Functional Foremanship: According to Taylor, functional foremanship is a management technique wherein the duties of a traditional foreman are distributed between several workers. This technique separates the planning function and executive function in an organisation. As shown in the chart, both units have a total of 8 foremen with 4 foremen in each unit. Each foreman employed workers who are specifically instructed to do assigned tasks. These workers will be held accountable for the specific work who will report back to the foreman for further instruction.
The foremen involved as planning in charge were:
(i) Instruction Card Clerk who gave instructions to specific workers to perform tasks.
(ii) Route Clerk who determined route through which raw materials will pass.
(iii) Time and Cost Clerk who specified the time when the job should be completed along with associated costs.
(iv) Disciplinarian who ensured discipline with no conflicts and no confusions.
The foremen involved as Production in charge were:
(i) Speed Boss who focused on timely and accurate completion of the job.
(ii) Gang Boss who kept machines and tools ready.
(iii) Repair Boss who ensured proper working conditions of machines and tools.
(iv) Inspector who checked the quality of work.
Functional foremanship thus implies that a functional foreman with specialised capability will have specialised powers to oversee, instruct and guide workers. This foreman will plan number of workers required for the job and their respective duties will be divided among these workers. The workers will also be selected based on their qualifications and capabilities in accordance to the job. The selected workers should be capable of being alert and stern and have certain experience with the work in the organisation. Each worker will be responsible to check on different activities in the organisation as per the instructions of the foreman.