Management can be described as getting things done through people'. This means that there must be a manager to control and motivate these people or human resources. While there are many different styles of managers and management techniques the management theories are most important. Management theories describe certain behaviours that are renowned for achieving the goals of the business. The four main management theories are classical-scientific, behavioural, political and contingency. These all have various styles, outcomes and have many similarities and differences when put into practice in a business environment.
The Classical-Scientific theories of management developed in the late 19th and early 20th Century. Most of the workforce was inexperienced and uneducated so they had little managing experience. Democracy was not fully developed so as a result most owners and managers ruled with an iron hand' and rarely consulted employees. Though from these roots many different management techniques and styles sprouted which would form the basis of management today. These include Hierarchical structure of organisation, Division of Labour, and Autocratic and Authority styles of management.
Hierarchical structure of organisation is the tradition form of organising a business. This can be best displayed in a shape of a pyramid, with the owner, CEO or Board of Directors at the top. This top level of management is concerned with planning organising and controlling. They are usually required to develop long and short term strategic plans to achieve the business objectives. They are also responsible for any change to the business such as a change in the Prime Function or introduction of a new product line. The second stage is the Middle Management which coordinates the activities of supervisors. It prepares policies and plans, and has the responsibility for its budgets and for appointing new employees. At the third level of the structure are the supervisors which have the power of concurrent control. They are the link between workers and the top level of management. They are chosen for their technical skills and ability to motivate others.
An important management tool that developed from this time is called Division of Labour which can be found in many workplaces today. The idea behind Division of Labour is to break up complex tasks into many simpler tasks and assign a different person to each task.
Douglas McGregor in his book (1960), The Human Side of Enterprise he proposed this theory, instead of descriptive labels he called it Theory X and Theory Y. These two theories were two extremes, thus the whole spectrum of possible behaviours in between. According to these theories, although the basic premise is that the management’s role is to assemble the factors of production, people and for the economic benefit of the organization, beyond this point these two theories takes diversion.
If there was a problem in a hierarchical structure it would move up through the structure again from one person to another until it gets to where it is supported to be. Strengths of a Hierarchical structure In a hierarchical structure there is a close control of workers. Workers in ASDA will know exactly what they have to do so they don’t wait around until they are told what they have to
These values are manifest through a simple, five level hierarchical structure. Each plant has three levels - the plant manager, seven area superintendents and front-line staff while a divisional layer oversees the plants and projects by area providing the interaction between the headquarters and plants followed by the CEO.
Compare and contrast the management theories of Frederick Taylor, Henri Fayol, Elton Mayo and Douglas McGregor. In what sense(s) are these theories similar and/or compatible? In what sense(s) are these theories dissimilar and/or incompatible? How would a contingency theorist reconcile the points of dissimilarity and/or incompatibility between these approaches?
Looking at IKEA’s organisational structure, the chain of command shows a clear line for messages within functional departments, so therefore; it leads to good communication. For example, looking at the organisational structure of IKEA, there is a clear communication within a human resources department. However, the chain of command is very long from the top to the bottom of the organisation because, there are too many levels of management. This will lead to poor communication. For example, it takes decisions a long time to reach the workers at the bottom of the organisation structure.
To say that scientific management theory doesn't exist at all in modern organisational life would be incorrect, as the problem with this idea is simply that it does not cater for all of today's business needs.
The bottom layer would follow the guideline so they can achieve the company objectives. The group structure is Chairman Board of Directors Group of Executives Board of Management Group of General Management The main departments within the group are: Administration Division Business Division Customer Support Division Network Development Division Production Services Division R&D Department Finance Department Human Resources Each division has managers for supervision. The staff in each division needs to follow the managersÂ’ decision. Every member of staff clearly understands their role and responsibility under the hierarchical structure. It is because each layer gets different responsibilities.
Organizational structure within an organization is a critical component of the day to day operations of a business. An organization benefits from organizational structure as a result of all it encompasses. It is used to define how tasks are divided, grouped and coordinated. Six elements should be addressed during the design of the organization’s structure: work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, spans of control, centralization and decentralization. These components are a direct reflection of the organization’s culture, power and politics.
The evolution of management though the decades can be divided into two major sections. One of the sections is the classical approach. Under the classical approach efficiency and productivity became a critical concern of the managers at the turn of the 20th century. One of the approaches from the classical time period were systematic management which placed more emphasis on internal operations because managers were concerned with meeting the growth in demand brought on by the Industrial revolution. As a result managers became more concerned with physical things than towards the people therefore systematic management failed to lead to production efficiency. This became apparent to an engineer named Frederick Taylor who was the father of Scientific Management. Scientific Management was identified by four principles for which management should develop the best way to do a job, determine the optimum work pace, train people to do the job properly, and reward successful performance by using an incentive pay system. Scientifi...
There are several theories that examine an organization and it’s approach to managing work in an effort to develop efficiency and increase production. Two classical approaches to management are Taylor’s scientific management theory and Weber's bureaucratic management theory. Both men are considered pioneers of in the study of management.
Management as a science focuses on specific best practices for management. Classical management is known as the oldest form of management and it focuses on making an organization more efficient. Maybank is using administrative management which is one of the classical management to manage the whole organization rather than individual employees. Henri Fayol was the frontier in administrative management and it contains 14 principles
The classical school of organization theory dominated administrations from the early 1900’s well into the 1930’s, and it is still relevant today in many of the contemporary organization theories. Shafritz states that classical organization theory was the first theory of its kind, and serves as the foundation of other schools organization theory (Shafritz, Ott, & Jang, 2011, p. 32). Classical organization theory includes scientific management approach, bureaucratic approach, and administrative management approach. Several major theorists of classical organization were Adam Smith, Frederick Taylor, Max Weber, Henri Fayol, and Luther Gulick.
In the past, managers considered workers as machinery that could be bought and sold easily. To increase production, workers were subjected to long hours, miserable wages and undesirable working conditions. The welfare of the workers and their need were disregarded. The early twentieth century brought about a change in management and scientific management was introduced. This sort of management, started by Frederick Winslow Taylor, emphasised that the best way to increase the volume of output was to have workers specializing in specific tasks just like how a certain machine would perform a particular function. His implementation of this theory brought about tremendous criticism by the masses arguing that the fundamentals of Scientific Management were to exploit employees rather than to benefit them (Mullins, 2005)
This paper, will discuss scholarly views on the nature and types of theory; compare and contrast some views of what constitutes a theory, differentiate theory from related concepts, such as hypothesis, paradigm, model, and concept. The paper also, will review scholarly literature on the relationship between theory and research and the ways research (quantitative and qualitative) can contribute to theory. Moreover, the paper will discuss various ways research can contribute to theory; and try to explain how the theory adds or may add to our understanding of management field. Finally, this paper will discuss and analyze literatures on two areas of controversy or unanswered questions related to the theory.
There are many different types of theories on leadership. There is Fiedler’s contingency theory, situational theories of leadership and House’s path-goal theory. These theories are used to make an individual or manager a more effective leader. They can be used as a guide for individuals and help them achieve whatever goal is set out by their organization or group.