Frederick Winslow Taylor essays

Frederick Winslow Taylor essays Taylor wrote about the inefficiencies in the management of unskilled workers, focusing on the steel industry in particular. He systematically identified the problems, which caused these inefficiencies to exist and then went about proposing a solution to make these operations run more efficiently. He coined these solutions his principles of scientific management; scientific management being the organization of a workforce that results in the maximum productivity from the workers. The first problem he addressed was the problem of soldiering. Soldiering is when workers would purposely work below their capacity for a variety of reasons. First, workers everywhere shared the belief that increasing their output would only create less of a demand for workers, which could potentially eliminate their job. Also workers often had no incentive to increase their output; if they worked harder they were still paid the same as if they had loafed on the job. There also was the fear that if they worked harder, they would set a new standard for the pace at which their job should be done, which was against the workers best interests. Pay incentives for workers who produced a larger quantity was a technique that failed because the workers wouldnt produce with the same quality that they previously had because they were more concerned with making a large quantity of goods in order to receive the pay incentives. Taylors solution to these problems was to create more direct i nteraction between supervisors and workers and have them observe what a good amount of work should be. Then the supervisor offers the worker the option of receiving more pay if he would work that way each and every day. Another problem Taylor discussed was the problem of poor organization and inefficient usage of time led to a productivity level far less than what could potentially be achieved. Taylor analyzed different methods of performing a certain t...