Criticism of Taylor's Scientific Management - Limitations

Taylor's Scientific Management Theory has been criticised by the workers, trade unions and even employers.

Taylor's Scientific Management is criticised on the following main grounds :-

1. Exploitation of Workers

Taylor's Scientific Management put unnecessary pressures on the employees to perform the work faster. Importance was given to productivity and profitability. This resulted in exploitation of the employees. Therefore, many employees joined trade unions. This also resulted in mistrust between management and employees.

2. Problem of Unity of Command

Taylor used functional foremanship. So, the workers have to report to eight bosses. This breaks the principle of unity of command, where the workers have to report to only one boss. Lack of unity of command can create confusion and chaos in the organisation.

3. Mechanical Approach

Taylor's approach was a mechanical approach. He gave too much importance to efficiency. He did not consider the human element. Taylor considered workers as robots, which could speed up the work at any cost.

4. Problem of Separation of Planning from Doing

Taylor said to separate planning from doing. In reality, we cannot separate planning from doing. The planners should also be engaged in doing, then only they will be able to make realistic plans for the organisation.

5. Individualistic Approach

Taylor's scientific management gives too much importance to individual performance and not to group performance. However, the success of an organisation depends not only on individual performance of workers, but also on group performance of workers.

6. Wrong Assumptions

Taylor assumed that workers are motivated only by financial gains. However, in reality, workers are motivated not financial incentives but also by social needs and personal egos.

7. Narrow Application

Taylor's scientific management has narrow application. It can be applied only when the performance of the workers can be measured quantitatively. It can be applied only for factories where the performance can be measured quantitatively. It cannot be used in the service sector because in this sector the performance of a person cannot be measured quantitatively.