Introduction
The administration and organizations have existed for thousands of years, the Chinese Wall and the pyramids of Egypt are a clear example; long before the contemporary age, tremendous projects were carried out in which thousands of people participated.
The pyramids are a particular case, the construction of a single pyramid employed more than 100,000 workers for 20 years. Who said what each worker should do? Who verified that there were enough stones on the construction site so that workers would not be left idle? The answer is that it was the managers. Whatever they were called at that time, someone had to plan the work, organize the people and the materials, instruct and direct the masons and see that everything was done as planned.
The city of Venice in Italy, a major economic and commercial center of the 15th century, is another early example of administration. The Venetians created an initial form of private business and practiced many activities that are common in today's organizations. For example, Venetian shipyards were launching warships that were floating down the canals. At successive stops materials and gear were added. Doesn't this description remind you of cars "floating" down an assembly line while parts are added? In addition to this assembly line, Venetians also had warehouse and inventory systems to control materials, human resource management functions to control the workforce, and a revenue and cost accounting system.
These examples demonstrate that administration, organization, and managers have existed for years, even most empirical. For the study of the administration, 2 events before the 20th century are particularly significant. In 1776, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, a book in which he argued the advantages generated by organizations and society by the division of labor, as well as the decomposition of jobs into specialized and repeated tasks.
Smith used pinmaking as an example, ten individuals, each doing a specific specialized task, together produced some 48,000,000 pins per day. On the other hand, if everyone worked on their own and did all the tasks, it would be quite an achievement to finish 10 pins a day. That is why Smith concluded that the division of labor increases productivity by improving the skill and ability of workers, saving the time lost when changing from one task to another, and with the invention of techniques and machines, saves labor. work. The popularity of job specialization is without a doubt due to the economic advantages discovered by Adam Smith.
The second major influence, prior to the 10th century, on administration was the Industrial Revolution, which began in England and crossed the Atlantic in the late American Civil War. The Industrial Revolution replaced human power with the power of machines, which made it cheaper to manufacture goods in factories, and in turn made it cheaper to manufacture products in factories rather than households. These large and efficient factories required administrative skills. Why? Managers had to forecast demand, ensure there was enough raw material to make products, assign tasks to workers, direct daily activities, etc.
Thus arose the need for a form theory that would help managers run these large organizations, but it was not until the turn of the 20th century that the first step was taken in formulating such a theory.
Development
If the birth year of modern management theory were to be pointed out, it would be 1911, the year of the publication of Frederick Taylor's Principles of Scientific Management. Its content was accepted by managers worldwide. In his work, Taylor exposed the theory of scientific administration: the application of the scientific method to determine "the best way" to do a job.
Frederick W. Taylor did most of his work at the Midvale and Bethlehem Steel mills in Pennsylvania. Taylor was a Puritan-trained mechanical engineer. He was constantly amazed at the inefficiency of the workers. Operations used very different techniques to do the same job.
I spend more than 20 years searching intensively for "the best way" to do each job.
Taylor's experiences at Midvale led him to define clear guidelines for improving production efficiency. The argument that its four principles of scientific administration would bring prosperity to both workers and managers.
4 principles of Taylor management
- 1Establish the science of each part of the individual's work, which replaces the old method of “doing it to the eye”. Scientifically choose the worker and then train and develop them enthusiastically cooperate with the workers to ensure that all work is done according to the principles of the science that was developed. Splitting work and responsibility almost equally between management and workers, management takes on all the work for which it is more capable than workers.
The most relevant example of admiration. Taylor's scientist is the iron bullion experiment. The workers loaded the ingots (42 kilos each) to the rail cars. Its daily production average was 12.5 tons. Taylor believed that if the work was scientifically analyzed to determine "the best way" to load the ingots, production would increase to 47 or 48 tons per day.
After scientifically performing various combinations of procedures, techniques, and tools, Taylor applied them to achieve those levels of productivity.
How? Placing the right person in the job, with the right tools and equipment, got the worker to follow his instructions exactly, and motivated him with the financial incentive of a much higher daily pay.
Conclusions
After Taylor more scientists and authors, they decided to study those techniques created by him with the purpose of improving or contributing more in the matter of administration.
Authors like Frank and Lilian Gilbreth, looked for how to eliminate useless manual and corporal movements. As well as experimenting to optimize the results of the work, regarding the design and use of tools and equipment.
The two most prominent theorists of the general administration approach were Henri Fayol and Max Weber.
Henri Fayol wrote around the same time as Taylor, and while Taylor was interested in front-line managers and the scientific method, Fayol turned his attention to the activities of all managers.
His belief was that administration is a common activity of everyone, in companies, governments, even at home. This belief led him to write the 14 principles of administration.
Max weber the german sociologist studied organizational activity. Weber described an ideal type of organization that he called bureaucracy, a form of organization characterized by division of labor, a well-defined hierarchy, detailed rules, norms, and impersonal relationships.
And so many more emerged, even schools, theories, administrative processes were formed, but most based on Taylor's studies, which to this day continue to be applied, and with the basis for many more authors to write to improve administrative processes. and management techniques.
Taylor applied his techniques to similar jobs, including others that were unrelated, and managed to establish "the best way" to do each job. Overall, Taylor achieved better production permanents on the order of 200% or more.
Thanks to his scientific studies of manual work. Taylor earned the title of "father" of scientific management.
His ideas spread throughout the United States, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan, and he inspired others to study and develop methods of scientific administration.
Even today for modern administration….
Bibliography
- Administration. Stephen P. Robbins, Mary Coulter - 2005. 8th Edition. Prentice Hall ISBN 970-26-0555-5, Area: University students. Modern administration / Agustín Reyes Ponce. México Limusa, 2004. ISBN 968-18-421-4-6. Foundations of Administration, 3rd edition, Pearson Education, México 2002, Robbins, Stephen P. and Decenzo, David A. ISBN 970-26-0323-4.
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In the following video-lesson, given by María Gisbert (professor at the Miguel Hernández University of Elche), the principles and philosophy of the scientific administration of Frederick W. Taylor are discussed and some clarity is made on the subject of his paternity on this school.
