Frederick Winslow (F. W.) Taylor (1856-1915)

American engineer (pictured right) and creator of one of the most influential ideas in management, scientific management.

It was applied by the car manufacturer, Henry Ford (pictured right below), in the world’s first ever mass production assembly line in 1913.

Key book

The Principles of Scientific Management (1911)

Scientific management (now often known as Taylorism) is based upon:

1. Work study

(determining the best way of doing a task and making sure employees do it as efficiently and productively as possible)

Taylor angered unions by pushing and punishing workers to achieve maximum productivity gains.

2. Boring work

Workers’ jobs are simplified (or deskilled) and specialized as much as possible, so that they can be easily mechanized.

3.Autocratic management

(based on orders, close supervision and inspection).

4. Interdependence 

Management and employees rely on each other to achieve higher productivity and profit, and so the workforce must be given more money for achieving them.

5. Functional management

Managers are given specific managerial tasks to do (like production).

6. Great people

Selecting, training and developing “first class men”.

7. Pay linked to output (piece rate)

This is to avoid “soldiering” where workers copy their laziest colleagues, if they are paid the same.

Key quote on management 

In the past the man was first. In the future the system will be first.

Key quote on motivation

The principal object of management should be to secure the maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity of each employee.

Key quote on economics

It is the greater productivity of each individual that the whole country owes its greater prosperity.