Frederick Taylor's Scientific Management, first published in 1911, revolutionized management. Taylor advocated using stopwatches and output to measure worker productivity.  His followers look at every detail of the worker and the work site, drawing diagrams called "time and motion studies" that show which actions by workers lead to the most economic and productive way of doing things.  Taylor's work theorizes that there is one best way of doing things, and that way is revealed through "time and motion studies."   The best way of doing business, the studies find, is to improve the techniques or methods of the workers. 

A paradigm is a way of seeing things - kind of like a "point of view."  The Scientific Management paradigm says that managers should concentrate on improving the techniques and methods of the workers.  Workers need to adapt themselves to the ideas of management, and managers, said Taylor, should not be concerned with workers' human affairs or emotions. The main focus of a scientific manager is to meet the needs of the organization, not the needs of the individual. 

Many of Taylor's theories are still in use today, and are sometimes called Classic Management Theory.  Others have contributed to management and leadership theories that followed.