1856–1915

Frederick Winslow Taylor

Frederick Winslow Taylor was an American mechanical engineer and the leading advocate of scientific management. Beginning as a shop labourer and machinist, he rose through Midvale Steel and introduced systematic time study there in 1881. Taylor argued that managers should replace inherited rules of thumb with observed methods, select and train workers carefully, divide responsibility between management and labour, and connect standards to incentives. His experiments and consulting work helped make planning and measurement central managerial functions. Shop Management and The Principles of Scientific Management document that program. Taylor belongs in this library because his work gave classical management one of its defining systems, while also providing evidence for enduring debates about control, efficiency, worker knowledge, and managerial authority.