Frederick Taylor and Frank Gilbreth: Competition in Scientific Management

The vital task of measuring jobs in order to establish equitable incentive wage rates is usually accomplished by a combination of techniques involving both time and motion studies. Yet for many years a highly personal competition between leading exponents of each type of study prevented a union of techniques from taking place. In the early days of the scientific management movement, Frank Gilbreth was a fierce admirer of Frederick W. Taylor, but Taylor and his disciples rejected Gilbreth, whose micromotion techniques came into competition with the Taylorites' stop watches. Thereby scientific management was split into two antagonistic camps and the course of the movement decisively influenced.