Taylor’s scientific management
In the early 19th century Frederick W Taylor’s book The Principles
of Scientific Management was published which changed the way
organisations, in particular manufacturing organisations, worked.
Taylor believed that work activities could be broken down into
tasks by using a scientific method to find the most efficient way of
performing a job. He advocated that work should be reduced to a
series of routine, predictable and standardised tasks. Taylor
assumed that workers were motivated by money so he introduced
payment on a piecework basis, as an incentive which would
increase productivity. The phrase ‘a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s
work’ was used by Taylor to motivate workers to work harder.
Although we can still find evidence of Taylor’s scientific
management, his approach was widely criticised for discounting
the human element and behaviour in the workplace. Although
money is still an influencing factor in motivating people at work,
individual differences mean that we are motivated by other factors
in the workplace as well as money.
Although recognised as not a key driver of engagement, Virgin
Media recognises that reward is one of many motivating factors
for a lot of its people and offers competitive salaries. It also offers
bonus schemes, such as its ASPIRE field pay and reward
scheme. The scheme rewards every Net Promoter® score (NPS) of
9 or 10 with £10. However, as a forward thinking business it
understands the importance of different motivational factors. It
offers additional benefits including private health care, life
assurance, company pension scheme and staff saving schemes.
The opportunity to progress within the company is also an
important factor, for example, Benjamin joined Virgin Media in
2011 and went from apprentice to service technician and then
network engineer in just 18 months. As he says: