Coaching at work: The thinkers on motivation: Frederick W. Taylor (1856-1915) Scientific Management

Taylor, an American engineer, achieved his qualifications the hard way; via evening studies. From humble beginnings as an engineer in a steel company he became one of the most influential management writers and theorists. He is remembered most for defining the techniques of scientific management which is the study of relationship between people and tasks for the purpose of redesigning work processes and increasing efficiency.

He wrote during a period when the growing complexity of factories was causing big management problems. Taylor was one of the first to attempt to systematically analyse behaviour at work. His likened the organisation to a machine and his methods involved breaking each task down to its smallest unit to identify the best way to do each job. Next the supervisor would teach it to the worker and make sure the worker did only those actions essential to the task. Hence scientific management as Taylor tried to make a science for each element and eliminate human variability or errors. Taylor believed that by increasing specialisation, the production process would become more efficient.

Taylor's steps began with examining the way workers performed their tasks, gathering all the informal job knowledge they possessed, and experimenting with ways of improving task performance to increase efficiency. Any resulting new methods of performing tasks were written into work rules and standard operating procedures. He also advocated carefully selecting workers that possessed the skills and abilities needed for the task and training them to perform the tasks according to these rules and procedures. The next step put forward was to establish a fair or acceptable level of performance for a task and then develop a pay system that provides a higher reward for performance above the acceptable level. Finally he proposed splitting the task of the first-line supervisor into eight specialist positions with each held by a different person, an idea which may have led to the notion of matrix management.

His ideas had a major effect on organisation of work and the way people were managed. Unfortunately although things became more productive they also became repetitive and monotonous and a many employees became very unhappy at work. Initially productivity under Taylor's methods increased dramatically and it seemed to work. New departments appeared like personnel and quality control. More and more middle managers appeared as planning was separated from operations. Formality was increased and the supervisor with clipboard and stopwatch appeared in all work settings which workers found all kinds of ways to resist.

No doubt you can see that much of scientific management remains with us today, but the efficiencies it brought have mostly disappeared. The problem is the machine metaphor. People aren't parts in a machine, but living, breathing human beings who these days have a variety of wants and needs that they wish their work to fulfil. Positioning coaching as just a means to increased efficiency, whatever the financial rewards that follow, is unlikely to create more than a brief spike in performance overall.