The Principles of Scientific Management - Softcover

Taylor, Frederick Winslow

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1494812754 ISBN 13: 9781494812751

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013

Synopsis

Frederick Winslow Taylor is where the serious student of scientific management begins. His classic, the Principles of Scientific Management, remains one of the best books on the subject more than a century after he penned it. The book, which started out as an academic paper, is funny at times (and probably not meant to be), written in the academic style of the early 20th century. Taylor's movements back and forth between the theory and real life examples prove that he was one of the better economists of his day. Taylor had humble beginnings (he was a shop laborer early in his career), and later he switched to consulting for various types of manufacturers. Peter F. Drucker and other scientific management gurus owe Taylor a debt of gratitude. How can a firm reach greater efficiencies? Taylor suggested that firms do it in ways that even today are resisted and misunderstood by management. Increase workers' pay. Give them mandatory breaks throughout the day. Timing rest breaks between heavy lifting optimizes productivity. Please don't ignore these examples in the information age - Taylor was ahead of his time and perhaps even ahead of ours. Today's intelligent manager can still discover many useful ideas in this book. It's not a terribly long work, and it's fun to read. This book is invaluable for firms and workers in any country, developed or undeveloped, and the firms that dare to utilize the ideas will be quite happy with the result: increased productivity, and therefore, increased profits.

About this title

From the Back Cover

For more than 80 years, this influential work by Frederick Winslow Taylor—the pioneer of scientific management studies—has inspired administrators and students of managerial techniques to adopt productivity-increasing procedures. Indeed, this book laid the groundwork for modern organization and decision theory.
As an engineer for a steel company, Taylor made careful experiments to determine the best way of performing each operation and the amount of time it required, analyzing the materials, tools, and work sequence, and establishing a clear division of labor between management and workers. His experiments resulted in the formulation of the principles expounded in this remarkable essay, first published in 1911.
Taylor advocated a scientific management system that develops leaders by organizing workers for efficient cooperation, rather than curtailing inefficiency by searching for exceptional leaders someone else has trained. The whole system rests upon a foundation of clearly defined laws and rules. Moreover, the fundamental principles of scientific management apply to all kinds of human activities, from the simplest individual acts to the most elaborate cooperative efforts of mighty corporations. Correct application of these principles, according to Taylor, will yield truly astonishing results.
Unabridged Dover (1998) republication of the work published by Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, 1911.

About the Author

Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856–1915) was an American mechanical engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency. He is regarded as the father of scientific management and was one of the first management consultants. Taylor was one of the intellectual leaders of the Efficiency Movement and his ideas, broadly conceived, were highly influential in the Progressive Era. Taylor was a mechanical engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency. Taylor is regarded as the father of scientific management, and was one of the first management consultants and director of a famous firm. Taylor was also an accomplished tennis player. He and Clarence Clark won the first doubles tournament in the 1881 U.S. National Championships, the precursor of the U.S. Open. Future U.S. Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis coined the term scientific management in the course of his argument for the Eastern Rate Case before the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1910. Brandeis debated that railroads, when governed according to the principles of Taylor, did not need to raise rates to increase wages. Taylor used Brandeis's term in the title of his monograph The Principles of Scientific Management, published in 1911. The Eastern Rate Case propelled Taylor's ideas to the forefront of the management agenda. Taylor wrote to Brandeis "I have rarely seen a new movement started with such great momentum as you have given this one."

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1494812754
• ISBN 13: 9781494812751
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128