Comparative Analysis of Ford and Friedman's Management Philosophies

This report provides an analysis of two key perspectives on management and globalization: Ford's application of Taylorism and Friedman's views on globalization. The first part of the report examines the implementation of scientific management at the Ford Motor Company, contrasting it with...Read More

Running head: FORD AND FRIEDMAN
Ford and Friedman
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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FORD AND FRIEDMAN
Table of Contents
Executive Summary:........................................................................................................................3
Activity 1: Ford and Taylorism:......................................................................................................3
Section 1:.........................................................................................................................................3
Section 2:.........................................................................................................................................4
Answer 1:.........................................................................................................................................4
Answer 2:.........................................................................................................................................4
Answer 3:.........................................................................................................................................4
Activity 2: Thomas Friedman on Globalisation; 3 Eras of Globalisation; World is flat.................5
Section 1:.........................................................................................................................................5
Section 2:.........................................................................................................................................5
Answer 1:.........................................................................................................................................5
Answer 2:.........................................................................................................................................5
Answer 3:.........................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................6
References:......................................................................................................................................7

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Executive Summary:
The paper delves into the views of two great scholars, Fredrick Taylor and Professor Friedman.
The first videos deals with application of Taylor’s scientific management at Ford Motor
Company and the second deals with globalisation, its eras and their outcomes pertaining to both
challenges and opportunities. The assignment is divided into two activities each of which are
further divided into two sections. The first section describes the two topics while the second
section applies them in real life situations.

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Activity 1: Ford and Taylorism:
Section 1:
The video compared between the productivities outcomes of the old fashioned
unscientific management and scientific management by following the theory Fredrick Taylor in
two automobile companies in two of the world’s developed economies, the United Kingdom and
the United of America respectively. The Vulcan Motor Company in the UK used unscientific
methods to produce cars which took weeks and the cars were expensive. This led to market
penetration of cars being restricted to Henry Ford at his Ford Motor Company introduced the
system of scientific management of material and human resources which encouraged more
production of automobiles and led to lower cost. Ford introduced production of using conveyers
belts, a concept which was adopted in the European automobile companies and revolutionised
automobile manufacturing. He, in order to ensure continuous production and profit generation,
offered good salary to his staff to retain them. He in order to ensure uninterrupted flow of work
at the Ford factory kept trade unions at bay and sacked employees who were suspected to be with
the unions. Ford even kept a spy system to ensure that his employees contribute towards
productivity and did not indulge with unions. This scientific management of production process
by Ford made automobile manufacturing cheaper and made the cars more affordable. The video
shows how scientific management can be used in the factory to channelize the production
process and increase productivity(Lloyd-Smith 2015).

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Section 2:
Answer 1:
The workers in Europe, America and Australia would surely accept Taylorism today.
Taylorism guides the management of the firms irrespective of their sizes to follow scientific
management of resource to improve the level of productivity. The small firms in these three
markets can apply Taylorism to increase the production, bring about innovation and reduce their
costs of production. Thus, adoption of Taylorism will help the small companies to earn profit and
sustain in the competitive market(Witzel and Warner 2015).
Answer 2:
The design of the scripts used in the call centres use Taylorism to a great extent. This is
because the questions on the scripts are arranged in specific orders and have to execute on a
telephone or on a computer. The scripts questions are arranged on the scripts so as to generate
positive responses from the customers. The scripts are managed scientifically and restructured
from time to time to suit the business needs of the clients of the call centres. Hence, it can be
inferred from the discussion that the scripts in the call centres follow Taylorism.
Answer 3:
The video on Taylorism can be a century old and apparently may be obsolete but the
system of scientific management can be used to augment productivity in many small firms. This
will help them to manage their resources better, cut down production costs and leverage
profits(Mortenson, Doherty and Robinson 2015). Adopting scientific management of Taylor
would allow these small firms to offer goods at lower prices and increase the profit margins by

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offering goods to a larger population of customers. This can help them leverage their competitive
advantages and grow in size.
Activity 2: Thomas Friedman on Globalisation; 3 Eras of Globalisation; World is flat
Section 1:
Thomas Friedman in the video described the three eras of globalisation and their impact o
the world. The first era of globalisation took place in 1492 and continued into 1800s when
countries like the United Kingdom and Spain colonised nations. The first era of globalisation led
people become global through their countries and shrunk the world from size large to medium.
The second era of globalisation lasted from 1800s to 2000s when the companies expanded
globally in search of markets and cheap labour. The second era led to the world shrink from
medium to small and allowed the people to experience globalisation through companies. The last
era of globalisation is characterised by individuals gaining control over vast resources. The third
era contracted the world to size tiny and is attributed with people collaborating, connecting and
competing in the global market. Friedman said that today people have so much resource that
they have gained power to mobilise those to impact the whole world irrespective of the
consequences. The professor told that this empowerment is both a challenge and an opportunity
to the world. He hinted at terrorism and entrepreneurial ventures as challenges and opportunities
respectively. He said that the iron rule today’s connected and flat world is either impact or be
impacted by someone’s activities. He in the second video went on to describe an incidence when
his friend discovered a sustainable dish in Peru and made in famous in China.

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Section 2:
Answer 1:
Some of the key drawbacks of living in a flat world are that today individuals have access
to huge resources and individuals can effect a large number of people and even countries with
the use of these resources. The individuals are capable of impacting the whole world by
mobilising resources irrespective of the outcomes. They can either use it to start a business
venture or can misuse it to encourage terrorist activities(Gurgul and Lach 2014). This risk of
increasing power of individuals can pose threat to the global economy
Answer 2:
The iron rule by Friedman states that today individuals have too much power and
resources and the fact can be agreed to. Today no individual is free from impact of other
individuals and no opportunity in the market is left unidentified. The failure of one person to
exploit resources provides opportunities to other individuals to exploit them. This is because this
exposure to vast resources allows individuals to either use it to enhance economic conditions
through innovations or bring about economic slowdown like using the resources to spread
terrorism (O'neil, P.H., 2015).
Answer 3:
The level of globalisation is not uniform because there are markets which are highly
developed, markets which are emerging and these two markets interact to help each other
develop even further. The companies in these two markets hold assets and resources worth
billions of dollars and provide customers with quality products at affordable prices. There are

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also underdeveloped markets which experience lack of resources and are dependent on the other
two markets even for the basic needs. Thus, the level of globalisation in the world economy is
not uniform.
Conclusion:
The can be concluded that scientific management proposed by Taylor is still very much
relevant even today though it is centuries old. It can help small firms around the world to
improve their modus operandi, reduce costs and maximise profits. It can be concluded from the
speech by Friedman that globalisation has its opportunities and threats which impacts the present
world greatly. The level of globalisation varies from market to market. While there are some
markets which are booming, there are other markets which are still lagging behind and are
dependent on these growing markets.

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References:
Gurgul, H. and Lach, Ł., 2014. Globalization and economic growth: Evidence from two decades
of transition in CEE. Economic Modelling, 36, pp.99-107.
Lloyd-Smith, M., 2015. The ideas of the classical theorists, particularly those of bureaucracy and
scientific management, are generally considered as rather old fashioned and out of date, and of
little relevance to work and organisation today. Is this really the case?. Unpublished Paper, 6,
p.10.
Mortenson, M.J., Doherty, N.F. and Robinson, S., 2015. Operational research from Taylorism to
Terabytes: A research agenda for the analytics age. European Journal of Operational Research,
241(3), pp.583-595.
O'neil, P.H., 2015. Essentials of Comparative Politics: Fifth International Student Edition. WW
Norton & Company.
Witzel, M. and Warner, M., 2015. Taylorism revisited: culture, management theory and
paradigm-shift. Journal of General Management, 40(3), pp.55-70.
YouTube. 2017). What Thomas Friedman means when he says "The World is Flat". [online]
Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM2BguxRSyY [Accessed 19 Aug. 2017].
YouTube. 2017. Ford and Taylor Scientific Management (Edited). [online] Available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PdmNbqtDdI [Accessed 28 Apr. 2017].
YouTube. 2017. Thomas Friedman's Three Eras of Globalization. [online] Available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp4znWHvsjU [Accessed 19 Aug. 2017].