CHAPTER TWELVE: Scientific Management in Retrospect

1. CHAPTER TWELVE: Scientific Management in Retrospect The Political Environment The Economic Environment The Social Environment The Technological Environment

2. The Political Environment • Balancing Themes • Need to establish equity and order to protect one person from the other. • Need to limit governmental power to protect a person from the state. • Where was the “balance” during the scientific management era? Where is it now?

3. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYouiwyABS8

4. HW Discussion Question • Explore the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire website. What was the most interesting or compelling piece of historical evidence you found on the site? Why did this piece of evidence have an effect on you? • http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/

5. In-Class Discussion Question • We discussed fire safety as an issue that was addressed in organizations as a result of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. What are some current issues related to worker protection & safety? What are the problems employers face in addressing these issues? Is government action the best way to address the issue? Why or why not?

6. The Political Environment • Reform movements • Minimum wage, workers comp, unions • Populism • Farm-based movement of the late 1800s. • Grew into a joint effort between farmer and labor groups against big business. • Progressivism • Movement in the late 1800s to increase democracy in America by curbing the power of the corporation. • Fought corruption in government and business. • Worked to bring equal rights for those left behind during industrialization.

7. The Political Environment • Theodore Roosevelt • Believed the dominant issue before the federal government was its relationship with big business. • Pressed for government regulation of corporations and an end to unfair pricing practices. • Considered labor unions a good way to keep the actions of big business in check. • Carried out 44 antitrust prosecutions Theodore Roosevelt, courtesy of the Constitution Society

8. The Economic Environment • Transition – agrarian to industrial • SM – better utilization of resources • Workers prospered – •  wages and  hours • Increased longevity • Opportunity to improve skills • Organizational Growth • Managerial hierarchy, staff specialists, systematic management • Phases of industrial growth • Phase I – Resource Accumulation (see also Chandler) • Phase II – Resource Utilization (Chandler and SM)

9. The Economic Environment • America was uniquely diverse 1890-1920: • Immigrants were 80% of New York’s population. • More Irish lived in the US than in Ireland. • 71% of Ford’s labor force was foreign born. • Developing systems and procedures and standardization was more important with the heterogeneous workforce. • Productivity increased due to: • Methods of mass production. • Taylorism (Scientific Management) • Cheaper sources of power The 1909 Model T.

10. The Social Environment • Success Ethic • Self-directing • High need for achievement • Inner-directed • Protestant ethic characteristics • The Collision Effect • Closing of the Western Frontier • Welfare Movement/Progressivism • Taylor’s “cooperation, not individualism” bridged the gap between the social and individualistic ethics.

11. The Technological Environment • Enterprises developed and grew – 247 of the Fortune 500 were founded from 1880-1929. • New technologies developed: • Bessemer process in steel • Oil refining • Internal combustion engine • Synthetic material • Telephony • Electric energy Bessemer process in steel

12. The Technological Environment • The automobile changed people’s lives and created a new industry. • Henry Ford, Charles Sorenson and their associates at Ford created the moving assembly line for mass production. • 1910 – 2,773 workers produced 18,664 cars • 1914 – 12,880 workers produced 248,307 cars Henry Ford

13. Summary of Part Two • Taylor was the focus for a deeper philosophy of managing human and physical resources in a more technologically advanced world. • Taylor’s disciples improved productivity and service to society. • Fayol and Weber, Taylor’s contemporaries, also reflected a rational approach to enterprise. • Taylor and his followers were affected by and did affect the times.

14. Review of key concepts-1 (Answers in red) • Systematic soldiering • Lump of Labor • Strong engineering and analytical skills and worked with Taylor • Carl Barth • Classifying basic hand motions • Frank Gilbreth • Gospel of Efficiency/ Municipal organizations • Morris Cook • Industrial psychology • SM, Munsterberg, Taylor, Experimental psychology

15. Review of key concepts-2 • Industrial sociology • Social Gospel, worker well-being, Whiting Williams, and social Darwinism • Individual worth in terms of your job/ earnings as a means of social comparison • Whiting Williams • Fayol divides authority • Formal and personal • Rationalization of resource utilization • Alfred Chandler and SM agreed on

16. Review of key concepts-3 • Social Gospel view about unions • Unions are instruments of social and economic reform • The collision effect was impacted by • Closing of the Western frontier and progressivism • Phase that US entered at the beginning of WWI • Rationalization of resource utilization • Why do workers soldier • Human nature, unemployment would rise, rule-of-thumb work methods, poor management

17. Review of short answer concepts • Chapter 7 • Taylor’s incentive system and his perspective on profit sharing • Chapter 8 • Discuss your experience with the group exercise applying the Gilbreth motion study techiques. • Chapter 9 • Personnel management and Dual Heritage; explain what the dual heritage consists of and give examples of how this impacts modern organizations

18. Review of short answer concepts • Chapter 10 • Pick three of Fayol’s principles of management and explain them; why are they important in the Information Age? Be specific. • Chapter 12 • Pick one of the environments from the turn of the century (1900); political, social, technological and economic and discuss the key aspects and how they impacted industry during that era.