Scientific Management and Human Relations School of Management

2195 words 9 pages
Scientific management theory and the human relations school theory are both theories developed in the 20th century as a means of increasing proficiency and effectiveness as well as profits and outputs in organisations. While the two theories have two different approaches to reaching organisational goals, both theories to an extent aim towards similar goals.
Scientific Management was developed by Frederick Taylor as a means of replacing old ‘rule of thumb’ methods with scientific methods for best and rational design of optimising any task which would lead to enhanced productivity and profitability. Scientific management (also called Taylorism) concerns four primary principles of: developing scientific methods, thoughtful selection of
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In today’s organizations complete application of scientific management and/or human relations school theories usually causes unavoidable problems for organizations due to the limitations of the two theories. For example, two of the world’s most successful companies Apple and Google continuously encounter problems due to the limitations of leaning towards using one theory only. Apple employs the use of scientific management theory in the production of its products despite the detrimental effects and human concerns. Workers in China are treated like robots as the social and emotional aspect of working in an assembly line is not considered by Apple. This has led to suicides, strikes and potential plans of replacing human labour with actual robots as workers. Whereas Google employs the use of human relations theory that allows workers ample space for their emotional and social needs. Google to this day faces problems of labour retention and labour development. This is because employees inevitably reach changes in their lives that require more balanced work/life social situations which Google does not consider as a result workers often find that the social aspect of working for Google overshadows their social life outside of work eventually causing problems for workers as they fail to find the work/life balance. Fortunately majority of companies recognize that workers are more than robots and more

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