nizing the work, while workers should specialize in actually doing it. He believed there were clear advantages to specialization of activities - becoming an expert as well as becoming highly proficient at the task. Taylor’s theory was based on four key principles; a) The development of a science for each element of a persons work which would replace the old rule-of-thumb methods. b) The scientific selection, training, and development of workers to replace the previous practice of their choosing their own work methods, and training themselves as best they could. c) Co-operating with the workers so as to ensure that all the work was done in accordance with the scientific principles developed. d) An equal division of work and responsibility between management and workers. Taylor’s ideas came to be incorporated in organizational design throughout the twentieth century. His principles were instituted regularly and extensively for over seventy years and continue to be applied today. In many cases it was the non-application of his ideas that received attention, such as the Volvo car plant in Kalmar. The work of Taylor was developed and extended by Gilberth and Gantt to name a few. Administrative Theory The primary focus of this idea is the determination of what types of specialization and hierarchy would optimize the efficiency of organizations. The application of these two concepts produced a very mechanistic form of organizational design, which paid little attention to the people and saw them more as parts of a machine. Administrative management is built around four key pillars. These are the division of labour, the scalar and functional processes, organizational structure, and the span of control. Additional concepts include discipline, unity of command, unity of direction, compensation, subordination of the individual interest to the general interest, centralization, and esprit de corps (group spirit). The writer who is most cl...
