Ford and Taylor Scientific Management-Free-Samples for Students

Questions: 1.Would workers in Australia, America or Europe accept the Taylorism in this form today? 2.Consider the design of scripts for use in Call Centres, can you see Taylorism in that? Explain. 3.What would be some of the key drawbacks or risks of living in the flat world of Globalisation 3.0 as Friedman describes it? 4.Do you agree with Friedmans iron rule of the flat world? Explain. 5.Is the level of globalisation uniform across the world? Explain. 6.Has your view on globalisation changed after listening to Professor Ghemawat? Explain. 7.Consider where you have seen the fears that people have about globalisation. Do you think these fears may subside with some data points that may suggest otherwise? Answers: Introduction Ford and Taylorism was critical in improving the production cycle during the turn of the century. Based on the concept of time and motion, it seeks to improve efficiency and speed. It is still applicable today in breaking tasks into smaller ones that are done on repetition. It has practical application at the personal space and at the workplace such as the induction process. Globalization according to Thomas Friedman occurred in three phases driven by the country, company and ending with the individual. The iron rule for living in this flat world as postulated by Friedman is to do it before it is done to you. His premise presents a world that calls for collaboration, connections and at times competition globally. This world calls for taking risks and developing a global mindset. Professor Ghemawat on the other hand posits that the world is not flat or globalized as we currently assume. The lack of accurate data on trade, immigration and investments on the global scale leads to wrong assumptions. This wrong position on globalization is what he refers to globaloney and is the basis on fears presented regarding foreign aid and immigration. Accurate presentation of globalization is helpful in contributing to global welfare Table of Contents MOG.. 4 E-Learning activities. 4 Week 1- Activity 1- Ford and Taylorism.. 4 Question one- 4 Question two. 4 Question three. 4 Week 2- Activity 1- Thomas Friedman on Globalization; 3 Eras of Globalization; World is flat 5 Question two. 5 Question three. 5 Week 2- Activity 2- Pankaj Ghemawat on Globalization. 6 Question one. 6 Question two. 6 Conclusion. 7 References. 8 MOG E-Learning activities 1.Workers in Europe, America and Australia would not accept Taylorism in this form due to two reasons. The first is the minimum legislative requirements that protect the worker while the second is the right to union representation. The government regulates employers with regards to employers on job security as a social policy and measure on growth of the economy. Union representation ensures bargaining power with respect to work conditions and wage increases. 2.The scripts used in call centers reflects the key concepts of Taylorism in that the autonomy of human agents is reduced or eliminated. This is within the concept of time and motion that view workers as systemic soldiers. The script is intended to reduce low productivity and seeks to manipulate the call agents to maximum productivity. The script reduces the agents to automatons in repetitively doing the same scripted task. (Hingst 2006).The scripts are uniform and are designed to reduce the average time taken to handle customer queries. This is intended to reduce cost at the call center and improve speed and efficiency.There are two assumptions of Taylorism which are still relevant: efficiency and speed. Efficiency is improved by repetition which in turn improves speed. This is achieved by breaking down tasks into smaller sub-tasks which do not need specialization, creating a pattern at the professional and personal space. The pattern developed is helpful in learning and reinforcing the learned behavior for daily activities with minimum exertion. An example is the induction process for a new employee which needs to be quick, efficient and cost effective for most organizations. 3.The flat world presents risks as it requires individuals to globalize. It requires collaboration, connections and competition on the global scale (Friedman 2008). This presents challenges of not only competing locally and regionally but now on the global scale. Individuals are then forced to think out of the box and think globally while acting locally. New skills set in the market place such as learning new languages and cultural competence may be required. It calls for additional learning as an individual in order to adapt the new global thinking mind set. 4.According to Friedman, the iron rule of the flat world is that whatever can be done will be done. Friedman (2008), states that it will either be done by you or to you. The risk of living in this world is that procrastination is dangerous and can have disastrous outcomes. The small tiny world that is flat presents opportunities for risk takers who are willing to do things in the now or lose the opportunity when someone else does it. It becomes a world defined by risk takers who are willing to step out of their comfort zone so that they become doers before other people take their position. 5. The level of globalization is not uniform due to two important reasons. The first is that globalization driven by companies will differ based on the country of origin (Friedman 2008). Countries with more multinational companies will have greater impact on globalization. The second reason is that globalization driven at the individual level will differ depending on the education level and economic empowerment. Ha (2012), states that persons from poor countries with high levels of illiteracy will have lower levels of globalization than those from rich countries with high literacy levels. 6.After listening to Professor Ghemawat, I have come to a new conclusion concerning globalization. We are actually less globalized than the existing literature and data that is currently available. The figures we are currently presented with in terms of trade and immigration are often inflated and distort the true reality on globalization. Current official data on trade, investment and immigration is often counted multiple times (Ghemawat 2012). The figures presented by Ghemawat show that the world is less globalized and flat. The true figures present the opportunity for more gains on globalization in the future and are helpful in debunking wrong assumptions on immigration and foreign aid given to poor countries. 7.The two main fears are in relation to immigration and foreign aid as a percentage of the GDP. An example is France where the assumption of immigrants as a percentage of the population is overstated. The true figure is 8% while the wrong assumption is 24% (Ghemawat 2012). This variance has the potential of inciting biases based on religion and race. The assumed large immigrant population could also become the scapegoat for all the social ills and failures and becomes a point of political manipulation (Power, Barnes Barnes-Holmes 2017). The true facts may help in reversing this wrong postulations and increase greater acceptance of immigrants. The second fear is on the amount of foreign aid given to less developed countries. The current assumption by Americans on the foreign aid as a percentage of the federal budget is 30% while the true figure is 1% (Ghemawat 2012). The true figure is helpful in changing the bias most people may have against more allocation of resources to aid poor countries. Poor countries may benefit from more aid meant to assist them develop their economies (Mosley 2015). This may help to achieve the objectives set out at the Rio Summit which was twenty year ago (Ghemawat 2012). The accurate position on globalization is therefore helpful in contributing to global welfare. Conclusion The concepts presented by Taylor on production may still have practical use today in terms of improving efficiency and speed. An example is in the induction process which needs to be quick, efficient and cost effective. Globalization according to Friedman has moved in three phases and his iron rule about the flat world calls for taking risk in order to become relevant and competitive. Ghemawat presents a contrary opinion and states that the world is not as globalized as is generally assumed based on presenting correct facts and figures. References Ford and Taylor Scientific Management, 2008, Ford and Taylorism, viewed 23 August 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PdmNbqtDdI Friedman, T, 2008, Thomas Friedmans three eras of globalization, viewed 23 August 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp4znWHvsjU Friedman, T, 2008, What Thomas Friedman means when he says The World is flat, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM2BguxRSyY Ghemawat, P, 2012, Actually the world isnt flat, viewed 23 August 2017, https://www.ted.com/talks/pankaj_ghemawat_actually_the_world_isn_t_flat/details Ha, E, 2012, 'Globalization, Government Ideology, and Income Inequality in Developing Countries', Journal of Politics, vol. 74, no. 2, pp. 541-557. Available from: 10.1017/S0022381611001757. [23 August 2017]. Hingst, R, 2006, Perceptions of life in call centers. Journal of Management Practice, volume 7 (issue 1): pp.1-9 Mosley, P 2015, Foreign Aid : Its Defense and Reform, The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington. Power, P, Harte, C, Barnes-Holmes, D, Barnes-Holmes, Y 2017, 'Exploring Racial Bias in a European Country with a Recent History of Immigration of Black Africans', Psychological Record, vol. 67, no. 3, pp. 365-375. Available from: 10.1007/s40732-017-0223-6. [23 August