Scientific Management Essay Research Paper Scientific ManagementScientific

Scientific Management Essay, Research Paper

Scientific Management

Scientific management is the underlying belief that, or rationalization, is able to provide the basis for separating management from the execution of work. The rationalization of work has the effect of transferring functions of planning, 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 labor, 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 next five key factors have evolved what lie at the foundation of scientific management. Hales (1994) has summarized these as follows:

- Systematic standardized work methods via mechanization and standard times.

- A clean functional division between managers and non-managers (separation of conception from execution).

- Centralized planning and control.

- An instrumental, low-involvement employment relationship due to the requirement of the individual employee being that of just carrying out their specific low-skilled task.

- An ideology 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.

It has been suggested that the principles of scientific management have been widely adopted throughout industries. The orientation of larger firms towards professional managers, engineers and consultants additionally provided a supportive framework for the rise of Taylorism . Although this rise has certainly been evident within manufacturing industries the service industry have been slower to utilize the principles of rationalization. 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 rationalization to be applied three prerequisite conditions are required: clear and single objective (for example maximizing 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 labor 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. They are:

- Measurement of output and performance is difficult. Quality of service cannot be measured solely be easily quantifiable data, such as revenue and sales volume alone. For example, the performance of a health care organization is a combination not only of financial results and patient throughput by also of quality of care, the effectiveness of preventative measures and many other factors.

- The product is not tangible. Amongst the many effects of this are that quality control is not straightforward. For example checking the quality of car manufacture is a lot clearer task then checking the quality of service given at a hotels reception desk.

- Production and consumption are usually simultaneous. A particular implication of this is that there can be no inventory of the service itself, therefore not allowing systematic observation or measurement. For example, a shop assistant s advice to a customer cannot be stored. Hales (1994) has suggested that where the end product is tailored to specific customer wants, the option of one best way is even more difficult to sustain.

- The product is time perishable. If a service is not used it is likely to be wasted, again making systematic observation very difficult.

- Site selection is governed by customers demand. This means that operations tend to be decentralized therefore preventing the scientific management belief that planning and control should

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