BLOCK 2

BLOCK 2 – Notes 1
Taylorism, Motivation and Performance

Topic Break down

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 BLOCK 2

Learning Objective

Reading List – Willian Th 2

1. Learning outcomes
Describe the main elements of Taylor's approach

Key elements
Talk about the history which led to Taylorism, e.g.., Venice Arsenale and the Jesuits.

Idea
 images and videos here could be useful. There are some really good images of what
the Venice Arsenale would have looked like

2. Learning outcomes
Discuss the strengths and limitations of scientific management

Key elements
Work through the key points of Taylorism.

Idea
 Taylorism in the early days, middle days, and now.
 Spend time thinking on how each element of Taylorism has a positive and a negative
dimension. It can be really nice to call up the lovely old copy of Scientific
Management in old copy: Taylor FW Principles of Scientific Management (P36)
 Page 36 is where Taylor outlines the key principles.

3. Learning outcomes
Explain the main elements of the human relations approach

Key elements
Explain the main elements of the Human Relations approach

Idea
 Use good resources online which show videos of the early time and motion studies

Activities
1. compare and contrast the Hawthorne Studies with the Scientific Management
approach (get them to work in groups on whiteboards/flipchart paper). Ask them to
feed back to the class.

2. Think of a company in which they use HR type approaches heavily.

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 BLOCK 2

3. Think of a company in which they use Scientific Management type approaches

heavily. (Some examples that they could use: McDonalds, a car factory

4. (Toyota), a call centre.)What are the advantages of having a more SM approach?

5. Think of a company where they use HR approaches heavily (Some examples they
could use: Google, Netflix, a law firm, an accountancy firm, anywhere very driven by
their people). What are the advantages of having a more HR approach?

6. Does any company use exclusively HR approaches? Does any company use
exclusively SM approaches?

7. (When they have realized that none have a pure approach, get them to think about
why you need this balance, but also that companies have choices over where to set
this balance.)

8. Which industries are tilted towards which approach? Why? (SM: manufacturing,
mining, repetitive service jobs, food service, hospitality.

Anything where the costs need to be kept down. HR: knowledge industries such as law and
accountancy and tech. Many companies that recognize the high value of their people
because they are the competitive advantage, or companies that are trying to offer a very
personalized service, or companies that are ‘trying to do things differently to the rest of the
sector’ and need staff that let them do so.

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