The Principles of Scientific Management - Essay Example

To what extent do rational perspectives on management continue to dominate and are they still relevant to contemporary managers? Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Part 1 3 Rational Perspective 3 Taylor’s Theory of Scientific Management 3 Administrative Management 4 Part 2 8 Part 3 9 Part 4 12 Postmodernism Concept relation to Organisations 12 Reference List 14 Part 1 Rational Perspective Taylor’s Theory of Scientific Management The principles of scientific management as underlined by Frederick Winslow Taylor can be underlined as follows. The four principles outlined by Taylor contribute in shaping the tenets of Scientific Management. Principle 1 The first principle calls for discarding the rule of thumb method and encouraging the growth of experimentation. This principle thus focuses on identification and development of new techniques that would contribute in the ease of accomplishment of the different tasks and organisational objectives. Principle 2 The second principle of Scientific Management aims in generating a sense of harmony in the business organisation. It aims in creating mutual dependency and trust among the management and the employees such that they operate in a combined fashion to help in meeting the organisational objectives. Development of such a harmonic atmosphere in the organisation is observed to be conducive and beneficial for both the managers and the employees. Principle 3 The third principle as outlined by Taylor relates to the development of cooperation between the managers and the employees in the meeting of end objectives. Operating in a cooperative fashion contributes in the setting and development of standards in the workplace for conducting of tasks. This strategy thus would help in the resolution of conflicts between the managers and the employees (Taylor 2012). Principle 4 The last principle outlined by Taylor relates to the generation of equal opportunity for the development and growth of people pertaining to different levels in the organisation. It helps in promotion of people to shoulder newer and higher responsibilities by dearth of efficiency, skills, expertise and experience gained. This principle also calls for the development of training and development activities by the human resource managers in the organisation for the enhancement of existing ability and knowledge of the people. The above strategy is taken to enhance the sense of loyalty and belongingness in the minds of the employees for the organisation and thereby it helps in reducing the attrition levels (Murugan 2007). Administrative Management Fayol’s 14 Principles The Fourteen Principles outlined by Henry Fayol that in turn contributed to the development of Administrative Management which can be summarized as under. The first principle relates to the division or the unitisation of the total work or task generated by an organisation among a group of people. The essence of dividing the total work in basic units contributes in encouraging the different individuals to lay focus and attention on meeting of specific details related to the allocated task. Division of task based on specialisation of the employees also contributes in rightly allocating and using the organisational resources for fulfilment of the holistic task. The second principle focuses on understanding the combination of the parameters of authority and responsibility. It is observed by Fayol that authority and responsibility act as two sides of a coin. This entails that people that tend to reflect higher authority in an organisation are also required to reflect needed responsibility and accountability of meeting of organisational objectives and guidelines (Albarran 2012). The third principle relates to the existence of discipline in the organisation. Incorporation of discipline focuses on the use of positive and negative reinforcement directives in encouraging the employees to work and operate in the right fashion. It entails the code of conduct for the meeting of tasks and deadlines set. The fourth principle relates that employees and subordinate groups of people in the organisation are entitled to receive orders from only one manager or superior in the organisation. This would contribute in the reduction of potential conflicts in the concern. The fifth principle works as an extension to the fourth principle. It relates to the fact that directions and orders gained by the employees or subordinates need to come from only one direction to them. The above fact helps in the ease of following and adapting to such directions and in reduction of conflicts. Sixthly, Fayol generated bigger significance in the meeting of greater and general interests of the organisation over the accomplishment of individual or specific interests. The seventh principle outlined by Fayol focuses on understanding the manner in which the remuneration or compensation of an individual employee in an organisation is determined.. Various factors related to the cost of living for the individual, the ability of the organization etc. need to be kept in mind before making any decisions pertaining to payment mechanism supply. (March 2013). The eighth principle of Henry Fayol aimed to attain a balance between the centralisation and decentralisation of orders and activities in an organisation. The generation of decentralisation contributes in enhancing the significance of the subordinate groups in the organisation pertaining to the taking of decisions and in setting directions. Centralisation on the other hand contributes in generation of effective administration of the activities conducted along different levels. The ninth principle highlights on the development of scalar chain. This chain emphasises on the authorities of the different members in an organisation based on existing hierarchies. Higher members along the organisational hierarchy are observed to reflect greater authority in contrast to people along the lower levels of the organisational hierarchy. The tenth principle rendered by Fayol highlights on the fact that both material and human resources allocated in meeting of specific tasks and duties need to be observed and treated in an equal fashion. The eleventh principle as an extension of the tenth principle requires the organisational managers to treat the people pertaining to different levels in an organisation in an equal fashion. The twelfth principle generated by Fayol contributes in encouraging the organisation to effectively focus on sustaining and retaining effective and efficient personnel in an organisation. This would contribute in enhancing the competitive advantage of the organisation while at the same time cutting down on recruitment costs (Redmond 2004). The thirteenth principle of administrative management aims in encouraging the subordinate groups in the organisation to take onto new initiatives. This would help in enhancing the expertise and efficiency of the people to perform more effectively in the organisation. Finally the fourteenth principle of Fayol requires the management of the organisation to generate a sense of harmony and unity in the organisation. The generation of fellow feeling in the organisation rightly contributes in creating a sense of unity in the meeting of organisational tasks. The Principles of Max Weber The five principles outlined by the management scientist, Max Weber earned effective relation to the system of bureaucracy practiced in an organisation. The five principles can be outlined as under. The first principle tends to understand the relationship between the position of an individual in an organisation and the authority of the same. The authority is observed to be an extension of the position held by an individual in the concern. The second principle relates to the fact that the position held by an individual in an organization owes to the expertise and performance reflected and generated by the person (Kim 2004). The third principle demonstrated by Weber reflects on the responsibilities and tasks required to be conducted by the individual in a specific fashion. It also relates to the manner each individual needs to correlate his or her activities with other individuals in the organisation. The fourth principle relates to the reporting relationship of individuals in the organisation. The positions of different people along the organisational hierarchy are taken to help in the development of reporting authorities. Finally the fifth system of Weber states that the managers in the organisation are required to work based on effective code of conducts. The generation of directives and policies help the managers in rightly controlling the activities of people in meeting of organisational objectives (Koshul 2005). Part 2 It is observed that the four principles of scientific management as put forward by Taylor earn effective relevance to the current managerial practices in business organisations. Relating to the first principle where the rule-of-thumb needs to be replaced by the method of experimentation the current rule of conducting a job analysis is considered to be highly effective. Through the incorporation of job analysis the expertise and efficiency of the individuals can be effectively matched with the expertise and efficiency levels of individuals. Taylor’s principle relating to the incorporation of training and development methods in enhancing the expertise and efficiency levels of individuals. This principle effectually relates with the selection methods and recruitment used by the organisational managers. It also indicates the training and manpower development activities of the organisation. The principle of cooperation between the managers and the employees as indicated by Taylor is observed to be highly prevalent in the current organisation. The current practice of the managers in supporting and guiding the activities of the subordinates in the organisation rightly matches with Taylor’s cooperation and coordination principle. Finally the principle of harmony as indicated by Taylor is also observed to be highly prevalent in the current business organisation. The current organisational practice requires the managers to carry out the management function in an effective fashion (Tesone 2012). The use of Weber’s Five Principles of Administrative Management relating to contemporary practices in management in business organisations is highly debated in that it speaks more of the bureaucratic structure of the organisation. The need for setting up an effective organisational hierarchy and reporting relationship in the organisation as spelt out by Weber however earns needed significance also in the present business setting. It is also observed that the current business organisations are also required to set up an effective mission and vision policy and also generate an effective code of conduct to keep an eye on the activities of the organisation. Weber also identified that the managers need to be highly responsible in meeting the objectives of their positions in the organisation. The current organisational practice also requires the managers to effectively manage the activities of the organisation and also in providing effective directions to the subordinates in meeting the objectives of the organisation. The use of the fourteen principles as underlined by Henry Fayol in the current management and business practice is observed to earn effective relevance. It is observed that the fourteen principles of administrative management led to the design of the functional organisation. The elements of the functional organisation are highly prevalent in case of service organisation where different departments are designed based on the different functions or objectives needs to be fulfilled (Bhatia 2008). Part 3 The above discussion thus reflects that the principles of scientific and administrative management as put forward by Taylor, Weber and Fayol respectively earns effective relevance to the current management practices prevalent in the business firms. A detailed discussion of the use of Taylor’s principles in current day business practice can be reflected as follows. Firstly, the generation of rewards to the employees at all levels by the organisational management is observed to be an effective practice in the current day business structure. The use of such rewards or positive reinforcement practices is observed to help in exciting the desire of the people to perform more effectively. Further as in the Victorian period organisations nowadays are observed not to involve the employees in deciding on the incentive program. Secondly as required by Taylor, the current management practice also requires the division of an entire task into several task units and allocating the same to the subordinates based on their skills, experience and expertise. The division of the task based on skill and expertise of the staffs contributes in meeting of the tasks in an efficient and faster fashion. In the third case, the current business organisations are also observed to generate a code of conduct for governing the actions and in monitoring the activities of the people in the meeting of the business and organisational objectives. This fact is observed to be an extension of Taylor’s principle pertaining to scientific management. The generation of effective code of conducts contribute in generation of effective guidelines to manage and enhance the quality of conducting the tasks in the organisation. The current business organisations are also observed to follow another principle generated by Taylor in his directions pertaining to Scientific Management. The organisations are observed to highly encourage the people to generate effective suggestions to help in the development of the business conducts. This policy of encouraging the people to generate potential suggestions is taken to help in the enhancement of cooperation between the management and the staffs. Similarly the management principles generated by Max Weber are also found to gain effective relevance relating to the management practices of the contemporary organisations. The use of Weber’s principles in contemporary management contributes in generation of specialisation in the organisational work. Further the use of Weber’s principle also contributes in generation of effective regularity of conduct in the business organisation. This is taken to help in enhancing the level of competitive advantage of the business organisation and in increasing the level of competence of the people in the organisation. Incorporation of Weber’s principle in the current business world contributes in enhancing the efficiency of the people in the organisation. This is done through promotion of the people in the organisation. The business managers are observed to counter potential challenges relating to the ethical parameters. The business managers are required to understand the manner in which decisions taken by them tend to affect the situation of the stakeholders. In terms of ethical parameters the production manager of an organisation is required to understand the manner in which the production decisions taken would tend to affect the customers, supplier groups and also the creditors of the business organisation. Similarly the marketing manager of the organisation is required to understand and monitor the effectiveness of the advertising activity in generating effective information to the customers. Development and use of the e-business platform is observed to generate effective challenges for the managers. The use of the e-business platform requires the managers to generate and maintain an effective environment of trust. Further the managers are also required to rightly understand the expectation level of the managers in the organisation. Understanding of the needs and demands of the customers is required to generate the right kind of product offerings. Further use of the e-business platform also requires the organisation to incorporate effective technological application and also to rightly train the internal people to act effectively in the new technological platform. Similarly the managers of the business organisation are also observed to counter effective challenges pertaining to the fulfilment of Corporate Social Responsibility objectives. External demands of the society and also the stakeholders require the management body to generate effective marketing, distribution, advertising and production activities to help in meeting the demands and expectations of the stakeholders. Moreover the business organisation is also required to conduct campaign for public relation activities to help in enhancing the image of the organisation before the larger society. The rise of globalisation is observed to effectively require the business managers to develop effective strategies. It also requires the managers to incorporate the use of information technology in the business parameters. Operating based on the information technology paradigm is observed to help the organisation to transact its business in a speedy fashion and to generate products and activities that would help in matching the needs and expectations of people belonging to diverse cultural frameworks. Part 4 Postmodernism Concept relation to Organisations The use of the postmodernism concept pertaining to business organisations is observed to generate a large number of different systems and units that are diverse and specific in nature. These centres are generated to help in meeting the specific needs of the business organisation. These centres or units tend to correlate and coordinate with each other in the meeting of diverse organisational and business needs. The business centres and units are empowered by people who are potential enough to take effective decisions on their own and thereby help in meeting of emerging business goals and expectations. Further, the postmodernism concept also requires the flow of information in a lucid fashion between the different organisational systems. Likewise, it also requires the constant development of the organisational system and units. The postmodern concept also requires the development of a flexible organisational structure and also the development of a multi-skilled workforce in the organisation. It also needs the effective cooperation between the management and labour bodies in the organisation. The management and leadership traits of the organisation are observed to be more people oriented, in that it focuses on the incorporation of training for generation of specialisation and also the development of a decentralised workforce in the organisation. This helps in empowering the people to take potential decisions which in turn enhances the level of expertise and efficiency of the people to perform in a motivated fashion in the organisation. The postmodernism concept is also observed to require the organisation to generate effective quality control. This would help in generating the right quality of products and business policies in meeting the expectation of the customers (Goulding 2002). Reference List Albarran, A., 2012. Management of Electronic and Digital Media. United States: Cengage Learning Bhatia, S.K., 2008. Managing Organisational Behaviour : People Skills for Success. New Delhi: Deep and Deep Publications Goulding, C., 2002. Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide for Management, Business and Market Researchers. United Kingdom: Sage Kim, S.H., 2004.Max Webers Politics of Civil Society. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press Koshul, B.B., 2005. The Postmodern Significance of Max Webers Legacy. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan March, J.G., 2013. Handbook of Organizations. New York: Routledge. Murugan, M.S., 2007. Management Principles And Practices. New Delhi: New Age International Redmond, J., 2004. Media Organization Management . United Kingdom: Dreamtech Press Taylor, F.W., 2012. The Principles of Scientific Management. United Kingdom: Courier Corporation Tesone, D.V., 2012. Principles of Management for the Hospitality Industry. New York: Routledge Read More