The Evolution of Management Theoires

The Evolution of Management Theory

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT THEORY The search for efficiency started with the study of how managers could improve person-task relationships to increase efficiency. The concept of job specialization and division of labor remains the basis for the design of work settings in modern organizations. New developments such as lean production and total quality management are often viewed as advances on the early scientific management principles developed by Taylor and the Gilbreths.

ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT THEORY Max Weber and Henri Fayol outlined principles of bureaucracy and administration that are as relevant to managers today as when they were written at the turn of the twentieth century. Much of modern management research refines these principles to suit contemporary conditions. For example, the increasing interest in the use of cross-departmental teams and the empowerment of workers are issues that managers also faced a century ago.

BEHAVIORAL MANAGEMENT THEORY Researchers have described many different approaches to managerial behavior, including Theories X and Y. Often, the managerial behavior researchers suggest reflects the context of their own historical era and culture. Mary Parker Follett advocated managerial behaviors that did not reflect accepted modes of managerial behavior at the time, but her work was largely ignored until conditions changed.

MANAGEMENT SCIENCE THEORY The various branches of management science theory provide rigorous quantitative techniques that give managers more control over each organization's use of resources to produce goods and services.

ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT THEORY The importance of studying the organization's external environment became clear after the development of open-systems theory and contingency theory during the 1960s. A main focus of contemporary management research is to find methods to help managers improve the ways they utilize organizational resources and compete successfully in the global environment. Strategic management and total quality management are two important approaches intended to help managers make better use of organizational resources.

1. Scientific Management Theory:-Scientific Management Theory (1890-1940)
   Scientific Management is defined as the use of the scientific method to define the "one best way" for a job to be done. At the turn of the century, the most notable organizations were large and industrialized. Often they included ongoing, routine tasks that manufactured a variety of products. The United States highly prized scientific and technical matters, including careful measurement and specification of activities and results. Management tended to be the same. Frederick Taylor developed the "scientific management theory" which espoused this careful specification and measurement of all organizational tasks. Tasks were standardized as much as possible. Workers were rewarded and punished. This approach appeared to work well for organizations with assembly lines and other mechanistic, routinized activities.
1. Job Specialization and the Division of Labor - job specialization creates a division of labor by having workers specialize in different tasks.
2. F.W. Taylor and Scientific Management - F.W. Taylor defined scientific management to redesign tasks to increase efficiency. He defined four principles to increase efficiency:
1. Study the way workers perform their tasks.
2. Codify the new methods of performing tasks into written rules and standard operation procedures (SOPs).
3. Carefully select workers so that they possess skills and abilities that match the needs of the task, and train them to perform the task according to the established rules and procedures.
4. Establish a fair and acceptable level of performance for a task, and then develop a pay system that provides a reward for performance above the acceptable level.
3. The Gilbreths - Frank and Lillian Gilbreth filmed workers performing tasks to try to maximize efficiency to save time and effort.
2. Administrative Management Theory - the study of how to create an organizational structure (i.e., the system of task and authority relationships that control how workers use resources) that is highly efficient and highly effective.
1. The Theory of Bureaucracy - Max Weber defined a bureaucratic system based on five principles:
1. A manager's authority (the power to hold people accountable for their actions) is derived from the position he or she holds in the organization.
2. People should occupy positions because of their performance ability.
3. The extent of each person's authority and task responsibilities should be specified.
4. Positions should be arranged hierarchically so that workers know to whom they report and also who reports to them.
5. Managers must create a system of rules (formal written instructions that specify what to do and when to do it), standard operating procedures (written instructions specifying how to perform a task), and norms (unwritten, informal codes of conduct that describe how workers should act in specific situations).
2. Fayol's 14 Principles of Management
1. Division of labor - job specialization should increase efficiency
2. Authority and responsibility - managers have the right to give orders and to expect obedience from subordinates
3. Unity of command - A worker should receive orders from only one superior
4. Line of authority - the number of people in the "chain of command" from the top to the bottom of the organization should be limited
5. Centralization - authority should not be concentrated at the top management level
6. Unity of direction - the organization should have one plan of action to guide workers
7. Equity - all workers should be treated with justice and respect
8. Order - positions should be arranged to maximize efficiency and to provide workers with satisfying career opportunities
9. Initiative - managers should allow workers to be innovative and creative
10. Discipline - managers should create a workforce that strives to attain organizational goals
11. Remuneration of personnel - workers should be rewarded equitably
12. Stability of tenure of personnel - long-term workers develop skills that can improve efficiency
13. Subordination of individual interests to the common interest - workers should understand how their performance affects the organization
14. Esprit de corps - managers should encourage comradeship and enthusiasm
3. Behavioral Management Theory - the study of how managers should behave to motivate workers to perform at high levels.
1. The Work of Mary Parker Follett - argued that workers should be included in job analysis (the human side of the organization).
2. The Hawthorne Studies and Human Relations - researchers found that both increased and decreased levels of illumination increased worker productivity and called this phenomenon: "the Hawthorne effect."
3. Theory X and Theory Y of Douglas McGregor
1. Theory X assumes that workers are lazy, dislike work, and will try to do as little as possible.
2. Theory Y assumes that the work setting determines how workers feel about their jobs.
4. Management Science Theory - uses quantitative techniques (quantitative management, operations management, and total quality management) to maximize resources
5. Organizational Environment Theory - forces that operate outside of the organization that affect a manager's ability to acquire and use resources.
1. The Open-systems View - an open system takes resources from the external environment and transforms them into goods that are then sent back to that environment where they are purchased by customers
1. Input stage - organization acquires resources (raw materials, money, workers)
2. Conversion stage - workforce transforms inputs into outputs of finished goods
3. Output staqe - organization releases finished goods to the external environment
2. Contingency Theory - there is no one best way to organize

Mechanistic and Organic Structures - mechanistic structures (authority is centralized at the top of the organization) make sense when the environment is stable, while organic structures (authority is decentralized to lower-level managers to encourage quick action) make sense when the environment is changing rapidly.