Question

In what ways do you think Lillian Gilbreth industrial contributions influenced academia?

Answer 1

• Applying the social sciences to industrial operations,Gilbreth emphasized the importance of the worker rather than machinery or other, nonhuman factors to shape the workplace.
• Lillian Gilbreth found a niche within engineering that sidestepped societal constraints: analyzing and improving workplace efficiency in job functions performed by women. Much of the Gilbreths’ work together had focused on ergonomics;the study of the physical layout of a workplace and its effect on operational efficiency and Lillian Gilbreth continued that work in her new modus operandi.
• Gilbreths’ approach to workplace management emphasized the person doing the work and the effect that workspace layout and division of labor have on fatigue and efficiency. While time-and-motion study was primarily her husband’s forte, Lillian Gilbreth’s understanding of workers’ psychology led her to recognize the importance of direct incentives, like money, and indirect incentives, like job satisfaction and fatigue reduction. And her contributions has had a major influence on the workplace efficiency today.
• Recognizing the human factor at workplace and designing incentive plans for employees have been possible today because of Lillian Gilbreth's foundational work in industrial managment. Industrial and organizational behaviour today has become a major discipline to study in academics along with psychology which helps student in better understanding of human relations at work.
• Industrial engineering has become an independent field to taken up not just by men but women too because of Lillian's contributions.Her work is used by consultants working in corporations by applying psychology to solve problems in areas such as office equipment, household appliances, hospitals, and sports have led to companies coming up with new designs and inventions to make work and life easier today.