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Educated early by his mother, Taylor studied for two years in France and Germany and traveled Europe for 18 months. In 1872, he entered Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, with the plan of eventually going to Harvard and becoming a lawyer like his father. In 1874, Taylor passed the Harvard entrance examinations with honors, but poor eyesight forced him to consider an alternative career. And he became an apprentice patternmaker, gaining shop-floor experience that would inform the rest of his career. He obtained a degree in Mechanical Engineering through a highly unusual (for the time) series of correspondence courses at the Stevens Institute of Technology.
Frederick Taylor’s
Principles of Scientific Management
Frederick Winslow Taylor was an American mechanical engineer who originally sought to improve industrial efficiency. A management consultant in his later years, he is sometimes called "the father of scientific management." He was one of the intellectual leaders of the Efficiency Movement.
Taylor was also an accomplished tennis player. He won the first doubles tournament in the 1881 U.S. National Championships (later called the US Open), with Clarence Clark.
Life of Frederick Taylor
Frederick Winslow Taylor was born on March 20, 1865, into an upper class liberal Philadelphia family. His father’s name was Franklin Taylor. He was a lawyer. He made enough money from mortgages and did not have to keep a regular job. His mother’s name was Emily Annette Taylor. She was a spirited abolitionist and feminist.
Educated early by his mother, Taylor studied for two years in France and Germany and traveled Europe for 18 months. In 1872, he entered Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, with the plan of eventually going to Harvard and becoming a lawyer like his father. In 1874, Taylor passed the Harvard entrance examinations with honors, but poor eyesight forced him to consider an alternative career. And he became an apprentice patternmaker, gaining shop-floor experience that would inform the rest of his career. He obtained a degree in Mechanical Engineering through a highly unusual (for the time) series of correspondence courses at the Stevens Institute of Technology.
He began developing his management philosophies during his time at the Midvale Steel Works, where he rose to be chief engineer for the plant. Later, at Bethlehem Steel, he developed high speed steel. On October 19, 1906, Taylor was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Pennsylvania.
Taylor eventually became a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Taylor believed that the industrial management of his day was amateurish, that management could be formulated as an academic discipline, and that the best results would come from the partnership between a trained and qualified management and a cooperative and innovative workforce. Each side needed the other, and there was no need for trade unions.
In early spring of 1915 Taylor caught pneumonia and died, one day after his fifty-ninth birthday, on March 21, 1915. He was buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.
After years of various experiments to determine optimal
work methods, Taylor proposed the following four principles of scientific
management:
1. Find the "one BEST WAY" of doing the tasks of your subordinates.
Replace rule-of-thumb work methods with methods based on a scientific
study of the tasks.
2. Hire and train the BEST WORKER to the task; find
the most qualified worker to do the job "the best way." Scientifically select, train, and develop each worker
rather than passively leaving them to train themselves.
3. Promote COOPERATION among managers and subordinates; this will result
in harmonious working together of everyone in the organization.
Cooperate with the workers to ensure that the scientifically developed
methods are being followed.
4. Apply DIVISION OF WORK and clearly define the duties and responsibilities of each person assigned to do each task; specialization will result in mastery and expertise and, therefore, greater efficiency and productivity. Divide work nearly equally between managers and workers, so that the managers apply scientific management principles to planning the work and the workers actually perform the tasks.
These principles were implemented in many factories, often increasing productivity by a factory of three and more. Henry Ford applied Taylor’s principles in his automobile factories, and families even begun to perform their household tasks based on the results of time and motion studies.
Taylor is careful to assert that scientific management is no new set of theories that have been untried, a common misunderstanding. He says that the process of scientific management has been an evolution, and in each case the practice has preceded the theory. Further, scientific management is in practice in various industries: "Almost every type of industry in this country has scientific management working successfully."
Taylor’s principles offer a method to gather information about the work process and the worker.
Drawbacks of Scientific Management
While scientific management principles improved productivity and had a substantial impact on industry, they also increased the monotony of work. The core job dimensions of skill variety, task identity, autonomy, and feedback all were missing from the picture of scientific management.
While in many cases the new ways of working were accepted by the workers, in some cases they were not. Complaints that Taylorism was dehumanizing led to an investigation by the United States Congress.
Therefore, in summary, while the scientific management technique has been employed to increase productivity and efficiency both in private and public services, it has also had the disadvantages of ignoring many of the human aspects of employment. This led to the creation of boring repetitive jobs with the introduction of systems for tight control and the alienation of shop floor employees from their managers.
Despite its controversy, scientific management changed the way that work was done, and forms of it continue to be used today.
Even today Taylor’s work is considered important and is followed by many organizations.