Management
Introduction
History has its own professional benefits and studying it makes sure we will not repeat the same mistakes that were made a long time ago. Our Corporate World is more complex than we think it is, and making a mistake here means inducing a loss. Management theories make it simpler, easier to evaluate and decrease the chances of loss induction.
Today management is what it is because of the great men we will discuss about later on. Taylor encouraged planning in the first phase, he emphasised over the importance of planning for all sizes and types of organisations. He was one of those who encouraged people coming from different backgrounds towards working hard; and brainstorming before performing!
These past theories encourage the students of today and the managers of the future to develop their own way of managing, establish their own set of theories and gather their own set of researches (Dwyer, 2005).
Some of the theories were discovered to reduce the capital costs, to save time, while others to develop an understanding towards a worker’s psychology. Altogether, the theories were all derived to increase the overall productivity of the company. A manager today is expected to do the same, increase productivity and profits for the company by all means possible. Being aware of the methodologies we can easily follow the lead.
Managers are the engine of a corporate business, without them it just can’t run. They provide the organisational hierarchy with a direction and have a huge responsibility to come up with. So to be able to fulfil the duties, he/she must set right what exactly management is (Gibson et al., 2013). The men we will be discussing about later are who clearly described what the job of a manager is and what are the aspects of management, such as Planning, Organising, Leading, synchronization and directing
The business world today, is undoubtedly very different from that of the past but the problems and the points of interest remain the same which is how to decrease expenses and enhance the productivity level. Our problems are pretty much still the same, so are our problems. We did not have a standard to follow; these theories gave us that standard. Also, reading them in details allows us to reduce the chances of errors, we won’t make the mistakes; older managers did. Unlike the managers from the past, the managers of the future will not have to start from scratch and they will be well prepared to plan, organise, develop and lead.
Management Theories
Scientific Management Movement:
Frederick Winslow Taylor
Frederick Winslow Taylor or F.W. Taylor was known as the father of the scientific management movement, was an engineer and a man of broader vision. He encouraged the workers to work hard but very soon realised that verbal encouragement alone was not enough. Being a machinist himself, he knew they could do much more than this (Hartley, 2006). At that time, daily wage system was the most embraced system, when the workers who worked only half as hard, got the same pay, the hard workers did not find a reason to work harder and deliberately kept their production down. So he made use of “piece-rate system” – where the workers were paid per piece, more pieces produced; more payment received. Initially it increased productivity, later on it proved to be insufficient to increase the workers’ productivity. He gave the workers competition by employing more intelligent workers who did a fair day’s work. Later on they also held back on their productivity per day.
He concluded that may be it is because nobody really knows the amount of work they should be doing per day so then he introduced Motion study. In it, he scientifically determined the shortest time taken to do a series of jobs, like allocation of time to fix the machine’s problems, and took out an average of every job done separately. Now that he was sure of what a fair day’s work is, he introduced “Differential Piece Rate System” – a worker who produced the average number of pieces received the regular rate per piece produced and those who produced even a piece extra were paid 10% more rates per every piece produced (Lemak, 2004). This extra rate per piece can be produced by the profits the company will gain by the reduced time and therefore cost of production.
He did not only emphasise on the increased productivity of the workers but he also emphasised on every worker or a group of workers being trained according to their own capacity and in what field they specialise in instead of leaving them to learn on their own. He emphasised on every worker being instructed and supervised in sufficient detail to understand their job. As for the managers he was the one of the very first men to give importance to detailed planning (mental labour) and to the execution of that plan (physical labour).
Henry Gantt
Gantt was an engineer and a consultant of management. He was famous for his “Gantt chart” which is still accepted to be useful for management. He was the one who insisted on the workers getting bonus over accomplishing their task well via task and compensation plan
Lillian and Frank Gilbreth
Frank Gilbreth (F. Gilbreth) and Lillian Gilbreth (L. Gilbreth) were known for Cheaper by the dozen. F. Gilbreth was a close associate of Taylor and played a major part in the study of motion. He and his wife together searched for the fastest and therefore the most time saving methods of Bricklaying so that more number of bricks could be laid in the same time as before. He introduced the use of Camera motion to measure the motions made by the workers in minutes (Rodrigues, 2001).
Gilbreths signified the importance of “One Best Way” of getting all job done and suggested that every organisation should be thoroughly observed and studied and in turn be adaptable to improvements for increasing productivity.
Harrington Emerson
Harrington Emerson - another pioneer of Scientific Management. He claimed that the railroads could save a million dollars a day by applying more scientific management methods in getting tasks done. He emphasised over efficiency and entitled his vision for the whole business world. According to Emerson, efficiency could be achieved by:
- Setting a clear set of goals stemming from objective; the best product in the shortest time and least expenses.
- Cutting down on costs by careful evaluation of new machines and changes in layout.
- Cutting down on costs by evaluating the necessary number of workers to get the job done without the need of paying extra wages for every extra worker. He found out, for instance, that an industrial plant could be run by 300 instead of the 600 men hired to run it.
- Dispatching (commonly used for railroads) – now called production scheduling and control. He basically wanted the time taken to repair the railroads to be reduced in order to increase utilisation of railroads.
- He suggested that everything should be standardised. There should be rational work standards, based not only on time motion study but on proper placement of each worker with conditions and operations standardised.
He introduced the system of remuneration and was a huge advocate of “competence”.
Human Relations
Elton Mayo
Mayo is known for setting the foundation of Human Relations Movement. He did this via the Hawthorne Experiment. Also, his findings were such because of him being a psychologist by profession. He insisted that if the workers were being allowed to socialise with each other, that is form groups that identify them, and being allowed to work without the fear of losing their jobs, it will in turn increase their productivity and proved his point via experiment. His explanation to this was that workers are human beings, and they are largely driven by their emotions and the need to feel a “sense of belonging”
His findings:
- Things other than money incentives can affect a worker’s productivity.
- Workers should be provided with a working environment that will arouse their interest in working.
- Increasing resting periods for the employees, increases productivity, most likely by reducing the fear of losing their job and feeling less-under-pressure.
- Workers have their own social needs that should be respected.
Principles of Management
Henri Fayol
Fayol was a French engineer and a major industrialist who derived the principles of management from his own past experiences. He concluded from his experience five functions of administration:
- Organise (both men and materials)
- Give command – that is to tell the subordinates what to do
- Coordinate
- Control
He also discovered fourteen principles to assist successful management.
- With authority comes responsibility. When you issue an order or set make a plan, you are responsible for however the outcomes might be.
- Unity of command – an employee shall receive orders from one superior only.
- Unity of direction – “one head and one plan” to be followed.
- Fast and easy communication must be ensured.
- Division of work.
- Discipline maintained.
- Organisational interest to be kept prior to everyone.
- Fair rewards.
- Centralisation – every employee should be exposed to the same information and be equally involved in decision making.
- Orderly management.
- Justice for everyone.
- Stability of employees or tenure.
- Employees with authority shall work harder and put in more effort.
- Team spirit.
Robert Owen
Owen was a theorist and an industrialist. He referred to workers as the most crucial element for the factory to remain in the position of running. To increase productivity the workers’ lifestyle must be improved by increased wages, said Owen.
Charles Babbage
Babbage was a professor of mathematics by profession who has interest and studied about factory in depth. He believed that specialisation will help reduce the work load of workers. Workers should be assigned tasks according to their own individual skills, i.e. what they specialise in. This will ease their work and therefore increase productivity.
Modern theories
Theories today have a sample to follow. We only have to research on the factors that were left unattended by these famous management revolutionaries. The importance of effective communication, for instance, has been a more recent founding than the ones mentioned above. Management today is work oriented and does not really base organisations on 9 – 5 working hour restriction. There are organisations where the employee can finish their work and go home earlier if they want. System Approach and Contingency Approach are a much recent discovery to understand the world of corporate management (Smith and Boyns, 2005).
System approach is such that it tackles the organisation as if it is an open system exposed to factors that may affect it in both ways. Contingency approach was derived to let managers deal with immediate changes or spontaneous situations that may arrive due to the organisation being exposed to external factors.
Conclusion
Management theories are of much importance to the world of management. These discoveries are what laid the correct and appropriate foundation of management. Before them also managers existed but there was no sense of order, there was haphazardness regarding what is be expected of the managers and how much should the workers produce? There were a lot of questions unanswered. These theories also help student evaluate management as a career, whether if they can cope up with the aspects of management or not. And if management it is, what field of management will it exactly be? Will it be Human Relations, Budgeting (Accounts) department or Management?
Reference List
Dwyer, R. (2005). Formal organizations in contemporary society. Management Decision, 43(9), pp.1232-1248.http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00251740510626290
Gibson, J., Chen, W., Henry, E., Humphreys, J. and Lian, Y. (2013). Examining the work of Mary Parker Follett through the lens of critical biography. Journal of Management History, 19(4), pp.441 - 458.http://ezproxy.deakin.edu.au/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JMH-05-2012-0044
Tabor Hartley, N. (2006). Management history: an umbrella model. Journal of Management History, 12(3), pp.278-292.http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17511340610670188
Lemak, D. (2004). Leading students through the management theory jungle by following the path of the seminal theorists. Management Decision, 42(10), pp.1309-1325.http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00251740410568999
Rodrigues, C. (2001). Fayol’s 14 principles of management then and now:a framework for managing today’s organizations effectively. Management Decision, 39(10), pp.880-889.http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EMU0000000006527
Smith, I. and Boyns, T. (2005). British management theory and practice: the impact of Fayol. Management Decision, 43(10), pp.1317-1334.http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00251740510634895
