Identify and compare the contributions of Taylor, Fayol and Mayo to management today.
Introduction
This essay outlines the main contributions of Taylor, Fayol and Mayo to the study of
management. It then evaluates the contribution of these writers to management as it is
practiced today. It does this by discussing in turn their work, explicitly and implicitly
drawing comparisons between them. It argues that the various contributions reflect the
differing circumstances and needs of the theorists, and are complementary in their
contributions to modern management.
Management is essential to organized human endeavor, and as such has been practiced for
thousands of years (for example see Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulter, 2000, p. 41;
Lock and Farrow, 1988, p.4). It is however, only since the early part of the twentieth
century that management has been formally studied (Robbins et al., 2000, p. 41).
Frederick W. Taylor (1856-1917), Henri Fayol (1841-1925) and Elton Mayo (1880-1949)
are recognized as important early management theorists, although each built to some
extent on the work of earlier writers (for example, see Koontz and ODonnell, 1972, p. 21;
Robbins et al., 2000, pp. 51-54). They are recognized not only for their own contributions,
but as founders of recognized schools of management thought, and as important influences
on later theorists (Lock and Farrow, 1988, p. 4).
Taylor
Many writers see the publication of Principles of Scientific Management by Taylor in 1911
as the beginning of modern management theory (for example, Robbins et al., 2000, p. 43;
Massie, 1979, p.13), and his book as “perhaps the publication that has influenced
management more than any other” (Lock and Farrow, 1988, p. 4). He is recognized as the
father of scientific management” (Lock and Farrow, 1988, p. 5), and perhaps his main
contribution was “his insistence upon the application of scientific method” (Koontz and
ODonnell, 1972, p. 22). It is said that he helped managers move “out of the realm of
intuition, toward conscious analysis” (Mintzberg, 1989, p. 55).
Taylor drew upon his own experience working (first as a worker, and then as a mechanical
engineer) in American industrial enterprises in the latter part of the nineteenth century
(Robbins et al., 2000, p. 43; Massie, 1979, p. 16).
Taylor was struck by the inefficiency of industrial enterprises, and the antagonism between
workers and management. Scientific management was a means of addressing these issues
(Pugh and Hickson, 1989, p. 91). He was vitally concerned with improving the production
efficiency of industrial enterprises, and with the role of managers in achieving this end.
