The Increasing Application Of Scientific Management Principles

Of Work
Organisations To Services Is, Despite Its Limitations, Inevitable And
Irreversible Essay, Research Paper

The Increasing Application of Scientific Management Principles Of Work

Organisations To Services Is, Despite Its Limitations, Inevitable and

Irreversible.

IIntroduction

From the outset of this essay it is necessary to define the basic principles of

Scientific Management in order for the statement to be fully understood and why

if at all such a practice is .inevitable’ and indeed .irreversible’ within a

service industry context.

The underlying belief that scientific management, or rationalisation= , is able

to provide the basis for separating management from the execution of work. .The

rationalisation of work has the effect of transferring functions of planning,

allocation and co-ordination to managers, whilst reinforcing the managerial

monopoly of decision-making, motivation and control’. Hales (1994).

Taylor (1856-1915) has been referred to as the father of Scientific Management.

He believed that management, not labour, was the cause of and potential solution

to problems in the industry. Taylor concluded that workers systematically .

soldiered’ because they believed that faster work would put them out of a job

and because hourly or daily wages destroyed individual incentive. Taylor

believed that in order to discourage, and indeed halt, this .soldiering’ a .

mental revolution’ was required. He believed this could be achieved via four

vital principles: (1) the development of the best work method, via systematic

observation, measurement and analysis; (2) the scientific selection and

development of workers; (3) the relating and bringing together of the best work

method and the developed and trained worker; (4) the co-operation of managers

and non-managers which includes the division of work and the managers

responsibility of work.

From this five key facets have evolved that lie at the foundation of scientific

management. Hales (1994) has summarised these as follows:

- systematic standardised work methods via mechanisation and standard

times.

- a clean functional division between managers and non-mangers.

Braverman (1974) described this as the .separation of conception from

execution’.

- centralised planning and control.

- an instrumental, low-involvement employment relationship due to the

requirement of the individual employee being that of just carrying out their

specified low-skilled task.

- an ideology of neutral technical efficiency.

Industries that have embraced such scientific management methods have

essentially deskilled the workforce, often by menial, repetitive tasks, and have

attempted to replace workers with machines wherever technically feasible and

economic. A classic example of such an application is the Fordist principle of

the production line. The remainder of the essay concentrates on the two key

aspects of the statement, i.e. that of inevitability and irreversibility.

II Are Scientific Management principles inevitable and irreversible within

the service industry .

It has been suggested that the principles of scientific management have been

widely adopted throughout industry.

“The orientation of larger firms towards professional managers,

engineers and consultants additionally provided a supportive framework for the

rise of Taylorism”. Thompson and Hugh (1990)

Although this rise has certainly been evident within manufacturing industries

the service industry has been slower to utilise the principles of

rationalisation. The question must therefore be asked why has the sector been

slow on the uptake of these beliefs and could the reason for this provide an

argument against the suggestion of the .inevitability’ of the principles within

the service industries.

For rationalisation to be applied three prerequisite conditions are required:

clear and single objective (for example maximising profit); hard data ( for

example accounting information); and no more than limited and measurable

uncertainties (for example normally distributed machine parts). In general these

three conditions do not hold in the service sector. Furthermore the quantities

and the types of resources differ greatly from manufacturing industries. Within

the service sector there is often more labour and less capital. This .human

emphasis’ greatly limits the application of scientific management principles.

Targett (1995) has identified seven distinctive characteristics that highlight

the limitations of applying scientific management principles and therefore

raising doubts over the .inevitability’ of such management practices being used

in the service sector.

– Measurement of output and performance is difficult. Quality of service

cannot be measured solely by easily quantifiable data, such as revenue and

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