Lessons Learned: What is scientific management?

As part of the ongoing, let’s ensure the basics are in line, here is an overview from [tag]wikipedia[/tag] on Scientific Management:

[tag]Scientific management[/tag], also called [tag]Taylorism[/tag] or the [tag]Classical Perspective[/tag], is a method in management theory that determines changes to improve labour [tag]productivity[/tag]. The idea was first coined by Frederick Winslow Taylor in The Principles of Scientific Management. Taylor believed that decisions based upon tradition and rules of thumb should be replaced by precise procedures developed after careful study of an individual at work.

In management literature today, the greatest use of the concept of Taylorism is as a contrast to a new, improved way of doing business.

General approach

  • Select workers with appropriate abilities for each job.
  • Training for standard task.
  • Planning work and eliminating interruptions.
  • Wage incentive for increase output
  • Standard method for performing each job.

Contributions

  • Scientific approach to [tag]business management[/tag] and [tag]process improvement[/tag]
  • Importance of compensation for performance
  • Began the careful study of tasks and jobs
  • Importance of selection and training

Elements

  • Labour is defined and authority/responsibility is legitimised/official
  • Positions placed in hierarchy and under authority of higher level
  • Selection is based upon technical competence, training or experience
  • Actions and decisions are recorded to allow continuity and memory
  • Management is different from ownership of the organization
  • Managers follow rules/procedures to enable reliable/predictable behaviour
October 21, 2007 by
(6)

Midnight Oil: Beds are Burning

So I’m always running into songs I haven’t heard in a while on my [tag]iPod[/tag]. A recent gem which rotated into my [tag]playlist[/tag] was from the Australian band [tag]Midnight Oil[/tag], with bald guy who was a lawyer or perhaps a solicitor is the more precise word. (At least that’s a piece of trivia I think I remember) So I went to search on [tag]YouTube[/tag] to get you the video of [tag]Beds are Burning[/tag]. So here is your music flashback:

October 21, 2007 by
(0)

A relevant feed: Feedhub

So I have found a new widget, I not a widget guy- but I like [tag]Feedhub[/tag].  This is yet another opportunity to stay in touch with things of importance.  Feedhub claims, at least I have it configured to, only show “interesting” posts.  I’m only 3 days into the process so let’s see.  I think since I have it on my blog, it might learn from all of us.  So while personal brand and limit widget usage is key, as noted by Chris, this is our little social experiment.

Gosh I hope I understand how it works, so take a look at the widget on the right called relevant feed and see if it tweaks it’s content overtime – know of any good feeds?

October 19, 2007 by
(0)

Cool geography stuff…

Mapufacture – Online platform for creating maps.  [tag]Mapufacture[/tag] is a geo-aggregatorAn aggregator, like a feed reader, allows you to pull in information from many sources and view in a single location or piece of software. It also allows you to then share this information back out to other devices, or in other formats. With it, you can build maps from feeds such as blogs, photo sites, weather or environmental data, favorite places, and many more. Your maps can let you know what is going on in your neighborhood, or give you local information about where you’re traveling to.

GeoRSS.org – GeoRSS [tag]GML[/tag] is a formal GML Application Profile, and supports a greater range of features than Simple, notably coordinate reference systems other than WGS84 latitude/longitude. It is designed for use with Atom 1.0, RSS 2.0 and RSS 1.0, although it can be used just as easily in non-RSS XML encodings. GeoRSS Simple has greater brevity, but also has limited extensibility. It can be used in all the same ways and places as [tag]GeoRSS[/tag] GML.

TerraGo – Get the [tag]Geopdf toolbar[/tag] USGS now uses this capability and this free toobar is very cool.  The free GeoPDF Toolbar turns Adobe Reader into a powerful [tag]geospatial[/tag] application that gives users the ability to view, manipulate and update mapping data while leveraging Adobe collaboration capabilities to share information with others in the field and at home base.

October 15, 2007 by
(1)