Biography - Frederick Winslow Taylor

Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856 - 1915)

F.W. Taylor c 1910 This image, from the Stevens Institute of Technology is found in the following article: "Frederick Winslow Taylor: The Messiah of Time and Motion," Spencer Klaw, American Heritage, vol.30. no.5 Aug/Sept. 1979, p.27. (available at DBW periodical E171.A567)

The purpose of this guide is to introduce you to some of the information about Frederick Winslow Taylor that is available in the Western Libraries. Taylor is typically described as the "Father of Scientific Management" because he attempted to approach jobs objectively and measure the flow of work required to achieve a higher degree of efficiency and productivity.

For a recent biography of Taylor, see the Kanigel entry below. For a short biographical sketch see "Taylor, Frederick Winslow (1856-1915)" by Malcolm Warner in The IEBM Handbook of Management Thinking, ed. by Malcolm Warner, (BUSREF HD38.15.I33), p.656. For another piece that does a good job of placing Taylor within the discipline of social science see "Killing Off the Father: Social Science and the Memory of Frederick Taylor in Management Studies," by Michael Roper, in Contemporary British History, Vol.13, No.3, Autumn 1999, p.39. (DBWPER DA 589.7.C66)

Update: For your convenience and to encourage further scholarly discussion we include here a paper prepared by a doctoral student at The Richard Ivey School of Business. This draft report was produced by Jorge Colazo who graciously allowed us to post it here. It briefly covers the life of Taylor and offers an assessment of his main ideas. It should not be copied or quoted without proper attribution: Jorge Colazo: Frederick Taylor and Scientific Management.

Listed below are books by and about Taylor. In addition, citations to book reviews are provided for some of the books on the list. We have also provided a complete list of all the papers in an important 1914 collection of articles on 'scientific management' - see the Thompson entry. There are many additional works relating to Taylor and most of them can be found in Kanigel's bibliography. For assistance in locating more articles, consult with library staff.

Books by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the Western Libraries

The Principles of Scientific Management.
DBW HF 5500.T24 1911 (located in Special Collections)
BUS HF 5500.T24 1915

Shop Management.
BUS TS 155.T26 1919

Scientific Management: Comprising - Shop Management, The Principles of Scientific Management and Testimony Before the Special House Committee.
BUS HF5500.T23 1947
BUS T55.9.T38 1972

Reinforced-Concrete Bridges with Formulas Applicable to Structural Steel and Concrete.
TAY TG 340.T3 1958

Books About Frederick Winslow Taylor in the Western Libraries

Aitken, Hugh
Taylorism at Watertown Arsenal: Scientific Management in Action, 1908-1915
DBW/BUS HF 5500.T25A5 c.1 and 2 1960
"A detailed monograph on a specific application of Taylor's work in arms manufacture, which is probably of interest mostly to specialists."

Banta, Martha. Taylored Lives: Narrative Productions in the Age of Taylor, Veblen, and Ford.
DBW E182.B22 1993. Click on the link for a good description.

Copley, Frank
Frederick W. Taylor: Father of Scientific Management
BUS HF 5500.T25C6 V.1 and 2 1923
"A definitive, extended biography of Taylor, published not long after his death, which is dated but contains useful detail."

Friedmann, G.
Industrial Society: The Emergence of the Human Problems of Automation
DBW HD 45.F86 1955
RDL HD 45.F86
"A well-known work on automation by a renowned French industrial sociologist who was a critic of Taylorism."

Kakar, S.
Frederick Taylor: A Study in Personality and Innovation
DBW T55.85.T38K3 1970
BUS T55.85.T38K3 c.2
"A psychoanalytic biography of Taylor, which concisely examines the personal factors in his life that influenced his behavior and the direction of his work."

Kanigel, Robert
The One Best Way: Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency
BUS T 55.9.K37 1997
"A new insightful, up-to-date biography of Taylor and his work which argues that his techniques owe more to 'guesswork' than to 'science'."

Kelly, J.
Scientific Management: Job Redesign and Work Performance
BUS HD 51.K44 1982
"This book constitutes an excellent critique of Taylor's work, which is distinctive in that it sees the later development of his thought as overlapping with the human relations school."

Merkle, J.A.
Management and Ideology: The Legacy of the International Scientific Management Movement
BUS HD 30.5.M47 1980
"The author has written an interesting monograph on Taylorism as a social movement with reference to its influence on the UK, France, Germany and the Soviet Union."

Pugh, Derek.
Organization Theory: Selected Readings
DBW HD 31.P836 1997, 1984, 1971
BUS HD 31.P836 1985
" This is a set of useful readings covering more of the field and including detail on Taylor's evidence to the Congressional investigation."

Ritzer, G.
The McDonaldization of Society: An Investigation into the Changing Character of Contemporary Social Life
DBW HM 131.R58 1996/1993
"An imaginative attempt to link Taylorism and later phenomena like McDonald's and Disney."

Schacter, Hindy
Frederick Taylor and the Public Administration Community: A Reevaluation
DBW JF 1341.S32 1989

Thompson, Clarence, ed.
Scientific Management; A Collecting of the More Significant Articles Describing the Taylor System of Management
DBW HF5500.T5 1914
Thompson was a lecturer on manufacturing at Harvard. In this volume he has gathered together many of the articles that were available before 1914 when the book was published. For your convenience the table of contents is provided below.

Waring, Stephen. Taylorism Transformed: Scientific Management Theory Since 1945.
BUS HD30.5.W37 1991

The library has the Bulletin of the Taylor Society, 1925-1935 (DBWSTK HF5500T241) which is also known as the Bulletin of the Society to Promote the Science of Management.

Using databases like America History and Life, one can find many articles. Here is one sample:
"SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN TRANSITION: FREDERICK W. TAYLOR AT JOHNSTOWN, 1896. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 1975 99(4): 460-475. "Frederick W. Taylor is best known for his introduction of technological and organizational changes at the Midvale Steel Company at Philadelphia and the Bethlehem Steel Company. A third company, the Johnson Company at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, made rails and motors for the electric streetcar industry. Describes Taylor's 1896 work at the Johnson Company in new accounting methods, storekeeping systems, the differential piece rate, planning department, functional foremanship, and mechanical innovations."54 notes. Abstracter:C. W. Olson.