Scientific Management was the product of 19th Century industrial Essay - 1

Scientific Management was the product of 19th Century industrial practices and has no relevance to the present day. Discuss - Essay Example 7). Thus, work needs to become as organised and productive as it possibly can, due to the numerous people involved in it, and division of labour must be assigned properly in order to bring out the best results. However, it was not until the beginning of the 20th century when such needs were attended to. One of the earliest guiding principles that sprang out from the need for workers to become as productive as possible while helping the employer save money is by implementing new strategies that were scientifically-made and can be tested using scientific methods. This kind of workplace management known as is Scientific Management, was developed by Frederick Taylor around the turn of the 20th century in order to advance the methods used in work and make even workers of any skill level to become even more productive (Taylor, 1939, p. 280). While it was a big step in moving from highly-traditional work and management methods to a much more modern and scientific one, its beginnings were ne vertheless controversial, and may even have reversed its original aims (Watson, 2008, p. 31). Also, Scientific Management is seen as one of the earliest blueprints of modernisation and automation of work, yet by somewhat dehumanising the workers and leaning towards the removal of jobs altogether like in automation of factories, and in a way cancels out one of its aims: making human workers even more efficient (Watson, 2008, p. 32). These, among many reasons were the cause of the abandonment of the use of scientific management, as well as deriving new ideas and disciplines out of it. Thus the evolution of the scientific management as the result of 19th century industrial practices may have no relevance to the present day needs of work places and organisations due to the changed needs, strategies and goals of management. Foundations and Goals of Scientific Management Frederick Taylor is the person credited for the creation of the principles of Scientific Management, which went out in public around the year 1911. He was able to come up with the ideas for changing traditional work methods into modernised and simplified actions that do not need additional efforts in skill-building, as opposed to craftsmen undergoing apprenticeship to learn the ropes (Pitsis, Clegg, and Kornberger, 2011, p. 25). Goals that aim for work and management simplification were made for the successful establishment of the principles of scientific management, and are enumerated as follows: Firstly, the old rule-of-thumb in the methods being used at work are replaced by scientifically-proven methods that bypass older ones, making the work a lot easier to finish and eventually increases overall output by workers (Taylor, 1939, p. 280; Watson, 2008, p. 32); Second, the most skilled or capable of the workforce are trained scientifically in learning, as well as teaching and developing the newer and better methods of work, as well as standardising these methods among all of the workforce to improv e their efficiency (Taylor, 1939, p. 280); Thirdly, there is tight cooperation and coordination between the trainers or the management and the workforce in making sure that the principles are properly adhered to at all times; and (Taylor, 1939, p. 280) By doing the abovementioned principles, there would be an equal sharing of labour and