Taylorism and century twenty-one:
Is Taylorism still applicable today?

Management has become an essential part of an organization over the years due to the effects it has on the organization. Scientific Management also known as Taylorism, was a theory developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor. It was developed at a time when working conditions had reached an all-time low and industrial unrest was becoming a major issue(Witzel, 2005). Scientific Management was one of the first management ideas to become really influential. This management theory was developed in response of ‘worker soldiering”- workers will do the least amount of work in the longest time, workers would stall their jobs on purpose. The incentive to work more efficiently did not exist. Taylor believed in making scientific changes in management. This would improve economic efficiency and labor productivity. Taylor studied the work process scientifically. He studied how employees preformed their jobs and how this affected their productivity. Taylor proposed that by simplifying jobs by developing standard methods for performing certain jobs, productivity would increase dramatically. He also believed that employees and manager should be more involved with each other. This point of view was different from previous management methods. Taylor believed that money was a motivation for workers; to achieve higher efficiency he promoted the “a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work” or piece rate payment. This means the worker gets paid for what he has worked for or he gets paid only if he reaches the desired amount of production. Higher efficiency of an employee led to higher wages. Taylor designed experiments in the workplace to determine optimal performance levels. He used his outcomes to determine what was the best way to get the job done. These experiments known as time and motion studies led Taylor to conclude