Lecture The evolution of management thought (6th edition) - Chapter 12: Scientific management in retrospect

Taylor was the focus for a deeper philosophy of managing human and physical resources in a more technologically advanced world. Taylor’s disciples improved productivity and service to society. Fayol and Weber, Taylor’s contemporaries, also reflected a rational approach to enterprise. Taylor and his followers were affected by and did affect the times.

THE EVOLUTION

OF MANAGEMENT

EDITION

Electronic Resource by:

Regina Greenwood and Julia Teahen

Scientific Management in Retrospect

CHAPTER TWELVE

Scientific Management in Retrospect

 The Economic Environment

 Technology

 The Social Environment

 The Political Environment

The Economic Environment

 The United States was in transition from an

agrarian to an industrial nation In this period of growth, scientific management provided a means whereby a better utilization of resources could occur

 The U.S worker prospered, both in real wages and reduced hours of work

 More employees were in management with the addition of staff specialists This growth in

managerial hierarchy made it more critical to

plan, organize, etc

The Economic Environment

 Alfred Chandler’s

rationalization of resource utilization describes the needs

of industry during this era The ideas of the scientific

management pioneers fit these needs

 Industrial efficiency was increasing,

partially due to scientific

management

Alfred D Chandler

Courtesy of Harvard Business

School

The Economic Environment

diverse 1890-1920:

 Immigrants were 80% of

New York’s population.

 More Irish lived in the US

than in Ireland.

 71% of Ford’s labor force

was foreign born.

 Developing systems and

procedures and

standardization was

more important with the

heterogeneous

workforce.

to:

 Methods of mass

production.

 Taylorism (Scientific

Management)

 Cheaper sources of

power

The 1909 Model T.

Technology: Opening New Horizons

 Enterprises

developed and grew

– 247 of the Fortune

500 were founded

from 1880-1929

 New technologies

developed:

 Bessemer process in

steel

 Oil refining

 Internal combustion

engine

 Synthetic material

 Telephony

 Electric energy Bessemer process in steel

Technology: Opening New Horizons

 The automobile

changed people’s

lives and created a

new industry

 Henry Ford, Charles

Sorenson and their

associates at Ford

created the moving

assembly line for

mass production

workers produced

18,664 cars

workers produced

248,307 cars

Henry Ford

The Social Environment

 Horatio Alger, Jr

characterized the

“success” ethic of U.S enterprise.

ideas were consonant

with the social values of self-directing, high need for achievement,

individuals

Western frontier closed; William G Scott called this the Collision Effect, which would lead to a

transition period of

individualism being

replaced by a social ethic.

individualism” bridged the gap between the social and individualistic ethics.

The Social Environment

 The Social Gospel shaped personnel

management acting as a counterpoint to social Darwinism and precursor to progressivism

 Followers of the Social Gospel, like Robert G

Valentine, thought unions were instruments of social and economic reform

 A reciprocal work-welfare equation linked the

progressives and scientific management

 Efficiency was also advocated by

conservationists, feminists, and religious leaders

The Political Environment

 The political

articulation of the

Social Gospel was the

Populist-Progressive

Movement

 Scientific

management

appealed to the

Progressives,

especially Morris

Cooke

 Scientific

management offered

leadership by

expertise and

knowledge, not class,

so it appealed to

moderate

Progressives like

Louis Brandeis,

Herbert Croly, and

Walter Lippman

Lewis Hine (1915)

The Political Environment

of business under Theodore Roosevelt after 1901 overcame the inadequacies of the earlier Sherman Act.

Underwood-Simmons Tariff Act of 1913.

incomes over $3,000

progressively on incomes up to

$20,000

7% on incomes in excess of $500,000 (compared to 35% today)

Theodore Roosevelt,

courtesy of the Constitution

Society

Summary of Part Two

 Taylor was the focus for a deeper philosophy

of managing human and physical resources

in a more technologically advanced world.

 Taylor’s disciples improved productivity and service to society.

 Fayol and Weber, Taylor’s contemporaries, also reflected a rational approach to

enterprise.

 Taylor and his followers were affected by

and did affect the times.

Part Two Internet Resources

 Academy of Management – Management History Division Website

http://www.aomhistory.baker.edu/departments/leadership/mgthistory/links.html

 List of Internet Resources compiled by Charles Booth 

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/files/MANAGEMENT­HISTORY/links.htm

 Western Libraries Business Library – Biographies of Gurus

http://www.lib.uwo.ca/business/gurus.html

 Frederick Winslow Taylor

http://www.accel-team.com/scientific/scientific_02.html

 Fascinating Facts about Frederick Winslow Taylor

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/taylor.htm

 Who Made America – Frederick Winslow Taylor

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/taylor_lo.html

 Films of Westinghouse Works – 1904

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/papr/west/westhome.html

END OF PART TWO