Management Thought

Friday, May 30, 2025 10:48 PM

MANAGEMENT THOUGHT
• Environmental Factors Influencing Management Thought
• Major Perspectives of Management Thought
• Subfields in Classical Perspective of Management
• Theories of Behavioral Management
• Characteristics of Quantitative Management
• Systems Perspective of Management
• Contingency Perspective of Management
• Future Issues of Management

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS INFLUENCING MANAGEMENT THOUGHT

Economic Influences - The availability, production, and distribution of resources within a society.
Social Influences - The aspects of a culture that influence interpersonal relationships.
Political Influences - The impact of political institutions on individuals and organizations.
Technological Influences - The advances and refinements in any of the devices that are used in
conjunction with conducting business.
Global Influences - The pressures to improve quality, productivity, and costs as organizations
attempt to compete in the worldwide marketplace.

MAJOR PERSPECTIVE OF MANAGEMENT THOUGHT

• Engineers are expected to perform a variety of tasks depending on their specialization and job level.

SUBFIELDS CLASSICAL PERSPECTIVE

Scientific Perspective Focuses on the individual worker's productivity
• Administrative Perspective Focuses on the functions of management
Bureaucratic Management Focuses on overall organizational system

EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT THOUGHT

• Pre-scientific management period
○ Classical theory
○ Neo-classical theory
○ Bureaucratic Model of Max Weber

○ Professor CHARLES BABBAGE - United Kingdom (1729 - 1871)

 a renowned professor in mathematics at Cambridge University discovered that
manufacturers were relying on guesswork and suggestions and urged them to utilize
mathematics and science to be more accurate and productive

○ ROBERT OWENS - United Kingdom (1771 -- 1858)

 Robert was regarded as the “Father of Personnel Management” because of his approach
and focus on employee welfare. He introduced co-operation and trade unions.
 Robert believed that employee welfare could determine their performance to a large
 extent. He encouraged the training of workers, education for their children, canteens in
the workplace, shorter working hours, among others

• Scientific Management: TAYLOR

○ Frederick W. Taylor (1856-1915)
 Father of “Scientific Management – attempted to define “the one best way” to perform
every task through systematic study and other scientific methods
 believed that improved management practices lead to improved productivity
 THREE AREA OF FOCUS:
TASK • Scientific management incorporates basic expectations of
PERFORMANCE management, including:
– Development of work standards
– Selection of workers
– Training of workers
– Support of workers

SUPERVISION • Taylor felt that a single supervisor could not be an expert at all tasks.
• As a result, each first-level supervisor should be responsible only
workers who perform a common function familiar to the
supervisor.
 • This became known as “Functional Foremanship”

MOTIVATION • Taylor believed money was the way to motivate workers to their
fullest capabilities.
• He advocated a piecework system in which worker’s pay was
tied to their output.
• Workers who met a standard level of production were paid a
standard wage rate.
• Workers whose production exceeded the standard were paid at
a higher rate for all of their production output.

• Scientific Management: THE GILBRETHS

○ Frank Gilbreth
 Specialized in time and motion studies to determine the most efficient way to perform
tasks
□ Used motion pictures of bricklayers to identified work elements (therbligs) such as
lifting and grasping Lillian Gilbreth
□ A strong proponent of better working conditions as a means of improving efficiency
and productivity– Favored standard days with scheduled lunch breaks and rest
periods for workers
□ Strived for removal of unsafe working conditions and the abolition of child labor

• Administrative Management: FAYOL

○ HENRI FAYOL (1841 - 1925)
 First recognized that successful managers had to understand the basic managerial
functions.
 Developed a set of 14 general principles of management.
 Fayol’s managerial functions of planning, leading, organizing and controlling are routinely
used in modern organizations.
 PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT
 □ Fayol was an engineer who worked his way up to become manager of the Compagnie
de Commentry-Fourchambault-Decazeville mining company in France, at the tail end
of the industrial revolution. Under his watch, the struggling firm prospered.
□ He wrote, "When I assumed the responsibility for the restoration of Decazeville, I did
not rely on my technical superiority... I relied on my ability as an organizer [and my]
skill in handling men." [1]

○ ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY
 Administrative Theory is characterized by people "on the ground" who share personal
experiences, improve practices, and help others to run an organization. It looks at the
organization from the top down and sets out steps for managers to get the best from
employees and to run a business efficiently.

 This contrasts with the Scientific Management school led by Frederick Taylor , which
experimented with how individuals work to boost productivity.

1. Division of Work • Work should be divided among individuals and groups to ensure
that effort and attention are focused on special portions of the
task.
• Fayol presented work specialization as the best way to use the
human resources of the organization.
2. Authority • The concepts of Authority and Responsibility are closely related.
• Authority was defined by Fayol as the right to give orders and the
power to exact obedience.
• Responsibility involves being accountable and is therefore
naturally associated with authority.
• Whoever assumes authority also assumes responsibility
3. Discipline • A successful organization requires the common effort of
workers.
• Penalties should be applied judiciously to encourage this
common effort
4. Unity of • Workers should receive orders from only one manager
Command
5. Unity of Direction • The entire organization should be moving towards a common
objective in a common direction.
• Efforts of all members of the organization should be directed
towards the common goal
6. Subordination of • The interests of one person should not take priority over the
Individual interest to interests of the organization as a whole.
the general interest
7. Remuneration • A successful organization provides proper remuneration to
workers.
• Remuneration comes in financial and non-financial forms which
are given in exchange of the jobs performed by workers.
8. Centralization • Fayol defined centralization as lowering the importance of the
subordinate role.
• Decentralization is increasing the importance.
• The degree to which centralization/decentralization should be
adopted depends on the specific organization in which the
 manager is working
9. Scalar Chain Managers in hierarchies are part of a chain like authority scale.
• Each manager, from the first line supervisor to the
president, possess certain amounts of authority.
• The President possesses the most authority; the first line
supervisor the least.
• Lower-level managers should always keep upper-level
managers informed of their work activities.
• The existence of a scalar chain and adherence to it are
necessary if the organization is to be successful
10. Order • For the sake of efficiency and coordination, all materials and
people related to a specific kind of work should be treated as
equally as possible.
11. Equity • All employees should be treated as equally as possible.
12. Stability of • Retaining productive employees should always be a high priority
Tenure of Personnel of management.
• Recruitment and Selection Costs, as well as increased product
reject rates.
13. Initiative • Management should take steps to encourage worker initiative
which is defined as new or additional work activity undertaken
through self direction
14. Espirit De Corps • Management should encourage Harmony and general good
feelings among employees.

• BUREAUCRATIC MANAGEMENT: WEBER

○ Focuses on overall organizational system
○ Bureaucratic management is based upon:
 Firm Rules
 Policies and procedures
 A fixed hierarchy
 A clear division of labor

○ MAX WEBER (1864-1920)

 A German sociologist and historian who envisioned a system of management that would
be based upon impersonal and rational behavior
 the approach to management now referred to as “bureaucracy.
Division of labor
Hierarchy of authority
Rules and procedures
Impersonality
Employee selection and promotion

CLASSICAL VERSUS BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE

Classical • Focused on rational behavior
Behavioral • Acknowledge the importance of human behavior

• Followed the classical perspective in the development of management thought.

• Acknowledged the importance of human behavior in shaping management style
• Is associated with:
 - Mary Parker Follett
- Elton Mayo
- Douglas McGregor
- Chester Barnard

 Mary Parker Follett

- Concluded that a key to effective management was coordination.
- Felt that managers needed to coordinate and harmonize group effort rather than
force and coerce people.
- Believed that management is a continuous, dynamic process.
- Felt that the best decisions would be made by people who were closest to the
situation.
- FOLLETT ON EFFECTIVE WORK GROUPS
- Four principles of coordination to promote effective work groups:
○ 1. Coordination requires that people be in direct
○ contact with one another.
○ 2. Coordination is essential during the initial stages phases of any
endeavor.
○ 3. Coordination must address all factors and of any endeavor.
○ 4. Coordination is a continuous, ongoing process

 Elton Mayo
- Conducted the famous Hawthorne Experiments.– “Hawthorne Effect”
- Productivity increased because attention was paid to the workers in the
experiment.
- Phenomenon whereby individual or group performance is influenced by human
• behavior factors.
- His work represents the transition from scientific management to the early
human relations movement.

 Douglas Mcgregor
Proposed the Theory X and Theory Y styles of management.
- Theory X managers perceive that their subordinates have an inherent dislike of
work and will avoid it if at all possible.
- Theory Y managers perceive that their subordinates enjoy work and that they will
gain satisfaction from performing their jobs

 Chester Barnard
- Felt that executives serve two primary functions:
○ Must establish and maintain a communications system among employees.
○ Must establish the objectives of the organization and motivate employees.
- Developed an acceptance theory of authority:
 ○ Authority of a manager flows from the ability of subordinates to accept or
reject an order from the manager once they:
 Comprehend what the order requires of them.
 Review the order’s consistency with organization goals.
 Perceive a personal benefit in obeying the order.

• WEBERS FORM OF AUTHORITY

Traditional Subordinate obedience based upon custom or tradition (e.g., kings, queens,
Authority chiefs).
Charismatic Subordinates voluntarily comply with a leader because of his or her special
○ Authority personal qualities or abilities (e.g. Martin Luther King,Gandhi)
Rational- Subordinate obedience based upon the position held by superiors withi the
legal organization (e.g., police officers, executives, supervisors)
Authority

THE QUANTITATIVE PERSPECTIVE

• Characterized by its use of mathematics, statics, and other quantitative techniques for management
decision making, and problem solving.
• This approach has 4 basic characteristics
1. A decision-making focus
2. Development of measurable criteria
3. Formulation of a quantitative model
4. The use of computers

Decision-Making Focus • The primary focus of the quantitative approach is on problems or situations
that require direct action, or a decision, on the part of management.
Measurable Criteria • The decision-making process requires that the decision maker select some
alternative course of action.
• The alternatives must be compared on the basis of measurable criteria
•
Quantitative Model • To assess the likely impact of each alternative on the stated criteria, a
quantitative model of the decision situation must be formulated.
Computers • The decision-making process requires that the decision maker select some
alternative course of action.
• Computers are quite useful in the problem-solving process

SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE
 • An approach to problem solving based on an understanding of the basic structure of systems.
Environmental • Open systems - must interact with the external environment to survive.
interaction • Closed systems - do not interact with the environmen
• Synergy: • when all subsystems work together making the whole greater than the sum
of its part
Entropy • the tendency for systems to decay over time.

THE CONTINGENCY PERSPECTIVE

• A view that proposes that there is no one best approach to management for all situations.
• Asserts that managers are responsible for determining which managerial approach is likely to be most
effective in a given situation.
• This requires managers to identify the key contingencies in a given situation

• AN EXAMPLE OF THE CONTINGENCY PERSPECTIVE

• Joan Woodward’s Research
○ Discovered that a particular management style is affected by the organization’s technology
○ Identified and described three different types of technology:
 Small-batch technology
 Mass-production technology
 Mass-production technology

Production Example
Technology
Small-batch Custom fabrication machine shop, manufacturer of neon advertising signs,
technology print shop specializing in personal business cards, trophy-engraving shop
Mass-production Manufacturer of automobiles, manufacturer of refrigerators, manufacturer of
technology hair dryers, manufacturer of pencils
Mass-production Oil refinery, flour mill, soft drink bottler, chemical processor
technology
FUTURE ISSUES: DIVERSITY, GLOBALIZATION, AND QUALITY
• Heightened concern for diversity initiatives within the workplace and within management
• Adoption of the concept of workers as decision makers, problem solvers, and team players
• Creation of a focus on and commitment to the concept of quality

MANAGEMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY

• WILLIAM OUCHI’S THEORY Z
○ Japanese-style approach to management developed by William Ouchi–Advocates trusting
employees and making them feel like an integral part of the organization
○ Based on the assumption that once a trusting relationship with workers is established, production
will increase.

FUTURE LEADERS MUST:

• Be thoroughly schooled in the different management perspectives.
• Understand the various influences that will have a continuing effect on management thinking.
• Be aware of how key business environment variables relate to their organization.
• Know which elements to select from the various management perspectives that are appropriate for their
situation.
• Be adaptable to change such that future conditions and developments do not quickly render their chosen
approaches