The Root of Management Theory - Essay Example

?Management Theory MANAGEMENT THEORIES To learn about human nature is vital facet of management at the work place. When managers and workers are working together they must be clear on their own roles, such as managers should know the ways of having productive work form their works with appropriate leadership style, on the other hand workers should know they have to adjust themselves in the scheme of work. Together they can work effectively and efficiently. For dealing and directing employees managers must be evaluating their employees realistically according to their job descriptions. The root of management theory is to make people more productive in your organization. Many theories are formulated for different schools of thoughts with the help of fathers of Management. There are different management theories main are Scientific management theory, it clearly focus on the maximizing the efficiency by matching the job description with people; other is administrative management with clearly enlighten the creation of efficient systems in management and in organization. Then comes the behavioral management theories, these are developed both pre and post Second World War, this theory focus on the phenomenon of controlling the work force and leading them in a way to increase the performance. Lastly the management science theory that was born during Second World War and gained popularity in researchers, this theory focus on the measuring and controlling of organizations performance through quantitative and analytical techniques done by managers. To deal with formal organization and the concepts for enhancing the management efficiency Classical organization theories were born by Taylor formed scientific management concepts in 1947, Weber introduced the bureaucratic approach in 1947 and Fayol presented the administrative theory of the organization in 1949. These three management fathers have contributed a lot in the developing on classical theories. Adam smith was the founder of management theories, he observed two factories making pin wheel. In one factory a worker had to perform 18 tasks on his own to make a pin wheel and could make few thousands of pin wheel by the end of the day, where as in other factory 10 workers has expertise on one task and were able to manufacture 48,000 pin wheel per day. This gave birth to the idea of Job Specialization, it means that if workers are skilled in one tasks then and will do it repeatedly, they will have safe hands and will have faster rate of production with same quality. It will increase the efficiency and will lead to great organizational performance. Era of modern management was begun with the theories of Fredric Taylor, when he noticed the national loss of men and started condemning the “awkward, inefficient, or ill-directed movements of men". This started in late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He transformed the old management system into new scientific management. Taylor actually wanted to increase the productivity of the organization through mutual understanding of trust between the managers, management and workers. Taylor suggested few techniques to improve the productivity and increasing the trust level. He suggested that 1) The rewards should be given to workers for high productivity. 2) Focus on the elimination of anxiety and stress from the work place. 3) Proper training and guidance should be provided to develop the capabilities in workers, 4) Eliminating the typical concept of “boss”, will increase the efficient and effectiveness at work? Further, Taylor also developed four principles for improving the productivity in scientific management theory that are 1) rule of thumb 2) scientific selection of the workers 3) Labor and management’s co-operation rather than the conflicts 4) Training and development of workers scientifically. However Taylor focused on breaking of a job into its parts, timeline for each part should be configured, and then reengineering the parts in a way that it minimizes the time and increases the efficiency. When he was in Bethlehem Steel one of his famous experiment showed the fact that if the pig iron is handled carefully and also if the job is redesigned it will increase the productivity four times. However, Max Weber well known for his contribution for management theories regarding “bureaucratic structures” was a German sociologist. He focused on four main areas that are SPECIALIZATION, which refers to the division of work into small tasks leaded to more permanent than the person who is taking them over; HIERARCHY, which defies the management levels between for authority between the workers and their management; RULES through which the organization is controlled and will lead to stabled, fair and efficient system, lastly the IMPERSONALITY it follows exercises the powers not by the authority but by the set rules, regulations and procedures. There is another school of Human Relations, which has worked a lot on the psychology of the human race present in the contemporary world. This school was the formulation of Elton Mayo, who was a Harvard Professor and is well known for his training in psychopathology and his studies “Hawthorne Studies”. It is the series f experiment taken place at Western Electric plant. Hawthorne Studies are based on the Taylors theories but have formed three major projects: 1) Illumination experiments, this justifies the theory of efficient production from the workers who know that they are being watch or studied somehow. 2) Second is the Relay Assembly Room study, it clearly proved that if workers are given special attention with a changed environment it will result in an effective and efficient production. 3) Third one is the bank wiring room study and concluded that the informal relationships formed between works plays important role in the productivity in comparison with the money. Mayo clearly stated that if the workers will be working in an informal environment, where they want a caring attitude from organization, co-workers and management will perform much better. Other than Mayo, many gurus have contributed in the Human relations such as Deming’s Injected the theory of Six sigma the symbol that depicts the standard deviation “Black Belts” with the expertise transformation in organization. Doug McGregor the founder of Theory X: where lazy employees should be motivated with the material rewards, and the management might damage worker psychologically; Theory Y: where employees are creative, but need to have some loose loops, here management needs to play vital role by organizing the work place and delegating responsibilities to employees. Along with this William Ouchi introduced theory Z which was the combination of American and Japanese style of management, that completely emphasis on the long term employment, decision making with mutual understanding, evaluation points should be kept low, specialized career paths and more concerns for the employee especially regarding their families Bibliography: The X Y and Z of Management Theory. (n.d.). Retrieved October 22, 2011, from Tripod: http://petervenn.tripod.com/brochure/complete/xyz.htm Goddard, J. (2009, August 20). The Brief history of management theory. Burns, T.G., & Stalker, G.M. 1961. The Management of Innovation. London: Tavistock Institute Fayol, H. 1949. General and Industrial Management, translated by Constance Storrs. London: Pitman. French, J.R.P., Jr., & Raven, B. 1959. The bases of social power. pp. 156-165, in: Cartwright, D. (ed), Studies in Social Power. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan. Galbraith, J.K. 1956. American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Hicks, G.H., & Gullet, C.R. 1975. Organizations: Theory and Behaviour. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. See pages 245-259 O'Connor, E. (1999). "The politics of management thought: A case study of Harvard business school and the human relations school." Academy of Management Review 24(1): 117-131. Ouchi, W. (1981). Theory Z. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Trahair, R. (1984). The human temper: The life and work of Elton Mayo. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Read More