Management Theory and Practice - Term Paper Example

Management Theory and Practice By Course Instructor Institution Location Date Introduction Management can be defined in different angles, and its wide scope makes it difficult to underpin on a few roles. Management involves coordinating, planning, organizing, forecasting, commanding and controlling. One of the contributors of management was Henri Fayol others described management as the act of getting things done in a systematic and clear objective to meet a certain objective. Management is not needed in business alone, but it is also important in charities and government institutions. Body Management differs in its stages, but it is one objective always remains the same. Though management has improved over a period, most things have remained the same. Management theory and practice have been touted as the most important as one of the important strategies however the scientific management and theories and practice differs a lot. In that the scientific theories that we learned from Fall to what really is on the ground brings out its main difference. Whether it’s because of its objectivity, cost or even expertise if fails in achieving its core objective. The focus of this study will be the critical issues about the assumptions in business and also why a lot of careful consideration has to be done and why management theory and practice is not after all the most effective management tool. The practice employed might be realistic it is not enough to administer the same theories over and over. It is easy to describe though some theories have been very important to the world of business they have brought about negative examples to the business industry and it is therefore important to analyze what does not work for the firm and management. The assumption of scientific theories help in managing business not forgetting that they are expensive to incur and set up for any firm and sometimes they are not tailor made for the organization. The critics of this ponder just because a feature like a decentralization worked in company X that is a multinational does not make it a must to work in company Y. Thus, it will not be realistic to assign one organization on the mere fact it worked in another (Schweiger(1991). Though the scientific management theory focused more on employee it failed to realize that sometimes the challenges may not be an employee but the resources and expertise accorded to him/her. It also focused on the human behavior only in the workplace and not everywhere the employee would visit (Schein, E.H. (1980). The other theory is the, general administrative theory which basically tries to understand the business structure by formulating how the business report on new information, it also focuses on the division of labor and specialization of employees to focus on specific roles. The naysayers in this cite that the business industry is becoming dynamic and in as much an organization should focus on the organization structure they should try and reduce the bureaucracy in it sense. The reason as to why is because in this day of information technology companies need confidentiality and in time analysis to be able to say in a competitive edge. For example in the issue of BP,where in 2010 they suffered one of the biggest oil spill it is important for them to have had enough solutions at a fast pace but this was not made easy by the technical team. With such words like bureaucracy, this will only hinder the business from responding. Another challenge for administrative theory is the dynamic of the changes in the society. Multinationals are operating in like thirty countries understand that all companies do not follow one regulation. Therefore, the centralization should not be encouraged, and this will lead to bureaucracy. Also specialization is enhanced so as to ensure that the technical skills are treasured and the world today prefers hiring on contract basis this is because it will be cheaper and the role played by the employee is not a day to day but a one off thing ( Simonson, M. (2005). Challenges have come up that discourage firms from over relying on one skill or raw materials this leads to the failure of division of labor. Companies in the past were rigid to change and at this day and age companies have started looking for other ways in doing business. In as much as a manager would like to be the head roles need to be assigned to others who have capabilities. In a report by Price water house Coopers stated that one of the biggest threats in this century for employers was lack of qualified human skills (Schein E.H (1992).This can be interpreted, for example, why the west countries prefer to travel with their staff when going for oil exploration in African countries. It brings out the special question every organization would ask which is better whether to train or to outsource? It is in the changing of the world way of doing business that makes the business fail to focus on the administrative theory. The administrative theory belongs to the firms in early 1970s where firms considered a lot was because of job security and span of control but much has changed now and it is important to understand that job security is a past. Reports have shown that by the year 2020 40%of American workforce will be freelancer this comes in the wake where companies that minimize cost are succeeding to a higher level than the blue chip companies (Mitroff, I.I. (2004) .It is important then to understand assuming the health of your staff to be under your care will not be possible as you will hire on a contract basis, and this will be the norm to many organizations. One change causes the focus of management theory and assumptions why they might not be realistic. This is the only constant word in the world today. Organizations go through various stages and therefore this might be difficult for people to follow a step by step process but the only solution is to make structural and radical decisions. In this years, there has been much business buyout from companies in the same industry this has brought about different strategic alliances that cannot withstand bureaucracy stages, and it is for this instance that business. For example, when terror hits a company it does not affect the business only, but also the employees working in the company and many things need to be checked. Whether it is the employee’s safety or counseling, this is more than the behavioral theory where a lot are not considered. Macro-economic factors can also reduce the management theory and practice this essence works when the government regulation has a law for multinational to ensure a local person sits on the board of the business. It is important to note that in as much as the firm may have its internal structure it cannot help, but to follow the regulations of the day. This management theory had been brought up with a good intention, but they failed to solve the day to day challenges of the organizations (Dollard J. (1941).Business nowadays also face challenges such as the global warming this cannot be handled by the old management theories it is for business and government and all interested parties to come up together and understand ways how they can reduce the carbon emissions, the war on terror has become a global problem this is why the critics of management theories can be supported on this issues. It is important to note also technology has been at the fore front of fighting the management practices (Robbins, S.P. (2005).No one can refute that technology has eased the way to conduct business very soon computers will be diagnosing diseases and will be more reliable in as much as doctors would be needed their jobs will be reduced. This is just but the example that is facing management theory and practice. The functions of planning, controlling, coordination have changed over the years when planning and also forecasting to delve deeper. Due to recession organization had no choice but to retrench employees and also change their plan as this showed that there was a chance not to survive if they could not. Decentralization has to come in place to help organization to save cost this has been caused by high cost of doing business. It such things that have made the business leaders of today fail to follow the scientific leader such as Taylor and Fayol. Though this people had to do, a lot of analysis and understand the worker and how value can be added the environment itself has become more dynamic and it has left no option but to seek innovation and creativity (Glinow, M.A. (2005). The assumptions that, were designed for the management theory and practice were formed in a world where change was slow and progress was not realistic but founders like Drucker did their research and understood that a lot needed to be changed and achieved. In as much as it is important for employees, to have a chain of command employee can get feedback from a tweet from the clients they have served such an example is important to people in managing their finances and ensuring that business has been made easy and efficient. Though this cannot be said to be the only reason, or assumptions that has made management theory and practice difficult ,it is important to realize that change is happening, fast and it will not be wise to cling on methods, just because there are there but to ensure that business has achieved its core objective of wealth maximization ( Tichy 1984) . 2) The learning in part one was of great assistance as for the first part I had to read many articles. In as much as, the documents were relating to each other they had a different scope of the study. Due to this the best solution I had to ensure was more of understanding the topic and summarizing rather that just summarized. With the experience, in the first part I approached this topic from a wider scope, that is first get the concept of management theory and practice understand what it entails, who were the pioneers, what were the benefits, how do critics view all this? Does it make sense to the reader? After asking myself, all this next thing was to put my perspectives and decide on what to put into writing and what not. Examples to give and the references to quote as with a very wide literature it is important not to waste many words but to minimize and put your point across (Schein, E.H. (1985). After identifying what I needed that is when I looked for all the relevant data I got. This was done by carefully analyzing if the references were sound and important then after reading is where I decided to start writing. The first part was important as it has been able to bring out what was written. It has brought about understanding of how to sort the literature review and to ensure a clear flow of the business. It is also not to generalize your topic and therefore ensure you have a particular route you are taking as this will help in sorting out the articles that you need. I have realized that for me to write a comprehensive report I have to ensure that I understood the topic, and I take a neutral perspective to be able to put my point. REFERENCES 1) Mcshane, S.L.(2005), Organizational Behavior (3rd Ed.), New York: McGrawHill/Irwin. 2) Miller N. and Dollard J. (1941), Social Learning and Imitation, New Haven, CT: Yale UniversityPress 3) Mitroff, I.I. (2004), ìThink Like A Sociopath, Act LikeASaintî,The Journal of Business Strategy Vol.25, No.5, p.4 2 4)Robbins, S.P. (2005), Organizational Behavior(11thEd.), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. 5) Schein E.H (1992) Organizational Culture and Leadership 2nd Ed, San Fransico, Jossey Bauss 6) Simonson, M. (2005) Eight Steps of transforming an organization, Vol.6, No.2, pp.7-8. 7) Schein, E.H. (1985), Culture and Leadership, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 8) Schein, E.H. (1980), Organizational Psychology, 3rdEd., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. 9) Schweiger, D.M. and DeNisi, A.S. (1991), Communication of Employees Following a Merger: A Longitudinal Field Experiment, Academy of Management Journal 10) Tichy, N. and Ulrich, D. (1984), ìRevitalizing Organizations: The Leadership Role,. Read More