Encyclopedia:
Frederick Winslow Taylor
SOURCE:
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Frederick-Winslow-Taylor
Frederick Winslow Taylor was born in
Germantown
1856 to
a wealthy family and died in
Philadelphia
1915. He
had intended a university education at
Harvard,
but ill-health forced him to consider an alternative career. In
1874 he
became an apprentice machinist, learning of factory conditions at
grass-roots level. He qualified as an engineer due to evening study.
His first attempts at reorganising management was at Bethlehem
Steel, which he was forced to leave in
1901
after antagonisms with other managers. He then wrote a book, Shop
Management, which did well.
Taylor believed that contemporary management was amateurish, and
should be studied as a discipline; that workers should co-operate
(and hence would not need
Trade
Unions); and that the best results would come from the
partnership between a trained and qualified management and a
co-operative and innovative workforce. Each side needed the other.
He is known for coinage of the term scientific management in
his article The Principles of Scientific Management published
in 1911.
However his approach is more often referred to, frequently
disparagingly, as
Taylorism.