ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Organisational Behaviour



Organisational Behaviour: Scientific Management

Scientific Management

Historical Review of the Principals of Management

The traditional model characterised as administration under "the formal control of political leadership, based on a strictly hierarchical model of bureaucracy, staffed by permanent, neutral and anonymous officials, motivated only by the public interest, serving any governing party equally and not contributing to policy but merely administering those policies decided by the politicians" (Hales, 1994, 36-197)

By the 1920s this model was fully formed and continued with extremely little change for at least fifty years. "Young" practitioners were so assured of their theories and they believed that the improvement of government and its administration would promote a better life for all.

After the critique of the theory of the separation between administration and politics considered as the myth to tolerate that politicians and administrators could be separated, the argument took place between scholars of public administration.

Nevertheless the political control and the theoretical basis of the bureaucracy were thoroughly established and unchanged; there were public sector adaptations of management theory. The row of imports from the private sector took place and the most important is the scientific management. That was explained by pretending that Public Management is able to be non-political and hence the operational methods used in the public sector would be the same as those used in the private sector.

But the larger waste is still human resources, like human efforts, which go on every day through such of our acts as are blundering, ill-directed or inefficient, and which referred to as a lack of "national efficiency" (Taylor, 1984, 25-144)

Scientific Management School

The basic assumption of this school is the philosophy that workers, at the operational level, are economically motivated and that they will put forth their best efforts if they are rewarded financially. The emphasis is on maximum output with minimum strain, eliminating waste and efficiency. The work of Frederick Winslow Taylor dominates the thinking of this "school" (Ritzer, 1993, 69-240).

Biography of F.Taylor

Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) was a mechanical engineer whose writings on efficiency and scientific management were widely read. Taylor devised the system he called scientific management, a form of industrial engineering that established the organisation of work. The main goal of his theory was to increase productivity. And at the same time he did not favour unions or industrial democracy. That's why his theory is regarded as authoritarian style of administration.

Efficiency was the most important theme of Taylor's ...