Scientific Management: a Review and Critical Analysis

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Scientific Management: A review and critical analysis By Ryan Lee c3154963 – Word count: 1283 This essay seeks to analyse the criticisms for and against scientific management to show that it is neither a perfect unified theory, nor completely inadequate. Instead this essay suggests that Taylor’s management theory is subject to proper application and the environment where it is applied. The primary source used; by Edwin A. Locke (1982) suggests Taylor’s views were fundamentally correct, have been generally accepted and that most of the major criticisms of the theory are unjustified. The first half of the review explains the various concepts of Taylorism. This could be summarised as assigning the right person the right job with the correct tools and equipment, have the worker follow instructions directly and motivate them with financial incentives. The second half of the review systematically discusses some of the more common criticisms of scientific management and why such arguments are flawed. Locke makes a convincing argument, but his defence of Taylor’s concepts revolves mostly around the inaccuracies of negative criticism and not the specific concepts. As a result, the article has a rather bias undertone. Scientific management has proven to increase efficiency and assist in maximising profits, but what about conflict? Taylor claimed that the goals of management and employees were not mutually exclusive. According to Taylor (as cited in Locke, 1982) there were virtually no strikes in plants in which he applied scientific management. Taylor was certainly right in believing that finding a common goal would reduce the conflict between management and workers. His mistake was the belief that there would be no conflict over how to divide the pie as long as the pie was large enough (Taylor, as cited in Locke, 1982). The idea was undermined by opportunistic

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