Scientific Administration (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what scientific administration or Taylorism is, origin, history, advantages and disadvantages. Also, Taylor's principles.

taylorism scientific administration — Scientific management was based on the division of labor to increase efficiency.

What is scientific management?

Scientific administration is a current of knowledge, also called Taylorism which unites the business sector with scientific research. It arose from a monograph published in 1911 by Frederick Winslow Taylor, which established the principles of organization for industrial companies.

The name scientific management is due to the application of scientific methods to business management problems with the aim of achieving greater efficiency in industrial production. The main scientific methods applicable to management problems are observation and measurement of results.

Creator of scientific administration

F._Taylor_1856-1915-scientific administration taylorism — FW Taylor implemented scientific management from the late 19th century.

The American Frederick Winslow Taylor was the creator of the principles of scientific management, after having systematically investigated factory operations. Hence the name his work received: “Taylor principles” or “Taylorism.”

Taylor was born in 1856 in Pennsylvania, United States. He was a manufacturing manager, engineer, mechanic and, after his research, also became a management consultant.

During his adolescence he began to lose part of his sense of sight and his body was weak, so he could not participate in sporting events. These conditions prompted him to think about how to improve physical effort performance. For him, The important thing was to measure the effort, the place and the movements to obtain the greatest possible efficiency.

See also: Effectiveness, efficiency and productivity

Origin of scientific administration

The theory of scientific management emerged at the end of the 19th century in the United States given the need to increase productivity due to the scarce supply of labor.

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The only way to increase productivity was by increasing the efficiency of workers and, for that, scientific management focused on tasks. Taylor conducted a research study and found the following common problems in industries at the time:

There was no effective work system.
There were no economic incentives for workers to improve their work.
Decisions were made arbitrarily, rather than by scientific knowledge.
Workers were incorporated into their work without taking into account their skills and aptitudes.

Taylor developed several hypotheses that, in practice, allowed solutions to these problems. Through analysis of how work was done and direct observation of how that work affected productivity, he found the answers.

His philosophy was based on Making people work hard was not as efficient as optimizing the way they did their work. Taylor's complete work demonstrated that all the principles outlined there could be applied in any type of organization.

The “Taylor principles” and their characteristics

scientific administration taylorism principles — Scientific management selects workers based on their abilities.

In 1911 Taylor published “the principles of scientific administration”, a document that explained the guidelines that business activity should follow to achieve more efficient industrial production. Taylor's four principles were:

Work reorganization. It involved replacing inefficient work systems with methods that reduced production times and the amount of machinery needed, among others. Taylor investigated various ways to achieve optimal levels of performance, for example, he designed a shovel that could be manipulated for several hours at a time.
Proper selection of the worker. It involved evaluating the worker's ability to assign them a suitable position, instead of assigning roles without taking their ability into account. In this way, professional performance could be improved because the employee felt more motivated and satisfied with their work, which ended up impacting the productivity of the organization.
Cooperation between managers and the staff It involved the creation of intermediate positions to act as those responsible for directly supervising and advising the teams of workers. In this way, managers and workers could act under the same purpose and achieve the proper functioning of the organization.
Division of work between managers and collaborators. It involved clearly defining the role of each member of the organization. It was necessary for managers to be responsible for planning and directing the organization while workers were dedicated to the execution of said decisions. This articulation allowed us to achieve greater efficiency in work processes.
Motivation of workers. It involved optimizing the worker's salary so that they improve their performance as well as occupying a position suitable for their abilities. Taylor promoted the idea of “a fair wage for a fair day's work,” meaning that if a worker failed to produce enough in a day, he should not be paid as much as another worker who was highly productive.

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Advantages of scientific management

The main advantages were:

Trigger greater specialization in the workplace.
Trigger higher efficiency by each individual.
Raise a division of labor which allowed planning and obtaining better results.
Distinguish between manual and intellectual work.
Help reduce pressures which used to fall to a single worker, by appointing a boss per area.
Promote the personal development through economic stimulus as an incentive.

Disadvantages of scientific management

The main disadvantages were:

The principle of unity of collective command faded, which gave rise to conflict between workers.
Communication was downward and the employee did not have technical capacity to give your opinion.
Employee participation was nil and the individuality as an efficiency mechanism.

Taylorism over time

The “Taylor principles” were the basis of business management worldwide and the resulting cooperation between workers and managers significantly influenced the philosophy of teamwork. Starting in the 21st century, some ideas raised by Taylorism became obsolete or were improved. Among the new guidelines, the following stand out:

The greater autonomy of workers. So that they can apply more appropriate approaches in their work, breaking with the pyramidal or descending structure of Taylorism where the worker could not give their opinion.
The management by objectives It establishes that managers must participate in the strategic planning process and unify the consensus between managers and employees, unlike Taylorism, which maintained a single structure in which managers made decisions and workers executed them.
Continuous improvement initiatives. They imply that the company questions all methods of productivity (not just the work of the employee) in order to find innovations, unlike Taylorism, which maintained that maximum efficiency in production fell on the physical performance of the worker.
Motivation through assessment. The person's individual contribution was not considered in the scientific management of Taylorism, which only focused on mechanics and its economic reward.