Frederick Taylor argued that scientific management is an approach that should be used in business management. This approach developed by Taylor focuses on 4 basic principles. These:
– The basic elements of the work should be found using scientific methods, not by eye.
– Instead of workers choosing their own methods of doing the work, management should plan the work and determine the methods.
– Emphasis should be placed on the selection and training of workers and the development of cooperation.
– Efficiency should be increased by separating the jobs of management and workers and giving suitable jobs to the employees.
The four basic principles listed above express a complete management system as well as the production activities carried out every day. Some authors have made the adaptation of these principles to the organization as follows:
– “Every job should be separated into its constituent elements (tasks, what actions and behaviors).
– Each of these tasks should be studied in detail from a scientific point of view.
– During this examination, it should be investigated how the tasks can be done in a shorter time and more effectively (method), which tools and equipment should be used for this purpose (time and movement), how the person performing the task should behave and what movements should be done.
– Movements that increase fatigue, waste of time and waste in the person doing the work should be identified and eliminated.
– Thus, once the task and way of doing things has been found, they should be standardized in terms of time, method and behavior.
– Then, people with sufficient physical and mental abilities should be selected to be able to do these jobs with certain standards.
– These people should be made to be able to do the job in the prescribed manner by undergoing appropriate training.
– Employees should be financially supported to work as envisaged by developing an incentive wage system.
– The management should constantly monitor the functioning of this system, and the malfunctions should be examined scientifically.
The main purpose of Taylor’s Scientific Management Approach is to increase employee productivity by systematically or scientifically examining the work. The focus is on “one right way” regarding the way the work is done, and when this way is found and implemented, the employee’s productivity and therefore his income will increase. Employees whose monetary income increases will start to use this method continuously. Taylor, arguing that material factors have the most important place in the motivation of the employee, thinks that this will make positive contributions to the business.
As it can be seen from the adaptation of the principles tried to be given in detail above to the enterprises, these principles are quite different from the traditional management, but there are also important points such as job analysis, factors to be considered in the selection of personnel, and training of the personnel, which form the basis of the creation of modern personnel management. In addition to all these, the Scientific Management Approach tried to establish standards based on the works at the production department level of the enterprises15.
A large part of the criticisms made against the Scientific Management Approach is that people are treated as machines doing business in the approach and these people are used as machines to achieve goals. Because, according to Taylor, all works are the same, it is possible to analyze them step by step and then put them together and place them in any work. The person who wants to learn these trades deserves first-class pay as a first-class man and can do the most skilled work in the most excellent way.
Taylor is not the only scientist who was influential in the development of the Scientific Management Approach. In this area, Henry L. Gantt developed the importance of worker psychology, incentive wage system applications and production planning scheme. Frank and Lillian Gilberth developed motion and time studies with an analytical approach. Moris L. Cooke has shown that scientific management can also be used in fields such as universities and urbanism.
