Scientific Management

INTRODUCTION
It is not difficult to find examples of Scientific Management in today’s society; the car and computer manufacturing plants, the work environments we go to everyday, the hospitals we are treated in and even some of the restaurants we might eat in, - almost all of them function more efficiently due to the application of Scientific Management. In fact, these methods of working seem so commonplace and so logical to a citizen of the modern world that it is almost impossible to accept that they were revolutionary only 100 years ago.
Technically Scientific Management is the Management thought concerned primarily with the physical efficiency of an individual worker (Bratton: 2000). According to Taylor (1998), "Scientific Management is an art of knowing exactly what you want your men to do and seeing that they do it in the best and cheapest way". In Taylors view, if work is analyzed scientifically it will be possible to find one best way to do it. Taylor held the belief that traditional decisions and guidelines should be replaced by accurate procedures that are developed after careful research and study of an individual’s work. The need for scientific management is propelled by the fact that the demand of the competent man surpasses the supply. Countries and organizations are always on the look out for a man who has already been trained. There is a seeming lack of opportunity and contribution towards systematically training and making a man competent.
However, George Ritzer(2000) defined Scientific Management as a procedure that produced non human technology that exerted great control over workers. In his statement Ritzer refers to the effect of scientific management. Before the study by Taylor and most businesses followed the old Rule of Thumb management procedure in which the worker had initiative and control and therefore, it was only his hard work that resulted in the business success or failure. Taylor studied his place of work, The Bethlehem steel...