Community Scientific Management and Organisations

Question: Discuss about the Community Scientific Management and Organisations. Answer: The workers in America, Australia and Europe will not accept Taylorism in its original form. This method involves scientific management where the employees with less efficiency are considered less intelligent and the efficient ones are praised at the workplace (YouTube 2008). The employees would find the concept of Taylorism insulting assuming that the employees possess low level of knowledge. One of the key ideas generated from the Ford and Taylorism theory is the change in method of production. In the current society, Ford, Audi and various other companies implement the concept of assembly lines in relation with scientific management. The assembly line automated technique is less time consuming thereby enhancing the total number of cars (Evans and Holmes 2013). The Taylor theory also eliminates unnecessary movement of workers for enhancing productivity. The theory further involves managing the workforce directly by eliminating the trade unions. Taylor asked to segregate planning and doing. However, in reality the planners are also engaged in doing so that they can make realistic plans for the organisation (Antaya 2015). The workers shall avoid Taylorism as it unnecessarily puts pressure on the employees to work faster. Therefore, it results in exploitation of employees. Taylor also uses functional foremanship where there is unity of command. It creates chaos and confusion in the organisation where the workers have to report to all the bosses. Taylor also followed a mechanical approach where too much focus was given to efficiency. The human element is ignored and the human beings are considered as robots. Taylor also assumed that the employees are motivated simply by financial gains. However, in reality the employees want social needs satisfaction too. Taylor disregards the importance of group performance while in todays world individual performance is not everything. The people need to perform in groups that make an organisation successful (Grachev and Rakitsky 2013). Therefore, the workers of Europe, Australia or America would not apply the theory in the original form. However, it can be applied after certain ramifications to apply the theory successfully. Usually, call centres are identified as a place to work involving high amount o stress. The Taylorism principles affect the working conditions significantly that increase the turnover rates. Taylorism is often referred as the tyranny of the assembly line (Evans and Holmes 2013). The call centres recruit low skilled employees as contingent or casual workers, they have been considered as exemplars of lowering standards for service work. Call centres are customer oriented organisations that brings the question of Taylorism in the centre. In a Tayloristic paradigm, efficiency can be gained through strict management of tasks and standardization of processes (Aitken 2014). People usually denote the employees of call centre as machines. The employees at the call centres find it demeaning to work for managers who are obsessed with the duration taken on a call for serving the purpose and customers. Therefore, its roots are said to be grounded in Taylorism (Evans and Holmes 2013). The costs decline if more number of customers is handled in less time. The managers do not consider the human factors of why the call leads to failure or there is a need to call again. Taylor views knowledge as prime productive resource. The service workers need to come up with solutions and not follow procedures stringently. However, it is seen that the people in call centres have to follow processes and procedures. One of the major observations about the similarity of call centres and Taylorism is high turnover rate. It is further argued that call centres follow division of work specialising in niche. The division is done based on the level of expertise of the employees so that roles can be assigned accordingly. In reality, the telephone calls are monitored and the staffs do not have much autonomy. This is similar as seen in the case of Taylor where the organisational system has to be strictly monitored based on targets and bonuses (Mart, Valverde and Heraty 2013). Therefore, it can be stated that Taylorism is highly applied in case of call centres. The call centre employees denoted as machines are similar to that of Taylorism approach. According to YouTube (2008), the clip showing history is at least 100 years old. There are people who believe that the world has moved on but there are some parts of the world that believe that Taylors ideas are much required. The principles of scientific management such as rewarding employees with financial incentives, principle of division of work, simple production techniques and various others have several benefits. Scientific management leads to enhanced production as it improves the business operations. There is cooperation between managers and employees. Another benefit of scientific management is that the managers have control over production. Also, through specialisation the workers excel in doing the same work that helps in saving time and enhancing productivity. There is less scope for inaccuracy as there is better planning and decision making. Through large scale production, the cost per unit is reduced thereby boosting productivity level (Watson 2013). Further, Taylorism lays emphasis on financial rewards such as high wages for the employees. This helps the employees in achieving higher standard of living and motivating the employees to perform in a better manner. The scientific management theory increases the benefits for consumers who are able to obtain best quality products at fewer prices. Quick decision making is another advantage of Taylorism (Abrahamson, Berkowitz and Dumez 2016). If the scientific management method is followed, there is better and optimum utilization of resources. There shall be less wastage which is much required in the current world. With scientific management theory, the working conditions are made better. Large scale production benefits the investors and owners (Shafritz and Whitbeck 2013). It is interpreted that the correct utilization and application of the theories in current age can lead to organisational success. Therefore, Taylorism can be applied to a certain extent in the current world. References Abrahamson, E., Berkowitz, H. and Dumez, H., 2016. A More Relevant Approach to Relevance in Management Studies: An Essay on Performativity.Academy of Management Review, 41(2), pp.367-381. Aitken, H., 2014.Scientific management in action. 1st ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Antaya, S., 2015. At War with the Machine: Canadian Workers Resistance to Taylorism in the Early 20th Century.The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History,3(1), pp.7-19. Evans, C. and Holmes, L., 2013.Re-Tayloring Management. 1st ed. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Grachev, M. and Rakitsky, B., 2013. Historic horizons of Frederick Taylor's scientific management.Journal of Management History, 19(4), pp.512-527. Mart-Aud, N., Valverde, M. and Heraty, N., 2013. Human resource management in the Spanish call centre sector: the bird cage model of call centre work.The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(2), pp.308-329. Shafritz, J. and Whitbeck, P., 2013.Classics of organisation theory. 1st ed. Oak Park, Ill.: Moore Pub. Co. Watson, T., 2013.Management, organisation and employment strategy. 1st ed. London: Routledge. YouTube, 2008.Ford and Taylor Scientific Management (Edited). [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PdmNbqtDdI [Accessed 18 Dec. 2016].