Management Theories by Morgan, Fayol and Taylor - Research Paper Example

 Organizational Behavior Managing People Introduction: This assignment as the title suggests, is a study of the Managing people at work. It starts with an introduction that includes the various theories that have been developed by scholars over the years. The aim of this study is to understand the various theories about managing people. Managing people at work is an essential element of any business. Human Resources Management is a specialised function by itself and requires to be managed with special care and attention. Employees are an asset to any company. Human resource management deals with managing these assets. Human resource management deals with ensuring that all the needs of employees are met and that the company receives the best from the employees. It is very important for the business to ensure that the employees that have been recruited are able to perform the duties both effectively and efficiently. The key ideas for managing people revolve around Psychology, Sociology, Unitarism, Pluralism, Contingency theory and Ethics. It is important to understand that employees are to be treated in a good way and managing people means acknowledging that people within the organisation are an important part of the entire process within the organisation (Weightman, 2004). Managing people means understanding both the formal as well as informal relations between people at work. It is essential for the management to realise that with the best technology, and best processes however without the cooperation of employees the company will not be able to succeed. There have been a number of theories that have been developed by various scholars over the years. The following section deals with the various theories that have been developed over the years (Weightman, 2004). Theories of Management: There are a number of different strands of thoughts in this field. There have been several scholars who have developed a number of theories about the optimum ways to manage people at work. This assignment will include the theories of many that will be discussed further. The management theories to a great extent provide a clear ground work of this provides a steady base for this study. This is majorly because it is essential to understand the theories of management before moving into the motivational theories. Management theories are in a number if ways the first and most essential elements of business which every manager will require to know and understand to be able to successfully lead a team. It is essential to realise the importance of these theories for every manager. Hence to provide a clear and complete understanding of how managers can motivate employees, and how they manage people, the various thoughts in this field has also been discussed. Also from the interviews that have been conducted, the importance of the management principles has also been noted. Therefore these theories have been discussed in this study. Firstly the most important theory includes: The 14 Principles of Management – Henry Fayol: Having discussed Morgan’s theory of management, now we move on to Henry Fayol’s management theory. Both these theories allow creating a base for this research and in some terms forming the ground work of this entire research. Henry Fayol a French engineer is considered as a key contributor to the administrative school of thought. He has built his theories on personal observations and experiences. In 1911, Taylor first published ‘The Principles of Scientific Management’, from which in 1916 Fayol examined the nature of administration and management based on the experience from the mining organization. Both Taylor as well Fayol were under the impression and argued about all organizations having a set of principles that help the organizations to operate and administrate efficiently (Fayol, 1949). It was now that Fayol developed the five primary functions of management, namely: a) planning, b) organising, c) commanding, d) coordinating and e) Controlling (Fayol, 1949) (Fayol, General and industrial management: Henri Fayol’s classic revised by Irwin Gray, 1987). Recent writer have used this as the basis for their study and have developed the functions to be four main rather than five main. These functions are divided into a) planning, b) organising, c) leading, and d) controlling (Daft, 2005). Fayol’s 14 principles have been discussed in his book General and Industrial Management in 1949. Fayol has suggested the importance of unity of command - a concept of one supervisor for each person. He also suggested that management is a universal human activity that plays an equally important role in both families as well as organizations. Fayol has been regarded as the father of modern operational management theory (George, 1968). Fayol’s theories have become a universal part of the modern management concepts and his theories have also been compared to Taylor. Taylor’s theories have been focused more so on the production aspects of the organization whereas this is just one of the various areas that have discussed by Fayol. One of the major differences between the two scholars is that Taylor viewed the management process from bottom up whereas Fayol analyzed the organization from top to down (George, 1968). This has originated from Fayol himself. In ‘General and Industrial Management’ Fayol wrote: "Taylor's approach differs from the one we have outlined in that he examines the firm from the "bottom up." he starts with the most elemental units of activity -- the workers' actions -- then studies the effects of their actions on productivity, devises new methods for making them more efficient, and applies what he learns at lower levels to the hierarchy...” (Fayol, 1987). The Fourteen principles that have been set down by Fayol are discussed in detail below: Specialization of Labor: Fayol’s first important principle was aimed at the specialization of labor. This is a very important aspect of management and needs to be taken into consideration while managing people. This is an important aspect of management. Specialization encourages continuous improvement in the skills and involves the development of improvements in methods. This is very beneficial for the companies and provides the company with better skilled individuals, which in turn improves productivity (Fayol, 1987). Authority: Authority plays a very important role in management and is very essential in managing people. It focuses on the right to give orders and show authority. Giving authority to a person means giving the person the right to do things. Also responsibility normally arises where a person is given the authority (Fayol, 1987). Discipline: The next aspect is discipline this mainly deals with the idea of ensuring there is no slacking, bending of rules, and that all employees are obedient and respectful in the organization. It is essential that employees must obey and respect the rules that are prevalent in the organization. If there is effective leadership within an organization and a clear understanding between management and workers in regards to the organization’s rules, the discipline will be at the optimum level (Fayol, 1987). Unity of Command: Unity of command refers to a situation where every employee has just one boss. This is essential to ensure management of the people is not confused between the needs of different people at different time. This plays a very important role as if every employees has just one boss, the employees will be more productive if the command is from one superior to avoid any confusions in the final outcome (Fayol, 1987). Unity of Direction: Unity of direction is the next important aspect in the 14 principles by Fayol. This is very important just like the unity of command as if one person leads the team, all the planning is made by a single mind and the leading is much simpler since the team members need to work according to the plan (Fayol, 1987). Subordination of Individual Interests: This aims at understanding that the interest of one individual should not be taken as the interest of the organization. While at work, individuals should only keep in mind the goal of the organization and avoid individual interest. In short, while at work employees need to think and work only towards the goals of the company (Fayol, 1987). Remuneration: Also managing people is not only about ensuring the company gains out of the employee’s hard work and dedication. It also includes and requires ensuring that employees receive the correct remuneration and are not underpaid for their efforts (Fayol, 1987). Centralization: The next important principle of management is centralization. This is very important and it is essential that every decision made is from the top management. This is also called consolidation of management functions. This plays a very important role in management of people and allows better control on the organization without clashes within the management of the business (Fayol, 1987). Line of Authority: The line of authority should also be followed to understand the hierarchy being followed within the organization. This is also referred to as Scalar Chain it allows a clear picture of the levels of authority within the organization thus ensures better understanding of the organizational structure (Fayol, 1987). Order: Order should also be maintained within the organization and all the materials as well as personnel are prescribed places which should always be followed. It is essential to understand that all personnel and material should remain in the designated place at all times and should remain within the designated places (Fayol, 1987). Equity: All the employees should be treated equally and there should be no kind of differentiation among the employees. It is essential to understand that employees that are treated equally within an organization tend to produce better results and is more effective than in organizations where employees face discrimination of any sort (Fayol, 1987). Tenure of Personnel: This is a very important aspect which at times is not given the importance required. It is important to understand that higher employee turnover is not beneficial to companies. Good workers should be given lifetime employment within the organization and a limited turnover of personnel is very beneficial for both the company as well as the employees (Fayol, 1987). Initiative: Managing does not only mean ensuring people work correctly and the quality is good. It also involves a certain level of planning and initiative thinking. Managers require taking an initiative and building out proper plans to make sure all operations run smoothly within the organization. It has been seen that employees who are given the freedom to take initiatives and work towards achieving goals normally tend to be more effective than employees who are suppressed and not given an option to participate and give feedback and initiate plans that might be beneficial to the company (Fayol, 1987). Esprit de corps: Lastly but equally important is Esprit de corps. This refers to harmony among personnel. This is a very important factor according to Fayol, and should be promoted. Also the concept of unity of command should be given a lot of importance and avoidance of divide and rule will help the management a lot in every organization. This factor aims at ensuring that all the employees participate and work together towards the goals to ensure smooth running of the organization (George, p. 109, Fayol, 1987, p. 61). Morgan’s Metaphors: There are various ways of looking at organisations as discussed by Morgan. Morgan distinguishes eight different metaphors of organisations. Each of the metaphors highlights different aspects of the organisations. The eight metaphors are clearly seen in the diagram below. The metaphors highlight different aspect of organisations and are classified into three main heads namely: a) Machine group, b) Organism Group, and c) Mind Group, each of which focus on a particular aspect of the business. Figure 1: Morgan’s metaphors for Organisations (Gazendam, 1993) The Michigan Model: This model was developed in 1984, and emphasized on the idea that organizational effectiveness depends on a tight fit between the HR strategy and business strategy. It focuses on trying to get a more increased strategic consideration to the HR of a company as it is the only effective mode of developing the HRM systems. This is a form of ‘Hard HRM’. The Michigan Model this has been developed by Charles Fombrun, Neol Tichy and Mary Anne Devanna. This model emphasised on the need to treat employees in a similar pattern as any other resource: ‘obtained cheaply, used sparingly and developed and exploited as fully as possible’ (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2004). This theory is based mainly on the ‘Human Resources Cycle’, which focuses on the contribution of selection, appraisal, rewards, and development of employee performance. These methods must be consistent to ensure the same message is sent out. For instance, if the organization strategy involved being innovative and different and the employees flow all the rules and procedures within the company – they should not be rewarded as the strategy is different from what the employee has actually performed. In this case the employee has only followed the pre – existent rules and procedures without actually taking the initiative to do something new and different. This method has not been as successful as other models due to the drawback of being extremely narrowly focused on the various aspects of Human Resource Management. Thus this method has not been very well identified, as it has not taken into account various other factors like the trade unions, constantly changing competitive environment, etc. The Human Resource Cycle (Buchanan and Huczynski, 2004, p686) Conclusions: As seen in these models it is clear that over years managing people has been extremely important and scholars and the leaders from the past have developed several theories to assist the managers gain a perspective and to manage in more effective manners. The theories that have been discussed here are few of the most important and well known theories. However there are several other theories that also exist which have not been discussed here. These include, a) The Harvard Model: which is focused mainly on the stakeholder’s perspective Michael Beer and colleagues at Harvard University developed this theory (Beer et. al., 1984, 1985; Beer and Spector, 1985). It mainly works on the four main policy areas; a) employee influence, b) human resource flow, c) reward system and d) work system. b) The Rutgers Model: This model is based on the needs of employees. This model is similar to the Theory X and Theory Y of Douglas McGregor. In the Rutgers Model firstly twelve contrasting employee behaviors are identified, of which some of the behaviors are supported to be appropriate for an organization strategy, which involves cost reduction while others involve innovation (Weightman, 2004). This model follows a five practice menus, each of the items within these menus rests on the degree of fit. c) The Warwick Model: This model has five main elements: a) HRM contents – which contains factors like the HR flow, Work System, etc, b) external context – which includes the PEST analysis, c) Inner Context – including the culture, structure etc of the company, d) HRM Context – which include the HR output, role, organization etc., and e) Business Strategy context – including objective, product market and strategy and tactics (Buchanan and Huczynski, 2004). d) The Bath Model: This is a very vast theory and it includes important aspects of Human Resource like motivation, etc. It focuses on a number of practices that affect employee behavior and it emphases the key role of line management in implementation of HR policies. This theory aims at explaining how the HR Policies are linked to performance and is called ‘black – box problem’ (Podmoroff, 2005). This model identifies with the following eleven HR Policies: Careful and sophisticated employee recruitment and selection, Effective training and development of employees to ensure working knowledge, Good career opportunities to the employees, Openness in communication and information – sharing, Including employees in the decision making process, Teamwork, Performance appraisal and individual development, Motivating and equitable pays, Job security, Autonomy and newer challenges at jobs and Good work – life balance. All these models together form a basis for managing people and are an essential part of organisational behaviour as a whole. These models also are the underlying factors for the level of motivation among the people in an organisation. References Beer, M., & Spector, B. (1985). Corporate – wide transformations in human resource management in Buchanan D. and Huczynski A. Essex: Prentice Hall. Buchanan, D., & Huczynski, A. (2004). Organizational behavior, 5th edn. Essex: Prentice Hall. Fayol, H. (1949). General and industrial management. London : Pitman Publishing company. Fayol, H. (1987). General and industrial management: Henri Fayol’s classic revised by Irwin Gray. Belmont CA: David S. Lake Publishers. Gazendam, H. W. (1993). Variety Controls Variety: On the use of Organisation Theories in Information Management. Groningen: Wolters – Noordhoff , 400. George, C. (1968). The History of Management thought. UK: Prentice – Hall. Podmoroff, D. B. (2005). 365 Ways to Motivate and Reward Your Employees Every Day: With Little or No Money. Atlantic Publishing Company. Weightman, J. (2004). Managing People: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2nd edition. London: CIPD Publishing. Read More