Frederick Taylor Published The Principles of Scientific Management

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Frederick Taylor
Frederick Taylor published The Principles of Scientific Management in 1911, describing how to increase productivity of workers by using the principles of the scientific method. He proposed there was a “one best way” to perform any task and that by training any worker in this standard operation, production could be made more efficient. Taylor outlined four principles:
• Replace rule-of-thumb work methods with methods based on a scientific study of the tasks.
• Scientifically select, train, and develop each employee rather than passively leaving them to train themselves.
• Provide detailed instruction and supervision of each worker in the performance of that worker's discrete task
• Divide work nearly equally between managers and workers, so that the managers apply scientific management principles to planning the work and the workers actually perform the tasks.
‘It is only through enforced standardization of methods, enforced adoption of the best implements and working conditions, and enforced cooperation that this faster work can be assured. And the duty of enforcing the adoption of standards and enforcing this cooperation rests with management alone.’ – Taylor, 1911
Elton Mayo
In contrast to Taylor and the scientific approach, Mayo developed the human relations movement, which focused on the individual and his motivation and behavior. Specifically, Mayo conducted the Hawthorne Studies, observing employees’ motivation when changing factors like lighting. Ultimately, he concluded that communication and not external factors was the greatest motivation. The study and movement changed public administration, introducing the concept of the individual within the workforce.
Max Weber
Weber published his masterpiece Economy...

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...will not go away, that it persists in the foundation of contemporary mainstream public administration. Postmodern Public Administration denounces the two most common alternatives to orthodoxy, constitutionalism (too conservative) and civism (too optimistic), but offers a new approach to governance, discourse theory.
Fox and Miller’s discourse theory allows a plurality of standpoints, asking only that participants in the discourse be sincere, transcend (but not deny) their own agendas, participate willingly, and offer a substantive contribution (broadly defined). These requirements become the standards by which they judge some current practices in public administration-opinion surveys, citizen panels, and policy analysis- and find them wanting. A true discourse approach to public administration would avoid one-way interaction between public servants and the public.

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