Discussion of how Scientific Management Applies to Microsoft
Taylor’s original thinking was informed by the shop floor processes of heavy industry. As such, it would be easy to assume its principles would be largely irrelevant in an industry as complex, innovative and knowledge intensive as Information Technology. Indeed, Bill Gates’s professed values of entrepreneurship, ownership, creativity, honesty, frankness and open communication appear to stand in opposition to the standardised work processes and strict division of labour that Taylorism champions. However, on closer examination it becomes evident that scientific management still exerts a significant influence within Microsoft and on how it conducts its business.
As with all large multi-national corporations, specialisation and division of labour is very much in evidence at Microsoft. There is a clear division between functional specialists such as software developers, project managers, marketing, sales, HR, finance and legal. As Taylorism advocates, their roles have written job descriptions with clearly defined skills and competencies to ensure employees capabilities and motivations are carefully matched to their position. Furthermore, their performance is supervised and measured regularly using SMART criteria (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Results-based, and Time-specific) in a way that echoes Taylor’s emphasis on monitoring and measuring.
There are a number of colourful stories that depict the results-orientated culture that Microsoft has relied on historically in its drive for success (see, for example, Shaw, 2004). Until recently, Microsoft employed a controversial management system called ‘stack ranking’ which measured performance using a standard distribution curve. Whilst those at the top received bonuses and promotions, those at the bottom were shown the door (for further details see B. R., 2012). Although this was intended to motivate performance, employees found it oppressive. Developers sought to avoid working with top performers, who threatened their own ranking, and as a result free thinking, innovation and collaboration stagnated. Microsoft abandoned stack ranking in 2013, but it is evident that performance reviews and systems such as these owe a debt to Taylor’s principle of performance incentivisation through pay and reward. Indeed, Bill Gates’s comment on workers and their value points towards a scientific management heritage: “A great lathe operator commands several times the wage of an average lathe operator”, Bill Gates points out, “but a great writer of software code is worth 10000 time the price of an average software writer” (Schumpeter, 2015, p. 1).
Microsoft’s business model relies on scientific management’s requirement to challenge received wisdom and to find new and better ways of doing things. This app
