Relevance of Scientific Approach in Modern Business World

Relevance of Scientific Approach in Modern Business World
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Relevance of Scientific Approach in Modern Business World
Introduction
With newer theories of management being practiced in many organization’s today, it is important to find out whether Taylor’s theory of scientific management still has a place. This essay seeks to find this out through examining the management of approach of two companies: McDonald’s and Google. The paper begins by giving the background of Taylor’s theory.
Taylor’s Theory of Scientific Management
Taylor influenced to a great extent how companies approached management in the early 20th century. He is thus regarded as Scientific Management’s father. According to him, the practices of organizations were inefficient because the members of the workforce functioned by “rule of thumb”. Therefore, he carried out experiments to find scientific approach that would see the traditional one that relied on “rule of thumb” replaced. His experiment thus gave rise to scientific theory that is largely attributed to him.
As mentioned above, Taylor sought to replace simple habit with scientific way of doing things. Through science, the most efficient way of doing tasks are determined. This can be said to be still relevant in today’s organizations given that they are always trying to cut on costs. One way they can do this is through coming up with the most efficient way of carrying out organizational tasks. Another principle of the approach seeks to assign workers tasks based on their motivation and capability while training them in order to achieve maximum efficiency (Cole, 2004). With the approach also proposing the breaking up of tasks into smaller parts, best persons are assigned where they best fit. With the experiment being carried out on blue collar jobs, the workers that fit well on them were those that were strong physically and also had strong desire to carry out the task. In the case the job required intellectual abilities, workers with strong aptitude were selected. Another aspect of the theory is motivation that involved providing monetary incentives in order for workers to perform their tasks well.
McDonald’s
McDonald’s is one of the companies in today’s business whose operations relate to the scientific management approach to a great extent. One factor that relates the company to Taylor’s theory is uniformity in its restaurant chain. The operations of company’s chain stores are the same irrespective of the country in which they are loc...