The Principles of Scientific Management By Frederick Winslow Taylor

The Principles of Scientific Management, published in 1911, addresses the crucial need for greater national efficiency, a concept noted prophetically by President Roosevelt. While the country recognized the waste of material resources, the “larger wastes of human effort,” resulting from blundering, ill-directed, or inefficient acts, remained vaguely appreciated. Author Frederick Winslow Taylor argues that the remedy for this inefficiency lies in systematic management, rather than merely seeking extraordinary individuals. The ultimate goal of this management philosophy is to secure the maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for each employee. This involves developing first-class men and ensuring that the system itself is placed first, rather than relying solely on individual leaders. The fundamental principles of scientific management, proven to yield truly astounding results when correctly applied, are applicable universally, from corporate work to managing homes, farms, and universities.

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Who May Benefit from the Book

• Engineers and managers of industrial establishments.
• Workmen seeking higher wages and efficiency.
• Leaders focusing on “national efficiency” and development.
• Those managing social activities, farms, homes, and organizations.
• Individuals interested in eliminating personal inefficiency and maximizing output.

Top 3 Key Insights

1. Scientific management replaces the arbitrary “rule-of-thumb” methods by developing a true science for every job element, thereby ensuring maximum, standardized productivity.
2. Management must assume new and heavy burdens, primarily by scientifically selecting, training, teaching, and cooperating intimately with employees to achieve the best results.
3. The task system, coupled with a permanent and large wage increase (30% to 100% bonus), is the mechanism that eliminates “soldiering” (slow work) and aligns employer/employee interests.

4 More Lessons and Takeaways

1. The largest form of waste in industry is the inefficiency and deliberate slow working (“soldiering”) of men, an evil greater than the waste of material goods.
2. Maximum prosperity requires not only high wages but also the development of each man to their highest state of efficiency, matching their natural abilities to the highest grade of work possible.
3. The philosophy of scientific management demands an almost equal division of the work and responsibility; management must plan and prepare, while workmen execute.
4. Individualizing workmen is essential, as herding men in gangs invariably pulls the efficiency of better men down to the level of the poorest.

The Book in 1 Sentence

Scientific Management advocates replacing rule-of-thumb with defined laws and intimate cooperation to achieve maximum productivity and mutual, permanent prosperity for all.

The Book Summary in 1 Minute

The Principles of Scientific Management argues that inefficiency and the waste of human effort—often manifested as “soldiering”—are the greatest national evils. The remedy is systematic management, built on four core principles: developing a science for every job element, scientifically selecting and training workers, ensuring hearty cooperation, and dividing responsibility equally between management and labor. This approach replaces the unreliable management style based purely on “initiative and incentive”. Examples like handling pig iron (where output tripled) and bricklaying (where motions were dramatically cut) demonstrate the astounding gains possible when management studies and teaches the one best way, combined with large bonuses for successful task performance. The ultimate goal is maximum prosperity for both the employer and the employee, eliminating conflict through impartial scientific investigation.

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Chapter-wise Book Summary

CHAPTER I: Fundamentals of Scientific Management

The principal objective of management should be securing maximum prosperity for the employer (large dividends and permanent excellence) coupled with maximum prosperity for each employee (higher wages and development to maximum efficiency). While this goal seems self-evident, industrial organizations often operate for conflict rather than peace, believing employee and employer interests are antagonistic. Scientific management, conversely, holds that their interests are identical: the employer gets low labor cost, and the workman gets high wages.

Maximum prosperity is only possible through maximum productivity. However, the majority of workmen deliberately practice “soldiering”—working slowly—doing often only one-third to one-half of a proper day’s work. This is the greatest evil affecting the working people of America and England, and its elimination could nearly double output.

The three main causes of soldiering are:

1. The persistent fallacy that increasing output throws men out of work.
2. Defective management systems that force men to soldier to protect their best interests (e.g., preventing employers from setting new, lower piece rates after increased output).
3. The universal use of rule-of-thumb methods, which waste effort.

Scientific management addresses these causes by systematically analyzing every element of a trade to find the “one method and one implement which is quicker and better than any of the rest,” substituting science for guesswork. This requires management to assume a far larger share of the responsibility. Under the new system, management performs preparatory acts, guides and teaches the workman, ensuring close, intimate, personal cooperation. This cooperation, combined with high wages, eliminates soldiering and proves that increased output ultimately provides employment for more men.

The management is an evolution that has been successful in diverse industries for thirty years, resulting in 50,000 workmen receiving 30 to 100 percent higher wages without a single strike, and the doubling of output per man and machine. It is vital, however, not to confuse the mechanism (time study, etc.) with the true essence or philosophy of scientific management.

Chapter Key Points

• Maximum prosperity demands maximum productivity.
• “Soldiering” (slow work) is the greatest industrial evil.
• Science must replace traditional rule-of-thumb methods.

Important Quote

“In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first.”

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CHAPTER II: The Principles of Scientific Management

The best type of traditional management is “management of initiative and incentive,” where managers recognize the workers’ traditional knowledge and offer inducements (like higher pay or promotion) to gain their full effort. Scientific management, or “task management,” goes overwhelmingly beyond this, obtaining the workman’s initiative with uniformity while the managers assume new burdens, duties, and responsibilities.

These new duties define the four core principles of scientific management:

1. Developing a Science: Replacing rule-of-thumb with defined rules, laws, and formulae for each element of work.
2. Scientific Selection, Training, and Development: Choosing the right man and then training him, whereas in the past, he trained himself haphazardly.
3. Heartily Cooperating: Ensuring all work is done according to the developed science.
4. Equal Division of Work and Responsibility: Management takes over all work for which they are better fitted (planning, analyzing, record-keeping), leaving execution to the workman.

The most prominent single element is the task idea, where work is fully planned out by management in advance, with written instructions detailing the what and how, and the exact time allowed. Success earns the worker a large bonus (30% to 100% extra wages).

Illustrations of Scientific Management:

1. Handling Pig Iron: Even this “crudest and most elementary form of labor” has a science. By scientific study, management determined a first-class handler should load 47.5 tons per day, far exceeding the old rate of 12.5 tons. The science relies on the physical law of heavy laboring: for a given load (92 lbs), a worker can only be under load for a definite percentage of the day (42% under load, 58% rest). Management must select men (often the “mentally sluggish type of Schmidt,” resembling an ox) who are physically suited and then direct them (e.g., “Now pick up a pig and walk. Now sit down and rest.”) because the worker is incapable of understanding the science himself.
2. Shoveling: Experiments determined that the optimal shovel load for maximum daily work is about 21 pounds. This required management to supply 8 to 10 different specialized shovels, rather than letting men use their own generic shovels, which often resulted in loads ranging from 4 to 30 pounds. The new system, replacing gang work with individualized tasks, reduced the number of laborers from 400-600 to 140, raised average pay by 60%, and drastically lowered handling costs.
3. Bricklaying (Gilbreth’s Study): Scientific analysis reduced the bricklayer’s movements from eighteen motions per brick to five, by standardizing materials, working conditions (adjustable scaffolds), and coordinating movements (e.g., using both hands simultaneously). This requires the management to enforce standards and provide teachers and cooperation, resulting in speeds of 350 bricks per hour compared to the old average of 120.
4. Inspecting Bicycle Balls: This illustration highlights the importance of scientific selection. The key quality needed was a low “personal coefficient” (quick perception and response), leading to the exclusion of many hardworking girls who were simply too slow. To ensure quality, management introduced over-inspection, and to combat strain, they shortened the workday from 10.5 to 8.5 hours with mandated recreation periods. The final result was 35 girls doing the work of 120, with higher accuracy and wages.
5. Machining/Cutting Metals: In intricate work, the high-priced mechanic needs management cooperation even more than the common laborer. Management took 26 years and spent $150,000 to $200,000 to develop the science of cutting metals. This science involves intricate mathematical formulae accounting for 12 independent variables (like material quality, tool material, feed depth, cooling medium, etc.). Only by using specialized slide-rules developed by the management could a worker solve these problems quickly enough to achieve the maximum possible speed. Scientific planning and teaching in a machine shop led to output increases ranging from 2.5 to 9 times the old speed.

The mechanism of scientific management (time study, functional foremanship, etc.) must not be mistaken for its essence—a complete mental revolution in habits and attitudes. Introducing the new system too rapidly, without training functional foremen (teachers) and allowing time for workers to accept the philosophical change, leads to failure and strikes.

Scientific management results in high worker wages (e.g., 60% increase for the pig-iron handler), but the largest part of the gain goes to the whole people (the consumers) in the form of cheaper products. The system’s principles—Science, Harmony, Cooperation, Maximum output, and Development of each man—will ultimately be adopted universally, eliminating discord and poverty.

Chapter Key Points

• Management replaces “initiative and incentive” with four new duties.
• Science exists even in crude labor; its complexity demands management oversight.
• The transition demands patience and philosophical change, not just mechanism.

Important Quote

“Scientific management, in its essence, consists of a certain philosophy, which results, as before stated, in a combination of the four great underlying principles of management…”

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10 Notable Quotes from the Book

1. “The conservation of our national resources is only preliminary to the larger question of national efficiency.”
2. “What we are all looking for, however, is the ready-made, competent man; the man whom some one else has trained.”
3. “Maximum prosperity for each employee means not only higher wages… but… the development of each man to his state of maximum efficiency…”
4. “The majority of these men believe that the fundamental interests of employees and employers are necessarily antagonistic.”
5. “Soldiering… is almost universal in industrial establishments, and prevails also to a large extent in the building trades…”
6. “The greater part of the systematic soldiering… is done by the men with the deliberate object of keeping their employers ignorant of how fast work can be done.”
7. “Under the management of ‘initiative and incentive’ practically the whole problem is ‘up to the workman,’ while under scientific management fully one-half of the problem is ‘up to the management.'”
8. “The man who is mentally alert and intelligent is for this very reason entirely unsuited to what would, for him, be the grinding monotony of work of this character.”
9. “The mechanism of management must not be mistaken for its essence, or underlying philosophy.”
10. “The rights of the people are therefore greater than those of either employer or employee.”

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About the Author

Frederick Winslow Taylor, M.E., Sc.D., authored The Principles of Scientific Management, released in 1911. Taylor’s career provided the foundation for his scientific approach to labor. He began his working life at the Midvale Steel Company in 1878 as a day laborer, having previously apprenticed as a pattern-maker and machinist. Due to his education, he moved up to clerk and then gang-boss. His early years were marked by a bitter “war” with the workmen who deliberately restricted output (“soldiering”). This struggle led him to dedicate years to developing a management system where the interests of the management and the workmen aligned. His foundational concepts were previously outlined in papers presented to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, notably “A Piece-Rate System” and “Shop Management”. Taylor was known for painstaking scientific investigation, including a 26-year study on the science of cutting metals. He eventually retired from the consulting business to advise others on implementing scientific management principles.

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How to Get the Most from the Books

To gain maximum benefit, focus on the required complete revolution in mental attitude and embrace the slow, necessary process of educating and training the workforce.

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Conclusion

The Principles of Scientific Management outlines a definitive shift from traditional, haphazard management (relying on the workman’s “initiative and incentive”) to a system founded on four scientific pillars: developing a true science for every job, scientifically selecting and developing workmen, ensuring hearty cooperation, and dividing responsibility. Taylor demonstrates through concrete examples, from rudimentary pig iron handling and shoveling to complex machining, that when management assumes the burden of systematic investigation and instruction, productivity gains are vast, typically doubling output per man and machine. Crucially, this system ties high performance to high, permanent wages, resolving the fundamental antagonism between employer and employee. While the system requires careful, gradual implementation to succeed, its ultimate result is the attainment of justice for the workman, the employer, and the third party—the whole people—through increased national efficiency and prosperity.