Personnel Management in Transition by Frederick Taylor Essay

Personnel Management in Transition by Frederick Taylor - Essay Example These were the most commonly used methods of work force organization. They were characterized by high levels of division and specialization of labour. These were viewed as the motivating factors for workers as well as increasing their output (Redman, T. and Wilkinson, A. 2006 86-93). In the early 20th century, Frederick Taylor developed principles whereby workers worked through division of labor and a performance based remuneration. Each worker was to be allocated a particular task in a bid to save time and increase production. Fordism took the same perspective of division of labor. It was mainly targeting division of labor in large industries with a characteristic high mechanization where by the process of production of is arranged in a sequence, with each stage of machine operations assigned to a particular operator (Antonio Gramsci’s 1993 pp. 77-81). However, managers have realized that flexibility facilitates work life balance amongst workers. They are able to control thei r working conditions such as the choice of where to work, the time when they should work as well as how they perform in the work. There are several ways through which firms can implement flexibility. These include policies on flexible hours. Flexibility of working hours allows fulfillment amongst the employees within the place of work as well as outside. This is usually beneficial to the business through improved productivity amongst the employees, which is attributed to job satisfaction. The employees are able to take care of family obligations as well as those of the work place (Bratton, J. and Gold, J. 2007 pp. 121-124). In that state, it is most likely that they will be more productive than working under tight schedules that do not allow them to take any other responsibility outside the paid work. The needs of employees towards work life balance are specific to individuals.