Synthesized answer
Taylor's concept of "unevenness" in shop management refers to the significant disparities in efficiency and practices that can exist even within seemingly similar industries or between different units that could be combined [1, 2]. The example of the two rival chemical manufacturers illustrates this: one owner, coming from a factory background, produced chemicals more than forty percent cheaper than his rival, who had a background in commercial operations. However, the business man excelled in selling, buying, and managing the commercial side. This disparity in their individual strengths and weaknesses highlights the unevenness in their respective management approaches [1, 4].
This unevenness implies that pre-scientific management practices were often characterized by a lack of clearly defined laws or methods, leading to inconsistencies. Management was viewed primarily as a matter of having the "right man," with methods left to his discretion [1]. The passages suggest that this "drifting" approach, where managers are overwhelmed and lack a thorough study of the art of management, prevents the best results from being reached [3]. The fact that the two chemical manufacturers,…
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From the book
in which this man has had but little personal experience, will often present equally glaring examples of inefficiency. And this, mainly because management is not yet looked upon as an art, with laws as exact, and as clearly defined, for instance, as the fundamental principles of engineering, which demand long and careful thought and study. Management is still looked upon as a question of men, the old view being that if you have the right man the methods can be safely left to him. The following, while rather an extreme case, may still be considered as a fairly typical illustration of…
of the expense, and it is in such establishments that one would naturally expect to find the best type of management. Yet it is an interesting fact that in several of the largest and most important classes of industries in this country shop practice is still twenty to thirty years behind what might be called modern management. Not only is no attempt made by them to do tonnage or piece work, but the oldest of old-fashioned day work is still in vogue under which one overworked foreman manages the men. The workmen in these shops are still herded in classes, all of those in a class being…
er, to have to recall a step once taken, whatever may be the cause, and it makes any further changes doubly difficult. The choice must be made between some of the types of management in common use, which the writer feels are properly designated by the word "drifting," and the more modern scientific management based on an accurate knowledge of how long it should take to do the work. If, as is frequently the case, the managers of an enterprise find themselves so overwhelmed with other departments of the business that they can give but little thought to the management of the shop, then…
d, and the other had come up from a workman in the factory. Each one was sure that the other was a fool, if not worse. When they were finally combined it was found that each was right in his judgment of the other in a certain way. A comparison of their books showed that the manufacturer was producing his chemicals more than forty per cent cheaper than his rival, while the business man made up the difference by insisting on maintaining the highest quality, and by his superiority in selling, buying, and the management of the commercial side of the business. A combination of the two,…
roper order to the right machine, and that the man at the machine knows just what is to be done and how he is to do it. He must see that the work is not slighted, and that it is done fast, and all the while he must look ahead a month or so, either to provide more men to do the work or more work for the men to do. He must constantly discipline the men and readjust their wages, and in addition to this must fix piece work prices and supervise the timekeeping. The first of the four leading principles in management calls for a clearly defined and circumscribed task. Evidently the foreman's…
More questions about this book
- Taylor asserts that management "is still looked upon as a question of men." How does this reliance on individual "master spirits" directly contribute to the "equally glaring examples of inefficiency" observed in departments where that individual lacks personal experience?
- Given Taylor's critique that management lacks "laws as exact, and as clearly defined" as engineering, how might this fundamental flaw explain the "lack of apparent relation between good shop management and the payment of dividends"?
- If a company were to adopt Taylor's implied vision of management as a defined "art" with exact "laws," what specific operational changes would be necessary to overcome the inefficiencies and "unevenness" he describes, and how would these changes fundamentally alter the role of a manager?
- Imagine you are one of the "master spirits" leading a successful department, as described by Taylor. How might his argument that management is not yet a "science" challenge your personal understanding of your own expertise and the methods that brought you success?