Welcome once again to home economics, today we will continue with the free course on business economics. In this chapter we will talk about the scientific theory of management The scientific theory of management was promoted mainly by the American engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor from his work entitled Principles of scientific management in 1911. His theory of the scientific organization of work It was a radical change in the way of working until then based on the routine and customs of each individual.
This change was achieved by using systematized knowledge and applying scientific methods such as observation and measurement to improve the efficiency of organizations. Hence, scientific theory is defined as a methodology that is based on scientific methods and laws that make it possible to take advantage of the working day in a better way, avoiding loss of time and money in the production process. Its fundamental objective is to achieve the maximum levels of productivity and, therefore, of prosperity.
Principles of Scientific Management Taylor defines four specific principles that must be followed to run a company in order to achieve increased production while minimizing costs. These are: Principle of planning: It consists of replacing the individual criteria of the operator, improvisation and empirical-practical performance by methods based on scientific procedures. That is, replace improvisation with science, through method planning.
Therefore, this process must be prepared by a group of specialists, who will be responsible for defining the most efficient and economical operating processes . The amount of work to be done by each person under optimal conditions should be established . Preparation principle: This principle aims to locate the most suitable worker for each type of job.
For this, the worker's capabilities must be taken into account and basic conditions of well-being at work must be provided. That is, it seeks to have the minimum requirements that the worker must have to perform a task efficiently. This selection should be done in a systematic way, since the better prepared a person is to carry out a task, the more productive they will be.
Control principle: This principle is based on controlling the work to certify that it is being carried out in accordance with the established standards and according to the planned plan. Principle of execution: It consists of distributing the tasks and responsibilities to your workers efficiently and correctly so that the execution of the work is disciplined. Apart from these 4 main principles, Taylor also enunciated other 4 secondary principles that must be taken into account to understand and know how to apply the scientific direction of the work.
These are: Cooperation between management and workers. This principle claims that the interests of the employer and the workers are the same. To achieve this, he proposes that labor remuneration be made based on the productivity of the worker.
So that the worker who produces more earns more money Study the work of the workers, break it down into its elementary movements and time it for after careful analysis, eliminate or reduce useless movements and refine and rationalize useful movements. Radical separation between management and work. The management would be in charge exclusively of directing and the workers of working And finally carrying out a functional organization.
This means that each worker receives orders from as many specialist heads as there are facets of his task Advantages and Disadvantages of scientific administration On the one hand, among the most important advantages of scientific administration we find that: A higher level of specialization is achieved in the Job positions. Each worker's work is done more efficiently. Better results are achieved with the application of the division of labor.
The difference between mental and manual work is established. Productivity increases by remunerating the worker according to what he produces. Promotes the personal development of workers.
On the other hand, the most important disadvantages are the following: The line of communication is descending, so the workers must abide by the rules and cannot contribute or give an opinion. Unity of command is lost and it generates conflict in the workers. Individualism is promoted to maximize efficiency.
Criticisms of the scientific theory of management Among the main criticisms of the scientific theory of management we find the following: Mechanism of scientific theory: Scientific theory paid little attention to the human element, it was basically concerned with the organization and execution of tasks and by factors that are directly related to the position and function of the operator, that is, time and movement. Super- specialization of the operator: In the search for efficiency, scientific theory was imposed by the specialization of the worker through the division of tasks into simpler steps. However, this extreme specialization of tasks despite increasing productivity completely eliminates job satisfaction since the worker is limited to performing the same step throughout his working day being one more machine in the factory, this causes that many authors have gone so far as to say that scientific labor management violates human dignity.
Microscopic vision of man: Scientific theory refers to man as an employee taken individually, ignoring that the worker is a human and social being who needs social relationships and whose work cannot be measured only by the muscular fatigue that Present. The latter is what Taylor did when he considered human resources as arms of industrial machinery . Absence of physical verification: Scientific theory is also criticized for the fact of trying to elaborate a science without presenting scientific proofs of its propositions and principles.
If it is true that the method used by Taylor is an empirical method, however it is a concrete method where knowledge is reached by evidence and not by abstraction: that is, when timing the tasks of his workers, he was based on isolated data. , when the scientific verifications should have been made on the whole set Incomplete approach to the organization: For many authors the scientific theory is incomplete, partial and unfinished, because it is restricted only to the formal aspects of the organization, completely omitting the informal organization and mainly, the Human aspects of the organization such as social relations between workers or their concerns in life. Closed system approach: Visualize companies as if they existed in a vacuum, or as if they were autonomous entities, absolute and hermetically closed to any influence.
coming from outside of them; that is to say, it is characterized by the fact of visualizing only what happens within an organization, without taking into account the environment in which it is located. This makes it a closed system approach and its behavior is mechanical, predictable where its parts work within an unchangeable logic With all this I say goodbye for today, if I have helped you and you want to continue learning I leave you two videos for you to click on them based on YouTube recommendations. On the other hand, I would appreciate it if you would subscribe to my channel if I have been useful to you by clicking on my logo on the left side of the video.
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