Taylorism

As a young man in the 1870s, Frederick Taylor rose from an apprentice to a machinist, an engineer, and finally into management at a hydraulics company and then a steel company. Having grown from being a worker, Taylor was aware that the workers were capable of much higher output than they were producing. Taylor turned his mind towards engineering the best possible performance from his workers. His radical ideas were published in his books, such as Shop Management and The Principles of Scientific Management, in 1903 and 1911, which created management as a field of study. Continue reading to learn more about the influence of Taylorism on business and industry in the United States!

Fig.1 Frederick Winslow Taylor

Taylorism Definition

Taylorism, also known as, scientific management, is the management theory developed by engineer Fred W. Taylor. Taylor used his skill as an engineer to analyze the mechanics of human movement. Taylor is most known for using a stopwatch to time every move an employee made while conducting a repetitive task and identifying any deficiencies where motion could be eliminated to make work as efficient as possible. Taylor himself also argued that the employee needed proper tools, training, and incentives to be effective a worker. By identifying not just where the employee could improve but how the organization could provide what the employee needed to facilitate and encourage their job performance, Taylorism sought to improve business efficiency.

Fig.2 - Timing and Taking Notes

Features of Taylorism

Before Taylor, management training was concerned primarily with bookkeeping. Scientific Management invented management as a field of study. The features of Taylorism were common sense in later generations but were revolutionary ideas at the time about not just work but the relationship between workers to managers.

Develop a Science

Competence and Training

Taylor had grown up in the Spoils System and Machine Politics era. Nepotism and favoritism were not features only of politics but much of society. Taylor shifted away from the practice of hiring and promoting people with connections and instead hired and promoted those with the highest aptitude and competence. Taylor also innovated by training workers and developing their skills. At the time, employees were thrown into jobs based on their connections; Taylor believed in taking the best employees and creating them.

Working with Employees

Taylor existed in a time of strife between classes, workers, and employers. With Taylorism, he presented that these conflicts were counter to both interests. The idea that high wages and low labor costs could coexist through cooperatively making work more efficient was a radical departure from the thinking of the time. Amidst constant labor strikes at the turn of the twentieth century, Taylor urged cooperation.

Division of Responsibility

Taylor identified two problematic practices of bosses, coercion at one extreme and leaving employees to their "own unaided devices" at the other. While management in his time placed productivity wholly on the worker, Taylor sought ways for management to drive productivity. This involved preparing what the employee needed, from tools to knowledge. He viewed the role of the boss as to teach and "provide friendly help," as opposed to the inattention or harsh demands that managers at the time provided their employees.

Fig.3 - The Principles of Scientific Management Title Page

Criticism of Taylorism

The earliest critics of Taylorism were his employees. Some workers threatened to shoot Taylor over his attempts to increase their productivity. They would not be his only critics, though, as academics and labor leaders questioned Scientific Management and its effects on the worker.

Lack of Humanity

The primary criticism of Taylorism is that as he turned his engineer's mind to human tasks, he blurred the line between the workers and the tools they used. Removing autonomy from workers ignores their motivation to receive personal satisfaction from performing their job well and replaces that with just their wages. His critics, especially Marxists, strongly noted the dehumanizing effect of Taylorism.

Loss of Innovation

The other criticism of Taylorism is its belief in finding the best way to do things. Not allowing employees to perform work their way eliminates the possibility that an employee may discover an even more effective way of achieving their tasks. It also can reduce employees feeling of ownership and responsibility.

Fig.4 - Henry Ford

Taylorism vs. Fordism

Fordism can be described as implementation or variation of Taylorism. Henry Ford hired Fred Taylor himself to study Ford's workers. With Taylor's findings, Ford didn't just make the workers' motions more efficient but stepped back to reconsider the entire process. He invented the assembly line by breaking each task down to its tiniest elements and assigning each small task to a worker who performed it as the produced item moved down the line. Keeping the worker stationary and moving the product was another revolutionary concept in manufacturing. One significant difference in these ideas is that Taylor believed in training to develop highly skilled employees. In contrast, Henry Ford reduced production to repetitive and straightforward tasks that unskilled workers could perform.