Schools of Scientific Management - Essay Example

Schools of Scientific Management Lecturer’s Due Assessment Brief: Organizational Behaviour Most non-profit organisations aimat improving their human relations and scientific management skills in order to offer better and quality services to its clients. In 2013, the Sunday Times ranked the a hundred best Not Profit Making Organisations. Two of its top-100 include the TGI Fridays and the Hawksmoor Restaurant. Each institution has ways of controlling and taking care of its daily activities. The management system has a series of strategies that it implies in order to ensure that it achieves its main objectives. Some of the fundamental concepts of human relations at work include decentralization, decision making, and employee motivation; typically, how employees, customers and employers relate at work (Dalton, 1992). On the other hand, scientific management refers to the theory of management that analyses and synthesises the workflow. Some of the key concepts include systematic planning, standardisation, differential piece rate system and functional foremanship (Taylor, 1967-1947). The discussion below will critically assess the management systems at TGI Fridays and Hawksmoor, by comparing and contrasting each business’s control system. The objective of the study is to recognise different styles and approaches in managing people, demonstrate awareness on current issues in business and to identify some of the main behavioural factors. For that reason, the essay is significant, because it aids in identifying whether Scientific Management and Human Relations remain relevant in 21st century businesses. The article also aids in answering the question, “should Non for Profit organisations manage differently from profit making firms?” It is appropriate to compromise with the argument that non-profit organisations ought to use similar management strategies as profit making ones. TGI Friday’s is a casual dining American chain restaurant found in a number of countries both in Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Australia. Currently, the management system came up with a group of suggestions for enhancing the quality of service to the clienteles in the form of hospitality and empowerment of employees. The company is a firm that makes services offered to customers described as ‘mass customization.’ Based on human relation principles and methods, the management requires that its employees should grant consumers with both advice and counselling on designing their eating experiences and an individualised service performance. As a way to achieve that, the organisation implements a scientific management approach that involves clustering ways on how to empower employee engagement. For example, development of personal efficacy and involvement in service performance, but engrosses limited decision making besides that which needs individual role in service performance. In human relations, employees need to dedicate their work and effort towards providing quality services to their company clients. In human relations, service providers need to communicate with clients and provide information based on provisions offered by the firm. For that reason, the organisation creates a formal relationship with its employees, since they feel accepted and appreciated. In terms of scientific management, one of the main concepts includes scientific task planning. Here, the firm takes a specialisation approach towards clustering various workers into diverse areas of task handling. Every employee has their region of specialisation and field where they have trained in; that is a form of scientific management practice. Quality standardisation of products and services stands as one of the prime concepts in scientific management (Palmer, 2005). The management aims at providing up to standard quality services and products as a way to raise the status of the organisation. Additionally, any business whether profit making or not, has the sole responsibility towards its customers in providing quality products and services. The management team at TGI Fridays believes that quality instil the value and makes the firm more admirable and commendable. In return, the business fulfils its customer expectation and satisfies their needs. The clientele of any institution do not only look at the functional benefits of the restaurant, but also the experiences they offer. Therefore, the firm optimizes on how to satisfy its employees both tangibly and intangibly. On the other hand, based on human relations, TGI Fridays supplies services, which create a sense of social link to others. Renown as a competitive brand, the restaurant gives consumers a prospect to handle ambiguity felt by many service users. One of the main issues identified with restaurants is that mostly the food looks appealing while on the menu or billboard, but not awesome when served. Therefore, TGI Fridays manages to do it perfectly. Both the photo of the meal and the actual meal itself look appealing to the consumer. That allows the firm to build customer loyalty and also acts as a way of advertising their products and services. The firm has also developed an employee empowerment approach in order to create self-motivation among the employees by shifting the attention from customers to employees. Managers control employees through a cluster approach in order to enhance perfection. The strategies aid in human resource interaction between employer and employee. The firm also appreciates it workers hence creating a motivational surrounding. TGI Fridays supports their team on the hands of the guests and also monitors the interaction between them, and that permits the firm to improve on employee customer interaction. From the above assessment of scientific concepts found in TGI Fridays, it is apparent that some of the scientific management concepts include standardisation, scientific task planning and functional foremanship. While human relations involve employee motivation, decentralization and decision making. It is rare to hear people recognise a company because of its exceptional way of treating its staff. However, Hawksmoor is a chain of restaurants located in London, which people refer to as the ‘the best steak in town.’ The company runs four branches in London and was among the top one hundred hospitality organisations to feature in the Sunday Times. The hotels are publicly known for excellent services both to their customers and employees. The Motto of the London business is simply to “Toil hard and be good to people.” The management also values its employees and always encourages self-personality preservation among them at all times besides providing quality steak. Based on the statement above, employees have partial liberty in decision making on small matters. There is a centralised form of governance where the staffs consign to the top management on issues regarding the institutions. In such a case, the administration does not allow the employee to rule themselves, but allow them to partake in the choice making process. Employees are not supposed to do or implement a decision they are not pleased implying. The management has a communication system in which they can converse and agree in case of any conflict of interest with their staff. In an interview with an employee, the interviewee said that they enjoy themselves without having to wear uniforms. From the general overview of the management strategy implemented by the human resource department, the employees have a sense of liberty. For that reason, there is self-motivation among the staff creating room for greater performance (Palmer, 2005). In terms of training, the organisation ensures that each member of the restaurant partakes in firm activities. Everyone in the firm is a trainer and trainee; that is, they all learn from one another. The human resource department encourages senior staff members to train the junior workers. Therefore, that builds a healthy interactive body inside the workplace. Above training and the personal liberty, the management team also provides their employees with more motivation by taking care of their employees needs such as health. Additionally, the management style also involves the employees in simple short term decision making processes. With the above motivation, the employees in turn reciprocate the kindness to the customers (Becket, 2011). These factors are similar to those featured in TGI Fridays. The management invests in placing both their employees and the customers on the front line. They identify the staff and customers as an essential part of the organisation. They also aim at monitoring and engaging the employees in some of the companies’ activities as a way to enhance an effective performance. However, the difference lies on sense of employee freedom and participation in decision making. TGI Fridays does not give as much liberty to their employees as Hawksmoor does. At TGI Fridays, the employees solely get information and rules from the top management; whereas, in Hawksmoor everyone is their own ruler. Second, TGI Fridays seems to concentrate more on customer satisfaction than employee; whereas, Hawksmoor focuses on its employees contentment. Similar to TGI Friday, Hawksmoor offers different tasks to various departments. Goods offered are of standard quality nature, which is also similar to that displayed by TGI Fridays. The restaurant management believes in providing better services and products as a way of promoting the organisation. As part of scientific management, the board pays the employees based on the piece time rate approach, which TGI Fridays does not. Each employee earns based on the amount of work done at a particular duration. In TGI Fridays, employees specialize on specific tasks while in Hawksmoor every employee needs to understand and train comprehensively in the activities involved. At TGI Fridays, employees earn a reasonable salary. Finally, through an overview of the analysis, it is clear to point out the fact that there are greater similarities than differences in both institutions based on scientific management and human relations. A number of critics wonder if both scientific management and human relations are fit for handling businesses in the 21st century. Critics on both sides believe that in the current world, managers should be more aggressive both literary and virtually. Managers should adopt the authoritative management style in order to succeed. Second, they argue that other factors besides human relations can aid in making the business successful. However, I consider that customers and employees make the business; therefore, they should pose as the key priority for the firm. From the above comments and analysis on both prosperous non-profit making firms, both schools of scientific management stand as useful archetypal methods proper for the 21st century business (Schuler, 1996). Second, there is minimal disparity between management strategies in both revenue and non-revenue making firms. They both need to implement synonymous strategies and styles since they both deal with consumers and employees. In human relations there are three basic concepts that generally apply in any form of business, which are communication, motivation and leadership. These among others form the basic principles of human relations. Each of the mentioned aspects has a significant role in the human resource department. They help in building and maintaining behaviour among people directly associated with the organisation. These people are mainly buyers of goods and services, and also service providers in the firm. First, for any business to succeed regardless of its opinion on profit generation, communication is an essential part. The manager needs to pass instructions and information to his or her employees while employees need to communicate their results, queries or information to their employers. That is only made possible through the establishment of a way in which both parties can convey and share information. The beneficial effects of communication are that it brings people together. It also facilitates people to learn more and gain advanced knowledge about something or someone related to the success of the business. It allows colleagues to comprehend one another hence consolidating the members of the firm. Interaction with clients enables them to obtain information and trade can take place. Second, motivation is another crucial element towards achievement of any goal. Motivation refers to the method by which a company evaluates and rewards an employee based on their performance. Motivation could either be self or external. In a global world today, firms including the ones mentioned above work towards rewarding their staff’s effort. Incentives take the form of better employee and customer treatment, providing incentives and offers/discounts or giving a promotion. Through that, the employee or customer feels appreciated by the firm. The advantages of motivation mainly are better performance, attraction of more customers, maintenance of both customers and employees and quality performance (Thomas, 2009). Third, leadership is another indispensable concept of human relations. A leader has the capability to influence and control other people’s thoughts. From the two organisations assessed above, the democratic form of leadership reveals itself. Each firm allows employees to participate in decision making regardless of to what extent. The employees have some liberty on how to control their activities. The 21st century presents a free and democratic world. People have a right to personal opinion. How leaders handle themselves around their employees and customers is very beneficial. Some of the advantages of democratic leadership are self-motivation, creates room for integrity and loyalty among staff members. It allows employees to participate actively in the firm, which acts as a form of accreditation of the human capital available (Zsolnai, 2009). Through the above information, and evidence from the two firms assessed above, as either a profit or non-profit making organisation, the management strategies that feature in human relations do not vary. For example, in both forms of business, employees need motivation, quality leadership and effective communication. So long as the company deals with both employees and customers, it needs to set management policies, which appeal to these parties so as to ensure success. Employees need to participate in the company’s activities, motivation, proper communication so as to enhance quality and efficient performance. The same applies to consumers, quality services, products and communication ensures that the industry fulfils its moral obligation to the society (Filar, 2010). Another school management science is the scientific management. From the two companies above, it is clear that a number of concepts apply basically to modern day management systems. In various organisations, employers pay their employees based on the piece time rate basis. Second, every strategy works towards provision of quality goods and services to customers, and those that are of standard quality. Managers also divide their employees into different groups, which perform specific functions. TGI Friday restaurant aims at providing quality goods and clusters its employees as an approach towards enhancing worker empowerment. On the other hand, Hawksmoor provides quality services to its regulars through training each staff member on the general activities that occur in the restaurant. Businesses and corporations need scientific management approaches in order to succeed. Scientific management ensures quality results most of the times due to its motivational and evaluative nature. In the 21st century business, local or international, provision of quality products and services stands as leverage in a competitive market. Firms also seek to specialise its employees; therefore ensuring that they provide quality goods and services. In terms of payment and promotions, the firm needs to appreciate the human capital employed. Through scientific management, the controlling team knows what to do in order to satisfy the stakeholders. Through scientific approach, businessmen use the psychological aspect to manipulate and handle organisation behaviour efficiently. Both profit and non-profit making firms need to implement these principles since they help in provision of better products. Every business, despite the nature of its objectives based on gains, needs to satisfy its employees and customers, and also take part in activities policies that allow quality performance. Managers in non-profit making organisations should implement similar scientific and human relation management strategies. I believe every firm that deals with production, employees and customers these ideas ought to pertain even without making any profits. In conclusion, some of the key concepts presented on scientific management and human relations are quite essential in business. In the 21st century, managers in non-profit making firms need to implement most of the styles used in profit making companies. Every business that deals with employees and customers needs to apply some of the concepts addressed in order to ensure success. TGI Fridays and Hawksmoor are non-profit firms that both practice scientific management and human relations, and based on the results and other indicating factors, it is apparent that they are beneficial. These two sections in the school of science management are useful for current firms. They bear more advantages and assist in sustaining both employees and customers. Reference List Beckett, W., & Gott, H. (2011).Hawksmoor at home. London: Preface. Dalton, M., Hoyle, D. G., & Watts, M. W. (1992). Human relations. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western Pub. Co. Filar, J. A. (2010). Uncertainty and environmental decision making a handbook of research and best practice. New York: Springer. Palmer, A. (2005). Principles of Services Marketing (4. Ed.). London: McGraw-Hill Education - Europe. Schuler, R. S., & Jackson, S. E. (1996).Human resource management: Positioning for the 21st century (6. Ed.). St. Paul: West Publishing Company. Taylor, F. W. (19671947). The principles of scientific management. New York: Norton. Thomas, K. W. (2009). Intrinsic motivation at work what really drives employee engagement (2nd Ed.). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Zsolnai, L. (2009). Responsible decision making. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers. Read More