The Relevance of Scientific Management and （科学管理的相关性）.pdf

The Relevance of Scientific Management and Equity Theory in Everyday Managerial Communication Situations Reginald L. Bell Prairie View AM University Jeanette S. Martin University of Mississippi In this article, we take a look at why and how managers should communicate with their employees the value of scientific management and why it is still relevant today. Moreover, we will show managers how they should use communication to address employees’ feelings of unfairness. Finally, we will present a hypothetical case example that will help make clear the main points of how managers should use communication to teach their present-day employees the value of Frederick Winslow Taylor’s principles of scientific management and how to use concepts from Equity Theory to confront employees’ feelings of inequity in a modern business environment. The case will be followed with questions concerning the applicability of these two theories when managers are training subordinates, who are not college graduates, to do their work. INTRODUCTION Taylor’s Scientific Management and Adams’ Equity Theory Because most employees working in many positions in manufacturing, home building, and fast-food services do not have a college degree, or a degree in business where they may have come in contact with Taylor’s or Adams’s theories, the employees need to be exposed to these theories to understand what their training is all about. Their managers need to provide a rationale for why things are done the way they are, and introducing the workers to Taylor’s scientific management theory will help educate the blue-collar workers. Many employees (and some of their managers) are