Taylor 
Taylor, Frederic
Occupational
Occupational This discipline is sometimes also called industrial psychology, though it actually has a broader focus, in that it involves researching ways of enhancing the optimum functioning and well-being of people in work organizations of any kind. Basically, it involves examining the psychology of how people work, and interact with their work environment, in order to help enhance staff satisfaction and efficiency. As well as looking at individuals in organizations like factories, hospitals, etc. occupational psychology can also look at behaviour of the organization as a whole. For example, this could involve researching ways of overcoming organizational problems, or helping instigate structural changes to the organization, from a psychological viewpoint.\nSome of the other functions performed by occupational psychologists involve personnel practices such as selection, appraisal, advising people on job choice, and redundancy counselling. Other aspects could involve helping improve teamwork and decision making, and training managers in psychological skills to enhance supervision and organizational/management strategy. Psychometric measurement through standardised tests is an important tool used in many of these functions.\nA sub branch of the discipline is sometimes known as ENGINEERING PSYCHOLOGY. This focuses on machine/operator interaction. For example, ensuring that machines are designed in such a way that takes into account the cognitive and physical capacity of the operator. It could also involve analysis of the methods used by people working with machines or other tools, to enhance efficiency and/or safety.
Structure of 19th Century society
19th-century society (1840-1900). Late 19th-century society inevitably influenced the outlooks of many early psychologists. In an era dominated in the UK by Queen Victoria, it is perhaps not surprising that nineteenth century society is seen as strict and regimented, with little opportunity either for women or for individuality. However, it was also an era of inventions – from the telegraph in the 1840s through to the motor car, telephone, and great advances in engineering, in travel and in the natural sciences. It was also in this period that modern psychology came into being in a number of countries. As an era, it was one in which it was believed that everything could be classified, ordered and tamed, through science, engineering and medicine. Perhaps not surprisingly, measurement and classification were two important themes in the work of early psychologists, alongside the development of medical psychiatry and early studies of hypnotism and hysteria. The development of psychology in the late 19th Century is also important because there were no funded University posts in psychology until the end of the century. As such, early psychological research was (with some notable exceptions) generally conducted by 'gentlemen scientists' who tended to come from privileged backgrounds. Written by: Course Team
Industrial Psychology
IIndustrial psychology was the original term for what is now often called occupational psychology. It involves researching ways of enhancing the productivity and well-being of people in work organizations. Key relationships studied include that between the worker and management, and workers and their machines.
Taylor's model of the worker was basically a machine one. The individual worker was seen as a cog in the wheel of the wider organisation and his incentive to work more efficiently would be increased pay in the form of bonuses. Once a 'fair' level of performance for a task had been established using the principles outlined above, the pay system would provide a greater reward for work outputs above this level.
He retired at the age of 45 and devoted his time to promoting his system through lectures at univers ities and professional organisations. His books Shop Management (1903) and The Principles of Scientific Management (1911), were both extremely influential .
A few years before gaining his degree, he began his 'time studies' in the Midvale plant. He was moti vated by a desire to increase efficiency, as measured in terms of increased output by the workers and his method was to observe closely the individual worker, analysing and timing each movement or action needed to complete a task.
Frederick Taylor (1856-1915) was a US engineer who is famous as the developer of a system of industrial engineering known as 'Scientific Management,' which was tremendously influential in his own time, and the basic principles of which continued to exert an influence over organisational management for a long time subsequently.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica; Rose, M. (1975) Industrial Behaviour, Allen Lane: The Penguin Pre ss. Written by: Course Team
In subsequent years, there was criticism of Taylor's system. Although the system did indeed produce increased output and greater efficiency initially, it resulted in monotonous and repetitive work for the individuals within such a system and did not take into account any motivational factors at work other than money; neglecting the social and psychological elements of work.
He would then formulate this into a standard way of doing any given task and the workers would be trained to perform the task in the prescribed way, and no other. Taylor believed that this system was truly scientific as it was based on observation and it attempted to discover the 'best' way of doing any job, ruling out human variability and error and increasing efficiency.
Born into a middle-class Quaker family in Philadelphia, Taylor became an apprentice machinist and patternmaker at the Enterprise hydraulic works in 1875. Three years later, he went to work for the Midvale Steel Company as a machine operator, but worked his way through a wide range of jobs there, including gang boss, foreman, head of the drawing office and finally Chief Engineer. While working at Midvale, Taylor took evening classes and gained a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1883.
Taylor did not see himself as treating the workers badly in introducing his system because he assumed that money was the only real motivator for them at work and that by providing a 'fair day's pay for a fair day's work', their need would be satisfied. He saw himself as a reformer of an inefficient system.
Accordingly, it came under attack from a range of groups, including the early British industrial psy chologists, of whom C.S. Myers was perhaps the most vociferous.
Previously, the best way of doing a job had been determined by trial and error and individual practi ce but Taylor believed that by using scientific management techniques, increasing specialisation and the division of labour, the production processes would become more efficient.
Taylor's interest in Scientific Management eventually led him to leave the Midvale Company and set himself up as a consulting engineer in management, in which capacity he served a number of prominent US firms, including the Bethlehem Steel Corporation.
Top