Frederick Winslow Taylor

Motivational Theories

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR (1856-1915) was born in Philadelphia of middle class parents.  In 1878 he took up work as an unskilled labourer at the Midvale Steel Works.  In eight years he worked his way up to be the Chief Engineer of the works.  He obtained his Master’s Degree in Engineering through part-time study.

During the latter part of this period he developed his ideas on management, which became known as Taylorism or Scientific Management. The four overriding principles of scientific management are:

• Each part of an individual’s work is analysed “scientifically” and the most efficient method for undertaking the job is devised – the one best way of working.  Then the maximum amount a first class worker can turn out on a daily basis is measured and then all workers are expected to do this every day.
• The most suitable person to undertake the job is “scientifically” chosen and taught to do the job in the exact way devised.
• Managers must co-operate with workers to ensure the job is done in a scientific way.
• There is a clear division of work between management and workers.

Many of Taylor’s ideas are relevant to the modern day, three in particular stand out:

1. A reward, if it is to be most effective in stimulating workers to do their best, must come soon after the work has been done.  The average worker must be able to measure what he has accomplished and clearly see his reward at the end of each day.
2. The use of written documentation for each part of a worker’s job.
3. Suggestion schemes backed up by incentives.  All employees were encouraged to improve methods or tools for better working.

THE HUMAN RELATIONS SCHOOL

ELTON MAYO (1880-1949) was born in Australia but worked in the USA at the Harvard Business School.  He was a disciple of F W Taylor believing firmly in the principles and practices of scientific management.

In 1923 a Philadelphia spinning mill ran into problems while implementing Taylor's thinking and called on Mayo to help them out.  Most of the mill was working extremely well but one department had an unsatisfactory output and the turnover rate was 250%, compared with 6% elsewhere.  A series of experimental changes in working conditions was introduced, most notably rest breaks.   After one year labour turnover was down to the average level.  It was assumed that this improvement was due to the rest breaks.  This conclusion underwent a substantial modification as a result of another experiment shortly after.

After four years of study and experiments at the Hawthorn plant of Western Electric in Chicago, Mayo concluded in 1928 that:

• Job satisfaction increases as workers are given more freedom to determine the conditions of their working environment and to set their own standards of output;
• High levels of interaction and co-operation created a high level of group cohesion;
• Job satisfaction and output depended more on co-operation and a feeling of worth than on physical working conditions.

Output and morale had increased because the experimental groups of workers felt “singled out for special attention” and that a “special situation” had been created whereby they could air their views with a sympathetic person.

These conclusions established the beginnings of recognition that:

• Management style is a major contributor to industrial productivity;
• Interpersonal skills are as important as target setting or monetary incentives; and
• A more humanistic approach is an important means of satisfying the organisation’s economic and social needs.

HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

ABRAHAM MASLOW (1908-1970) was a US psychologist and behavioural scientist.  He became one of the first people to be associated with the humanistic, as opposed to task-based, approach to management.  In the 1940s Maslow identified five types of human need (= motivators, drivers) and arranged these in a hierarchy, ascending from lowest to highest.