Critically assess the impact of Taylor and Ford on organizations today Essay

Critically assess the impact of Taylor and Ford on organizations today - Essay Example The scientific approach had been quite significant during the industrialization era. However, in today’s organizations it is facing a decreasing impact owing to the knowledge of experienced managers that all situations and people should not be handled the same way. The emergence of numerous variables and environmental uncertainties has led many organizations to use the contingency approach. Scientific management aims to determine one best way for a job to be accomplished. Fredrick Taylor is a significant contributor to the development of this theory. His work at Midvale and Bethlehem Steel Industries stimulated the interest in him to improving efficiency. Taylor defined four principles of management which he sought would create mental revolution among the managers and workers (Cobley, 2009). His principles involved the development of a true science of management, scientific selection of workers, scientific education and development of workers and intimate friendly relationship between the workers and employers. Heames (2010) explains how using these principles enabled Taylor to define one best way for doing each job and achieve improvements in productivity, which was consistent in the range of 200 percent. He affirmed the role of workers to perform as they were instructed while the manager’s roles were to plan and control. The mass production model which bears the name of its pioneer, Ford, dates back to the first moving assembly lines creation that were put into action at Ford’s Model T plant. The labour productivity increased tenfold permitting stunning price cuts. This ensured mass manufacturing at a price low enough that a common man could afford to buy (Daft, 2010:97). Fordism production involved an intensified division of labour and increased coordination and mechanization of large-scale manufacturing to achieve a steady production flow. They also used less skilled labour to perform tasks that were least specified by the management. T he control over the pace and intensity of work owing to the potential for heightened capitalist were inclusive to Fordism (Wagner, 2009). According to Frey (2008), separation of thinking and working is one of the impacts that resulted in the essence of Taylorism where managers had to decide what the workers should do. The worker would have got used to their action when they had thought of it and tried to improve on it (Down, 2012). The relationship between the worker and the manager known as social-technical relation has different demands in that the planning department wanted efficiency in the production process but the workers wanted to have commensurate payment. Although it improved efficiency and profitability to organizations while making the management’s systematic workers felt differently in terms of satisfaction and motivation (Frey, 2008:185). Workers and employer relation’s importance was recognized by Ford. He introduced an eight-hour workday and offered hig her wages. This impacted on employee motivation, and thus job satisfaction. This, in turn, made workers to improve on their skills, quality of life and enhance job satisfaction (Pacharapha, 2012). In Fordism the management was considerably hierarchical, and the power of the company was only vested in the top management. Application of scientific principles on machines to