Management research project - Essay Example

It will apply those topics to see how it can help a working manager to improve his managerial abilities. The international courier and goods transportation company, DHL Global Forwarding will be used as an example in this study. The definition given in the previous section shows that human behavior is influenced by the nature of the structure or organization he works in as well as the cultural diversity that may occur there. Organized working has been in existence for a very long time even though no formal studies have been known to be conducted with regard to human behavior within such organization.

An example of ancient and large organized working could be the building of the great pyramids of Egypt. Formal studies of human behavior in an organization originated only during the late 1800's and early 1900's. One of the pioneers of this science was Frederick Taylor who pioneered the principles of scientific management. But Taylor only focused on improving performance in the workplace and not on the social and emotional needs of workers. He focused on breaking down of a task into smaller observable units so that speed and productivity could be increased.

It was to his credit that he took into account better payment, fatigue, shorter working hours etc. in his efforts to increase productivity and employee morale. But in all other respects he equated workers to machines which brought about deep frustration within the working class. "Nevertheless, the industrial engineer with his stop watch and clip-board, standing over you measuring each little part of the job and one's movements became a hated figure and lead to much sabotage and group resistance.

" (Wertheim). More humanistic thinkers bought the human element into the picture and more importance was given to organizational behavior. It was the Western Electric Study more popularly known as the Hawthorne Experiments that bought about an awareness of group behavior. The study which was originally about work performance and working environment also revealed the sociological and psychological factors that exist in a group as well as the individuals in the group. Another theory by Douglas McGregor called Theory X and Theory Y pointed out the assumptions of managers about worker perceptions and the perceptions of the workers themselves.

The former was called Theory X and the latter was called Theory Y and it was pointed out by McGregor that both the theories were contradictory to each other. Manger perceptions of workers include inherent distaste of employees towards work, lack of ambition and creativity, lack of problem solving ability and the need for close supervision. But the most inaccurate assumption was that workers were motivated only by physiological factors and security. Theory Y on the other hand contends that in the right environment, people enjoy work, self-control is more effective than close supervision and that employees are creative.

It also says that they are motivated due to affiliation, self-esteem and self-actualization. The development of the systems theories during the 1970's and the contingency theories in the 1980's paved the way for further studies into organizational behavior. Organizational Behavior: Organizational behavior is not a subject by itself, but is in fact a combination of four other social sciences namely psychology, sociology, social psychology and anthropology