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Early years Taylor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a wealthy Quaker family. He had intended to pursue his education at Harvard University, but poor eyesight forced him to consider an alternative career. In 1874, he became an apprentice machinist, learning of factory conditions at the grass-roots level. He got a degree in Mechanical Engineering through a highly unusual (for the time) series of correspondence courses at Stevens Institute of Technology (graduating in 1886). The development of management Taylor thought that by analyzing work, the "One Best Way" to do it would be found. He is most remembered for developing the time and motion study. He would break a job into its component parts and measure each to the second. One of his most famous studies involved shovels. He noticed that the workers used the same shovel for all materials. He determined that the most effective load was 21½ lb, and found or designed shovels that for each material would scoop up that amount. He was generally unsuccessful at applying his concepts; it was largely through his disciples (most notably H.L. Gantt) that his ideas were implemented in industry. After being fired from Bethlehem Steel he wrote a book, Shop Management, which sold well. Taylor believed that contemporary management was amateurish and should be studied as a discipline, that workers should cooperate with management (and hence would not need trade unions), and that the best results would come from the partnership between a trained and qualified management and a cooperative and innovative workforce. Each side needed the other. Taylor was a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, founded in 1900. He is known for coinage of the term scientific management in his article "The Principles of Scientific Management," published in 1911. However, his approach is often referred to, as Taylor's Principles, or frequently disparagingly, as Taylorism. Taylor developed four principles of Scientific Management: Harvard University, one of the first American universities to offer a graduate degree in business management in 1908, based its first-year curriculum on Taylor's ideas regarding scientific management. His ideas, as well as Henry Ford's, relating to efficiency became highly influential during the early days of the Soviet Union. Relationship with ASME Taylor was president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) from 1906-1907. While president, he tried to implement his system into the management of the ASME but was met with much resistance. He was only able to reorganize the publications department and then only partially. He also forced out the ASME's long-time secretary, Morris L. Cooke, and replaced him with Calvin W. Rice. His tenure as president was trouble-ridden and marked the beginning of a period of internal dissension within the ASME during the Progressive Era (Jaffe 1957:34). In 1912, Taylor collected his articles into a book-length manuscript and submitted it to the ASME for publication. The ASME formed an ad hoc committee to review the text. The committee included Taylor allies such as James Mapes Dodge and Henry R. Towne. The committee delegated the report to the editor of the American Machinist, Leon P. Alford. Alford was a critic of the Taylor system and the report was negative. The committee modified the report slightly, but accepted Alford's recommendation not to publish Taylor's book. Taylor angrily withdrew the book and published Principles without ASME approval (Jaffe 1957:36-40; Nelson 1980:181-184). Taylors Influence in the United States France Le Chatelier translated Taylor's work and introduced scientific management throughout state plants during World War I. This influenced the French theorist Henri Fayol who published Administration Industrielle et Générale in 1916 (published in book form in 1917) which emphasized organizational structure in management. Switzerland The American Edward Albert Filene established the International Management Institute to spread information about management. USSR Lenin was very influenced by Taylor's ideas and sought to incorporate Taylorism into Soviet manufacturing. | ||||||||||
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