Taylor’s theory of scientific management

Throughout this essay I will discuss the importance of understanding organisational behaviour and the different factors of success it effects. Organisational behaviour is the study of the structure and management of organisations, their environments, and the actions and interactions of their individual members and groups. (TEXT BOOK) I plan to look at Taylor’s theory of scientific management, Ford’s theory of the assembly line and contrast these with theories such as Maslow and his methods of motivation and the impact these have on Human Resources.

Taylor’s theory of scientific management states that man is an economic animal who’s is motivated by money and will do the bare minimum if possible- systematic soldiering This therefore lead him to pay workers on a peice-rate system. Through the use of Taylor’s theory, organisations were able to increase efficiency and minimise waste while increasing output. A prime example of the use of scientific management is,Toyota.

Dohse et al. believes Toyota production systems did not surpass taylorisms and Fordism’s method of production, this however is contradicted in many ways such that Toyota is one of the worlds leading car manufactures and the basis of their production methods are founded upon Taylorism and Fordism. Toyota use a process of Kanban and JIT (just-in-time) which use unskilled labourers working on an assembly line in order to increase efficiency and reduce waste. (Tatsuo Naruse 1991). This method to many would be considered a huge organisational success as it would result in economies of scale that come with mass production therefore causing a decrease in costs and hence a larger profit margin.

However Taylor implemented these methods by using a scientific division of tasks between managers and employees, selecting the best people for each job and then training them to do the job in a specific way. While this may have increased the efficiency it meant the workers were given repetitive and monotonous tasks. Equally the way scientific management was implemented and controlled was on a no talking basis, this is due to Taylor’s belief that talking was a waste of time and energy, not only would this make the work boring it also causes alienation of the work force as there would be no social interaction between the employees (Lawrence, 2010, p.419).

ccording to Maslows hierarchy of needs social interactions are a crucial part of reaching self-actualisation this therefore suggests that this is a completely unsuccessful method of production as it would result in employees being demotivated. However according to some research it was found that teamwork was essential in Taylor’s philosophy (Kelly, 2016) therefore the level of success from scientific management depends on and individuals opinion on what success really means.

Many theorists will agree that earning a salary helps to ensure that employees will show up to work an a daily basis. Scientific management relies upon money being the main motivator for workers this correlates with motivational theories such as Maslow and Herzberg however they would argue that money is one of the lower levels of motivation. According to Herzberg a salary is one of the five hygiene factors. Without these workers will feel dissatisfaction but with them they will not necessarily feel motivated (Gawel, 1997). Motivators are aspects like achievement, recognition and the task given, these all need to be present in order for employees to work to the best of their ability.

With regards to Fords theory he used unskilled workers to perform very simplistic tasks repetitively, according to herzberg the task in which workers have to do has a huge effect on motivation. If employees do not take pride in their work and feel what they do is valued by the employer they will become demotivated, this could cause them to look else where for work, if this is the case then this will lead to an organisation having a high staff turnover rate.

Equally if employees do not enjoy their work they may put less effort into what they do effecting the quality of the service or product which could have a major impact on the reputation of an organisation and cause consumers to look else where. If this were to happen it would have a huge effect on the revenue generated by a business which could eventually lead to a business having to declare bankcrupcy. No matter what your opinion of success means if a business were to shutdown it would be deemed unsuccessful therefore motivation is key to the success of an organisation.