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The roles of managers as leaders within a firm require them to plan future economic objectives for the firm to reach. However in order to achieve these plans, control is needed to ensure that workplace compliance and high levels of efficiency are achieved. Through control, management are able to establish processes, implement them and if necessary redesign them. This essay will introduce key management theories from the likes of Frederick Winslow Taylor, Henri Fayol and Max Weber and discuss how these theories help to enforce workplace compliance. (Allen, Gemmy) Frederick Winslow Taylor was the creator of scientific management.
As an adolescent, Taylor was known for his counting and measuring of things in order to discover a better way of completing a task. Although Taylor excelled in mathematics and sports he chose to work as a machinist and pattern maker in Philadelphia at the Enterprise Hydraulic Works. (Weisbord 1987) Within six years working in the factory, Taylor advanced to become chief engineer. While working he introduced piece by piece work in the factory. His goal was to find the most efficient way to perform specific tasks. He closely watched how work was done and would then measure the quantity produced. (Kanigel 44) Taylor believed that in order to reach a high level of productivity the problem for management was to find the right challenge for each individual employee then to pay that employee well for increased output. Those who did not reach their quota would get a much lower pay rate.
Taylor succeeded in doubling productivity using time study, systematic controls, tools and his new wage paying scheme. (Wedge and Greenwood 270 - 272) At the Simonds Roller Bearing Company he increased overall productivity while improving the speed and accuracy of the production lines. Taylor's critics said he was too harsh because his innovative plan caused people to lose their jobs, referring to his replacing of 120 workers with only 35 at Simonds. In practice, Taylor "took a harsh, often ruthless approach" to cutting the workforce rather than saving jobs. He believed that unions wouldn't be necessary if workers were paid their individual worth. (Weisbord 1987) Much of Taylors famous book The Principles of Scientific Management was written from transcripts of talks that Taylor gave at his estate years after leaving the workforce. Taylor attempted to fill his book with as much of his thinking and innovations to solving his clients problems and motives for each of the particular situations that he resolved.
Taylor was the first person in history to make a systematic attempt to improve both output and work life in factories. (Weisbord 1987) Taylor's core values where; the rule of reason, improved quality, lower costs, higher wages, higher output, labour-management cooperation, experimentation, clear tasks and goals, feedback, training, mutual help and support, stress reduction, and the careful selection and development of people. He was the first person to present a systematic study of interactions among job requirements, tools, methods, and human skill, to fit people to jobs both psychologically and physically, and to let data and facts do the talking rather than prejudice or opinions. (Weisbord 1987) Taylor had four objectives of management under scientific management; firstly the development of a science for each element of a mans work to replace old methods. The scientific selection, training and development of workers instead of allowing them to choose their own tasks and train themselves as best they could. The development of cooperation between workers and management to ensure work can be carried out in accordance with scientifically devised procedures. The division of work between workers and management in almost equal shares, each group taking over the work for which it is best fitted instead of the former condition in which responsibility largely rested with the workers. (Taylor 1911) Taking into account some of Taylors scientific management, control can easily be applied to modern workplaces. Taylor believes in rewarding a worker based on merit using daily quotas as a benchmark for production workers to achieve.
Those workers who reach or exceed their quota are rewarded while those who fail face financial implications. For the workers, scientific management required them to stop worrying about divisions between their wages and company profits, by sharing in the prosperity of the firm through satisfying the quota or expectations placed over them by management and receiving wage increases or promotion. The concept of a quota psychologically removes the idea of time wasting by workers and helps to enhance cooperation with the management in developing the science. It would therefore be expected that workers will accept that management would be responsible for planning and determining what the job was that needed to be done and how, while agreeing to be trained in new methods where applicable. (Allen, Gemmy) The benefits for management arising from scientific management are evident through the rational approach to organisational work.
This enables tasks and procedures to be measured with a considerable degree of accuracy. This accuracy allows managers to make measurements of current paths and processes therefore allowing evaluations to occur which ultimately may lead to the availability of useful information on which improvements can be made. By improving work methods it is possible to increase productivity as it enables employees to be paid by results and to take advantage of incentive payments when they exceed their quotas. A greater sense of practical realism can be seen in the work of Henri Fayol (1949) who outlined a series of 'principles of management' by which an organisation might be effectively controlled. 1.
Division of work. Fayol saw specialisation as a natural human process. Repetition of the same function brings speed and accuracy, thus increasing output. If work is divided according to skill and technical expertise, each item of work can be given to the employee most able to deal with it. 2. Authority and responsibility. Fayol defined authority as 'the right to give orders and the power to exact obedience. ' He emphasised the importance of linking authority to responsibility, which together required increasing judgement and morality at senior levels.
He justified higher pay for commercial managers in comparison with senior civil servants since, in his view, the latter exercised authority without responsibility. 3. Discipline. Defined as obedience, application, energy, behaviour and outward marks of respect. Fayol regarded discipline as essential for the smooth running of business without which an enterprise is unable to prosper. He attributed discipline to good leadership. 4. Unity of command.
For any action whatsoever, an employee should receive orders from one superior only. 5. Unity of direction. 'One head and one plan for a group having the same objective. ' 6. Subordination of individual interests to the general interest. There should be no conflict of interest between individual ambition and the well-being of the organisation as a whole. 7. Remuneration of personnel. Fayol looked for some basic principal...
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Research essay sample on Henri Fayol Scientific Management
