Scientific Management as the Product of Industrial Practices - Essay Example

? SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT WAS THE PRODUCT OF 19TH CENTURY INDUSTRIAL PRACTICES AND HAS NO RELEVANCE TO THE PRESENT DAY. by of the Class Name of the Professor Name of the School City, State November 6, 2012 Management has evolved giving a new face at work the place for the leaders and the general workforce. Organizations and diverse groups of businesses have changed their work flow structure into newer modern arrangements. Initially, scientific management had been employed to organize, lead, control, plan and coordinate people and activities in industries more significantly in the 19th century, than in the 20th century. Referring to Murugan (2004), scientific management is a systematic and thoughtful approach to the job of management which applies the scientific methods of study and analysis to the problem of management, while using scientific approach of techniques to improve efficiency. This approach was based on the four main principles as developed by the earlier pioneers ; it included developing a science of work, scientific selection and training, educating workers and managers in the benefits of scientific management, equal division of responsibility, maximum output and finally specialization and collaboration between workers and managers (Admin, 2011). The modern form of management has been inspired through the social, economic, technological and legal importance attached to a firm or business. Modern management has blown out the significance of scientific management by introduction of reliable concepts which step further away from the classical management thought. Modern management employs empirical, decision theory, social, quantitative management, system management and contingency approach schools of thoughts, which create easier and flexible methods to handle differences in behavioural changes of the work force, and the demanding tasks in the working environment. Globalization: Pioneers of scientific management in the 19th century focused their attention on a particular area of production in manufacturing industries. The science of work carried out rotated within the industry hindering its application on the wider scope. Today, modern management operations have focused on broad concepts of management without limitations to its application on a variety of work environments, both local and foreign. Geographic boundaries are no longer barriers to management, even as organizations are increasingly been set up in different regions. Every business outside there has a mission to make profits in the common markets; the managers and other leaders in an organization will experience similar challenges inline with their job, not unless it can be able to sustain a comparative advantage over other competitors in the market. Modern management has extended to international co-operations which require managers to have a strategic plan in coordinating the functions and activities at different platforms. The scientific concept is primarily applicable to production operation of industrial engineering more than the general management, restricting its applicability to serve functions (Murugan 2004). Following the modern system’s approach, “management is expected to perform maintenance and adaptation functions” emphasizing on the interrelationship and interdependence among various activities of an organization (Murugan 2004, p.66). As organisations spread out across the globe through branches, their management complexities become difficult to monitor, requiring new faces to shape current practices in management, and solve different forms of crisis as managers also take a new direction in the way they carry out their jobs. Though the entire large system is sub divided into manageable sub systems, all of them must be in balance with each other to ensure harmonization. The open system is ready to adapt new changes from the environment that is affected by different instabilities around the globe. Technology: Jobs today differ from the old method of manual practice. Businesses and organizations make use of the internet and networking infrastructure to communicate, sell their ideas, conduct businesses and transactions through the software. Much of the tasks are outsourced outside the local environment, across national boundaries to be performed elsewhere, and relayed back to the client in time. Most of these works are logical such as programming; software works and sometimes, following the instruction comes out something tangible. As scientific management established the science of work based on time, motion and fatigue study within a visible locality, technology has shifted working away from the employers’ premises. Currently, due to joblessness and different individual schedules and activities, many people, especially the young generation work via the internet by teleworking; some are mobile while others are home based. A lot of electronic businesses and commerce are in progress today where individuals are their own bosses. Managers or project coordinators have formulated better methods to handle situations differently applying the best decision with regard to the situation. Unlike classical management school of thought, modern contingency theory is applied, which means that an appropriate managerial action with regard to certain parameter of a situation can be implemented (Murugan 2004). Information technology has led to inventions by knowledge workers who consequently learn to manage themselves and their work. In the era of scientific management, the working process had been separated from the task itself and the workers. In this modern information age such E-businesses are taking control, over the manual industrial jobs as embraced in the scientific management era, enabling personal management that connects the work, worker and the process involved in working. The existence of technology is forcing adequate change that is deeply affecting the organisations and the leaders, providing the decision maker with more accurate, complete and timely information while the cost of processing information improves (au.af.mil, n.d.). Technology comes with ability to connect people in different lands; the World Wide Web has influenced most of economic and social characters, changing the overall perception of the world, and peoples’ behaviour sand thoughts in job handling. Quality management System: It refers to a management practice used to communicate to employees, guiding them to the requirements to produce the desired or expected quality of products and services, and at the same time influencing employee performance to complete tasks according to the quality specifications (Abahe.co.uk, n.d., pp. 265). The criterion of management tends to be controlled by customers’ specification of the required output to meet their expectations. Through the total quality management (TQM), end products more specifically in service industries than manufacturing ones have to undergo through a line of procedures to qualify as a desired quality output. This approach is one of the greatest steps to tussle out the resistance to change within an organisation. Employees are involved in production from the start to the end, facilitating changes and rectification of each delivery. At times, buyers in a well managed quality system should not be restricted from working closely with the vendors or clients, since it would help them meet the required and expected quality requirements (Abahe.co.uk, n.d.). Organisations and businesses have assimilated or adopted standard measures of the ISO 9000 series to meet standard qualities for every job. The implementation depends on the nature of the organisation and the current challenge facing it. Following quality management system, for an effective decision to be made, analysis of data and information will have to be relied on, inferring to a factual approach. The overall quality measures used by TQM involve; controlling quality design and development, quality assurance, control, maintenance and improvements. It is supported by the modern system approach to management which “aims at identifying the nature of the relationship among various components of the organisation which is considered as a larger system” (Murugan 2004, pp. 66). The system approach identifies, understands and manages interrelated processes as systems, contributing to the organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its objectives (iso.org 2012-05). When used, this approach stresses the need for managers to use integrated approach, rather than scrutinizing the problems in isolation. Learning organisation and Knowledge management: The continuously changing environment requires enough ability and information to thrive in the information era. “Learning organisations are those that have in place systems, mechanisms and processes that are used to continuously enhance their capabilities and those who work with them or for them, to achieve sustainable objectives- for themselves and the communities in which they participate.”(Gupta, 2008, pp.4). Organisations have to strive to keep learning, keeping record of the past and acquiring knowledge so they can penetrate the market with ease; through this the staff continuously enlarge their capacity creating their desired results. When changes occur in such a learning organisation, then the workers and management easily adopt to the changes with flexibility. As they continuously transform their knowledge, the mind set changes to better handle complex situations. Knowledge management: Knowledge is regarded as an important asset and power for future success of organisations. In contrast to the scientific management of the 19th century, knowledge workers have shifted into amore confined environment changing the traditional job skills rapidly. “No longer do we go to work in the morning and work on an assembly line, or for that matter, no longer do we rely on face-to-face communication” (personal.psu.edu, 2008) meaning that performance of knowledge work requires employees to be truly knowledge workers. The scientific management strategy of high volume, low-cost production proved to be fitting to only a certain production area (industry). Knowledge based organisations try to eradicate any vulnerability from a more focused strategy of a firm. Most organisations in the modern world deal with product differentiation from their generic counterparts, which create good platforms where competitors can serve market niches much more than nonspecific producers. Knowledge workers will need to transform data into information that can provide knowledge to be applied in products, services, decision making and even planning for key performance improvements and organisation management transformations. The changeover of management is thought and experienced towards continuous learning and leadership at all levels in learning organisations and the depository of knowledge which lie in their human resources (King and Herriot n.d). In such modern moments, managers have to be innovative and creative to cope with the environmental demands, and establish a balance between the environment and system of management. Strategic decision making: It is a critical part of management that needs to be chosen with enough care and measures. It is believed to be crucial especially for managers whose proficiency is criticised to determine how reliable or unreliable they are, at the point of need. Businesses and entrepreneurs are challenged by different problems at different times, requiring them to seek alternative means to solve the need. It is not always that a particular rule of problem solving will apply to every situation; which means “that an intelligent application of the appropriate tool can reduce an otherwise unwieldy and complex problem to one of the manageable dimension” (Vohra, 2007). The use of combined efforts to reach a reliable decision will give a business comparative advantage over the others. Experience, implied rules nor mathematical tools and techniques alone, even though part of modern management, cannot fully qualify to provide an optimum solution in the many problems facing organisation complexity, but rather proper understanding of the problem and selection of the best combined effort in modern management. The emphasis of empirical, social, decisional, quantitative, system and contingency approaches of current management influence the decision been made. Even if it is not the norm for many, the modern qualitative method of management has directly contributed to management decision making in the areas of planning and control, as early as in budgeting and quality control through sophisticated computer programs, that develop the models and equations for interpretation by the managers. The future existence of a business depends on the decision and its structure made in the present. More intelligent systems exist to support management roles in decision making; they include Decision Support Systems (DSS), Knowledge Based Systems and Management Information Systems (MIS) among others. Entrepreneurship: Right from the background of schools, students are equipped with entrepreneurial skills to apply in real life situations. Those who had acquired management and entrepreneur skills are viewed as better positioned to lead, and compete in a global competitive environment. Through these, people are currently involved in operation, resources and information management. Diverse groups of people own businesses ranging from small scale to large scale businesses, private to public corporations. Social and knowledge entrepreneurs have increased over the decades, demanding new and flexible changes in management and the working environment. Changes from family owned businesses to even broader corporations are all attached to certain legal and social principles, to govern the work force. Organisations such as local and international NGOs have their structured ethics, and moral conduct which is in line with their management. Workers management have to respect the workforce belief and needs, which influence the job structure. Flexibility becomes the core for performance and payment. Some perform better at certain periods of time than others, others are available on certain conditions, while some jobs are preferred or associated to a particular gender. The interface between technology innovation and entrepreneurship makes it possible for smooth flow in the transitional management. Social entrepreneurs bring change in the society by manipulating opportunities that others fail to spot, and recuperating systems and inventing new approaches, and creating solutions to transform the society for the better; providing solutions to social challenges on the environment and later implementing them on a large scale (ashoka.org, n.d). The progress and change into entrepreneurship has gained support through most of the nominal democracies of the nations. Knowledge entrepreneurs have to recognise new and existing knowledge as valuable, and respond to it by implementing the innovation so that to realise its potential value. In conclusion, all of the above, namely; globalization, technology, entrepreneurship, strategic decision making , learning organisation and knowledge management and quality management system combined with modern aspects management (contingency approach, system, quantitative, decision social and empirical schools of management), among others have some of the current practices that have shaped today’s management and the way managers and employees do their jobs. References Gupta, A., 2008. Babur and Humayun: Modern Learning Organisation. Raleigh: Lulu Inc. Information Age and Strategic Decision Making n.d. [online] Available at: [Accessed 6 November 2012]. King, K. D., and Herriott S. R. Beyond the Current Paradigm in Management Thought: Alignment with Natural Law Through Maharishi Vedic Management. [online] Available at: [Accessed 5 November 2012]. Lesson 7:Knowledge Workers n.d. [online] Available at: [Accessed 6 November 2012]. Murugan, M.S., 2004. Management Principles and Practices. New Delhi: New Age International (P) Limited, publishers. Quality Management Principles n.d. [online] Available at: [Accessed 7November 2012]. Quality Management System n.d. [online] Available at :< http://www.abahe.co.uk/business-administration/Quality-Management-Systems.pdf> [Accessed 6 November 2012]. Why Social Entrepreneur n.d. [online] Available at: [Accessed 5 November 2012]. Read More