questions

Week 3 History of management

I. Scientific management

1. Scientific management

The goal of scientific management is to use systematic study to find the ‘one best way’ of doing each task.

· ‘develop a science’ for each element of work. Study it. Analyse it. Determine the ‘one best way’ to do the work. (Example: the necessary of rest break--frequent rest breaks greatly increased daily output)

· scientifically select, train, teach and develop workers to help them reach their full potential. (Example: Taylor instructed supervisors to hire ‘first class’ workers on the basis of their aptitude to do a job well/companies train and develop their workers)

· cooperate with employees to ensure implementation of the scientific principles. (Example: it’s very foundation the firm conviction that the true interests of employees and employers are one and the same.)

· to divide the work and the responsibility equally between management and employees

2. Motion studies

· The difference between Scientific management and Motion studies:

The Gilbreths’ motion study, however, is different from Frederick W. Taylor’s time study. Time study worked by timing how long it took a ‘first-class man’ to complete each part of his job. After allowing for rest periods, a standard time was established and a worker’s pay would increase or decrease depending on whether the worker exceeded or fell below that standard.

· The motion study broke each task or job into separate motions and then eliminated those that were unnecessary or repetitive.

3. Charts: Henry Gantt

· A Gantt chart, which shows time in various units on the x-axis and tasks on the y-axis, visually indicates what tasks must be completed at which times in order to complete a project. (track and visually display the progress being made on a project.)

· Gantt, along with Taylor, was one of the first to strongly recommend that companies train and develop their workers. He found that workers achieved their best performance levels if they were trained first.

· Approach for training: (1) a scientific investigation in detail of each piece of work, and the determination of the best method and the shortest time in which the work can be done. (2) A teacher capable of teaching the best method and the shortest time. (3) Reward for both teacher and pupil when the latter is successful’. (overcame the supervisors’ resistance by rewarding them with bonuses for properly training all of their workers)

II. Bureaucratic management and Administrative management

1. Bureaucratic management: Max Weber

1) According to Weber, bureaucracy is ‘the exercise of control on the basis of knowledge’. So, in a bureaucracy, rather than ruling by virtue of favouritism or personal or family connections, people would lead by virtue of their rational–legal authority – in other words, their knowledge, expertise or experience.

2) The elements of bureaucratic organisations

· Qualification-based hiring (basis of technical training or educational background)

· Merit-based promotion (based on experience or achievements, managers decide who is prompted)

· Chain of command (each position reports and is accountable to a higher position. A grievance procedure and a right to appeal protect people in lower positions.)

· Division of labour (Tasks, responsibilities and authority are clearly divided and defined)

· Impartial application of rules and procedures (apply to all members)

· Recorded in writing (everything will be recorded in writing)

· Managers separate from owners (The owners should not manage or supervise organisation)

The improvements of bureaucracy: Weber’s ideas about bureaucracy represent a tremendous improvement. Fairness supplanted favouritism, the goal of efficiency replaced the goal of personal gain, and logical rules and procedures took the place of traditions or arbitrary decision making.

The limitations of bureaucracy: Most employees would argue that bureaucratic managers emphasise punishment for non-compliance much more than rewards for compliance. Ironically, bureaucratic management was created to prevent just this type of managerial behaviour. Therefore, managers are supposed to influence employee behaviour by fairly rewarding or punishing employees for compliance or non-compliance with organisational policies, rules and procedures.

2. Administrative management: Henri Fayol

· Fayol’s management functions are widely known as planning (determining organisational goals and a means for achieving them), organising (deciding where decisions will be made, who will do what jobs and tasks, and who will work for whom), leading (inspiring and motivating employees to work hard to achieve organisational goals) and controlling (monitoring progress towards goal achievement and taking corrective action when needed).

· 14 principles of management.

· The most formative events in Fayol’s business career: Turning a steel company around (vertically integrated)

The scientific management focused on improving efficiency; bureaucratic management focused on using knowledge, fairness and logical rules and procedures; and administrative management focused on how and what managers should do in their jobs.

III. Human relation management

1. Constructive conflict

Constructive conflict (also called cognitive conflict): Follett believed that the best way to deal with conflict was not ‘domination’, where one side won and the other lost, nor compromise, where each side gave up some of what they wanted, but integration.

Said Follett: the point of integrative conflict resolution is to have both parties indicate their preferences and then work together to find an alternative that meets the needs of both.

2. Hawthorne studies: Elton Mayo

· The increased attention from management and the development of a cohesive work group led to significantly higher levels of job satisfaction and productivity. For the first time, human factors related to work were found to be more important than the physical conditions or design of the work. (they felt themselves to be participating freely and without afterthought, and were happy in the knowledge that they were working without coercion from above or limits from below)

· This Studies demonstrated that the workplace was more complex than previously thought, that workers were not just extensions of machines and that financial incentives weren’t necessarily the most important motivator for workers. This Studies make managers better understood the effect that group social interactions and employee satisfaction and attitudes had on individual and group performance.

3. Cooperation and acceptance of authority: Chester Barnard

· The extent to which people willingly cooperate in an organisation depends on how workers perceive executive authority and whether they’re willing to accept it.

· People will not be indifferent to managerial directives or orders if they (1) are understood, (2) are consistent with the purpose of the organisation, (3) are compatible with the people’s personal interests and (4) can actually be carried out by those people.

IV.

1. Operations management

Most products are manufactured using standardised, interchangeable parts. Once standardised, interchangeable parts became the norm, and parts could be made from design drawings alone. To address problems about too much inventory, Oldsmobile Motor Works made do with what it called ‘hand-to-mouth inventories’, in which each production station had only enough parts on hand to do a short production run.

2. Information management

· The first ‘technologies’ to truly revolutionise the business use of information were paper and the printing press.

· Businesses have always looked for information technologies that would speed access to timely information.

· Example: For instance, the Medici family, who opened banks throughout Europe in the early 1400s, used post messengers to keep in contact with their more than 40 ‘branch’ managers. This need for timely information also led companies to quickly adopt the telegraph in the 1860s, the telephone in the 1880s and, of course, Internet technologies in the last two decades.

3. Systems management

· One way to deal with organisational and environmental complexity is to take a systems view of organisations.

· Rather than viewing what goes on within the organisation as separate from what goes on outside it, the systems approach also encourages managers to look for connections between the different parts of the organisation and the different parts of its environment.

· Benefits: First, it forces managers to view their organisations as part of and subject to the competitive, economic, social, technological and legal/regulatory forces in their environments. Second, it also forces managers to be aware of how the environment affects specific parts of the organisation. Third, because of the complexity and difficulty of trying to achieve synergies between different parts of the organisation, the systems view encourages managers to focus on better communication and cooperation within the organisation. Finally, survival also depends on making sure that the organisation continues to satisfy critical environmental stakeholders, such as shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, governments and local communities.

4. Contingency management

· The contingency approach to management precisely states that there are no universal management theories, and that the most effective management theory or idea depends on the kinds of problems or situations that managers or organisations are facing at a particular time. In short, the ‘best way’ depends on the situation.

· Managers need to look for key contingencies that differentiate today’s situation or problems from yesterday’s situation or problems. (It means that managers need to spend more time analysing problems, situations and employees before taking action to fix them.)

· You need to pay particular attention to qualifying phrases such as ‘usually’, ‘in these situations’, ‘for this to work’ and ‘under these circumstances’.