THE ROLE OF THEORY AND HISTORY IN MANAGEMENT | THE CLASSICAL PERSPECTIVE | THE BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE | QUANTITATIVE PERSPECTIVE | INTEGRATING PERSPECTIVES | CONTEMPORARY MANAGEMENT THOUGHT

THE ROLE OF THEORY AND HISTORY IN MANAGEMENT

The importance of theory and history

Theory provides a simple conceptual framework for organizing knowledge and for providing a blueprint for action to help guide organizations toward their goals.

Contributions from past industrialists have molded the organizational culture and managers can benefit from an awareness of these contributions.

The historical context of management

Social forces are the norms and values that characterize a culture. Early social forces allowed workers to be treated poorly; however, more recent social forces have provided for more acceptable working conditions for workers. Social forces have influenced management theory in areas such as motivation and leadership.

Economic forces are the ideas behind the concept of a market economy such as private ownership of property, economic freedom, competitive markets, and a limited role for government.

Political forces such as govemmental regulations play a significant role in how organizations choose to manage themselves. Political forces have influenced management theory in the areas of environmental analysis, planning, control, organization design, and employee rights.

Precursors to management theory

While the practice of management can be traced back to 3000 B.C., it was not given serious attention until the 1 800s when large organizations emerged.

Early management pioneers

The early pioneers include:

  • Robert Owen was one of the first managers to show respect and dignity to workers in his factory. He implemented better working conditions, raised the minimum age for child labor, reduced hours, and supplied meals.
  • Charles Babbage applied mathematic principles to find ways to make the most efficient use of facilities and materials. He also advocated profit-sharing plans.
  • Andrew Ure was one of the world's first professors to teach management principles at Anderson's College in Glasglow.
THE CLASSICAL PERSPECTIVE

Scientific management

Scientific management focuses on ways to improve the performance of individual workers. Some of the major contributors are:
  • Frederick W. Taylor saw workers soldiering or deliberately working beneath their potential and designed a 4-step method to overcome this problem
    • It begins with breaking the job into its smallest pieces.
    • The second step is to select themost qualified employees to perform the job and train them to do it.
    • Next, supervisors are used to monitor the employees to be sure they are following the methods prescribed.
    • Finally, continue in this fashion, but only use employees who are getting the work done.
  • The Gilbreths, a husband and wife team, also helped to find more efficient ways for workers to produce output. Frank Gilbreth made his most important contribution in the field of bricklaying. He changed an 18-step process into a 5-step process and increased productivity by about 200 percent.
  • Henry Gantt introduced the Gantt chart, which is a way to schedule woric. Thistype of chart is still used today.
  • Harrington Emerson was an advocate of specialized management roles in organizations. He testified before the Interstate Commerce Commission that the rail road could save $1 million a day by using scientific management.

Administrative management

Administrative management focuses on managing the total organization.
  • Henri Fayol was the first to identify the four management functions-
    • planning,
    • organizing
    • leading, and
    • controlling,
    and he developed guidelines for managers to follow. These guidelines form fourteen principles for effective management.
  • Lyndall Urwick is best known for integrating scientific management with administrative management.
  • Max Weber outlined the concept of bureaucracy based on a rational set of guidelines for structuring organizations in the most efficient manner. His work is the foundation of contemporary organization theory.
  • Chester Bamard wrote about the acceptance of authority and how managers get employees to do what they ask in a book called The Functions of the Executive.

Contributions

  • Laid the foundation for management theory.
  • Identified key processes, functions, and skills of managers that are still important today.
  • Made management a valid subject of scientific inquiry.

Limitations

  • Best used in simple, stable organizations.
  • Provided universal procedures that are not appropriate in all settings.
  • Most viewed employees as tools rather than resources.
THE BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE

The Hawthornestudies

The Hawthome studies were held at Westem Electric and sponsored by General Electric. Elton Mayo and his colleagues controlled the lighting in one room of workers but not in another.

When the illumination was increased in the experimental group, productivity increased in both groups. The increase in productivity was attributed to the fact that the workers were having extra attention paid to them, maybe for the first time.

Other studies found that employees will not work as fast as they can when beingy paid piece-rate wages. Instead, they will perform to the level informally set by the group in order to be accepted by the group.

These two studies, and others, led Mayo to the conclusion that individual and social processes played a major role in shaping workers attitudes and behavior at work.

The human relations movement

The human relations movement, which stemmed from the Hawthome studies, is based on the idea that a manager's concem for workers will lead to their increased satisfaction and improved perforrnance.

The movement includes the need theories of motivation, such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y.

The emergence of organizational behavior

The emergence of organizational behavior occurred because of the too simplistic descriptions of work behavior by the human relationists. Organizational behavior takes aholistic view of behavior by addressing individual, group, and organization processes.

Contributions

  • Gave insights into interpersonal processes in organizations such as motivation and group dynamics.
  • Focused managerial attention on these processes.
  • Challenged the view of employees as tools and not resources.

Limitations

  • The complexity of human behavior makes prediction difficult.
  • Managers may be reluctant to adopt some of the behavioral concepts.
  • Contributions are often not communicated to the practicing managers in an understandable form.
THE QUANTITATIVE PERSPECTIVE

Management science

Management science focuses specifically on the development of mathematical models. These models help organizations to try out various activities with the use of a computer. Modeling can help managers locate the best way to do things and save money and time.

Operations management

Operations management is an applied form of management science that helps organizations develop techniques to produce their products and services more efficiently.

Contributions

  • Developed sophisticated quantitative techniques to assist in decision making.
  • Models have increased our awareness of complex organizational processes and has aided in the planning and controlling processes.

Limitations

  • Cannot fully explain or predict behavior of people.
  • Mathematical sophisticalion may come at the expense of other important skills.
  • Models may require unrealistic or unfounded assumptions.
INTEGRATING PERSPECTIVES

The systems perspective

A system is an interrelated set of elements functioning as a uhole. An organization as a system is composed of four elements:
  • inputs (material or human resources),
  • transformation processes (technological and managerial processes),
  • outputs (products or services), and
  • feedback (reactions from the environment).
Open systems are systems that interact with their environment. Subsystems are systems within a broader system. Synergy are units that are more successful working together than working alone. Entropy is the process that leads to decline.

The contingency perspective

Appropriate managerial behavior depends on the elements of the situation. Universal perspectives tried to identify the "one best way" to manage organizations. Contingency perspective argues that universal theories cannot be applied to organizations because each is unique.

An integrating framework

Managers need to include the parts from each perspective that are relevant to their situation and apply them using both a systems and contingency approach.

CONTEMPORARY MANAGEMENT THOUGHT

Popular management theory

Type Z model organizations attempt to integrate parts of the Japanese model of management (collective decision making, slow evaluation and promotion, and holistic concem), individual responsibility from the U.S. model of management, and variations of other aspects of management models to create a hybrid model of management.

The concem for excellence is an approach used by firms who have a basic set of characteristics that leads them to excel. These characteristics include getting things done on time, staying close to the customer, using hands-on management, and doing what the company knows best among others.