Discuss key lessons you have learned about management and managerial work using Topics 1 and 2 - Essay Example

In the section 1, the researcher will focus on management issues regarding control of employees, in the section 2, the essay will do regressive analysis of the relationship between ‘soft’ forms of control (such as relationship, emotions and belongingness etc) and ‘hard’ forms of control (such as surveillance, use of technology and supervision etc) and the study will also highlight the historic progression of management theories from Taylorism to the present day context. In third section, the essay will analyze Knights and Roberts (1982) argument regarding interdependence of management and employees in order to understand optimal management framework that can help organizations to work in efficient manner.

Section 1 According to Jaffee (2001), the concept of management is closely linked with emergence of a factory system during industrial revolution and capitalist development in North America and Europe. Even, “father of management” Taylor (1911) also developed management theories on the basis of work patter in factories. For long period, management has been seen as the principles or better to say mechanism to control productivity of employees. Harvey (1982) pointed out that necessary foundation for factories to work in proper manner depends heavily on formal subordination of labour.

Marx (1849) found that under capitalist society and capitalistic view point of factory owners, labours are being seen as the mere machines that would weave, spin, drill, turn, build and shovel for 12 hours in a day and these labours are bound to listen all the orders because factory owners are paying them. As this process, labours did not enjoy their time in the factory and they viewed the 12 hours working as mere a compulsion to meat economic means. Cooke (2003) and Thompson and McHugh (2002) even also supported existence of such zombie labour culture and they also found significant amount of racial discrimination in factory work culture.

Can the above mentioned work culture or factory running policies of capitalist factory owners during 19th century be classified as ideal management controlling function? Absolutely not and in such context, Taylor (1911) proposed “Scientific Management” theory in order to highlight how to control output of employees. Taylorism was closely associated with mass production mechanism in Ford (famous car manufacturer) during early 20th century while control of employee is being done through task-oriented optimization.

Taylor (1911) also perceived workers as machines and classified slow rate of work of workers in repetitive work practices as "soldiering". In such context, Taylor (1911) proposed that organizations can control employees by identifying optimal method for executing the work and teaching workers the optimal method so that their productivity would go up. However, Jaffee (2001) found that Taylorism cannot help workers to achieve their full potential because the theory neglects the role human emotion and participatory behaviour of workers.

In modern context, Taylor’s (1911) concept of controlling employee has been modified drastically with the emergence of contemporary management theories regarding employee control. Therefore, in the next section, the essay will try to understand how nature of management’s perception and operation regarding employe