Leadership Dynamics Prior Knowledge Skills Employees. What

¶ … leadership dynamics prior knowledge skills employees. What role leaders play managing/developing current skill level employees? Use resources.

Scientific management (Taylorism) versus participatory management

Scientific management was one of the earliest motivational theories of leadership developed in the 20th century. Scientific management arose in response to the needs of industrialization. Workers who had once been creative tradesmen were increasingly employed in industry. The founder of the theory of scientific management, Frederick Taylor, noted that workers often were "purposely operating well below their capacity, that is, soldiering," due to the desire of workers to preserve their jobs; to not be subjected to higher productivity quotas, and simply because of habit (Frederick Taylor and scientific management, 2012, Net MBA). Taylor conducted time and motion studies to determine the optimal way of performing tasks, and rather than use psychological incentives to motivate workers, he advocated a command-and-control system in which worker creativity was limited, and workers were forced to follow the dictates of managers based upon his studies designed to optimalize performance. Taylor believed that managers must "scientifically select, train, and develop each worker rather than passively leaving them to train themselves" given that left to workers' own devices they would use an inefficient 'rule of thumb' method (Frederick Taylor and scientific management, 2012, Net MBA).

At the time, many workers revolted against what they saw as a "dehumanizing" method of governing their lives and bridled against the loss of "skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback" (Frederick Taylor and scientific management, 2012, Net MBA). They feared that human beings, forced more than ever to work on machines, were now being turned into machines themselves. Taylorism, however, is still alive and well today in many facets of the workplace. Walk into any McDonald's and you will see a restaurant in which the food is pre-measured for ease of preparation, in which food is reheated rather than actually cooked, and workers must obey a tightly scripted method of interacting with customers. But while franchises and retail operations may use Taylorism, many other companies are finding that in the new knowledge-based economy, treating workers as valuable participants that can enhance productivity with their own ideas can be valuable.

In stark contrast to scientific management, participatory management theory stresses the need for workers to provide input into how the organization operates. "Employees are invited to share in the decision-making process of the firm by participating in activities such as setting goals, determining work schedules, and making suggestions" (Participative management, 2006, Encyclopedia of Management). Instead of viewing workers as fundamentally lazy or recalcitrant, participative management views workers as eager to optimalize the performance of the organization. Workers should feel they have a personal stake in its development. This idea can be seen in everything from employee 'suggestion boxes' at small organizations to larger organizations such as Google giving workers the ability to pursue independent projects on company time. Treating workers with respect means that workers will treat their jobs with care and consideration. In contrast, scientific management studies workers as objects, and prescribes how they should behave in an authoritative fashion.