Human resourses

Scientific management  involves breaking down jobs into elemental activities and simplifying job design.

The principles of scientific management developed by F. W. Taylor in the 1880s and 1890s dominated operations management during the first part of the twentieth century. Taylor’s approach was to break jobs down into their most elemental activities and to simplify job designs so that only limited skills were required to learn a job, thus minimizing the time required for learning. This approach divided the jobs requiring less skill from the work required to set up machinery and maintain it, which required greater skill. In Taylor’s system, a job is the set of all the tasks performed by a worker, tasks are individual activities consisting ofelements, which encompass several job motions, or basic physical movements.

Scientific management broke down a job into its simplest elements and motions, eliminated unnecessary motions, and then divided the tasks among several workers so that each would require only minimal skill. This system enabled companies to hire large numbers of cheap, unskilled laborers, who were basically interchangeable and easily replaced. If a worker was fired or quit, another could easily be placed on the job with virtually no training expense. In this system, the timing of job elements (by stopwatch) enabled management to develop standard times for producing one unit of output. Workers were paid according to their total output in a piece-rate system. A worker was paid “extra” wages according to the amount he or she exceeded the “standard” daily output. Such a wage system is based on the premise that the single motivating factor for a worker to increase output is monetary reward.

F. W. Taylor’s work was not immediately accepted or implemented. This system required high volumes of output to make the large number of workers needed for the expanded number of jobs cost effective. The principles of scientific management and mass production were brought together by Henry Ford and the assembly-line production of automobiles.

Traditionally, time has been a measure of job efficiency.

In a piece-rate wage system, pay is based on output.

Between 1908 and 1929, Ford Motor Company created and maintained a mass market for the Model-T automobile, more than 15 million of which were eventually produced. During this period, Ford expanded production output by combining standardized parts and product design, continuous-flow production, and Taylor’s scientific management. These elements were encompassed in the assembly-line production process.

The adoption of scientific management at Ford was the catalyst for its subsequent widespread acceptance.

On an assembly line, workers no longer moved from place to place to perform tasks, as they had in the factory/shop. Instead they remained at a single workplace, and the work was conveyed to them along the assembly line. Technology had advanced from the general-purpose machinery available at the turn of the century, which required the abilities of a skilled machinist, to highly specialized, semiautomatic machine tools, which required less skill to feed parts into or perform repetitive tasks. Fifteen thousand of these machines were installed at Ford’s Highland Park plant. The pace of work was established mechanically by the line and not by the worker or management. The jobs along the line were broken down into highly repetitive, simple tasks.

Assembly-line production meshed with the principles of scientific management.

The assembly line at Ford was enormously successful. The amount of labor time required to assemble a Model-T chassis was reduced from more than 12 hours in 1908 to a little less than 3 hours by 1913. By 1914 the average time for some tasks was as low as 1½ minutes. The basic assembly-line structure and many job designs that existed in 1914 remained virtually unchanged for the next 50 years.

Scientific management had obvious advantages. It resulted in increased output and lower labor costs. Workers could easily be replaced and trained at low cost, taking advantage of a large pool of cheap unskilled labor shifting from farms to industry. Because of low-cost mass production, the U.S. standard of living was increased enormously and became the envy of the rest of the world. It also allowed unskilled, uneducated workers to gain employment based almost solely on their willingness to work hard physically at jobs that were mentally undemanding.

Scientific management also proved to have serious disadvantages. Workers frequently became bored and dissatisfied with the numbing repetition of simple job tasks that required little thought, ingenuity, or responsibility. The skill level required in repetitive, specialized tasks is so low that workers do not have the opportunity to prove their worth or abilities for advancement. Repetitive tasks requiring the same monotonous physical motions can result in unnatural physical and mental fatigue.

Advantages of task specialization include high output, low costs, and minimal training.

Disadvantages of task specialization include boredom, lack of motivation, and physical and mental fatigue.

Modern psychologists and behaviorists in the 1950s and 1960s eschewed the principles of scientific management, and they developed theories (as summarized in Table 8.1), that proposed that in order to get employees to work productively and efficiently they must be motivated. Motivation is a willingness by an employee to work hard to achieve the company’s goals because that effort satisfies some employees’ need or objective. Thus, employee motivation is a key factor in achieving company goals such as product quality and creating a quality workplace. However, different things motivate employees. Obviously, financial compensation is a major motivating factor, but it is not the only one and may not be the most important. Other factors that motivate employees include self-actualization (such as integrity, responsibility, and naturalness), achievement and accomplishment, recognition, relationships with coworkers and supervisors, the type and degree of work supervision, job interest, trust and responsibility, and the opportunity for growth and advancement.

In general, job performance is a function of motivation combined with ability. Ability depends on education, experience, and training, and its improvement can follow a slow but clearly defined process. On the other hand, motivation can be improved more quickly, but there is no clear-cut process for motivating people. However, certain basic elements in job design and management have been shown to improve motivation, including

· positive reinforcement and feedback

· effective organization and discipline

· fair treatment of people

· satisfaction of employee needs

· setting of work-related goals

· design of jobs to fit the employee

· work responsibility

· empowerment

· restructuring of jobs when necessary

· rewards based on company as well as individual performance

· achievement of company goals

The Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award includes a set of basic principles for quality management; prominent among them is employee satisfaction and the “human resource focus” of a company is an important award criteria. As a result, a common attribute among Baldrige Quality Award winners is their commitment to their employees and the resulting high level of employee satisfaction, which these companies monitor on a regular and continuing basis.

Baldrige Award winner DynMcDermott Petroleum Operations, a private New Orleans Company that holds the maintenance and operations contract for the Department of Energy’s strategic petroleum reserve (the U.S. emergency oil stockpile), has an employee satisfaction rate of 83% and a 97% retention rate. Employees can stop any practice they deem unsafe and are encouraged and rewarded for improvement ideas. An annual company-wide workplace assessment survey looks at the company’s performance from the employees’ perspective.

At Jenks (Oklahoma) Public School District the teaching staff turnover rate is 6% compared to the national average of 20%, the staff retention rate is 91%, and on a satisfaction scale of one to five, staff enthusiasm for work is 4.62.

The U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC), another Baldrige Award winner, is responsible for developing 90% of the Army’s armaments and munitions, as well as weaponry for U.S. Special Operations and Homeland Security. It has a skilled work-force requiring specialized training and experience that ARDEC provides through its internal Armament University. Employee surveys show a job satisfaction rate of 90%, levels of empowerment, communication, motivation, and training above 80%, and attrition rates below best-in-class industry benchmarks.

Poudre Valley (Colorado) Health System, with an engaged workforce of 4,200 staff and 550 physicians, uses an interdisciplinary team approach including physicians, nurses, therapists and technicians to meet patient needs. The system’s annual staff turnover rate of 8% is well below its competitors, its employee satisfaction rate ranks in the 97th percentile nationally, and it has been selected as one of “America’s 100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare.”

Coral Springs, Florida, the first state or local government agency to win the Baldrige Award, has a workforce of 770 full-time and 300 part-time employees. “Empowered employees,” one of the city’s four core values, are encouraged to be innovative in addressing customer concerns and make on-the-spot improvements. Employees are recognized with “Applause Cards” given by an employee to a co-worker for exemplary customer service, restaurant certificates and movie tickets to employees who display outstanding initiative, and bonuses for employees who have gone above the normal call of duty. For the past decade the employee job satisfaction rate has been above 90% and the turnover rate is only 4.5%.

Sharp Healthcare in San Diego County employs a workforce of over 14,000 staff members and 2,600 physicians. Employee satisfaction rates are best-in-class by national standards and physician satisfaction surveys consistently show Sharp to be the best place to practice. Sharp collects views and attitudes from its workforce through surveys, turnover reports, suggestions boxes, and employee forums, and it uses “Action” teams to encourage worker participation in quality improvement projects. Sharp’s training expenditure per employee exceeds best-in-class benchmarks, it operates an in-house university with a curriculum aimed at process improvement, it sponsors a Nursing Leadership Academy, and it provides each employee with $1,000 annually for external educational opportunities.

At two-time Baldrige Award winner Ritz-Carlton Hotel, 85% of the company’s 17,000 employees are front-line hotel workers. First-year managers and employees receive from 250 to 310 hours of training. Their “Pride and Joy” program gives employees a role in job design, and turnover rates have steadily declined over a 10-year period as employee satisfaction ratings have increased.

At Sunny Fresh Foods, a manufacturer of egg-based food products and another two-time Baldrige Award winner, production employees rotate workstations every 20 minutes to prevent boredom and repetitive stress injuries and to reinforce quality processes. Their employees’ rising level of job satisfaction as measured by annual surveys correlated directly with increased customer satisfaction, which resulted in a 25% increase in sales over a five-year period.

These Baldrige Award-winning companies provide a benchmark for human resources management among companies committed to quality improvement and quality management. They exhibit common human resource characteristics including extensive job training, employee empowerment, incentive plans, rewards for good performance, teamwork, job flexibility, and close monitoring of employee satisfaction via annual surveys.

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