Management And Leadership

The most important implications for managers is that they need to be good diagnosticians. They should be flexible enough to vary their own behavior in relation to the need to treat in an appropriate way particular subordinates in particular situations. They may require to use any of the economic, social, or self-actualizing models. They may use "scientific management" in the design of some jobs but allow complete group autonomy for the workers to organize themselves in others. They would thus use a "contingency approach," as exemplified by Lawrence and Lorsch (see p. 53) and Vroom (see p. 126), among others.

(Pugh 149) – Edgar Schein

For Mayo, one major task of management is to organize spontaneous cooperation, thereby preventing the further breakdown of society. As traditional attachments to community and family disappear and as the workplace increases in importance, the support given by traditional institutions must now be given by the organization. Conflict, competition, and disagreement between individuals are to be avoided by management's understanding its role as providing the basis for group affiliation. From the end of the Hawthorne project to his death, Mayo was interested in discovering how spontaneous cooperation could be achieved. This has been the basis of the human relations movement - the use of the insights of the social sciences to secure the commitment of individuals to the ends and activities of the organization.

(Pugh 141) Elton Mayo and Hawthorne Investigations

1. Don 't panic in the face of disorder. Some degree of disorder is necessary so that disorderly, ambiguous information can be taken in and coped with, rather than tidily screened out.

2. You never do one thing all at once. Whatever you do has many ramifications, not just the one you have in mind. And whereas some consequences happen right away, others show up indirectly and much later.

3. Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction. When someone says, "What shall I do?' and is told, "I don't know, just do something," that is probably good advice.