Much has been written about his life and the 1911 publication of his book, The
Principles of Scientific Management. Therefore, there is little need to reproduce that
information here. Taylor has been so influential that when members of the
Management History Division of the Academy of Management were polled about the
most important contributors to management thought and practice, Taylor received
51 first-place votes and Barnard finished second with nine (Wren and Hay, 1977). In a
careful replication of that study, Heames and Breland (2010) found that Taylor still hadthe highest regard, but that Weber had supplanted Barnard for second place.Interestingly, Heames and Breland found that only four articles about Taylor’s workhad been published in appropriate outlets between 1976 and 2006. Heames and Brelandreaffirmed the, “conclusion that Wren and Hay made 30 years ago, [that] there is adifference of opinion among scholars as to who has made the biggest contribution toAmerican business and management thought” (Heames and Breland, 2010, p. 431).