ABSTRACT
Harrington Emerson was an engineer and management consultant in late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century America. He is usually spoken of as one of the leaders of the scientific management movement, and is included alongside the likes of Frederick W.Taylor, Henry L.Gantt and Frank and Lillian Gilbreth. However, Emerson’s ideas on management differed considerably from those of Taylor in particular. Emerson’s primary emphasis was on ‘efficiency’, a word he introduced into the modern management lexicon; his approach to the subject amounted to a complete management philosophy, including ideas on requisite organisation, employee motivation and training and quality standards. Whereas Taylor’s version of scientific management concentrated on technical efficiency, bringing each individual production process as near to perfection as possible, Emerson’s view of efficiency embraced the entire organisation from top to bottom.
