Contributions to Organisation Theory - Essay Example

Contributions to Organisation Theory 2006 Outline: A) ical theorist Frederick Taylor B) Neo ical theorist Elton Mayo C) Modern theorist Chester Bernard D) Post modern theorist Gareth Morgan. Description: In this paper we review the contributions of 20th century organizational theorist to examine the development of Organisation Theory in the 20th Century. In this paper we examine the development of Organisation Theory in the 20th century, analyzing contributions of prominent researchers - classical theorist Frederick Taylor, neo-classical theorist Elton Mayo, modern theorist Chester Bernard and post modern theorist Gareth Morgan. Frederick Taylor had great impact on management thought, management service practice and scientific management in the early 20th century. One of his greatest achievements is development of a theory of organization. His framework for organization was clear delineation of authority, responsibility, separation of planning from operations, incentive schemes for workers, management by exception and task specialization. (Scientific Management) Taylors believed that workers are inherently lazy and are motivated solely by the degree of monetary reward. That’s why he advised to change payment systems so that efforts of workers were aligned with the appropriate level of reward. However his approach was much criticised for emphasizing on the monetary rewards rather than other motivational factors. (Scientific Management) Taylor’s misconception was in his attempt to obtain maximum productivity at the expense of supernatural efforts of workers when an average worker was hard to carry such a burden. As evidenced from Taylor’s works he confused between the normal goal and “the maximum amount of work” to be done. According to Taylor workers unable to reach high standard should be declared redundant. (Kelly, 1969) Taylor was the first of engineers to research work methods and highlighted the need to change the specifications for tools and materials. He places great emphasis on training and selection of workers and in their close supervision which would enable granting bonuses for their high production efficiency. To increase individual output Taylor offered to use a combination of methods. His contribution was the claim that specific jobs require the use of different standardized tools, workers should be trained to use these tools in individually suited job function. Instead of one supervisor Taylor advised eight to coordinate the job of one worker. (Gross, 1964) As it was mentioned Taylor revised payment system and offered to pay workers not according to number of working hours but to individual output. The reason was to pay extra money for workers who exceeded what we now know as a ‘norm.’ Each worker was paid for individual output to stimulate his personal ambition. (Gross, 1964) Though the positive elements were presented by Taylor such as remuneration of capable workers, his greatest mistake was to demand general application of his theory. Taylor’s methods were resented both by workers and management as well as unions. Workers were unsatisfied with their treatment as machines and spoilt relations because of the wage system which put every worker apart from the team. Management was unpleased by referring to it as unqualified. In general the ideas underlying Taylor’s vision of organization, management and motivation were based on certain conditions supposed to be constant. These were presence of a capitalist system and a money economy, the Protestant work ethic and desirability of the increased size for obtaining the advantages of the division of labor and specialization of tasks. (Scientific Management) While classical writers concentrated more on the formal elements of organization, the next generation of organizational theorists was much concerned with social factors of work and human relations between the workers. One of representatives of this generation is George Elton Mayo who is known for his active participation in the Hawthorne experiments which were carried out at the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric company in Chicago in the period of 1924 and 1927. (Mullins, 1999) The studies aimed to reveal the effect of lighting on the worker productivity. However in the process of experiments there were discovered other factors which contributed to higher productivity of workers under research. The result of the experiment was that Elton Mayo disproved the beliefs of Tayor that a worker was motivated only by self-interest. The investigation was based on the classical approach and researchers were interested in how the intensity of lighting influenced the productivity of women-workers. In the process of experiment it was discovered that the production depends little on the physical conditions. The experiment was continued in another direction. It was transformed from the physical changes floor to social changes floor. The experiment lasted for five years. The workers were offered a different hours of work, rest pauses and refreshments. The management was attentive to the workers, listened to their complaints. As the women-workers were allowed more freedom and they felt extra attention, the productivity boosted. When researchers returned the workers to the initial conditions, the productivity eliminated but it did not fall behind the level of initial productivity. The return to 48 hours of work boosted the productivity with the new strength. (Gross, 1964) The finding of the experiment was that there’s more than self-interest which motivates workes. ‘The creation of favorable social environments contributes to the higher productivity’ was the result of the research. The positive effects of the Hawthorne Studies became known as the Hawthorne Effect. The studies triggered the creation of the human relations school of management. The results of work of Mayor can be summarized as follows: discovering that work is a group activity related to the social world of the adult; social conditions of work impact on the work productivity more than physical conditions. Informal groups within the work plant impact habits and attitudes of the worker functioning as strong social controls. Group collaboration must be planned and developed. (Scientific Management) Mayo’s contribution to organizational theory is his findings about the significance of human relations at the working place. At the same time Mayor disproved Taylors beliefs by showing that productivity boosts due to social changes but not to mechanical performance of one task. He proved that varying the task, workers avoid boredom and at the same time their productivity is not harmed. The third issue which contradiction Taylor’s concepts was granting workers freedom which was rejected by Taylor. With Mayor started human relations movement giving rise to such concepts as “teamwork” and “social systems.” He also contributed to motivational theory. The era of the modern organizational theory starts with Bernard Chester. Being the president of New Jersey Bell Telephone Company Bernard Chester naturally came to the administrative theory starting with lectures in administration which he subsequently published in the book The Functions of the Executives. Later Organization and Management followed. In both books Bernard divides his conceptual scheme into 2 part: theory of organization and cooperation and the functions and methods of the executive. (Gross, 1964) In his theory of organization Bernard points at the lack of recognition of formal organization as a part of society. Emotional and psychological aspects were also little cared for by earlier administration theorists. In his works Bernard stresses the importance of cooperative action in organization. He highlights the importance of ‘people’s ability to communicate their commitment and contribution to the achievement of a common purpose” in the cooperative system existence. (Gross, 1964) Bernard perceives organization as a co-operative system, as a system of coordinated activities not just a group of people as the traditional concept held it. Therefore organization is only formally a material object in terms of equipment and people, but it is a system of interactions, where the whole dominates the separate parts though every organization consists of smaller units. Bernard continues the discussion of the earlier theorists about formal and informal organizations and goes further in its research claiming that every informal organization is related to formal. The difference between these two is that formal organization is a system of consciously coordinated activities while informal is unconscious and structureless. These two forms of organization are interrelated and interdependent and it’s hardly possibility that one exists without the other. Among the function which the informal organization performs for the formal is the maintenance of feeling of personal integrity. Without it the individuals won’t be able to function effectively in co-operative system. This claim makes the gap between Bernard and Taylor more evident as the letter reduced an individual to a status of a machine. Bernard has a special vision on the role of executive in the organization. Executives’ main function is to maintain the equilibrium within the organization. Other functions of executives are of controllers, administrators, supervisors and managers in informal organization and at the same time he prescribes them the forces to reconcile conflicting parties, interests and conditions. The aspects of executive activities which he highlights are leadership, communication, decision-making, authority and responsibility. (Gross, 1964) According to Bernard leadership is not the only important element for efficient functioning of organization. He highlights four basic qualities which are necessary for the guidance of people: vitality and endurance, decisiveness and pervasiveness and responsibility placing then before the intellectual capacity of a leader. Bernard places a great importance to decision-making in the administrative process regarding the organization as a system of logical decision-making. Decision-making is difficult to study as there’s no direct evidence of it. However Bernard defines some general principles of decision-making. First of all he asserts that decisions should be made within the context of organizational goals which help the decision-maker to act selectively in the mass of information. The second rule is to distinguish between facts which are important for achievement of organizational goals and those which are immaterial. This is achieved through a search of “strategic factors’ which is also decisions which bring the organizational goal to a new level. So we see that Bernard continues and broadened the conceptions of human impact on the organizational performance. He places great responsibility on the worker and highlights its function in the organizational mechanisms. The representative of post modern theory Gareth Morgan is well known for his contributions to the science of management, introducing new approaches to organization and management. In his book Images of Organization (1997) Morgan highlights his approach to understanding of organization, "One of the most basic problems of modern management is that the mechanical way of thinking is so ingrained in our everyday conception of organisations that it is often difficult to organise in any other way." (p. 6 cited in Lawley) What Morgan attempts to do is to break conventional ideas of organization which are based on asset of images and metaphors. He explores new metaphors to change the ideas of organization. Morgan also shows how to analyse and diagnose problems, improve the management and design of organizations with the help of new metaphors. Morgan introduced the concept of imaginization (combining the words “imagination” and “organization”) It’s explained as a process through which organizations and people can form new images of self, the world, and work through metaphor. Imaginization is a way of thinking, a way of organizing and a way of doing. It is rather a mind-set and a capacity than a technique. (Kai) He offers eight archetypical metaphors of organisation: Machines, Organisms, Brains, Cultures, Political Systems, Psychic Prisons, Flux and Transformation, Instruments of Domination. These are the basic metaphors. However he sets no limitations only to these constructions; the number of other images and metaphors can be used. There’s no best metaphor to think about the organization. One has to be creative in choosing the appropriate metaphor. Though Morgan cannot assert the supremacy of any given metaphors but it’s evident that his approach to management is relativistic or self-organising. (Lawley, 2001) He says, "The challenge facing the modern manager is to become accomplished in the art of using metaphor, to find appropriate ways of seeing, understanding, and shaping the situations with which they have to deal". (Gareth, 1997 p. 348) Imaginization was doomed to be the way to find new methods of organizing, new ways of thinking about organization and management, developing capacities for continuous self-organization. It’s an imaginative process of traditional concepts of organization transformation. (Kai) Morgan was not the first to use metaphors. However, he metaphors in an "etic" (outsider looking in), rather than an "emic" (insider looking out) way in constructing his (etic) metaphor world (Boje and Summers, 1994 in Kai). That’s why his clients are not prisoners of their own socially constructed world. People can live their own social constructions instead of imposed by others. Morgan completely denies the mechanical approach to organization which limits but not mobilizes the development of human capacities. Mechanistic approaches to organization can create organizational forms that have great difficulty in adapting to changing circumstances, result in mindless bureaucracy and have dehumanizing effects upon employees. (Images of Organization) Morgan establishes innovations in contemporary management. He highlights the importance of learning organizations, he creates team-based enterprise, tries to manage the change with the help of different innovative theories like paradox and self organization. Recent years Morgan is engaged in the development of “second generation” approaches to e-learning. He focuses on integrating critical thinking and improved job performance to find new ways of promoting continuous learning. (Scientific Management) Through the research of organizational theorist contributions we see the evolution of thought and concepts about organization and its efficiency. We see that classical theorist Taylor took mechanic approach to understanding of the organization. He placed great emphasis on the monetary motivational system and regarded the monetary rewards as the means to boost productivity. Though his approach was much criticized he also introduced the positive features such as remuneration schemes for capable workers. Neo-classical theorist Elton Mayo is known for his experimental work and discovery of the motivation different from those offered by Taylor. The result of his work was the highlighting of the importance of human relations in the workplace and social conditions for the work productivity. Modern theorist Chester Bernard brings the concept of cooperative action in organization where an individual should have a feeling of personal integrity to function effectively in this system. Post modern theorist Gareth Morgan breaks conventional ideas of organization and introduces new metaphors to better understand what organization is. His concept of imaginization helps to break the conventions. BOJE, D.M. & SUMMERS, D. J. (1994). Book review - Imaginization: The art of creative management. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 39 (4), pp. 688-690. in Lee Siew Kai GROSS, B. M. (1964) The scientific approach to Administration. Behavioral Science and Administration. Ed. D.E.Grifith Uni of Chicago Press. Chicago III, pp.33-72 Images of Organization by Gareth Morgan.  http://www.siliconyogi.com/andreas/it_professional/sol/complexsystems/ImagesofOrganizationbyGarethMorgan.html retr. 10 Apr. 2006 Kai Lee Siew Gareth Morgan and Imaginization. /islab2.sci.ntu.edu.sg/h6635/morgan.htm retr. 10 Apr. 2006 KELLY J. (1969) Organizational behaviour. Irwin-Dorsey Ldt, Ontario LAWLEY, J. (2001) Metaphors Of Organisation Effective Consulting Vol. 1. No. 4, September 2001 MORGAN, G. (1997) Images of Organisation, Sage. p. 348 in Lawley MULLINS, L.J., (1999) “Approaches to Organisation and Management, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 5th Ed, Prentice Hall, Harlow, pp 45-74 & pp 81-83 Scientific Management. Frederick Winslow Taylor http://www.accel-team.com/scientific/index.html retr. 10 Apr. 2006 Read More