Course: HNC Business
Unit: Organisation Behaviour
ASSIGNMENT
1. Development of Management Thought
Evaluate if the various approaches to management are still relevant in providing guidance in the effective and efficient running of modern organisation today.
Contents
- Introduction
- Approaches to Management
(i) Classical Approach
(ii) Human Relations
(iii)Systems
(iv)Contingency
- Evaluation & Conclusion
1. Introduction
My plan is to research the theory on four different approaches to management, then determine whether they are still relevant in providing guidance on the effective and efficient running of the modern organisation today.
2. Approaches to Organisation and Management:
(i) Classical Approach
Emphasis on purpose, formal structure, hierarchy management, technical requirements, and common principals of organisation.
Main streams of classical perspective
1.Administration management (Henry Fayol : 1841 - 1925)
- focuses on the functions of management
2. Scientific management (Fredrick W Taylor: 1856 – 1915)
- focuses on the productivity of the individual worker
3. Bureaucratice Management (Max Weber: 1846 1920)
-focuses on the overall organisational system
1. Administration management
Fayol’s five functions of management:
- Planning
- Organising
- Commanding co-ordinating
- Controlling
Fayol’s principals of management:
- Division of work
- Authority and responsibility
- Discipline
- Unity of command
- Unity of direction
- Subordination of Individual Interests
- Remuneration of personnel
- Centralisation
- Scalar chain (line of authority)
- Order
- Equity
- Stability of tenure of personnel
- Initiative
- Esprit de corps (harmony)
Criticisms of administration management approach
- Insufficient account taken of personality factors
- Creates organisational structures where people can exercise only limited control over their work environment
- Out of date approach
2. Scientific Management
Principles of scientific management
- The development of a true science for each persons work
- The scientific selection, training and development of workers
- Co-operation with workers to ensure work is carried out in prescribed way
- The division of work and responsibility between management and workers
3. Bureaucratic management
Characteristics of Bureaucratic management
- Tasks are allocated as official duties among the various positions
- An implied clear cut division of labour and a high level of specialisation
- Uniformity of decisions and actions achieved through formally established systems of rules and regulations
- An impersonal orientation expected from officials in their dealing with clients
- Employment is based on technical qualifications
Criticism of Bureaucratic management
- Over emphasis on rules and procedures, record keeping and paperwork
- Lack of flexibility and stifling of initiative
- Position and responsibilities can lead to officious bureaucratic behaviour
- Impersonal relations can lead to stereotype behaviour and lack of responsiveness to individual incidents or problems
(ii) Human Relations Approach
Attention to social factors at work, groups, leadership, the informal organisation, and behaviour of people.
Human Relation Theorists
- Elton Mayo
- Abraham Maslow
- Douglas McGregor
1. Elton Mayo
- Conducted the famous Hawthorne Experiments
- Concluded that productivity increased because someone was paying attention to workers
- Mayo’s work represents the transition from scientific management to earlier human relations movement
2. Abraham Maslow
Hierarchy of needs theory
- Physiological
- Safety
- Social
- Esteem
- Self-actualisation
Criticisms
- Weak methodology of Hawthorne Experiments including failure to take sufficient account of environmental factors
- Adoption of management approach a unitary frame of reference and over simplification of theories
- Insufficiently scientific and takes too narrow a view, ignoring the role of the organisation within society
3. Douglas McGregor
- Proposed the Theory X and Theory Y styles of management.
- Theory X managers perceive that their subordinates have and inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if at all possible
- Theory Y managers perceive that their subordinates work and that they will gain satisfaction from performing their jobs
(iii) Systems Approach
The integration of the classical and human relations approaches. Importance of the socio-technical system. The organisation within its external environment.
Attention is focused on:
- Total work of organisation
- Inter-relationships of organisations and behaviour
- The range of variables within the organisation
System perspective
- An approach to problem solving that is basic on an understanding of the basic structure of systems:
- Inputs
- Transformation process
- Outputs
- Feedback
- Basic structure of systems
Chester Barnard (1880 – 1961)
- Organisations are co-operative systems
- Consider requirements of task
- Needs of people doing tasks
- Felt that executives serve two primary functions
- Must establish a communications systems between two employees
- Must establish objectives of the organisation and motivate employees
- Developed a theory on authority
- Believed that authority flows from the ability of subordinates to accept or reject an order
(iv) Contingency Approach
No one best design of organisation. Form of structure, management, and ‘success’ of the organisation dependant upon a range of situational variables.
- The nature of task that are undertaken
- The nature of environmental influences
Contingency perspective
- A view that proposes that there is no one approach to management to for all situations
- Assets that managers are responsible for determining which managerial approach is likely to be most effective in a given situation
- This requires managers to identify key contingencies in a given situation
Contingency theorists
- Tasks
- Environment
- People
Katz and Kahn
- The social psychology of organisations
- An open system perspective to organisation theory
- Examined the important relations of an organisation with its environment
- Need for organisations to adapt to a changing environment in order to survive
Japanese management – William Ouchi
- Advocates trusting employees and making them feel like and intimate part of the organisation
- Based on assumption that once a trusting relationship with workers is established, production will increase
- High levels of teamwork
- An atmosphere of innovative ideas
- A willingness to continually improve (Kalzen)
3. Evaluation & Conclusion
The classical approach have been criticised generally for not taking sufficient account of personality factors and creating an organisation structure which people can exercise only limited control over their work environment. Classical approach is sometimes regarded as out of date approach it does focus on important factors of organisation and management. Technical and structural factors are important considerations in improving organisational performance. Classical approach prompted start of a more scientific view of management which provided general guidelines to the structuring and efficiency of organisations. They provide a useful starting point in attempting to analyse the effectiveness of the design of organisation structure. Bureaucracies are likely to attract criticism. Bureaucracy would restrict personal service delivery which requires a flexible approach, responsiveness to individual requirements and the need for initiative and inventiveness. Organisations today contain mainly or considerable number of professionals. Many organisations still have bureaucratic features although there is more reliance on professional discretion and self-regulation than on control through rules and regulations. Bureaucracy is still as relevant today as a major form of organisation structure.
The human relation approach has been subject to severe criticism. Hawthorne experiments have been criticised, no methodology and failure of investigators to take sufficient account of environmental factors. Criticised for adoption of management perspective and over simplified theories. The human approach recognised the importance of informal organisations which will always be present within formal structure. The informal organisation will influence the motivation of employees who will view organisation they work through the values and attitudes of colleagues. People go to work to satisfy a complexity of needs and not simply monetary reward. The importance of wider social needs of individuals and gave recognition to the work organisation of a social organisation and the importance of the group, influencing individual behaviour at work.
Systems approach attempts to reconcile two earlier approaches and the work of formal and informal writers. Attention is focused on total work of organisation and the interrelationships of structure and behaviour. Recognition of the socio-technical approach is of particular importance today. People must be considered as at least an equal priority along with investment in technology. The concept of socio-technical system provides a link between the systems approach and a sub-division, sometimes adopted the technology approach. Technology approach attempt to restrict generalisations about the organisation and management, and emphasise the effects of varying technologies on organisations structure, work groups and individual performance and job satisfaction. Problems of alienation in relation to different work technologies.
The contingency approach showed renewed concern with the importance of structure as a significance influence on organisational performance. Contingency approach can be seen as extension of systems approach, highlights possible means of differentiating among alternative forms of organisation structures and systems of management. The most appropriate structure and system of management is therefore dependant on the contingencies of the situation for each particular organisation. The contingency approaches implies that organisation theory should not seek to suggest one best way to structure or manage organisations but should provide insights into situational and factors which influence management decisions.
With development of the information and technical age a more recent age of organisations and management is the idea of postmodernism. In 1990s writers such as Clegg described postmodern organisation in terms of the influence of technological determinism, structural flexibility, premised on niches, multi-skilled jobs marked by a lack of demarcation, and more complex employment relationships including sub-contracting and networking. Postmodernism rejects a rational system approach to our understanding of organisations and management, and to accepted explanations of society and behaviour. Highly flexible, free flowing and fluid structures with the ability to change quickly to meet present demands from the basis of the new organisation. Postmodern organisation can arguably be seen as healthy challenge to more traditional approaches. It puts forward alternative interpretations of rationality, credibility and ambiguity. A thoughtful critical perspective on disorders in work organisations, and reminds us of the complexities in our understanding of management and organisational behaviour.
Sources Information:- Text book - Management and organisational Behaviour – Laurie J. Mullan (seventh edition)
- Class handout/slides – Approaches to organisation and Management
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