Contribution F.W. Taylor Scientific Mgmt

Contribution by F.W. Taylor – Scientific Mgmt:
Frederic Winslow Taylor gave up going & started his career shopfloor as a machinist in 1875. He studied engineering in a evening college & rose to the position of chief engineer in his organisation. Taylor is called “the father of scientific mgmt”. His experience from the bottom-most level in the organisation gave him an opportunity to know at first problems of the worker. F.W. Taylor’s Principles: “scientific mgmt is not any efficiency device, not a device of any kind for securing efficiency; nor is it may bunch or group of efficiency devices. It is not a new system of figuring costs; it is not a not premium system; it is no scheme for paying men; it is not holding a stop watch on a man & writing things down about him; it is not time study; it is not motion study, not an analysis of the movements of men; it is not be printing & loading & unloading of a ton or two of blanks on a set men & saying “Here’s your system; go & use it”. It is not divided foremanship of functional foremanship; it is not any of the devices which the average man calls to mind when scientific mgmt is spoken of…” Scientific mgmt involves a complete mental revolution of the part of the working man engaged in any particular establishment of industry a complete mental revolution on the as to their duties toward their work, toward their fellowmen, & toward their employees & is managements side – the foreman, the superintendent, the owner of the business, the board of directors – a complete mental revolution on their part as to their duties towards their fellow workers in the mgmt, toward their workmen & toward all of their daily problems. The great mental revolution that takes place in the mental attitude of the two parties under scientific mgmt is that both sides take their eyes off the division of the surplus as the important matter, and together turn their attention toward increasing the size of the surplus which becomes so large that it is unnecessary to quarrel over how it should be divided. They came to see that when they stop pulling against one another, and instead both turn & push shoulder to shoulder in the same direction, the size of the surplus created by their joint efforts is truly appreciable. They both realize that when they substitute friendly co-operation & mutual helpfulness of antagonism & strife they are together able is ample room for a large increase in wages for the workmen & an equally great increase in profits for the manufacturer”.
The main criticism against the scientific approach of Taylor can be classified as follows: 1.It was a de-humanisation of the abilities of workers. His philosophy was too im-personal & it lacked a psychological approach to mobilization & motivation of personnel. 2. Taylor & his followers gave undue emphasis on production mgmt problems. It was not realized that the problems of mgmt in general are more important. He, therefore, could not provide the principles of mgmt as such. 3. Another grievance against Taylorism is that workers are speeded up without fundamental improvements in factory layout, production methods, tool design, training, etc. 4. Further, it has been alleged that worker’s wages would not be increased in direct proportion to the additional productivity exhibited by the workers. Thus, benefit proved to be larger one-sided. 5. There may also be a tendency to give such close attention to details that the broader aspects & larger factors in industry are overlooked. Due to the criticism outlined above, scientific mgmt is as almost discredited philosophy of mgmt. Some of its elements like work study, establishment of personnel department, standardization, have been adopted by business firms with profits, but the basic approach of Taylor’s system is considered outdated.