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Taylor, Weber and the Bureaucratisation of the Workplace

Taylorism was the most conscious of the systematization of management, and the
regulation and control of production.

In the US, the large corporations were developing higher levels of product and labour
specialization to cope with rising demands. A shift away from skilled labour towards
unskilled immigrants workers was taking place, but still within the context of a relatively
high-wage economy. This required new forms of co-ordination, integration and control,
and methods of keeping down labour cost. The orientation of larger firms towards
professional managers, engineers and consultants provided a supportive framework for
the rise of Taylorism.

Principles
Taylorism is concerned with the control of labour process. Though affecting the activities
of management and workers, the ideas were developed directly out of his obsession with
the combating the workers’ control of output – labeled “soldiering” = observed at the
steel works. To solve the “labour problem”, a number of basic management principles
were advanced:

1. Developing a science for each element of work.


2. Scientific selection and training of worker.
3. Co-operation between management and workers to ensure that the work is done
according to the science.
4. Equal division of work and responsibility between management and workers;
each side doing what it is best for.

Taylor did believe that workers were motivated by the pursuit of rational self-interest and
that incentive wages – in the form of a differential piece-rate system – were the solution
to most labour problems.
He is far more concerned with breaking the power of the workgroup and removing the
basis for collective bargaining through individualistic payment systems.

Ideology and Practice


Taylor recognized that that would be a need for: extensive work measurement to pre-
determine task; the employment of cheaper, deskilled and substitutable labour in more
fragmented jobs, a large increase in the number of non-productive employees to enforce,
monitor and record new work arrangements and functional foremanship that subdivided
traditional responsibilities and involved reporting to the-all powerful planning
department.

He neglects the wider capacity to improve work efficiency in the spheres of scheduling,
stores management and purchasing and plant lay-out.
Weber and administrative theories of management

- Taylor provided a system of detailed control over work, aided by a set of bureaucratic
rules
- Weber focuses more on the remote and impersonal qualities of a bureaucracy.

The Employment Relationship

Characteristics
- The office is a vocation and a full time undertaking.
- Officials are selected on a basis of technical qualification, education and expertise.
- There is seperation of office and office holder
- It is not his or her property and the employee does not possess the means of
administration.
- Thorough and expert training is part of the conditions of employment.
- Work is rewarded by a regular salary and prospects of advancement in a lifetime career.
- A career is based on the organisational hierarchy. Officials are selected by higher
authorities and are not externally elected.

Work Structures and Relations

Characteristics
- Hierarchy of offices.
- Division of labour based on defined responsibilities, rights and duties.
- Calculable rules and regulations, impersonal modes of conduct and a common control
system govern the conduct of work.
- Written documentation functions as a function of management of the office.

- Standardised systems can eliminate favouritism, nepotism and unethical practices.


- Bureaucracies are a type of rational-legal authority.
- Rationality is important to industrial societies since it allows authority to be calculable,
accountable, precise and predictable.
- The characteristics of rationality allows capitalist enterprises and markets to emerge.
- Weber's ideal bureaucracy is quite compatible with Taylor's scientific management as
scientific management
allows the company to weed out inefficient processes by replacing them with efficient
ones and enable workers
to be controlled.
- By giving employees incentives such as job security, status, rewards and performance
with organisational structure,
it might offset the negative reactions that the employees might have due to the effects of
being controlled within the organisation.

The rise of bureaucratisation control and its contradictions


- As bureaucracy developed within companies, companies adopted hierarchy structures
that divide and conquer.
- Long term identification with the company can be built through positive incentives such
as job security and career structure.
- As the work processes, outputs and skills becomes more standardised, behaviour can be
formalised and regulated.
- Bureaucratic organisations not only benefit the management but also the employees as
their pay and benefits structures become more well defined.

- However certain shortcomings of Weber's bureaucratic system is that the standardisation


and predictability could lead to the employees adopting a rigid and defensive behaviour.
- Resistance to innovation is one of the possible consequences.
- Sometimes, employees could bend or break certain rules in order to get things done
more effectively since rationality still exists.

Scientific management and bureaucratic work rules

- Taylorism and bureaucracy though sharply disputed, have nonetheless shaped the
modern practices and society.
- Many companies and organisations have incorporated Taylorist methods in one form or
the other where rules are most often the heart of the process.

Conclusion

- Taylorism and Bureaucracy have influenced the workings of modern organisations


deeply.
- Different organisations might have different versions of Taylorism but the basic
principles employed are
more or less the same.
- Both Taylorism and bureaucracy failed to address the human and social aspects of the
work structures.

Strength of Taylorist and Bureaucratic Systems

- Increase efficiency of production especially in workplaces such as factories.


- Workers are of course motivated by self interest and they would work harder in
order to get more monetary incentives. Because of the belief that workers work
better if they’re paid better, their pay packages would most probably improve in
Taylorist environments.
- Employees will become more aware of their individual roles and specific tasks
within the company and will perform their tasks diligently and aspire to rise
through the ranks in order to gain power and financial rewards due to the inherent
organizational hierarchy.
- Employees can be guided by rules, regulations and processes thereby limiting
their responsibilities and achieving greater efficiency by standardization.
- Control over employees is also better and more defined as it limits the discretion
given to an individual employee.

Weaknesses of Taylorist and Bureaucratic Systems

- Failed to take into consideration of relationships among employees as well as


between management and employees.
- Might create a gulf especially in terms of communication between management
and employees as both sides will be kept within their boundaries.
- Destroys the informal relationship within employee groups (eg. Team leader with
members, supervisor with workers) and might result in the loss of certain
specialized skills especially when the “master” passed on such skills to certain
“apprentices”.
- Create a contradiction where employees who in their bid to follow the rules might
become too rigid and unfeeling as bureaucratic organizations often call for a
separation of self from office. Employees also become too rigid and their
intellectual/personal progress might stifle as a result.

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