According to Scientific Management, what is essential for increasing productivity?

The principle of Scientific Management, developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor, emphasizes the importance of efficiency and productivity in the workplace. One of the core tenets of this theory is the concept of work specialization and systematic approaches. This involves breaking down tasks into their simplest components and optimizing each task for efficiency. By doing so, workers can become highly skilled and proficient in specific tasks, which enhances productivity significantly.

Specialization allows individuals to focus on a limited set of tasks, which leads to improvements in speed and quality of work. Additionally, systematically approaching work processes involves implementing standardized methods, tools, and procedures to ensure that every aspect of the production process is as efficient as possible. This structured methodology can lead to greater outputs and less wasted time and resources.

The other options do not align with the principles of Scientific Management. Incentives unrelated to performance do not directly motivate workers to enhance productivity, while random task assignments can actually hinder efficiency by disrupting the specialization that leads to skill development. Similarly, relaxed management oversight may lead to inconsistencies and a lack of direction, negating the structured approach that is fundamental to maximizing productivity in the Scientific Management framework.