Chapter 1: Review of the Principles of Scientific Management Introduction: Taylor's management theory, the author of the Principles of Scientific Management, seems simple, but in fact it is rich in connotation and cannot be completely absorbed by an era. Only by reading the master's works in person can we understand the true meaning of management; Only by practicing the great truth theory can we achieve the management goal-"maximizing the wealth of employers and maximizing the wealth of each employee." This article was originally submitted as a report to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The examples selected here can arouse great interest of engineers, managers and owners in industry and manufacturing. I hope readers can understand that the same principle can be applied to all social activities with the same effect, including family management, farm management, business management of large and small businessmen, church management, charity management, university management and government department management.
A netizen of Dangdang online bookstore finished reading Principles of Scientific Management: If peter drucker really defined management and made it global, then the first person who really studied labor seriously and really regarded management as a science was undoubtedly frederick taylor. In fact, the ideas contained in the principles of scientific management may be taken for granted by some people at present. However, this view was put forward in the19th century, and I have to admire Taylor's ability and mind. I want to talk about Taylor's ...
Taobao netizen: read the principle of scientific management, remember Mr. Taylor and commemorate the publication 100 anniversary of this book. A whole century has passed since Mr Taylor's Principles of Scientific Management was first published. However, is it necessary to reread such a book after a century? Is it necessary to introduce other friends to read such old books? Is it a waste of time? What I want to say is that it is still a book today. ...
Chapter Two: Reflections on the Principles of Scientific Management Recently, I have carefully read Taylor's Principles of Scientific Management, and I always feel that I should write my own feelings, even if it is only my personal opinion. In fact, it is a very painful thing not to settle down to study. More often, I am trying to calm myself down. I have been exposed to Taylor system before, so I am not very strange.
Taylor's scientific management advocates replacing the original empirical methods with scientific methods, scientifically selecting and educating workers, and requires managers and workers to work closely together. The main purpose is to maximize labor productivity, which is essentially to maximize wealth (profit). From the point of view of economics, his thought is of great progressive significance, which is a leap-forward progress for the development of management discipline. In his time, American industrialization developed rapidly and labor relations were tense. In fact, it is difficult for people to understand and support his ideas.
Taylor was mentioned because an article mentioned the concern for Foxconn employees in Shenzhen caused by the 12 consecutive jump. Foxconn's management has the shadow of Taylor system, implements standardized management, takes the maximum efficiency as the highest goal, and conducts unified management based on the assumption of "economic man", believing that people are driven by economic interests and do not care about their social needs and emotional needs. China is in the process of rapid industrialization, and it is inevitable that there will be many problems that occurred in the industrialization era in Europe and America, and some will repeat the same mistakes. However, in this era of attaching importance to human rights and in this people-oriented society, it is impossible to manage enterprises completely according to the assumption of "economic man" for a long time. Today, on the basis of learning and drawing lessons from history, we should pay more attention to the various needs of enterprise workers (employees), fully see the interests of enterprise operators, employees and all consumers, and pursue multi-win is the best!
Chapter III: Principles of Scientific Management 19 1 1 The publication of Principles of Scientific Management in marked the arrival of a new era of management. Today, this book still brings infinite enlightenment to managers and is a must-read management classic. I spent some time reading Master Taylor's book Principles of Scientific Management. In my opinion, it is not a book in content, but a paper crystallized by master Taylor's scientific management wisdom.
Taylor's definition of scientific management is: "the combination of various elements-not a single element-constitutes scientific management, which can be summarized as: science, not empirical methods; Coordination, not disagreement; Cooperation, not individualism; Maximum output, unlimited output; Maximize everyone's labor productivity and maximize wealth, not poverty. " This definition not only clarifies the true connotation of scientific management, but also fully reflects Taylor's scientific management thought.
In the conclusion of this paper, it is expounded that scientific management is a "collection" of various elements that existed in the past, that is, the original knowledge is collected, analyzed, combined and classified into laws and rules, thus forming a science. "It will bring the greatest benefits to the whole world."
Taylor's management theory seems simple, but in fact it is extremely rich in connotation. We need to study and practice constantly to achieve the goal of organizational management-"maximizing the wealth of employers and maximizing the wealth of each employee".
Chapter four: After reading Principles of Scientific Management, I feel the duality of good and evil, and the duality of light. Because most of the inferences in Principles of Scientific Management always attribute human nature to the hypothesis of "economic man", that is, people are always guided by personal interests-in addition, they are regarded as "evil". However, some later practices have proved that people are still "social people" (good), that is, they should have a sense of social belonging that embodies the virtues of unity and cooperation. The recent incident of Foxconn jumping off a building is that people are typically simply regarded as "economic men", thinking that as long as there is a corresponding salary return, they can undertake a lot of mechanical labor, just like a person who is isolated from society, and will eventually be unable to survive because of lack of interpersonal communication (Robinson Society). In fact, in the end, we realized that people are both economic and social, that is, they have the duality of good and evil, rather than simple "nature is good" or "innate evil". This exploration of human nature in the field of economics is exactly the same as that in the field of physics. In physics, light is first wave theory, then particle theory, and finally wave-particle duality. Personally, the reasons for this situation are: because people exist in nature and society at the same time, they have two attributes: nature (economic man, vicious) and society (social man, good); Light can be real or imaginary, so it has both particle (real) and fluctuation (imaginary) properties.
Materialism and idealism. Since modern times, people all over the world regard materialism as a sacred book, and idealism always lingers on the edge of history. Personally, this is related to the understanding of the development of human history. An example in "Principles of Scientific Management" inspired my idea: compared with the practice of timely reward every day, equity dividends are often more likely to fail, and people are more likely to be influenced by immediate things, rather than distant things. In this way, some idealism is actually a kind of spiritual power, but people are more susceptible to materialism that can make immediate changes-for example, if I move the position of an object, I can see the effect immediately after the action, and I alienate the idealism that represents spiritual power, because this spiritual power will only be effective after a certain amount of accumulation time and accumulation. If you can't reach that critical value, even if you make a lot of efforts, you may get nothing in the end (for example, you may spend your whole life cultivating yourself into a saint or a "Buddha immortal", and you may lose money if you are not careful). This is the least favorite way for human beings to give. At the end of the article, I still want to talk about a problem that runs through the whole mankind-men and women. Personally, I always think that men represent the material world and women represent the spiritual world. Only when the human concept changes, the spiritual world and the material world are equally important, can the problem of equality between men and women be fundamentally solved.
Chapter 5: Management Review The principle of scientific management is undoubtedly one of the most advanced disciplines. After more than 100 years of development, it has already flourished, and it is not what it used to be. However, the essence of management has not changed. Today, we go back to review the classics and see how it started. When we go back, we will naturally meet Taylor, who is known as the "father of scientific management", and his scientific management principles.
Taylor is an American classical management scientist and the founder of scientific management. It can also be said that he was the first person who studied labor seriously and regarded management as a science. Taylor's greatness lies in his scientific analysis of management in chaos, which improves management efficiency and achieves a win-win situation for employers and employees. From now on, Taylor's "scientific management" system is actually very simple, although to do this, many scientific and quantitative means need to be taken, and more attention needs to be devoted to detailed comparison and analysis. However, it is beyond people's power to put forward this theoretical system at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century and devote themselves fearlessly to its practice and popularization. The core of scientific management he refined is: seeking scientific operation methods, formulating scientific process regulations, standardizing tools, machines and materials, standardizing working environment and fixing it in the form of documents; Subsequently, scientifically select, train and promote workers; At the same time, the incentive piece-rate wage system is implemented. Workers who have completed or exceeded the quota are paid by piece, and the wage rate is higher, while workers who have not completed the quota are paid at a lower wage rate.
In addition, he creatively put forward that management and labor should be separated, requiring managers and workers to work closely together to ensure that the work is carried out in accordance with standard design procedures. Although the above theories and measures have now become management common sense, they were great changes at that time, which shocked the world greatly. After that, Taylor's followers further enriched its scientific management system. Henry gantt used Gantt Chart to plan and control, which was a revolution of management thought at that time. Henry Ford further studied how to improve the efficiency of the whole production process on the basis of Taylor's single process action research. He fully considered the advantages of mass production and created the first assembly line-Ford assembly line, which greatly reduced the cost. Thanks to the scientific management system, the productivity of American enterprises has been greatly improved, and a new situation of high efficiency, low cost, high salary and high profit once appeared. As for social organization master Weber and management master Drucker, they also benefited a lot from the scientific management system.
However, scientific management has its own limitations. In today's view, the management category of its definition is very single, mostly limited to manufacturing enterprises. Although Taylor said that "the same principle can be applied to all social activities and produce the same effect", it is obviously difficult to do so. This is not surprising, because the concepts of enterprise and management were not really formed at that time. This work was not completed by a management master Drucker until the thirties and forties of last century. Only in manufacturing enterprises can Taylor determine the "standard workload" and then determine the "wage payment rate" through scientific research; As for the popular creative enterprises and intelligence-intensive enterprises, it is difficult to do this because they are not in Taylor's narrow sense of "management" at all.
In other words, relying on scientific quantitative means to improve production efficiency is, in the final analysis, like "doing Dojo in snail shell", and the effect is always limited. Today, we already know that management is a science and an art, and it is an effective combination of the two. It is wrong to emphasize only one aspect. Taylor's scientific management is more of a narrow method, which needs to be based on stable technology and business processes. Once the production technology changes, the standard operation and process must also change. To improve efficiency, we have to do some research and analysis again. In fact, with the development of science and technology, the changes of production processes and methods are getting faster and faster. In this sense, we need to constantly carry out production process reengineering, which is the fundamental reason for the prevalence of "process reengineering" today. Today, only through scientific and technological innovation and management innovation, the initiative and enthusiasm of employees can be mobilized, and the efficiency can be really improved quickly. And if you are obsessed with scientific management, there is no doubt that some people are too stubborn. For example, today's on-demand quantitative production methods, such as today's flexible management of employees by Microsoft and Google, are far from what Taylor can imagine.
In addition to scientific management, Taylor's other great contribution to management science is the spiritual revolution of both employers and employees, which he believes is the core issue of implementing scientific management. Taylor hopes to rely on "stable wage payment rate" and "standard workload" to find the combination point of labor and capital, eliminate the opposition between labor and capital, and realize the management goal of "maximizing the wealth of employers and maximizing the wealth of each employee". But in fact, this is just wishful thinking. Limited by the background at that time, Taylor could not do this, which can be clearly seen from the subsequent labor strike and larger-scale labor conflict. The win-win situation between employers and employees is still a difficult problem today. Currently; The common methods to eliminate conflicts of interest within enterprises are: unifying the value positions of organizational members by relying on mission vision and strategic objectives; Maximize the synergy effect of the organization by relying on institutional norms; Relying on innovation and science and technology; Thereby improving the production efficiency. Give full play to your potential and meet the needs of self-realization.
History is always full of retrogression. Today, when we are confused by various management theories, it is wise to look back and re-examine the scientific management principles as the source of management.
Chapter VI: Reflections on the Principles of Scientific Management In the book Principles of Scientific Management, Taylor systematically put forward the basic ideas, contents and specific methods of scientific management. Among the basic ideas of scientific management, Taylor put forward management ideas such as professional division of labor, standardization and optimization. In the basic content of scientific management, Taylor comprehensively expounded the operation management and organization management of enterprises. These measures include the selection and training of workers, standard working conditions, clearly defined workload and the establishment of an incentive differential wage system. In terms of scientific management methods, Taylor put forward a series of specific steps and methods, such as quota management, differential piece-rate wage system, selection and rational use of first-class workers and how to carry out standard management.
This book mainly consists of two chapters: the basis of scientific management and the principle of scientific management:
In the first chapter, the author mainly tells that the real interests of employers and employees are the same, but this situation is difficult to achieve. He said that maximizing wealth can only be the result of maximizing productivity. In fact, this shows the importance of productivity. The author believes that close cooperation between managers and workers and between individuals is the essence of modern science or task management. Others believe that there are three reasons for the decline in labor productivity:
1, fallacy: in business, if the output of each person or machine increases, a large number of workers will eventually lose their jobs.
2. The management system is not perfect.
3. Act according to experience.
Therefore, there is a more scientific way to solve these problems, that is, by eliminating unnecessary actions in workers' operations and replacing slow and ineffective operations with fast operations, a lot of operation time can be saved and output can be improved.
The second chapter mainly describes the four basic elements of scientific management principles:
First, form a real science.
Second, choose workers scientifically.
Third, there is close and good cooperation between managers and workers.
Scientific management is put forward to change the present situation of "enthusiasm plus motivation" management. Principles or basic contents of scientific management. Include the following four items:
First, make scientific research on every movement of workers to replace the old method of relying solely on experience.
Second, scientifically select workers, conduct training and education, and make them grow; In the past, workers chose jobs at will and trained themselves according to their respective possibilities.
Third, work closely with workers to ensure that all work is carried out in accordance with the scientific principles of development.
Fourth, the work and responsibilities between management and workers are almost equally divided, and the management contracts the part of the work that it is more competent than the workers; In the past, almost all the work and most of the responsibilities were put on the workers.
So the scientific management theory is obviously a comprehensive concept. It is not only an idea, an idea, but also a specific operating procedure and a specific operating guide. They are: First, replace the old experience management method with the scientific division method of each work element; Secondly, the scientific method of employee selection, training and development has replaced the previous practice of post selection and arbitrary training; Third, communicate with workers frequently to ensure that everything they do conforms to the principle of scientific management; Finally, managers and workers should have basically equal scope of work and responsibilities. Managers will shoulder their due responsibilities, and in the past, almost all the work and most of the responsibilities were placed on workers.
From this book, we can know that Taylor's series of working time studies did not take one or two months, but several years or even more than ten years. This also enlightens us that we should have a peaceful mind when doing research, and we should not be eager for quick success and instant benefit. In this way, after vertical and horizontal comparison and comprehensive comparison, our conclusion will be more convincing. Taylor believes that scientific management must be adopted to replace the traditional rule of thumb. Scientific management is based on the interests of both employers and employees. He asked every member of the enterprise to exert the highest efficiency, strive for the highest output and achieve the greatest benefit. This not only clarifies the true connotation of scientific management, but also fully reflects Taylor's scientific management thought.
Taylor's management theory seems simple, but in fact it is extremely rich in connotation. We need to study and practice constantly to achieve the goal of organizational management-"maximizing the wealth of employers and maximizing the wealth of each employee". Management is a profound science. People are always looking for ways to find the best management system, but they only lay the foundation for the sublimation of management theory. I can only grope slowly in my work, hoping to improve my management level. Thus, Principles of Scientific Management is a very classic book. Literally, management is usually understood as presiding over or being responsible for a certain job. People's understanding of management in daily life is like this. Ordinary people also use the word management in this sense. However, since management entered human ideology, almost all people who think about management problems from the perspective of human labor will describe and summarize management phenomena. And stubbornly maintain the correctness and even uniqueness of this description and generalization. For the definition of management, human beings have never reached an agreed explanation. However, Taylor's management problems still exist, his management experience is still beneficial, his management logic is still universal, and his management methods are still effective.
After reading Principles of Scientific Management, I understand that scientific laws can be summarized from every operation of every worker. Understand that scientific management means planning tasks in advance and carrying out these plans. I realized that Taylor's same principle can also be applied to all social activities with the same effect, including family management, farm management, business management of large and small businessmen, church management, charity management, university management and government department management. In real life, I also realized that doing things with scientific management methods is fast and efficient, saving time. After reading this book, when I do something, I wonder if there is a more scientific way to make things better. Because I personally think that scientific management methods are more practical than general management methods. In the past, the understanding of management was very narrow, thinking that management only existed in places where many people gathered, such as enterprises and organizations. I never thought it was so important in my personal life, and I never thought that scientific management was a more perfect management system. Reading this book has given me a new understanding of management and broadened my knowledge, which really benefited me a lot.
Chapter 7: Reflections on the principles of scientific management: scientific management and media management. Sorry, "vector viewpoint" is a long-standing viewpoint put forward by me personally (although it is only a little more than two years, it has already occupied a large proportion of my existing time), which means-"Everything in the world is like a vector, and its direction is correct and stable. Only by exerting enough force can we achieve" work "and get faster results."
This view can be applied to everything in the world, and it can be called "vector management" when used in management. Compared with the four principles of scientific management, the details are as follows: First, "scientific working hours research" optimizes all links and actions in the process, especially eliminates unnecessary links and actions in the process. It's like keeping the direction of force in the right direction when trying to do work to avoid some useless work-the direction is right. The second is to "select and train workers scientifically", according to the author frederick taylor's words-"so that everyone can do their best to engage in the highest level of work that suits them with the fastest speed and highest labor productivity." .
In fact, this is the choice of the optimal stress subject. The third is the "new wage system", which adopts the differential piece-rate wage system, that is, two wage rates are set for a job. For those workers who spend the shortest time and complete the work with high quality, the high wage rate is used to calculate the salary, while for those workers who spend a long time and complete the work with low quality, the opposite is true. This is a good environment to create an exciting force, which is isomorphic with the second point * * * to form an optimal force subject, so as to realize that the force is large enough. The fourth is the principle of "functional management", in which workers are only responsible for the production process, while other functions such as planning, control and technical improvement are entrusted to other functional personnel, thus realizing the specialization of work. This is like a moving object. It always moves exclusively in one direction, and eventually it will get the highest speed-the direction is stable, and the result is higher speed.
Chapter 8: After reading Principles of Scientific Management, I want to know the classics of management. Frederick F. Taylor, henri fayol and Max Weber, three predecessors, can't be avoided anyway.
The principle of scientific management is a paper written by 19 10. After the industrial revolution, people gradually attached importance to "management" and regarded entrepreneurial talent as the fourth factor of production after land, labor and capital (The Wealth of Nations 1776 has not listed entrepreneurial talent as a factor of production). However, management that really dates back to the modern sense began with Taylor, the father of scientific management.
"Science" of scientific management. The science mentioned here is not a natural science in the general sense we understand. It is relative to "experience". Before scientific management, the technology and skills of factory workers were inherited by predecessors, accumulated by themselves, or obtained entirely by workers' experience. In this process, there is no unified standard and no standardized teaching and learning. Scientific management is to find out the most efficient method by studying every movement of workers' work, which is the so-called scientific work method.
About the research object. It should be noted that the world of that era was relatively simple. The concept of service industry may not be fashionable yet, so scientific management mainly focuses on industry. At that time, the work content was mainly mechanical labor, and the problem to be solved by scientific management was nothing more than the problem of low production efficiency.
Before scientific management, employers and employees were antagonistic and even hostile. Look at our present era, the labor problem still exists, often in industries with relatively low technical content. At that time, the management system was to give full play to the enthusiasm of workers as much as possible, and in return, get some special incentives from employers. This management method is called "enthusiasm plus stimulation" management.
Scientific management is put forward to change the present situation of "enthusiasm plus motivation" management. Principles or basic contents of scientific management. Include the following four items:
First, make scientific research on every movement of workers to replace the old method of relying solely on experience.
Second, scientifically select workers, conduct training and education, and make them grow; In the past, workers chose jobs at will and trained themselves according to their respective possibilities.
Third, work closely with workers to ensure that all work is carried out in accordance with the scientific principles of development.
Fourth, the work and responsibilities between management and workers are almost equally divided, and the management contracts the part of the work that it is more competent than the workers; In the past, almost all the work and most of the responsibilities were put on the workers.
The fourth point here, I think, is a major improvement in management. Employers, the owners of capital, began to attach importance to management and participate in enterprise management. Of course, it is impossible for the management to carry out specific operational work. What they do is what we call management functions, such as planning, organizing, leading, coordinating and controlling. Then to the separation of ownership and management, management is gradually realizing its value.