TAYLOR AND SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
Use when staff resources are tight and you need to increase productivity.
Frederick Taylor rose from shop floor labourer to become a Director at Bethlehem Steel, the largest steel maker in the United States. He was a contemporary of Fayol but was more interested in efficiency than the social aspects of managing people. His book, The Principles of Scientific Management (1913), cemented his reputation as the father of scientific management.
TAYLOR:
Believed that the job of a manager was to plan and control work and that there was a single most efficient way to do any job.
Used time and motion techniques to break down each work process into its constituent parts and eliminate unnecessary actions. Using these principles, he reduced the number of actions a bricklayer took from 18 to 5 and in the process saved time and money. His work laid the foundation for the division of labour and mass production, which Henry Ford applied so successfully in car manufacturing.
Argued that the best way to ensure maximum efficiency was to carefully select and train staff and provide additional opportunities for those that showed potential. This was revolutionary at a time when most workers were given no formal training. Outstanding workers were identified by placing a chalk mark on their work bench (Benchmarking see Theory 83).
HOW TO USE IT
- Review how each job is done in your team and ask the following questions: Do we need to do this job? Can it be done more efficiently? Does the work allocated to each member of staff match their abilities/strengths? Do staff need additional training to improve their efficiency and effectiveness.
- Decide how work can be reallocated and reorganised to improve efficiency, increase throughput and play to the individual strengths of staff.
- Following reorganisation, evaluate how effective the changes have been and tweak as required. It’s very unlikely that you will get it right first time (see Theory 61).
- Regularly review (at least annually) the work that staff do and look for efficiency gains. If you think that a report you issue is no longer used, don’t ask the recipients if they need it. They’ll almost certainly say ‘yes’. Instead, produce the report but don’t send it out and see if anyone shouts. If after three months no one has screamed, ditch it.
- Additional training can improve your team’s productivity greatly. For example, how sure are you that every member of the team can use all of the facilities available on your computer systems?
- Remember Taylor’s ideas don’t just apply to the shop floor. Inefficient working practices are rife in most offices.
- When undertaking the review of work, canvass ideas from the wider team on how the task could be done more efficiently.
QUESTION TO ASK
- Does the team struggle to meet deadlines and/or have periods when they have very little work? If yes, can the timetabling of work be improved?