For your initial post, share with the group the company you have chosen and why. Find a source that is less than four weeks old that is directly relevant to the four functions of management, managerial roles, and/or managerial skills at the company you have chosen. Share that source in your post and explain why it helped you chose the company you did. company must begin with the ( L ) letter as your last name and your carefully chosen and cited reference must be dated within the last four weeks and be linked in your post.Must be a publicly traded company
Review a minimum of two of your classmate’s posts and respond with additional insights, information, questions, or links to more information on the company they have chosen. Your responses should be academic in nature and linked to research
· 1-1An Introduction to Management
· An organization is a group of people working together in a structured and coordinated fashion to achieve a set of goals, which may include profit (Netflix or Starbucks), the discovery of knowledge (the University of Nebraska or the National Science Foundation), national defense (the U.S. Navy or Marines), the coordination of various local charities (the United Way of America), or social satisfaction (a fraternity or sorority).
· Managers are responsible for using the organization’s resources to help achieve its goals. More precisely, management can be defined as a set of activities (including planning and decision making, organizing, leading, and controlling) directed at an organization’s resources (human, financial, physical, and information) with the aim of achieving organizational goals in an efficient and effective manner. A manager , then, is someone whose primary responsibility is to carry out the management process. By efficient , we mean using resources wisely in a cost-effective way. By effective , we mean making the right decisions and successfully implementing them. In general, successful organizations are both efficient and effective.
· Today’s managers face myriad interesting and challenging situations. The average executive works at least 60 hours a week; has enormous demands placed on his or her time; and faces increased complexities posed by globalization, domestic competition, government regulation, shareholder pressure, emerging technologies, the growing impact of social media, and other technology-driven uncertainties. Their job is complicated even more by rapid changes, unexpected disruptions, and both minor and major crises. The manager’s job is unpredictable and fraught with challenges, but it is also filled with opportunities to make a difference. Good managers can propel an organization into unprecedented realms of success, whereas poor managers can devastate even the strongest of organizations.
1-1aKinds of Managers
Many different kinds of managers work in organizations today. Figure 1.1 shows how various kinds of managers within an organization can be differentiated by level and by area.
Figure 1.1Kinds of Managers by Level and Area
Organizations generally have three levels of management, represented by top managers, middle managers, and first-line managers. Regardless of level, managers are also usually associated with a specific area within the organization, such as marketing, finance, operations, human resources, administration, or some other area.
To be effective businesses must produce products that consumers are willing to buy. A company could very efficiently produce portable cassette tape players like this one but will not be successful.
Levels of Management
One way to classify managers is in terms of their level in the organization. Top managers make up the relatively small group of executives who manage the overall organization. Titles found in this group include president, vice president (VP), and chief executive officer (CEO). Top managers create the organization’s goals, overall strategy, and operating policies. They also officially represent the organization to the external environment by meeting with government officials, executives of other organizations, and so forth.
Reed Hastings is a top manager. Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, is also a top manager, as are Michelle Burns and Rajiv Chandrasekaran, two of the firm’s executive VPs. Likewise, Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Google’s founders and top executives), Tim Cook (CEO of Apple), and Mary Barra (CEO of General Motors) are also top managers. The job of a top manager is likely to be complex and varied. Top managers make decisions about activities such as acquiring other companies, investing in R&D, entering or abandoning various markets, and building new plants and office facilities. They often work long hours and spend much of their time in meetings or on the telephone. In most cases, top managers are also very well paid. In fact, the elite top managers of very large firms sometimes make several million dollars a year in salary, bonuses, and stock. In 2017, Starbucks paid Howard Schultz $1,500,000 in salary for his work as CEO. Schultz was also awarded a bonus of $2,250,000, around $13,000,000 in stock and option awards, and $215,933 in other compensation.
Middle management is probably the largest group of managers in most organizations. Common middle-management titles include plant manager, operations manager, and division head. Middle managers are primarily responsible for implementing the policies and plans developed by top managers and for supervising and coordinating the activities of lower-level managers. Jason Hernandez, a regional manager at Starbucks responsible for the firm’s operations in three eastern states, is a middle manager.
First-line managers supervise and coordinate the activities of operating employees. Common titles for first-line managers are supervisor, coordinator, and office manager. Positions like these are often the first held by employees who enter management from the ranks of operating personnel. Wayne Maxwell and Jenny Wagner, managers of Starbucks coffee shops in Texas, are first-line managers. They oversee the day-to-day operations of their respective stores, hire operating employees to staff them, and handle other routine administrative duties required of them by the parent corporation. In contrast to top and middle managers, first-line managers typically spend a large proportion of their time supervising the work of their subordinates.
Denise Morrison, CEO of Campbell Soup, is a top manager. She makes major decisions about the firm’s competitive strategies, research and development investments, and new facilities.
Managing in Different Areas of the Organization
Regardless of their level, managers may work in various areas within an organization. In any given firm, for example, these areas may include marketing, financial, operations, human resources, administrative, and others.
Marketing managers work in areas related to the marketing function—getting consumers and clients to buy the organization’s products or services (be they Samsung smartphones, Toyota automobiles, Vogue magazines, Associated Press news reports, streaming video rentals from Netflix, or lattes at Starbucks). These areas include new product development, promotion, and distribution. Given the importance of marketing for virtually all organizations, developing good managers in this area is critical.
Financial managers deal primarily with an organization’s financial resources. They are responsible for activities such as accounting, cash management, and investments. In some businesses, especially banking and insurance, financial managers are found in large numbers.
Operations managers are concerned with creating and managing the systems that create an organization’s products and services. Typical responsibilities of operations managers include production control, inventory control, quality control, plant layout, and site selection.
Human resources managers are responsible for hiring and developing employees. They are typically involved in human resource planning, recruiting and selecting employees, training and development, designing compensation and benefit systems, formulating performance appraisal systems, and discharging low-performing and problem employees.
Administrative, or general, managers are not associated with any particular management specialty. Probably the best example of an administrative management position is that of a hospital or clinic administrator. Administrative managers tend to be generalists; they have some basic familiarity with all functional areas of management rather than specialized training in any one area.
Many organizations have specialized management positions in addition to those already described. Public relations managers, for example, deal with the public and media for firms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Unilever to protect and enhance the image of their organizations. R&D managers coordinate the activities of scientists and engineers working on scientific projects in organizations such as Google, Shell Oil, and NASA. Internal consultants are used in organizations such as Prudential Insurance to provide specialized expert advice to operating managers. International operations are often coordinated by specialized managers in organizations like Walmart and General Electric. The number, nature, and importance of these specialized managers vary tremendously from one organization to another. As contemporary organizations continue to grow in complexity and size, the number and importance of such managers are also likely to increase. Our “Tech Watch” feature highlights one newly emerging management position, the social media manager.
1-1bBasic Management Functions
Regardless of level or area, management involves the four basic functions of planning and decision making, organizing, leading, and controlling. This book is organized around these basic functions, as shown in Figure 1.2.
Planning and Decision Making
In its simplest form, planning means setting an organization’s goals and deciding how best to achieve them. Decision making , a part of the planning process, involves selecting a course of action from a set of alternatives. Planning and decision making help managers maintain their effectiveness by serving as guides for their future activities. In other words, the organization’s goals and plans clearly help managers know how to allocate their time and resources. Part 2 of this book is devoted to planning and decision-making activities and concepts.
Tech Watch
“. . . But What Is a Social Media Manager?”
The last few years have been big for social media—technologies that allow users to create and exchange content. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube play central roles in the daily activities of many people today, especially younger people. Spending on social media advertising is approaching $5 billion per year, up 35 percent from 2012. Seven out of ten marketers say that they are increasing social media spending each year (compared to only half who are increasing direct marketing spending and less than 10 percent who are spending more on TV advertising).
According to Ashley Coombe, social media strategist for All Inclusive Marketing, “2013 was the year social media managers earned legitimacy. . . . Business owners began to realize that they could no longer hire their friend’s daughter to do their social media just because she had a lot of friends on Facebook.”
Just what do social media managers do? Why is your friend’s daughter likely to be in over her head? It’s a pretty new position, so job descriptions understandably vary. Here, however, is a generic description crafted by a veteran social media executive:
· The social media manager will implement the company’s social media strategy, developing brand awareness, generating inbound traffic, and encouraging product adoption. This role coordinates with the internal marketing and PR teams to support their respective missions, ensuring consistency in voice and cultivating a social media referral network.
Primarily, social media managers handle information and communications through social media outlets—tracking trends and determining posting rates, creating positive communications, and maintaining a congenial media relationship with a company’s community of customers. As you can also see from the job description, a key function of the position is coordination. Typically, social media managers work out of marketing departments and perform a variety of marketing-related tasks—replying to customer inquiries (sales), responding to customer complaints (customer service), and handling external communications (public relations). At the same time, however, because they often manage the use of social media among all of a company’s employees and communicate information about all of its activities, the scope of responsibilities is companywide.
Even so, some social media managers aren’t quite sure how much “legitimacy” they’ve earned. “At the last place I was a social manager,” reports one brand specialist at a large corporation, “high-level VPs would come over and say I was messing around on the Internet too much.” According to another veteran of corporate media management, “The biggest misconception is that, compared to other marketers, we don’t understand analytics or don’t have the education or background when it comes to the technical side.” Old-school executives, charges a third social media strategist, “see [social media] as the warm and fuzzy side of marketing. In reality,” he says, “it’s a powerful revenue driver when it’s given proper funding and attention. . . . When you show them the ROI, people start changing their minds.”
References: Kelly Clay, “What Social Media Managers Need to Know about Facebook,” www.forbes.com, accessed on January 4, 2017; Jennifer Beese, “The Top 7 Social Media Stories of 2013,” SproutSocial, December 27, 2013, http://sproutsocial.com, accessed on January 4, 2017; Erik Sass, “Most Marketers Will Spend More on Social Media in 2014,” The Social Graf, November 19, 2013, www.mediapost.com, accessed on January 4, 2017; The CMO Survey, “Social Media Spend Continues to Soar,” www.cmosurvey.org, accessed on January 4, 2017; Blaise Grimes-Viort, “Social Media Manager Job Description,” Online Communities and Social Media, http://blaisegv.com, accessed on January 4, 2017; Julian Rio, “Social Media Manager: What Role Does He Really Have?” JulianRio.com Marketing Solutions, www.julianrio.com, accessed on January 4, 2017; and “Confessions of Big Brand Social Media Managers,” Digiday, http://digiday.com, accessed on January 4, 2017.
Organizing
Once a manager has set goals and developed a workable plan, his or her next management function is to organize people and the other resources necessary to carry out the plan. Specifically, organizing involves determining how activities and resources are to be grouped. Although some people equate this function with the creation of an organization chart, we will see in Part 3 that it is actually much more.
Leading
The third basic managerial function is leading. Some people consider leading to be both the most important and the most challenging of all managerial activities. Leading is the set of processes used to get members of the organization to work together to further the interests of the organization. We cover the leading function in detail in Part 4.
Controlling
The final phase of the management process is controlling , or monitoring the organization’s progress toward its goals. As the organization moves toward its goals, managers must monitor progress to ensure that it is performing in such a way as to arrive at its “destination” at the appointed time. Part 5 explores the control function.
1-1cFundamental Management Skills
To carry out these management functions most effectively, managers rely on a number of different fundamental management skills of which the most important are technical, interpersonal, conceptual, diagnostic, communication, decision-making, and time management skills. Our “Leading the Way” feature also illustrates how one successful manager has relied on both the basic management functions and fundamental management skills to propel herself to the top of a successful corporation.
Technical Skills
Technical skills are necessary to accomplish or understand the specific kind of work done in an organization. Technical skills are especially important for first-line managers. These managers spend much of their time training their subordinates and answering questions about work-related problems. If they are to be effective managers, they must know how to perform the tasks assigned to those they supervise. While Reed Hastings spends most of his time now dealing with strategic and management issues, he also keeps abreast of new and emerging technologies and trends that may affect Netflix.
Interpersonal Skills
Managers spend considerable time interacting with people both inside and outside the organization. For obvious reasons, then, they also need interpersonal skills —the ability to communicate with, understand, and motivate both individuals and groups. As a manager climbs the organizational ladder, he or she must be able to get along with subordinates, peers, and those at higher levels of the organization. Because of the multitude of roles that managers must fulfill, a manager must also be able to work with suppliers, customers, investors, and others outside the organization.
Conceptual Skills
Conceptual skills depend on the manager’s ability to think in the abstract. Managers need the mental capacity to understand the overall workings of the organization and its environment, to grasp how all the parts of the organization fit together, and to view the organization in a holistic manner. This ability allows them to think strategically, to see the “big picture,” and to make broad-based decisions that serve the overall organization. Reed Hastings’s idea to extend the paymentmodel used by health clubs to the video rental market came from his strong conceptual skills.
Diagnostic Skills
Successful managers also possess diagnostic skills or skills that enable them to visualize the most appropriate response to a situation. A physician diagnoses a patient’s illness by analyzing symptoms and determining their probable cause. Similarly, a manager can diagnose and analyze a problem in the organization by studying its symptoms and then developing a solution.
Communication Skills
Communication skills refer to the manager’s abilities to both effectively convey ideas and information to others and effectively receive ideas and information from others. These skills enable a manager to transmit ideas to subordinates so that they know what is expected, to coordinate work with peers and colleagues so that they work well together, and to keep higher-level managers informed about what is going on. In addition, communication skills help the manager listen to what others say and to understand the real meaning behind e-mails, letters, reports, and other written communication.
Decision-Making Skills
Effective managers also have good decision-making skills. Decision-making skills refer to the manager’s ability to correctly recognize and define problems and opportunities and to then select an appropriate course of action to solve problems and capitalize on opportunities. No manager makes the right decision all the time. However, effective managers make good decisions most of the time. And, when they do make a bad decision, they usually recognize their mistake quickly and then make good decisions to recover with as little cost or damage to their organization as possible. Managers at Netflix made a poor decision when they decided to split their mail delivery and streaming services into two businesses, but they quickly reversed themselves before things got too bad.
Time Management Skills
Finally, effective managers usually have good time management skills. Time management skills refer to the manager’s ability to prioritize work, to work efficiently, and to delegate work appropriately. As already noted, managers face many different pressures and challenges. It is too easy for a manager to get bogged down doing work that can easily be postponed or delegated to others. When this happens, unfortunately, more pressing and higher-priority work may get neglected.
1-1dThe Science and the Art of Management
Given the complexity inherent in the manager’s job, a reasonable question relates to whether management is a science or an art. In fact, effective management is a blend of both science and art. And successful executives recognize the importance of combining both the science and art of management as they practice their craft.
The Egyptians used basic management functions to construct the pyramids.
The Science of Management
Many management problems and issues can be approached in ways that are rational, logical, objective, and systematic. Managers can gather data, facts, and objective information. They can use quantitative models and decision-making techniques to arrive at “correct” decisions. And they need to take such a scientific approach to solving problems whenever possible, especially when they are dealing with relatively routine and straightforward issues. When Starbucks considers entering a new market, its managers look closely at a wide variety of objective details as they formulate their plans. Technical, diagnostic, and decision-making skills are especially important when approaching a management task or problem from a scientific perspective.
Leading the Way
“On the Fast Track”
Kat Cole started her climb up the corporate ladder in orange shorts. At 16, she took a part-time job serving chicken wings and beer at Hooters, and 19 years later—at the relatively young age of 35—she was president of Cinnabon, a franchise that sells cinnamon-laced concoctions out of 1,100 locations in 56 countries. Cole now leads a team of employees that ranges over four generations in age and includes many men who are much older than she is.
Obviously, it was a fast climb, but Cole didn’t skip any rungs (except getting a college degree—she dropped out but eventually earned an MBA). She got started by taking advantage of opportunities that opened up in the Hooters outlet where she was waiting tables. “When the cook quit,” Cole reports, “I learned how to run the kitchen, and when the manager quit, I learned how to run a shift.” By the time she was 18, her responsibilities included training new employees. “My general manager saw the potential in me,” she recalls, “and my role as a trainer expanded to other stores.”
A year later, while still in college, she was asked to join the company’s international expansion team, which was headed to Australia. She spent 40 days with the team in Sydney, and within 10 days of her return to the United States, Cole was on her way to open the first Hooters in Central America, “then ones in South America, Asia, Africa, and Canada. By the time I was 20, I’d opened up the first Hooters on most continents outside the U.S. and was failing school. So I quit to become head of Hooters corporate training.”
It was worth a 50 percent pay cut, because Cole rose quickly through the ranks, becoming an executive VP at age 26. When she was 29, mentors urged her to go back to school, and so she entered the MBA program at Georgia State. Companies like Cinnabon were already calling, but in 2010, Cole decided to stay at Hooters long enough to take advantage of one more opportunity—helping to manage the sale of the company. She found herself “dealing with analysts, brokers, investors, and the internal team. . . . I would go to class one day and learn about transactions, and I would go to work on Monday and be in the middle of the transaction, and I’d think, ‘Thank God I went to class that day.’ ”
Later in 2010, at age 32, Cole took the job as chief operating officer (COO) of Cinnabon, and two months later, she finished her MBA. She was appointed president of the company in 2011. Under Cole’s leadership, Cinnabon has opened 200 new outlets (called “bakeries”) and entered licensing programs with such franchises as Burger King and Taco Bell. Cole has also launched a host of branded products, including a cinnamon-scented air freshener, a cinnamon-flavored vodka, and a cinnamon-spiced Keurig coffee blend (although she vetoed a cinnamon-flavored mouthwash). She has also partnered with international packaged-goods companies such as Pillsbury and Kellogg’s and such big-box retailers as Costco, Walmart, and Target. Cinnabon now has 50,000 points of distribution around the world and is fast approaching $1 billion in annual sales. “My management style,” she says, “is fast and direct. . . . We totally celebrate fast failure,” adds Cole, who’s perfectly willing to launch a product that’s only 75 percent ready for market. “We move as fast as something feels good.”
Clearly, speed to market isn’t a strategy for the risk averse. Taking risks means making tough calls, but Cole figures that if she has to make a tough call, it’s better to make it too soon rather than too late: “If you don’t take a risk,” she advises, “your competition will.” Ironically, Cole regards moving fast and taking risks as good reasons for pausing to get other people’s opinions. Her thinking? By the time you get around to making a decision, “there are usually lots of people around you who’ve known that it’s the right thing to do for a long time. The key, in business and in leadership, is staying really close to the other people who kind of know what’s going on so that it doesn’t take you too long to figure it out.”
References: Catherine Clifford, “How Kat Cole Went from Hooters Girl to President of Cinnabon by Age 32,” www.entrepreneur.com, accessed on January 3, 2017; Jenna Goudreau, “From Hooters to Hot Buns: How Kat Cole Turned Cinnabon into a $1 Billion Brand,” Forbes.com, November 27, 2012, www.forbes.com, accessed on January 3, 2017; Barbara Babbit Kaufman, “Kat Cole: From Hooters Girl to CEO, by Age 35,” Atlanta Business Chronicle, August 23, 2013, www.bizjournals.com, accessed on January 3, 2017; Laura Dunn, “Women in Business: Q&A with Kat Cole, President of Cinnabon,” Huffington Post, August 8, 2013, www.huffingtonpost.com, accessed on April 28, 2017; Lydia Dishman, “How Kat Cole Operates Cinnabon Like a Tech Startup,” Fast Company, April 9, 2014, www.fastcompany.com, accessed on April 28, 2017; and Blair Chancey, “Leadership: Kat Cole Style,” QSR Magazine, September 2011, www.qsrmagazine.com, accessed on June April 28, 2017.
The Art of Management
Even though managers may try to be scientific as often as possible, they must frequently make decisions and solve problems on the basis of intuition, experience, instinct, and personal insights. Relying heavily on conceptual, communication, interpersonal, and time management skills, for example, a manager may have to decide among multiple courses of action that look equally attractive. And even “objective facts” may prove to be wrong. When Starbucks was planning its first store in New York City, market research clearly showed that New Yorkers strongly preferred drip coffee to more exotic espresso-style coffees. After first installing more drip coffee makers and fewer espresso makers than in their other stores, managers had to backtrack when the New Yorkers lined up clamoring for espresso. Starbucks now introduces a standard menu and layout in all its stores, regardless of presumed market differences, and makes necessary adjustments later. Thus, managers must blend an element of intuition and personal insight with hard data and objective facts.
1-2The Evolution of Management
Most managers today recognize the importance of history and theory in their work. For instance, knowing the origins of their organization and the kinds of practices that have led to success—or failure—can be an indispensable tool in managing the contemporary organization. Thus, in our next section, we briefly trace the history of management thought. Then we move forward to the present day by introducing contemporary management issues and challenges.
1-2aThe Importance of Theory and History
Some people question the value of history and theory. Their arguments are usually based on the assumptions that history is not relevant to contemporary society and that theory is abstract and of no practical use. In reality, however, both theory and history are important to all managers today.
Why Theory?
A theory is simply a conceptual framework for organizing knowledge and providing a blueprint for action. Although some theories seem abstract and irrelevant, others appear very simple and practical. Management theories, which are used to build organizations and guide them toward their goals, are grounded in reality.
Practically any organization that uses assembly lines (such as Nissan and Samsung) is drawing on what we describe later in this chapter as scientific management. Many organizations, including Nucor and Google, use the behavioral perspective (also introduced later in this chapter) to improve employee satisfaction and motivation. And naming a large company that does not use one or more techniques from the quantitative management perspective would be difficult. For example, retailers such as Best Buy and Target routinely use operations management to determine how many checkout lines they need to have open at any given time. In addition, most managers develop and refine their own theories of how they should run their organizations and manage the behavior of their employees. James Sinegal, founder and former CEO of Costco Wholesale, always argued that paying his employees above-market wages while focusing cost-cutting measure elsewhere were the key ingredients in the early success for his business. This belief was essentially based on his personal theory of competition in the warehouse retailing industry.
Why History?
Awareness and understanding of important historical developments are also important to contemporary managers. Understanding the historical context of management provides a sense of heritage and can help managers avoid the mistakes of others. Most courses in U.S. history devote time to business and economic developments in this country, including the Industrial Revolution, the early labor movement, and the Great Depression, and to captains of U.S. industry such as Cornelius Vanderbilt (railroads), John D. Rockefeller (oil), and Andrew Carnegie (steel). The contributions of those and other industrialists left a profound imprint on contemporary culture.
Many managers are also realizing that they can benefit from a greater understanding of history in general. For example, Ian M. Ross of AT&T’s Bell Laboratories cites The Second World War by Winston Churchill as a major influence on his approach to leadership. Other books often mentioned by managers for their relevance to today’s business problems include such classics as Plato’s Republic, Homer’s Iliad, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, and Machiavelli’s The Prince. And recent business history books have also been directed at women managers and the lessons they can learn from the past.
Managers at Wells Fargo clearly recognize the value of history. For example, the company maintains an extensive archival library of its old banking documents and records, and even employs a full-time corporate historian. As part of their orientation and training, new managers at Wells Fargo take courses to become acquainted with the bank’s history. Similarly, Shell Oil, Levi Strauss, Walmart, Lloyd’s of London, Disney, Honda, and Unilever all maintain significant archives about their pasts and frequently evoke images from those pasts in their orientation and training programs, advertising campaigns, and other public relations activities.
1-2bThe Historical Context of Management
The practice of management can be traced back thousands of years. The Egyptians used the management functions of planning, organizing, and controlling when they constructed the pyramids. Alexander the Great employed a staff organization to coordinate activities during his military campaigns. The Roman Empire developed a well-defined organizational structure that greatly facilitated communication and control. Socrates discussed management practices and concepts in 400 BC, Plato described job specialization in 350 BC, and the Persian scientist and philosopher al-Farabi listed several leadership traits in AD 900.
In spite of this history, the serious study of management did not begin until the nineteenth century. Two of its pioneers were Robert Owen and Charles Babbage. Owen (1771–1858), a British industrialist and reformer, was one of the first managers to recognize the importance of an organization’s human resources and to express concern for the personal welfare of his workers. Babbage (1792–1871), an English mathematician, focused his attention on efficiencies of production. He placed great faith in the division of labor and advocated the application of mathematics to such problems as the efficient use of facilities and materials.
1-2cThe Classical Management Perspective
Early in the twentieth century, the preliminary ideas and writings of these and other managers and theorists converged with the emergence and evolution of large-scale businesses and management practices. This created interest and focused attention on how businesses should be operated. The first important ideas to emerge are now called the classical management perspective , which actually includes two different viewpoints: scientific management and administrative management.
Scientific Management
Productivity emerged as a serious business problem during the early years of the twentieth century. Business was expanding and capital was readily available, but labor was in short supply. Hence, managers began to search for ways to use existing labor more efficiently. In response to this need, experts began to focus on ways to improve the performance of individual workers. Their work led to the development of scientific management . Some of the earliest advocates of scientific management included Frederick W. Taylor (1856–1915), Frank Gilbreth (1868–1924), and Lillian Gilbreth (1878–1972). Taylor played the dominant role.
One of Taylor’s first jobs was as a foreman at the Midvale Steel Company in Philadelphia. There he observed what he called soldiering —employees deliberately working at a pace slower than their capabilities. Taylor studied and timed each element of the steelworkers’ jobs. He determined what each worker should be producing, and then he designed the most efficient way of doing each part of the overall task. Next he implemented a piecework pay system. Rather than paying all employees the same wage, he began increasing the pay of each worker who met and exceeded the target level of output set for his or her job.
Frederick W. Taylor was one of the first management consultants and helped create scientific management. Time-andmotion studies and performance-based pay systems were among the innovations Taylor and his associates introduced. Mass production assembly line technologies also benefited from Taylor’s ideas and insights.
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