This question has three parts; be sure to answer each one. First, explain soldiering. Second, describe the four principles of science that Frederick Taylor believed managers could use to eliminate soldiering. Third, imagine that you manage a small landscaping firm where you believe that the workers are soldiering because they are resentful of having to work in high levels of heat and humidity. Describe the specific actions you would take to overcome soldiering among this group of workers.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Soldiering could be called "underachieving," or "loafing," or what Frederick Taylor called deliberately working at less than full capacity. Taylor believed that managers could eliminate soldiering by applying four principles of science: (1) evaluate a task by scientifically studying each part of the task (not use old rule-of-thumb methods); (2) carefully select workers with the right abilities for the task; (3) give workers the training and incentives to do the task with the proper work methods; and (4) use scientific principles to plan the work methods and ease the way for workers to do their jobs.

To prevent solidering by workers at a landscaping firm, you as the manager might first examine the workers' jobs. Is it possible to change some of the tasks so that they are less exhausting for the employees? Perhaps workers should rotate between easier tasks and more difficult tasks, so that everyone gets a break from the hardest work. It may be that some workers actually enjoy the harder tasks (such as pruning and shaping hedges) or feel underutilized when they are doing more simple tasks (such as mowing the lawn). As a manager, you might talk with the workers to determine how each of them can work at the tasks they prefer while still ensuring that all the jobs are done correctly. To provide the right incentives, you might offer slightly higher hourly pay rates on days that exceed 90 F while also keeping the truck stocked with bottles of cold water so that workers don't have to buy cold drinks with their own money. By examining how your workers do their jobs and applying the principles of scientific management, you may be able to find better work methods—for example, instead of having one worker mow the front lawn and another worker mow the rear lawn, you may find that it is more efficient to have the same worker mow both lawns so that the second worker can focus on other tasks.