A Comparison of Taylor and Fayol’s Management Theories

A Comparison of Taylor and Fayols Management Theories Introduction The purpose of this essay is to discuss the two management philosophies from Taylor’s and Henri Fayol’s. One management theory is focus on task while another is focus on people. Both theories have made contributions in modern management practices. We will discuss the theories and outline their efficiency and effectiveness in the current firms. FW Taylor Philosophy Taylor’s management theory focuses on task management. This theory is called â€Å"scientific management† or â€Å"Taylorism†. He found that two different workers performing the same task will have different outcome and the number of output. He categorized them as first class worker and average worker (Sheldrake J, 2003a). The first class workers are highly motivated and work efficiently rather than wasting time or restricting output. They are ideal works for many industries, but not all workers are first class workers, most of them are average workers. They only work slow an d easy until the wages they get paid. As the result, it drives down the production efficiency, because workers are not motivated. Thus, Tayloer’s task management develops the theory to show how to motivate workers toward a greater work performance and productivity. This theory is important to many industries firms; it helps them to using less time to increase more production efficiency. This management benefits firms create more output while still paying fair wage to the workers. The aim for this theory is to reduce inefficiency toward the output performance. Taylor suggested the wage levels based on output which means the workers will only be paid by the amount of their productivity. The more output they produced, the more wage they are paid. Thus, it drives their motivation toward a better standard. It doesn’t just increase the efficiency, but also reduce the working hours. There are seven approaches to improve the productivity in this theory. Select the appreciated workers and observe them to perform the tasks. Then record the time taken for each task and identify the quickest method. The last three are providing training, supervise workers to ensure the â€Å"best way† is carried out and pay workers on the basis of results (Stimpson P & F. A, 2010). In order to apply Taylor’s approaches, the task has to be specialized, so workers don’t have to be trained all the time and always under-supervised. However, Taylor’s task management has two advantages and two disadvantages. When we look at work specialization, it can increase the efficiency by using the minimum resources such as time or labor. It means that it is not helpful if the output is produced at the maximum outcome while waste many resources. Using minimum resources to produce the maximum result increases the work efficiency and also production efficiency. The other advantage from Taylor’s theory, a specialized work means a profession. The problems will be solved easily, because workers are clearly known what went wrong and how to solve the problems. Workers are always familiar with what they do, so they won’t waste time on finding out the solution for specific problem. Therefore, the work specialization doesn’t just explain the efficiency in outcome, but also increase the efficiency in process.