At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, a new branch of scientific knowledge arises - the psychology of management, and one of the most popular is the theory of scientific organization of labor developed by Frederick Taylor. Taylor outlined his main ideas in the book Principles of Scientific Management, published in 1911.
Reasons for new management theories
In the Middle Ages and early modern times, no special management methods were required. But as a result of the industrial revolution and technological acceleration that occurred in the 18th-19th centuries, the situation changed. Even small factories and enterprises had enough workers that required the modernization of traditional management strategies.
It was not only the increase in the number of workers that occurred in parallel with the complication of business that posed new organizational challenges. An entrepreneur is primarily interested in the amount of profit he receives. It soon became clear that inefficient management leads to significant losses. To avoid them, rationalization was required.
Theories of organizational management
Evolution and change of technological patterns is always associated with the development of science. But in this case, it is not only about inventions that drive progress. Understanding the accumulated knowledge, including in the field of management, was the basis on which new organizational models were built.
Management theories began to appear at the dawn of the last century. All of them can be classified according to two criteria: by the method of their development and by the subject of research. In this regard, it can be noted that some of the theories of that time were created as a generalization of accumulated experience in the field of labor organization in production, while others appeared due to the transfer of advanced ideas of economics, psychology and sociology to a new environment.
Especially interesting is the application of the principles of the last two sciences. Almost any author of this or that theory of management paid attention to those aspects that had not been noticed before: the problems of interpersonal communication in production or the motivation of an employee to work and its stimulation. The organization of labor has ceased to be regarded as a kind of chaotic system in which there is no feedback between workers and managers. Instead, they studied the connections that arise in production and their impact on the functioning of production itself.
Frederick Taylor
An engineer by training, Taylor pioneered the implementation of scientific management principles in manufacturing. He was born in 1856 in the small Pennsylvania town of Germantown ineducated family. Initially, he planned to become, like his father, a lawyer, but a sharp deterioration in vision did not allow him to continue his studies. From 1878, Taylor became a laborer at the Midvale steel mill. His career is going uphill: he very soon becomes a mechanic, and then heads several mechanical workshops.
Taylor learned the profession not only from the inside: in 1883 he received a diploma from the Institute of Technology. Even before the creation of his famous theory, F. Taylor became known as a specialist in the field of rationalization solutions. Having barely received the position of chief engineer, he introduces a system of differential wages at the enterprise entrusted to him and immediately registers a patent for his innovation. In total, there were about a hundred such patents in his life.
Taylor's experiments
The theory of scientific management might not have taken place if Taylor had not undertaken a series of tests on his observations. He saw the establishment of quantitative relationships between productivity and the efforts expended on it as their main goal. The result of the experiments was the accumulation of empirical information necessary to develop a methodology for performing various tasks that arose before the worker in the process of work.
One of Taylor's most famous experiments was to determine the optimum amount of iron ore or coal that one worker could lift with shovels of varying sizes without becoming incapacitated for a long period of time. As a result of carefulAfter several calculations and several checks of the initial data, Taylor found that under these conditions, the optimal weight is 9.5 kg.
In passing, Taylor made an important observation that the optimal weight is affected not only by the time spent on the task, but also by the rest period.
Evolution of Taylor's views
From joining a steel mill as a simple worker to publishing a fundamental work on management theory, a little over thirty years have passed. Needless to say, over such a long period of time, Taylor's views have changed due to an increase in knowledge and observation.
Initially, Taylor believed that in order to optimize production, the introduction of the principle of piece payment is necessary. Its essence was that the employee's initiative should be paid directly, which could be measured in units of time: how many products a person produced, for how much he should receive money.
Soon, Taylor revised this postulate. Experiments related to determining the optimal correlation of the efforts being made and the result obtained allowed the researcher to state that in the production process, control is of the greatest importance not over labor productivity, but over the methods used. In this regard, he is taken to develop practical recommendations for employees, and also sets new wage limits: the highest for hard work and the minimum for light work.
OnIn the final phase of formulating his theory, Taylor came to grips with the scientific analysis of labor activity. The reason for this was the reflection on the formation of a certain body responsible for planning labor activity at the enterprise. The very idea of decentralizing management on the basis of competence required the identification of new grounds for control. These included the time spent on labor, determining the complexity of a particular task, establishing signs of quality.
Guidelines
Based on his work experience, observations and experiments, Taylor formulated the main principles of his management theory. Taylor primarily sought to prove that scientific management is capable of producing a real revolution in production. Former authoritarian methods based on a system of fines and other sanctions up to dismissal, according to the researcher, should have been abolished.
Briefly, the principles of Taylor's theory are as follows:
- The division of labor should take place not only at the grassroots level (that is, within the same workshop or workshop), but also cover the management layers. From this postulate followed the requirement of narrow specialization: not only the worker must perform the function assigned to him, but also the manager.
- Functional management, that is, the fulfillment of the tasks assigned to him by the worker must be carried out at each stage of production. Instead of one foreman, the enterprise should have several, each of which would give recommendations to the worker according to his competence.
- Detailingproduction tasks, which assumed a list of requirements for the worker and practical recommendations for their implementation.
- Stimulation of worker motivation. Taylor considered it necessary to convey to everyone that his salary directly depends on productivity.
- Individualism understood in two dimensions. Firstly, this is a limitation of the influence of the crowd on the work of a particular person, and secondly, taking into account the individual abilities of each employee.
Planning system
As can be seen from these principles, Taylor's management theory was based on a rather rigid management of the employee's actions from the outside. This was precisely the rationalization position of the author of the theory, which later became the main object of criticism from the trade unions. Taylor proposed to introduce a special department at the enterprises responsible for rationing and optimizing production.
This body was supposed to perform four main functions. Firstly, it is the supervision of the order in production and the determination of priority areas of work. Secondly, the creation of production instructions that reflected the methodological principles for fulfilling the tasks set. Thirdly, the rationing of the duration of the production cycle, as well as the study of its impact on the cost of products sold. The fourth task of the planning department was to control labor discipline.
At the grassroots level, these postulates of Taylor's theory of organization were implemented by the reorganization of the management staff. For their implementation, according to the author, the presence of four employees was required: a foreman,inspector-inspector, repairman, as well as an accountant who determines the pace of work.
Human factor
Excessive sociologization prescribed by F. Taylor's management theory was partly offset by its attention to the individual worker, which management did not know before. It was not only about the developed principles of bonuses or taking into account individual abilities. Taylor's classical theory also included the need for professional selection and training of workers.
Because there were no specific aptitude tests yet, Taylor developed them himself. For example, the speed test was used particularly frequently for product quality control workers.
At the enterprises there was a certain patriarchy, manifested primarily in the fact that, in the spirit of the Middle Ages, young workers were trained by already experienced craftsmen. Instead, Taylor suggested developing specialized programs for training courses as well as continuing education courses.
Criticism
The theory of F. Taylor immediately provoked protests from the trade unions, who saw in its postulates the desire to turn the worker into a "spare part" at the enterprise. Sociologists and philosophers also noted some unfavorable trends in the constructions of the American researcher. For example, the French sociologist Georges Friedman saw in Taylorism a gap between the principles of trust he declared between managers and workers and their actual implementation. Planning and vigilant control over a person at every stage of work did nothing to promote good-hearted relations between workers and superiors.
Other critics, in particular A. Chiron, considered unacceptable the division into thinkers and performers established by Taylor's theory. On the basis that such a division was envisaged by the practical part of his work, Taylor was accused of ordinary demagoguery. Even the stimulation of the initiative of the worker caused a lot of criticism. As an example of the fallacy of this postulate, cases were cited when workers, on their own initiative, limited production standards, which led to a decrease in their wages, as well as the existence of class solidarity, in the name of which people made various sacrifices, including material ones.
Finally, Taylor was accused of ignoring the capabilities of the human body. In this case, we are talking not only about the fact that rationing, no matter what experiments on the timing of labor were carried out, was not flexible, but also about depriving the workers of the right to creative activity. Detailed recommendations led to the fact that the spiritual aspect of labor remained the monopoly of the factory authorities, while the worker himself sometimes did not even suspect what he was doing and why. Sociologists have drawn attention to the possible dangers, both psychological and technical, from the separation of task performance and thinking.
Meaning of the Taylor concept
Despite a number of criticisms, fair enough in theirbasis, Taylor's management theory is undeniably important in the history of management psychology. Its positive side primarily consisted in the rejection of obsolete labor organization methods, as well as the creation of specialized training courses. The recruitment methods proposed by Taylor, as well as his fundamental requirement for regular re-certification, albeit modified to take into account new requirements, continue to exist to this day.
Taylor managed to create his own school dealing with the problems of scientific management. The most famous of his followers are the spouses Frank and Lily Gilbert. In their work, they used film cameras and microchronometers, thanks to which they managed to create practical recommendations for increasing labor productivity by reducing the amount of effort expended. Taylor's ideas about recruiting were also widespread: Lily Gilbert is now considered the creator of such a discipline as personnel management.
Although the Taylor school was purely focused on increasing the efficiency of production at the grassroots levels, leaving aside the problems of intensifying the work of the managers themselves, its activity became a turning point. The main provisions of Taylor's theory were quickly borrowed by foreign manufacturers who implemented it in their enterprises. The most important thing, perhaps, was that with his work, Taylor for the first time raised the question of improving management methodology. Since the publication of his book, this problem has been de alt withnumerous scientific trends and schools, and new approaches to the organization of work are emerging to this day.
