and synthesizes workflows to improve economic efficiency, especially labor productivity.
Frederick Winslow Taylor, "Father of Scientific Management," sought to reduce the time a worker spent on each task by optimizing the way the task was done.
Taylor's Four Principles of Scientific Management:
1. Science, not rule of thumb: develop new techniques to make work simpler, easier, and quicker.
2. Harmony, not discord: create an atmosphere where labor and management consider each other indispensable.
3. Cooperation, not individualism: all activities should be carried on with a spirit of mutual cooperation.
4. Development of each and every person to his/her greatest efficiency and prosperity.

Administrative Management Theory attempts to find a rational way to design an organization as a whole.
Henri Fayol, a mining executive and engineer, proposed the 14 Principles of Management:
1. Division of Work: output can increase because employees become increasingly skilled and efficient.
2. Authority: managers must have the authority to give orders, but they must also keep in mind that with authority comes responsibility.
3. Discipline: must be upheld in organizations, but methods for doing so can vary.

Behavioral Management Theory addresses the human dimension of work, including motivation, conflict, expectations, and group dynamics.
Theorists contributing to Behavioral Management Theory:
1. Mary Parker Follett: considered the "Mother of Modern Management," she states that true leaders create group power rather than expressing personal power.
2. Elton Mayo: employees are motivated far more by relational factors such as attention and camaraderie than by monetary rewards.
3. Abraham Maslow: created the "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs," stating that people are motivated by five categories of needs: A. Physiological B. Safety (Security) C. Love (Social) D. Esteem E. Self-Actualization

Management Science Theory focuses on the use of techniques to maximize the use of organizational resources to produce goods and services.
It is a contemporary approach to management that is an extension of Scientific Management that measures the worker to task mix and ratio to raise efficiency.