SOME NOTES AND QUESTIONS ON FREDERICK W. TAYLOR,
THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
Frederick W. Taylor, born in an upper-class Philadelphia family in 1856, began his work career as a common laborer but soon became a skilled machinist. Earning a degree in mechanical engineering, he rose to managerial positions in some of the most important metal-working factories of the 1880s and 1890s. His work on high-speed cutting of steel remains a respected contribution to technology.
He became increasingly interested in the managerial aspects of engineering. By the 1890s, he was offering his methods to various companies as a management consultant. He went into semi-retirement around 1901, leaving the implementation of his ideas to a group of disciples, but he continued to make a name for himself in business circles.
In 1910, during a well-publicized hearing on an application for an increase in railroad freight rates, attorney Louis Brandeis, representing customers who opposed the increase, claimed that the railroads could save vast amounts of money by adopting Taylor's ideas. This triggered great interest in his methods, which Brandeis dubbed "Scientific Management." The Principles of Scientific Management was his effort to respond to this enthusiasm and to popularize his ideas. Before his death in 1916, Taylor and "Taylorism" had become topics of both widespread admiration and acute fear and hatred.
I’m going to show most of a video about Taylor and Scientific Management, Stopwatch. I’ll put it on reserve in Knight Library. If you miss the class, I’ll encourage (but not require) you to watch the video in the library. (It’s 57 minutes long.) Here’s a link to the documentary’s website.
Here are some questions you should pay attention to as you read The Principles of Scientific Management.
1. According to Taylor, what were the major failings of older management practices?
2. What is "soldiering"? "Systematic soldiering"?
3. What are the essential features of scientific management?
4. What features do the cases of Schmidt, the shovelers, the ball-bearing sorters and the bricklayers have in common?
5. Taylor portrayed himself as a neutral, objective scientist. Is that so?
6. Why did many workers hate him? Why did some bosses also dislike him?
7. Many management experts now consider Taylorism obsolete. Others maintain that his ideas are dominant in workplaces today. Which view seems more valid?
8. What features in the U.S. in the early twentieth century help to account for the popularity of scientific management?
History 363
Spring 2011