Frederick Winslow Taylor Principles of Scientific Management

State the principles of scientific management and examine critically its application to the various grades of employees in a work organization.

Taylor's principal concern throughout most of his life was that of increasing efficiency in production, not only to lower costs and raise profits but also to make possible increased pay for workers through their higher productivity. He decided that the problem of productivity was a matter of ignorance on the part of both the management and labour. Part of this ignorance arose from the fact that both managers and workers did not know what constitutes a ''fair day's work'' and a ''fair day's pay''. He believed that both managers and workers were concerned too much with how they could divide the surplus that arose from productivity (The split in thinking between pay and profits) and not enough increasing the surplus so that both owner and labourers could get more compensation.


He saw productivity and the answer to both higher wages and higher profits, and he believed that the application of scientific methods, instead of custom and rule of thumb, could yield this productivity without the expenditure of more human energy and effort. In testimony and defence of his ideas before a committee of the house of representatives, he said that ''Scientific management involves a complete mental revolution on the part of the working man in any particular establishment or industry- a complete mental revolution on the part of these men as their duties toward their work, toward their fellow men and toward their employers. And it involves the equally complete mental revolution on the part of those on the management side. The foreman, the superintendent, the owner of the businesss, the board of directors- a complete mental revolution on their part as to their duties towards their fellow workers in the management, towards their workmen and toward all of their daily problems.''





The great mental revolution that takes place in the mental attitude of the  two parties under scientific management is that both sides take their eyes off the division of the surplus as the all-important matter, and together turn their attention towards increasing the size of the surplus until thjis surplus becomes so large that it is unnecessary to quarrel over how it should be divided.



The fundamental principle that taylor saw underlying the scientific approach to management may be summarized as follows:



1. Replacing rules of thumb with science (Organized knowledge)



2.Obtaining harmony in group action, rather than discord.



3. Achieving cooperation of human beings, rather than chaotic individualism.



4. Working for maximum output rather than resticted output.

5 Developing all workers to the fullest extent possible for their own and company's highest prosperity

To determine what a fair day's work was and helping in finding one of the best ways of doing any given job, the careful study of time and motion was carefully identified. Likewise various play plans based on output were used in an attempt to increase the ''surplus'' (as taylor referred to ''productivity'') too make sure that workers who produced were payed according to their productivity, and to give workers an incentive to perform.