Question

What is Soldiering?(Taylorism) Identify reasons for soldiering in short essay format.

Answer 1

Frederick Taylor used the term soldiering to describe the actions among employees which result in taking more time to complete a small number of works. Soldiering refers to the lack of engagement in work by the employees which results in low productivity. This affects the productivity of the employees which Taylor called as poisonous. Taylor suggested introducing incentive systems to encourage employees. Motivating them through material rewards is considered as the best method to improve workforce engagement. Taylor came up with the concept of soldiering when he was working in the steel industry.

The reasons identified for the soldiering is :

1. Workers believed that increasing productivity will lead to layoffs as organizations focus on optimum resource utilization.

2. Less motivation for employees in terms of incentives.

3. Laziness by employees.

4. Poor workplace supervision

Soldiering is considered in two types. First type is caused by natural insticts such as laziness by employees. Second is systematic soldiering which occurs when employees thick radically about the work. Systematic soldiering is affected by the idea of workers that their efforts would not be recognized by their managers and their attempts would be neglected and other members of the group would take their place. Soldiering negatively affects business.