Scientific Management

Before 1880, business educators taught only basic book-keeping and secretarial skills, and no one published books or articles about management. Today if you have a question about management, you can turn to dozens of academic journals.

Scientific management thoroughly studying and testing different work methods to identify the best, most efficient way to complete a job. Frederick W. Taylor (1856–1915), the father of scientific management, began his career as a worker at Midvale Steel Company.

Taylor, who once described scientific management as “seventy-five percent science and twenty-five percent common sense,” emphasized that the goal of scientific management was to use systematic study to find the “one best way” of doing each task. To do that, managers had to follow the four principles.

The first principle was to “develop a science” for each element of work. Second, managers had to scientifically select, train, teach, and develop workers to help them reach their full potential. The third principle instructed managers to cooperate with employees to ensure that the scientific principles were actually implemented. The fourth principle of scientific management was to divide the work and the responsibility equally between management and workers.

Above all, Taylor believed these principles could be used to determine a “fair day’s work,” that is, what an average worker could produce at a reasonable pace, day in and day out. After that was determined, it was management’s responsibility to pay workers fairly for that fair day’s work. In essence, Taylor was trying to align management and employees so that what was good for employees was also good for management.

[teddyalcon]

From what did scientific management arise?

[zainabhamze]

thank you for your great effort this really helped.