Taylorism's Relevance in the Modern Organization

Picture from Wikipedia.

As a person with an interest in efficiency theory, I have been fascinated with Frederick Taylor's principles for a long time. Every once in a while I think about Taylorism and its relevance to the modern organization. I propose that that relevancy of Taylorism correlates to the economy. This post will discuss how Taylorism can be used in the modern organization, and how certain aspects of Taylorism may not be relevant due to economic circumstances.

Many of Taylor's principles stemmed from concern of soldiering. Soldiering occurs when people purposefully perform below their capacity. I like to think of soldiering as purposeful inefficiency. Frederick iterated four causes of soldiering.

First, men were subject to heckling from peers if they were too productive. I find this first cause to be moot in the modern work place and given the economy. In this economy, people strive to find more ways to be efficient and more productive because there is a surplus of human capital to take over for an inefficient worker.

Second, Taylor believed soldiering occurred because of concern over elimination of work opportunities. In other words, people performed below their capacities because more efficient work would lead to the need for fewer workers. If one worker could get the job done that two workers were currently doing, the less efficient worker would be eliminated. I find that this principle is not sustainable in terms of economic principles. All workers would have to have an agreement to not work to their capacity; which runs the risk of one worker performing better than everyone else, and reaping the rewards as well. In other words, if one person competes to achieve more productivity while everyone else agrees to not work to capacity, the efficient person will be rewarded.

Additionally, if management reduces all employees who are not the most efficient, at some point diminishing returns will kick in. One single worker can only be worked so hard before their inputs do not produce the level of expected outputs.  Because of the economic realities behind this cause of soldiering, I believe that this cause of soldiering is not very prevalent in the modern organization.

Third, Taylor believed soldiering occurred because of lack of incentive for productive work practices. Unlike the above two causes of soldiering, this cause is still prevalent, and something that efficiency theory can work to reduce or eliminate. All employees must be motivated in order to reach optimal efficiency levels.

Fourth, Taylor attributed soldiering to too many non task-specific work principles. I have seen this have a negative effect on employee efficiency. For example, supervisors may get a great marketing idea and have employees engage in marketing techniques instead of job related duties. For example, a lawyer who is told by a supervisor to visit neighboring unrelated retailers to market the firm. This detracts from employee efficiency, as it would usually be more efficient for a marketing employee to engage in this practice.

Taylorism's notions of soldiering are still relevant in the modern organization. Reducing soldiering will lead to increased efficiency. Although, Taylor's third and fourth causes of soldiering seem to be more prevalent in the modern organization than the first two given today's economic market.

Source:

Taylor, Frederick Winslow.  The Principles of Scientific Management.  Mineola, New

            York: Dover Publications, 1998.  (originally published in 1911).