What Is Fayol 's Principles Or Taylor 's Scientific Management Techniques Essay

The theory of management has been developing since time began – in the tribal days, hunts had to be organised, in the Victorian era the construction of the railways had to be managed; and nowadays every organisation globally has to be organised. One of the first ‘schools’ of management was the Classical Theory – this focused on getting the most out of each employee following a strict structure of management – Henri Fayol is one of the most famous Classical Theorists and his quote - “to manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to co-ordinate and to control” – summarises his main points of how managers should remain in authority and carry out their jobs. Although there are also other schools of management such as the Human Relations Theory. This is a far softer approach and concentrates on each employees emotional and physical needs – it looks at them as a valuable resource to the business – not just as a means to an end.

While scientific development emphasised principles to improve worker effectiveness, another branch within the classical school arose, administrative management, with its main contributor being French industrialist Henri Fayol. He is regarded as the father of administrative management as he proposed fourteen principles of management intended to assist managers in determining what to do to manage an organisation more effectively (Rodrigues, 2001). Fayol’s ideas are still valid in today’s organisations and his definitions of management are widely used in this field of study. In his book General and Industrial Management, published in 1916, he defined management as “to manage is to forecast and plan, to organise, to command, to coordinate and to control” (Fayol, 1916). This definition yielded the now known functions of management. Fayol’s approach to management has several similarities with Taylor’s scientific management theory. Included in Fayol’s fourteen principles is the division of work, which outlined the need for workers to specialise in specific jobs (Rodrigues, 2001). This idea of work specialisation has been derived from Taylor’s principles of scientific management. Furthermore, the empowerment of managers, proper training of employees and the use of a reasonable rewards system were principles that originated

Henri Fayol’s theory was almost a century old and was originally written in French. Further review on several journal articles has led to an overview background of Fayol’s working life which provided the foundation that conceptualized his theory. According to Wren (2001), Fayol was appointed as the Director in a mining company, Decazeville, where he succeeded to turnaround the company to become profitable. Fayol was the first person to classify the functions of a manager’s job. Fayol (1949; as cited in Wren, 2001) identified five key functions in managerial works.as planning, organising, command, coordination and control. Planning consists of any managerial work that involves setting goals and coordinating actions to

With those evocative words, Frederick W. Taylor had begun his highly influential book; “The Principles of Scientific Management” indicating his view regarding management practices. As one of the most influential management theorists, Taylor is widely acclaimed as the ‘father of scientific management’. Taylor had sought “the ‘one best way’ for a job to be done” (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg & Coulter, 2003, p.39). Northcraft and Neale (1990, p.41) state that “Scientific management took its

Many theorists have influenced and demonstrated certain ideas and concepts that influence the social and psychological factors in an organisational management. Taylorism theory of scientific management developed techniques for improving the efficiency of the work process. The scientific management approach revolves around the idea of arranging for work to accomplish proficiency, institutionalization, specialization, and improvement. With Taylor’s scientific approach decisions are based on science or exact measurements. Taylor's theory decreased its role dramatically in the event of being questioned whether scientific management was efficient. The human relation school of management thought developed due to the flaws in the assumptions of the Taylorism theory. Taylorism was inclined towards efficiency, process and principle, however critiques felt human behavior was neglected. Organisations should take initiative in helping employees adjust to organisational life by nurturing cooperative systems between labour and management. Finally, this essay will reveal the evolution from Taylor’s scientific principles of management to Elton Mayo’s Human Relation School of Thought as employee well-being and motivation has been given more recognition over the course of time.

Taylor suggested that “no one can be found who will deny that in the case of any single individual, the greatest prosperity can exist only when that individual has reached his highest state of efficiency; that is, when he is turning out his largest daily output.” (Taylor & Jones, 1911) There is a widespread variety of opinions regarding Taylor’s theory of Scientific Management, as it is debatable whether the technique accounts for the workers own interests within the working environment, and the effects of the technique as a whole whilst enforcing the rigorous scientifically designed working methods to gain maximum efficiency and productivity.

Although many people believe in Taylors scientific management functions Lawerence (2010), Green (1986) both argue that that this is not the case and that scientific management is the problem in today’s management. Although there

First theory is Frederick Winslow Taylor’s Principle of Scientific Management that was published in 1911. It was part of the Classical Approach which refers to the first studies of management that occurred in the early 20 century that emphasised predominantly on rationality and efficiency. It was believed that effectiveness and efficiency are essential to maintain a competitive edge. Taylor’s theory is accepted and have been applied worldwide, as a result, he became known as the ‘father’ of scientific

Classical Management (CM) attempted to apply logic and scientific methods to management of complex organisations. Human Relations Management (HRM) focused on working relationships to improve productivity.

Taylor’s main focus was on the tasks and the workers, whereas Fayol was not concerned with worker; he was concerned with the managements. Taylor laid his attention on the problems of shop floor while Fayol concentrated on the functions of managers at top level. Taylor worked from the bottom of the industrial hierarchy upwards, while Fayol focused on the chief executive and worked downwards. The main aim of Taylor was to enhance productivity of labor and eliminate wastage. Fayol tried to develop a universal theory of management. Taylor called his philosophy of work as ‘Scientific Management’ whereas Fayol expressed his work as ‘General Theory of Administration’. More differences are in the approach, although their similarities in this regard are influenced by their foundational principles they both approached it in different ways. Taylor was a man of action; he saw management at an intrinsic nature. He was very adapting to understanding individuals and their needs. In this his management style compliments those that work hard. Fayol wanted to change the way upper management was running and instituted some very important principles of action for these administrative managers. He valued leadership and sought to bring that to the forefront of his management

The work of Taylor and Fayol is essentially complementary. They both realized that the problem of HR and their management at all levels is the key to business success. Both applied scientific method to this problem. Taylor worked primarily on the operative level, from the bottom of the organizational hierarchy upward. Fayol concentrated on the Managing Director (his term) and worked downward.

There is no doubt, that Taylor’s scientific management was a tremendous success from economic standpoint. His methods brought huge improvements in productivity. As an example Taylor’s shovel work at Bethlehem Steel Works reduced the number of workers needed to shovel from 500 to 140 [7]. Today all organizations are based on theories of Taylor, Mayo, Weber and Fayol, and it is hard to imagine our world without that concepts.

For a long time the process of Administrative Management has been ignored up until 1911, when Frederick Taylor, also known as the “father of scientific management, provided the stepping stones for management processes. His movement, also known as Taylorism, provided a basis of work methods that improved efficiency within the workplace, as it helped managers train workers and provide work procedures in order to make businesses more productive. Taylor’s method of management addresses four main points: Replace old work methods with methods based on a scientific study of tasks, scientifically train workers, fuse work procedures and specialized training, and dividing responsibilities between managers and workers (Holzer and Schwester, 2016, 46). However, it wasn’t until the 1930’s that scholars such as Henri Fayol and Lyndall Urwick improved on Frederick Taylor’s The Principles of Scientific Management. Unlike Taylor’s principles, which solely addresses how to cultivate ground floor workers and their managers, Henri Fayol and Lyndall Urwick provided steps to improve the organization of a company as a whole. Their principles of management aim to improve upper floor managers and supervisors so that the organization as a whole would run efficiently. This approach would later be known as “Administrative Management.’ This essay aims to compare and contrast Henri Fayol’s Fourteen

is a controversial figure in management history. His task-focused innovations in industrial engineering, particularly in time and motion studies, paid off in dramatic improvements in productivity. At the same time, he has been credited with destroying the soul of work, of dehumanising factories, making men into automatons.” His key publication on his theories of work was “The Principles of Scientific Management.” (SkyMark, n.d.).

In this blog, I will discuss the managerial knowledge in my organization using Fayol’s principles and functions of management, but first here is a little background about my company. I was working in a local cell phone service provider company (Mobily). The company is considered a big company with over 3700 employees from 22 countries. Moreover, Mobily was one of three companies that provided cell phone services and it enjoyed a higher level of growth than others. The marketing department over there was divided into two departments, one for consumers and the other one for business and I was working in the business department.