Fundamentals of Management, 8th ed

classical

management

perspective

Consists of two

distinct branches—

scientific

management and

administrative

management

scientific

management

Concerned with

improving the

performance of

individual workers

soldiering

Employees

deliberately working

at a slow pace

12

Part 1: An Introduction to Management

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Figure 1.3 illustrates the basic steps Taylor suggested. He believed that managers who

followed his guidelines would improve the efficiency of their workers.

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Taylor’s work had a major impact on U.S. industry. By applying his principles, many

organizations achieved major gains in efficiency. Taylor was not without his detractors,

however. Labor argued that scientific management was just a device to get more work

from each employee and to reduce the total number of workers needed by a firm. There

was a congressional investigation into Taylor’s ideas, and evidence suggests that he falsified

some of his findings.

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Nevertheless, Taylor’s work left a lasting imprint on business.

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Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, contemporaries of Taylor, were a husband-and-wife team

of industrial engineers. One of Frank Gilbreth’s most interesting contributions was to the

craft of bricklaying. After studying bricklayers at work, he developed several procedures

for doing the job more efficiently. For example, he specified standard materials and tech-

niques, including the positioning of the bricklayer, the bricks, and the mortar at different

levels. The results of these changes were a reduction from 18 separate physical move-

ments to 5 and an increase in the output of about 200 percent. Lillian Gilbreth made

equally important contributions to several different areas of work, helped shape the

field of industrial psychology, and made substantive contributions to the field of person-

nel management. Working individually and together, the Gilbreths developed numerous

techniques and strategies for eliminating inefficiency. They applied many of their ideas

to their family and documented their experiences raising 12 children in the book and

original 1950 movie Cheaper by the Dozen.