Rating: 
Summary: Still relevant
Review: Although dated this short book contains intersting lessons. The book presents scientific management. Scientific management applies to the management of industrial processes and is based on four principles:
- Development of a science: The various ways of doing the task are analyzed and the best way is identified (note that further progress may be made due to new innovation);
- Selection and training of the work force: The most suitable people are hired and trained to perform according to the science;
- Constant help and feedback: The employees receive regular feedback on their work and help if they are falling behind;
- Deep management involvement in production: Management plans ahead to make sure that the tasks are performed in the best possible way.
The book also emphasizes the human aspect of management: change can only be done slowly and by convincing the employees of the benefits. This explains why it takes a long time to switch to scientific management. Employees need financial rewards for performing well and employees who create better practices should also be recognized and rewarded.
Most examples in the book are dated and not particularly relevant today. They still provide data to judge the improvements that scientific management may provide. The language is also dated and politically incorrect. However if you do not let this distract you, the core of the book remains relevant. Even for modern intellectual work, there are many lessons that can be learned from the book. For example, for software engineering (which I am familiar with):
- Make sure that you use the best practices ;
- Hire smart people and give them the right tools;
- Give feedback on performance and training when needed;
- Actively manage the project, especially the scope of the project when changes occur.
Although scientific management can be applied to turn employees into automata, there is something good about its emphasis on hard numbers and best practices.
I suggest that you read the book with an open mind and pick the core material that applies to your situation.
Rating:
Summary: A seminal work
Review: F.W. Taylor is where the serious student of scientific management begins. I believe that it's one of the best books on the subject that I've ever read - and it was an academic paper presented by Taylor almost 100 years ago. It's funny at times (and probably not meant to be), written in the academic style of the early 20th century. His movements back and forth between the theory and real life examples prove that he was one of the better economists of his day.Taylor had humble beginnings (he was a shop laborer early in his career), and later he switched to consulting for various types of manufacturers. Peter F. Drucker and other scientific management gurus owe Taylor a debt of gratitude, which I'm sure they would readily acknowledge. All of us owe a debt to him as well. How can a firm reach greater efficiencies? Taylor suggested that firms do it in ways that even today are resisted and misunderstood by management. Increase workers' pay. Give them mandatory breaks throughout the day. Timing rest breaks between heavy lifting optimizes productivity. Please don't ignore these examples in the information age - Taylor was ahead of his time and perhaps even ahead of ours. Today's intelligent manager can still discover many useful ideas in this book. It's not a terribly long work, and it's fun to read. I'm surprised that I was able to earn a BSBA without being required to read it, or parts of it. It's invaluable for firms and workers in any country, developed or undeveloped, and the firms that dare to utilize the ideas will be quite happy with the result: increased productivity, and therefore, increased profits. econ
Rating:
Summary: A seminal work
Review: F.W. Taylor is where the serious student of scientific management begins. I believe that it's one of the best books on the subject that I've ever read - and it was an academic paper presented by Taylor almost 100 years ago. It's funny at times (and probably not meant to be), written in the academic style of the early 20th century. His movements back and forth between the theory and real life examples prove that he was one of the better economists of his day. Taylor had humble beginnings (he was a shop laborer early in his career), and later he switched to consulting for various types of manufacturers. Peter F. Drucker and other scientific management gurus owe Taylor a debt of gratitude, which I'm sure they would readily acknowledge. All of us owe a debt to him as well. How can a firm reach greater efficiencies? Taylor suggested that firms do it in ways that even today are resisted and misunderstood by management. Increase workers' pay. Give them mandatory breaks throughout the day. Timing rest breaks between heavy lifting optimizes productivity. Please don't ignore these examples in the information age - Taylor was ahead of his time and perhaps even ahead of ours. Today's intelligent manager can still discover many useful ideas in this book. It's not a terribly long work, and it's fun to read. I'm surprised that I was able to earn a BSBA without being required to read it, or parts of it. It's invaluable for firms and workers in any country, developed or undeveloped, and the firms that dare to utilize the ideas will be quite happy with the result: increased productivity, and therefore, increased profits. econ
Rating: 
Summary: Task: Maximum prosperity for the employer and each employee!
Review: Frederick Winslow Taylor comes straight to the point when he explains the reason for writing the book: First, "to point out the great loss which the whole country is suffering through inefficiency in almost all of our daily acts". Second, "to try to convince the reader that the remedy for this inefficiency lies in systematic management, rather than in searching for some unusual or extraordinary man". Third, "to prove that the best management is a true science, resting upon clearly defined laws, rules, and principles, as a foundation". However, this starting point does not set the tone for the rest of the book. Taylor and his Taylorism/task management is more human than most people will tell you. This can be seen from the first page of the first chapter, where Taylor explains the principal of object of management, which "should be to secure the maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for each employee". Initially, Taylor starts with a short introduction and reasons of "soldiering" which he refers to as "deliberately working slowly as as to avoid doing a full day's work". Taylor then turns to his now-famous Scientific Management. The four elements which constitute the essence of scientific management are: First, the development of standardization of methods. Second, the careful selection and training of personnel. Third, extensive supervision by management and payment of bonuses. Fourth, an equal division of the work and responsibility between the workman and the management. Taylor uses some somewhat old-fashioned examples to explain task-management, such as pig-iron handling, bricklaying, and inspection of bicycle balls. Just like other readers I expected something different from this book, since much of what is said about this book on MBA and management-courses is not true. I did enjoy reading this book, even though it is now somewhat out of date (originally published 1911), but it is amazing how much scientific management is still around us and the influence it still has on modern management (business process reengineering). It is written in simple English and is very thin for a management book with just 140 pages.
Rating:
Summary: A great read and still applicable
Review: I recall reading this in college as an assignment and had trouble putting the book down. While of course it needs to be read in context, there are still ideas he brings up that seem common sense but are lacking in today's management practices. This is one of those books that made me stop and think about how his philosophies could improve the way I manage.
Rating: 
Summary: Phrase
Review: I understand that some terms are well-known, but in 1998, to use the term "nigger in the woodpile" in quotes or not does not ride well with me. I have to read a handout from this book for a class. Had I bought the book, I would've returned it. But since I cannot return copies, I guess I'm stuck with it, but I will be complaining to my teacher about the use of this handout.
Rating:
Summary: Still relevant
Review: It has been nearly 100 years since this book was first published. As other reviewers have mentioned, all readers need to put what Winslow is saying in context. The bottom line is that life was much different back then. Manual laborers were treated more like animals than human beings. One excerpt from the book that I remember vividly was Winslow saying he went up to a worker and told him (I'm paraphrasing), "Look, you brute, you're not educated enough to understand this but I'm going to tell you exactly what to do and I want you to repeat the process all day long. And if you do it my way, you'll be much more efficient and I'll pay you more." I couldn't help but chuckle at how absurd talking like that to an employee sounds. But the serious side of me cringes since it shows how poorly so many employees were treated back then. Because of some comments like this, I can see why some people are really turned off by the work when they put it in today's context. Winslow's work seemed to focus on doing something very basic. He tried to figure out the most efficient process for a particular job. But back then nobody bothered to study this and thus he made a big impact in his time. Of course, in today's world we've evolved past that point (hopefully!) and therefore the book isn't a must read for the average reader of management books. But if you want a quick read on what things were like in the business world at the turn of the last century, then you will probably find this book interesting. Greg Blencoe
Author, The Ten Commandments for Managers
Rating:
Summary: The Basis of Using Measurement to Improve Performance
Review: Let me caution you before commenting on this book. Most people who refer to Taylor and Scientific Management have not read Taylor, but about Taylor in secondary sources. So, forget what you have heard about Taylor. Keep an open mind. Prior to Taylor, management tried to create output by providing incentives to workers. But pressure from peers kept workers from doing more work. Everyone agreed that this would lead to fewer jobs. The virtuous cycle of higher performance, lower prices, more sales, and higher pay for workers and shareholders was not yet uncovered. Taylor sees the results of the higher productivity mostly being of help to consumers, with the remainder of the benefit split between shareholders and workers. In that he was prescient. Advanced thinkers today are rediscovering this old truth, first elaborated by Taylor. What I found to be delightful in the book was the emphasis on trying to approach the ideal practice, rather than being satisfied with the best of today. Here are the key principles for your reference: (1) develop a science for each element of a task to determine the most productive way to do that task (quality and quantity considered in terms of total costs) (2) scientifically select and train those who can do the task the most effectively in what needs to be done, and provide all of the help they need (3) create an environment where the person doing the task can be productive (this often involves systems limitations, like input from others) (4) management has a role in designing the work, selecting workers who are ideal for the work, and helping the work be learned properly. There is an equal division between the worker and management in creating the right result. In reading this list, I am reminded of Bill Jensen's new book, Simplicity, in which he calls for something rather similar to the broad concepts of Scientific Management. So although many people consider almost all existing management Taylorian, a closer examination would say that management is not doing its job. The basic problem with Scientific Management was not that it was flawed, but that it took slow long to do that it was impractical to try too many experiments. The time and measurement experiments took forever. The calculations of multivariate problems were hard to solve in precomputer days. The change process was slow (usually 3-5 years). The experiments that we all know about and applaud now (team-based learning and self-directed work teams, TQM, reengineering, and so forth) could have been addressed by the Scientific Management method as soon as the limitations described above could be lifted. As a result, I think it is incorrect to be pro TQM or reengineering and anti Scientific Management. I believe that the basic principles are more compatible than not. At some point, all of this becomes merely philosophical. I think you will find the case studies in the book revealing about what the potential for improvement can be in tasks that people have been doing for centuries (like laying bricks). I was impressed that Taylor was so good at locating stalls of disbelief, misconception, communication, and bureaucracy. He had a keen sense of where mental models were wrong, and how to bust those stalls. In fact, he may have been the 19th century's first business stallbuster. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in understanding more about how measurements can be useful to identifying ways to improve performance for all of society.
Rating:
Summary: A classic that must be read in context
Review: Taylor is viewed as the grand father of business process re-engineering and the intellectual foundation for much of the work on business process change. Unfortunately few people who invoke Talyor's name have ever read his origional work on sought to understand his ideas. Most authors latch on to the essense of his ideas -- to look at the work, organize it as best as possible, measure it and improve it. While these are important aspects of modern management, most people fail to understand the issues Taylor is trying to address. He must be read in the context of his times -- the late 19th and early 20th century when work was moving out of being a craft and into scientific-mass produced factory labor. When you consider the context-Taylors work is really about removing "slack" from work practices and standardization more than anything else. Given that people are now talking about "knowlege work and empowerment" references to Taylor fall somewhat flat. The economy is moving back from factory to craft work based on knowledge. The pamphlet is a good read for someone who wants to understand the intellecutal underpinnings of a process/workflow approach to management. In that regard it is higly recommended even it it takes some time to get through and you have to remember that this is a man of the 1870's and 1900's else you will get hung up on his ethinically insensitive comments -- particularly if you are Irish and other ideas.
Rating:
Summary: A classic that must be read in context
Review: Taylor is viewed as the grand father of business process re-engineering and the intellectual foundation for much of the work on business process change. Unfortunately few people who invoke Talyor's name have ever read his origional work on sought to understand his ideas. Most authors latch on to the essense of his ideas -- to look at the work, organize it as best as possible, measure it and improve it. While these are important aspects of modern management, most people fail to understand the issues Taylor is trying to address. He must be read in the context of his times -- the late 19th and early 20th century when work was moving out of being a craft and into scientific-mass produced factory labor. When you consider the context-Taylors work is really about removing "slack" from work practices and standardization more than anything else. Given that people are now talking about "knowlege work and empowerment" references to Taylor fall somewhat flat. The economy is moving back from factory to craft work based on knowledge. The pamphlet is a good read for someone who wants to understand the intellecutal underpinnings of a process/workflow approach to management. In that regard it is higly recommended even it it takes some time to get through and you have to remember that this is a man of the 1870's and 1900's else you will get hung up on his ethinically insensitive comments -- particularly if you are Irish and other ideas.
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