An Intoduction to Management: Approaches to Management-Bureaucratic Management-Hawthorne Studies-Mckensey's 7-s Framework-Theory Z-TQM.

Part-1: An Introduction to Management.

Chapter-2: Traditional and Contemporary Issues and Challenges

Ø Approaches to Management:

A number of experts offered ideas which became the basis for the development of management as a field of knowledge. There are many approaches to management.

Classical viewpoint: The classical era covered the period from about 1900 to the mid 1930s.

It is a perspective on management that emphasizes finding ways to manage work and organization more efficiently.

Ø Classical Approach:

·       It highlights the need for a scientific approach to management.

·       Emphasizes the potential importance of pay as a motivator.

·       Classical viewpoint is  made up of three approaches -

·       Scientific Management,

·       Administrative Management and

·       Bureaucratic Management.

Ø Scientific Management:

·       Scientific management is an approach that emphasizes the scientific study of work methods in order to improve worker efficiency. 

·       F. W. Taylor was the father scientific management.

·       His main concern was to increase efficiency in production.

·       He writes a book titled Principles of Scientific Management.

·       F.W. Taylor observed that workers were suffering a problem, what he called soldiering. Taylor observed that the problem of productivity was a matter of ignorance on the part of both management and workers.

·       Productivity is the answer to both higher wages and higher profit.

·       Soldiering is deliberately working less than full capacity.

·       Workers feared that increasing productivity would cause them or other workers to lose jobs.

·       Workers feared that increasing productivity would cause them or other workers to lose jobs. Faulty wage systems set up by management encouraged workers to operate at a slow pace.

·       Taylor believed that managers could resolve the soldiering problem by developing a science of management based on the four principles summarized below:

          i.    Scientifically study each part of a task and develop the best method for doing the task.

        ii.    Carefully select workers and train them to perform the task by using the scientifically developed method.

      iii.    Cooperate fully with workers to ensure that they use the proper method.

      iv.    Divide work and responsibility so that management is responsible for planning work methods and workers are responsible for executing the work accordingly.

·       Taylor developed time and motion study to find out best way to do the job. To motivate workers Taylor favored incentive wage plan.

·       Taylor advocated the use of wage incentive plans to solve the problem of wage system that encouraged soldiering.

·       Taylor was able to define the one best way for doing each job.

·       Frank and Lillian Gilbbreths- husband and wife were also important advocates of scientific management.

·       They made studies to eliminate unnecessary motions and to explore ways to reduce task fatigue.

·       Lillian writes a book named the Psychology of Management.

·       Lillian argues that the purpose of scientific is to help people reach their maximum potential by developing their skills and abilities.

·       She was the first women to gain prominence as a major contributor to the development of management as science.

Ø Administrative Management:

·       It is an approach that focuses on principles that can be used by managers to coordinate the internal activities of organizations.

·       Henri fayol and C.I. Barnard were the main contributors to this school.

·       A manager must have some skills in order to be effective and these skills can be taught through training and education. He believed that management was a distinct skill. Management was an activity common to all human undertakings.

·       Fayol wrote a book titled General and Industrial management.

·       He identified that there were six types of industrial activities. These are: technical, commercial, financial, security, accounting and managerial.

·       Managerial activity: There are five managerial functions such as planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling.

·       Fayol also developed 14 principles of management. These are:

                i.Division of work,

              ii.Authority,

            iii.Discipline,

            iv.Unity of command,

              v.Unity of direction,

            vi.Subordination of individual to general interest.

          vii.Remuneration,

        viii.Centralization,

            ix.Scalar chain,

              x.Order,

            xi.Equity. Treat people with justice and kindness.

          xii.Stability of personnel tenure.

        xiii.Initiative. Encourage and develop subordinate initiative to the fullest.

        xiv.Esprit de corps. Unity is strength.

·       Managers must be able to give orders.

·       Employees must obey rules and regulations of the organization.

·       Unity of command. Every employee should receive orders from only one superior.

·       Unity of direction. Each group of organizational activities that have same objective should be directed by on manager using one plan.

Ø C.I Barnard:

·       His classic book named The functions of the Executive, published in 1938.

·       His main contribution is “Acceptance theory of authority”.

·       It is a theory that argues that authority does not depend as much on ‘persons of authority’ who give orders as the on the willingness to comply who receive orders.

·       It is employee who decides whether or not to accept orders and directions from above.

Ø Bureaucratic Management:

·       Bureaucratic management is an approach that emphasizes the need for organizations to operate in a rational manner rather than relying on the arbitrary whims of owners and managers.

·       Max Weber is the father of this approach.

·       He described an ideal type’s organization that he called a bureaucracy.

·       Characteristics of Weber's bureaucracy:

          i.    Specialization of labor. Jobs are broken down into routine and well defined tasks so that members know what is expected of them and can become extremely competent at their particular subset of tasks.

        ii.    Formal rules and procedures. Written rules and procedures specify the behaviors of desired from members facilitate coordination and ensure uniformity.

      iii.    Impersonality. Rules and sanctions applied uniformly regardless of individual personalities.

      iv.    Well defined hierarchy. Multiple levels of positions, with carefully determined reporting relationships among levels, provide supervision of lower offices by higher ones.

        v.    Career advancement based on merit. Selection and promotion is based on the qualifications and performance of members.

Ø Behavioral Viewpoint:

·       The people side of organization.

·       It is a perspective on management that emphasizes the importance of attempting to understand the various factors that affect human behavior in organizations.

·       Hawthorne studies. A group of studies conducted at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric company during the late 1920s and early 1930s to find out the impact of illumination on productivity.

·       The findings led to develop the human relations view of management.

Ø Hawthorne Studies:

·       Productivity was improved when lighting was either increased or decreased.

·       Mayo found that productivity improvement was due to such factors as morale, satisfactory interrelationships members of the group, group sentiments, and employee oriented management style.

·       Humans are social, not only economic. Money was less a factor in determining output

Ø Human Relations Movement:

·       More emphasis on human relation and motivation for improving productivity.

·       Emphasis on building collaborative and cooperative relationships between supervisors and workers.

·       Managers must have social skills.

·       They must know how to make workers feel more satisfied with their jobs. Abraham Maslow and Douglas Mcgregor were the main contributors.

Ø Behavioral Approach

·       This approach emphasizes scientific research as the basis for developing theories about human behavior in organizations that can be used to establish practical guidelines for managers.

·       It draws on findings from a variety of disciplines such as management, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and economics.

Ø Operation approach

·       Draws together concepts, principles, techniques and knowledge from other fields and managerial approaches.

·       The attempt is to develop science and theory with practical application.

Ø Management Information Systems

·       It is the field of management that focuses on designing and implementing computer based systems for use by management.

·       Such systems turn raw data into information that is useful to various levels of management.

Ø Contingency or situational approach

·       Managerial practices depend on circumstances or situations.

·       A contingency theory is a viewpoint that argues that appropriate managerial action depends on the particular parameters of the situation.

·       There is no one best approach to solve a problem.

Ø Mckinsey’s 7-S framework

·       The seven S’s are

·       Strategy.

·       Structure. Organization structure and authority and responsibility relationship.

·       Systems

·       Styles. The way management behaves and collectively spends its time to attain organizational goals.

·       Staff

·       Shared values. Values shared by the members of organization.

·       Skills

Ø Empirical or case approach

·       Studies experience through cases.

·       Identifies successes and failures.

Ø Management Science

·       Management science is an approach aimed at increasing decisions effectiveness through the use of sophisticated mathematical models and statistical methods.

Ø System Approach

·       Organizations are viewed as open systems consists of many subsystems.

·       A system is a set of interrelated parts that operate as a whole in pursuit of common goals. According the system approach, an organizational system has four components such as inputs, transformation process, output and feedback.

·       Recognizes importance of studying inter-relatedness of planning, organizing, and controlling in an organization as well as the many subsystems.

Ø Japanese Management:

·       It is an approach that focuses on aspects of management in Japan that may be appropriate for adoption in other countries.

·       Japanese management is becoming popular because of the recent admirable success of Japanese companies.  

Ø Theory Z

·       Theory Z has been developed by William Ouchi.

·       It adapts the elements of effective Japanese management systems to U.S. culture.

·       It is a concept that combines positive aspects of American and Japanese management into a modified approach aimed at increasing US managerial effectiveness.

·       The main features of theory Z are: life time employment, individual responsibility, concern for total person, informal control system, consensus decision making, and slower rates of promotion.

Ø Total Quality Control

·       TQM is an approach that highlights collective responsibility for product and service quality and encouraging people to work together to improve quality.

·       The aim of TQM is to achieve zero defects.

·       Deming and Juran helped Japanese companies in TQM efforts.

·       Japanese companies established Deming prize, an annual award for excellence in quality control.

Ø A management Theory Jungle

·       Concluding remarks

·       Management means many things to many people. Many writers have contributed to the development of management thought.

·       The variety of approaches to management analysis has resulted in much confusion as to what management is, what management theory and science is and how managerial events should be analyzed.

·       Koontz called this situation “The Management Theory Jungle”.