At a glance
- Region
- Global / Diaspora
- Review
Politics, governance and authority
Summary
Tareq al-Suwaidan presents Frederick Taylor as the 'father of scientific management': an engineer who helped Henry Ford improve the assembly line, then in 1911 published what is counted as the first scientific study of modern management 1.
His theory
Al-Suwaidan explains that Taylor began with organising, moved on to planning, and set out the division of the four administrative operations: planning, organising, directing and controlling 2. His philosophy treats the worker as a machine that needs fuel to work, its fuel being money — what later became known as Theory X 3. Al-Suwaidan notes that many of those who developed management science were not specialists in it at all: Taylor was an engineer 4.
People and things also explored
Ahl al-Diwan (those paid from the state register of soldiers and officers, and the rules of their conditions and distribution)· Ahl al-Hall wa al-Aqd (those who loose and bind: the men of power whose choice confirms the imam)· Ahl al-Mahalla (the people of a quarter, their imam, call to prayer, and their part in the oath and blood money where a body is found)· Islamic management· Experience versus service, and self-development· The nominal group technique· Leadership and the leader's six roles· Situational leadership
Sources
- Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:28:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
- Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:29:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
- Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:30:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
- Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:27:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Frederick Taylor”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/frederick-taylor/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-26.