Frederick Winslow Taylor

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Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 - March 21, 1915) was an American engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency. He was one of the intellectual leaders of the Efficiency Movement and his ideas, broadly conceived, were highly influential in the Progressive Era.

Taylor was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, to a wealthy Quaker family. He had intended to pursue his education at Harvard University, but ill health forced him to consider an alternative career. In 1874, he became an apprentice machinist, learning of factory conditions at the grass-roots level. He earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering through a highly unusual (for the time) series of correspondence courses at Stevens Institute of Technology, where he was a brother of the Gamma Chapter of Theta Xi Fraternity.

Taylor thought, by scientifically analyzing work, the "One Best Way" to do it would be found. He is most remembered for his time and motion study. He would break a job into its component parts and measure each to the second. One of his most famous studies involved shovels. He noticed that the workers used the same shovel for all materials. He determined that the most effective load was 21 lb, and found or designed shovels that for each material would scoop up that amount. He was generally unsuccessful at applying his concepts; it was largely through his disciples (most notably H.L. Gantt) that his ideas were implemented in industry. After being fired from Bethlehem Steel he wrote a book, Shop Management, which sold well.

Taylor believed that contemporary management was amateurish and should be studied as a discipline, that workers should cooperate with management (and hence would not need Trade Unions), and that the best results would come from the partnership between a trained and qualified management and a cooperative and innovative workforce. Each side needed the other.

He is known for coinage of the term scientific management in his article "The Principles of Scientific Management," published in 1911. However, his approach is often referred to, frequently disparagingly, as Taylorism.

Taylor developed five principles of Scientific Management:

Scientifically study each part of a task and develop the One best way of performing it.
Select the best person to do the job.
Train, Teach and develop the worker.
Provide financial incentives for following the methods.
Divide work and responsibility so that managers are responsible for planning the work methods and workers are responsible for executing the work accordingly.

Taylor was selected to be the president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) from 1906-1907. While president, he tried to implement his system into the management of the ASME but was met with much resistance. He was only able to reorganize the publications department and then only partially. He also forced out the ASME's long-time secretary, Morris L. Cooke, and replaced him with Calvin W. Rice. His tenure as president was trouble-ridden and marked the beginning of a period of internal dissension within the ASME during the Progressive Era.Template:Ref

In 1912, Taylor collected his articles into a book-length manuscript and submitted it to the ASME for publication. The ASME formed an ad hoc committee to review the text. The committee included Taylor allies such as James Mapes Dodge and Henry R. Towne. The committee delegated the report to the editor of the American Machinist, Leon P. Alford. Alford was a critic of the Taylor system and the report was negative. The committee modified the report slightly, but accepted Alford's recommendation not to publish Taylor's book. Taylor angrily withdrew the book and published Principles without ASME approval.Template:Ref

Taylor was a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, founded in 1900.

His ideas, as well as Henry Ford's, relating to efficiency became highly influential during the early days of the Soviet Union.

1 Closest followers
- 1.1 Taylor's Influence in the United States
- 1.2 Outside the United States
2 References
3 Notes
4 External links

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Closest followers

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Taylor's Influence in the United States

Carl Bart lecturer at Harvard and early consultant on Scientific Management. H. L. Gantt developed Gantt chart, a visual aid for graphing the scheduling of tasks and flow of work to be completed. Harrington Emerson introduced scientific management to railroad industry and developed idea of "staff" function as advisory role to "line" management. Morris Cooke adapted scientific management to educational and municipal organizations. Hugo Munsterberg created the discipline of industrial psychology. Lillian Gilbreth introduced psychology to management studies. Frank Gilbreth introduced scientific management in construction industry and developed "motion" studies using photography for what came to be called "time and motion" studies. Harlow S. Person as dean of Dartmouth's Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance, promoted the teaching of scientific management. James O. McKinsey professor at University of Chicago and senior partner in his accounting firm, propagated the budget as a means of accountability and measuring performance.

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Outside the United States

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France

Le Chatelier translated Taylor's work and introduced scientific management throughout state plants during World War I. This will influence the French theorist Henri Fayol who publishes Administration Industrielle et Générale in 1916 (published in book form in 1917) emphasizing organizational structure in management.

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Switzerland

The American Edward Albert Filene established the International Management Institute to spread information about management.

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Japan

Yoichi Ueno - In 1912 introduced Taylorism to Japan and was first management consultant to create the "Japanese- management style". His son Ichiro Ueno pioneered Japanese quality assurance.

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References

Kanigel, Robert. The One Best Way: Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency. New York: Penguin Penguin, 1997.
Boddy, David. Management: An Introduction. 2002.
Nelson, Daniel. Frederick W. Taylor and the Rise of Scientific Management. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1980.
Nelson, Daniel. A Mental Revolution: Scientific Management Since Taylor. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1992.

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