Fredrick W. Taylor (1856 ? 1915), pioneered the scientific management movement which studies a job carefully, breaking it into its smallest components, establish exact time and motion requirements for each task to be done, and then train workers to best complete these tasks in the same ways over and over again (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, 1998). These efforts are the forerunners of modern industrial engineering approaches to job design that focus on process efficiencies, the best methods and smooth workflows. Despite these efforts, there were critics that criticized Taylor's assertion that there is no such thing as "skill" in making and moving things and for not asking the workers he studied on how they thought their jobs could be improved.
The purpose of this essay is to identify how relevant are Taylor's ideas to the survival of today's organizations. Firstly, this essay will briefly discuss Taylor's four principles of management. Next, the essay will compare Taylor's four principles with other theorists' such as Hawthrone and Weber; and mainly on Ford and Fayol, to discover out the relationship among their theories. Following that, the essay will demonstrate Taylor's principles, which have succeeded in managing organisations, particularly the Japanese organisations. Also, it will investigate the development of Taylor's principles from the past to today's management rules.
Taylor's four components of management are summarized as follows: Firstly, developing a science for each element of work that has to be accomplished, which replaces the old rule-of-thumb method. Secondly, scientifically, select, train, teach and develop each employee to accomplish his or her task. Thirdly, sincerely cooperate with employees to ensure implementation of the scienti ...