SOURCE: "The Maligned F. W. Taylor: A Reply to His Many Critics," in The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 1, No. 3, July, 1976, pp. 124-129.

In the following essay, Fry attempts to answer Taylor's critics, conceding that Taylor's means were not always desirable, but concluding that his goals were indispensible to modern organizational behavior theory.

Frederick W. Taylor has been criticized and praised by theorists from various schools of organizational thought. Some say his view of man is too simplistic, as are his theories for solving the interaction of man with organization. Others state that he laid the very foundation for the vastly improved productivity of the modern economic enterprise. This article traces Taylor's thinking and the historical developments which set the stage for his intellect, noting positive and negative comments about his theories.

Although Taylor did not reach his goal of perfecting management into a true science, his impact...