Contents
First of all, let’s decide if managers need to remember history. Energy crisis. GM.
Studying history means an understanding of the impact of societal forces on organizations. Organizations and practice of management have been changing due to influence by social, political, and economic forces.
The practice of management can be traced to 3000 BC to the first government organizations developed by the Sumerians and Egyptians. However, the formal study of management began in 19 century. The development of management philosophies is based on three phenomena (dimensions) – goals, people and management (задачи, человек, управленческая деятельность). While managerial knowledge deepened and the nature of management changed, synthetic approach was developing – theories combining several phenomena emerged.
Among the one-dimensional approaches are the concepts of classical (scientific management, organizational theories), and humanistic perspective (the human relations movement, the human resources perspective, and the behavioral sciences approach). Among the ‘synthetic approaches’ (that take into account more than one dimension) are systems theory and contingency view. After the World War II management science perspective emerged. The recent approaches are Total Quality Management and the Learning Organization.
Let’s first look at ‘one-dimension approaches’ and then at ‘synthetic approaches’. Rational scientific approach to the study of management is referred to as I classical perspective. It emerged during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and includes scientific management and organizational theories.
It sought make organizations efficient operating machines. Ia Scientific management is a subfield of the classical management perspective that emphasized scientifically determined changes in management practices as the solution to improving labor productivity. Thus, the goals are put in the focus here.
Frederic Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) suggested a theory that labor productivity could be improved by scientifically determined management practices.
Characteristics of Scientific Management
General approach
Developed standard method for performing each job; selected workers with appropriate abilities for each job; trained workers in standard method; supported workers by planning their work and eliminating interruptions; provided wage incentives to workers for increased output.
Contribution
Demonstrated the importance of compensation for performance; initiated the careful study of tasks and jobs; demonstrated the importance of personnel selection and training.
Criticisms
Did not appreciate the social context of work and higher needs of workers; did not acknowledge variance among individuals; tended to regard workers as uninformed and ignored their ideas and suggestions.
A systematic approach developed in Europe that looked at the organization as a whole is the Ib bureaucratic organizations approach, a subfield of classical perspective. Here management is in focus. Max Weber (1864-1920), a German lawyer and sociologist, introduced most of the concepts on bureaucratic organizations. While Taylor was looking for a way to make a worker function like a machine, Weber wanted to answer a question what to do so that the whole organization would function like a machine. Weber saw such answer in development of rules and procedures for every kind of situation, and in clear definition of rights and responsibilities of each worker. This approach overlooked personality, but provided clear mechanisms of dealing with different situations.
Elements of Bureaucracy (characteristics of Weberian Bureaucracy)
1) Labor is divided with clear definitions of authority and responsibility that are legitimize as official duties.
2) Positions are organized in a hierarchy of authority, with each position under the authority of a higher one.
3) All personnel is selected and promoted based on technical qualifications, which are assessed by examination or according to training and experience.
4) Administrative acts and decisions are recorded in writing. Record keeping provides organizational memory and continuity over time.
5) Management is separate from the ownership of the organization.
6) Managers are subject to rules and procedures that will ensure reliable, predictable behavior. Rules are impersonal and uniformly applied to all employees.
Another major subfield within the classical perspective is known as the administrative principles approach. Whereas scientific management focused on the productivity of the individual worker, the administrative principles approach focused on the total organization?
The contributors:
Henri Fayol (1841-1925) developed concepts based largely on his own management experiences. General principles of management:
1) Unit of command. Each subordinate receives orders from one superior.
2) Division of work. Managerial and technical work is amenable to specialization to produce more and better work with the same amount of effort.
3) Unity of direction. Similar activities in an organization should be grouped together under one manager.
4) Scalar chain. A chain of authority extends from the top to the bottom of the organization and should include every employee.
Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933): ethics, power, motivation; empowerment, facilitating rather than controlling employees, allowing employees to act according to a situation – new concepts for that time.
Chester I. Barnard (1886-1961): the concept of the informal organization; acceptance theory of authority.
The overall effect of the classical perspective on companies was substantial – it gave them new skills for establishing high productivity and effective treatment of employees.
Mary Parker Follet and Chester Barnard were early advocates of a more II humanistic perspective on management. The subfields of this concept:
IIa The human relations movement. Hawthorne studies were performed by Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger. It was a series of experiments on worker productivity begun in 1924 at the Hawthorne plant of Western Electric Company in Illinois; attributed employees’ increased output to managers’ better treatment of them during the study. Yet, getting into the experimental group had meant a huge increase in income. So, did money matter?
IIb The human resources perspective suggests that jobs should be designed to meet higher-level needs by allowing workers to use their full potential. Two of the best-known contributors to the human resources perspective were Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) and Douglas McGregor. McGregor (1906-1964) challenged the classical perspective and the early assumptions about human behavior. He called the ‘old’ ideas ‘Theory X assumptions’ and his ideas ‘Theory Y assumptions’. According to the Theory X the average human being dislikes work, therefore needs to be controlled; prefers to be directed, and wants security above all. The point of Theory Y is that organizations can take advantage of the imagination and intellect of all their employees. Employees will exercise self-control and will contribute to organizational goals when given the opportunity. Most companies today use Y-management.
IIc The behavioral sciences approach is a subfield of the humanistic management perspective that applies social science in an organizational context, drawing from economics, psychology, sociology, and other disciplines.
Management is by nature complex and dynamic. Elements of each of the perspectives discussed above are in use today. The most prevalent is the humanistic perspective but it also has been undergoing a change in recent years. Now let’s turn to `synthetic approaches’. First, we shall consider systems theory. A system is a set of interrelated parts that function as a whole to achieve a common purpose. Systems theory is an extension of the humanistic perspective that describes organizations as open systems that are characterized by entropy, synergy, and subsystem interdependence. Open system is a system that interacts with the external environment. Closed system is a system that does not interact with the external environment. Entropy is the tendency for a system to run down and die. Synergy is the concept that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Subsystems are parts of a system that depend on one another for their functioning.