Studying

Management
Chris J arvis
Reading
Primers
Naylor, Management, FT Prentice
Handy C, Understanding Organisations, Penguin
Essential texts available in the library
Rollinson, Organisational Behaviour, London, Prentice Hall
(alternative Buchanan & Huczynski, Organisational Behaviour)
Fincham, R & Rhodes, P (1999) Principles of Organisational
Behaviour, Oxford: OUP
Recommended - read !!!!! e.g.
Morgan G, Images of Organisation, Sage
Hatch, MJ (1997) Organizational theory: modern symbolic and
post-modern perspectives Oxford: Oxford University Press
Additional readings from the library's e-journals, case study
materials & quality newspapers

Conceptualising Organisations
In business & management, ideas shaping our
view of organisations come mainly from the
disciplines of psychology & sociology, economics
& political science BUT
different perspectives
the psychological (organisational behaviour)
the sociological (organisational theory)
we look at BOTH analyse & understand
organisational form, development & behaviour
What is management?
A bunch of people who are in charge?
techniques?
a human activity process
- shaping & achieving organisational purposes & objectives
- within a changing environment
- balancing
- efficiency orderly reliable methods to transform
- effectiveness results, VfM, innovation, satisfaction
- right conduct (ethics & responsibility)
best value from resources available
working with & thru. other people
Fairness? Ownership, politics & power?
Entrepreneurial behaviour?
So you want to study management?
Why?
To be a career manager in a challenging, responsible job?
So
What do you want to manage?
Do you have specialist know-how or experience
to manage a specialist situation?
Can a manager be a "general manager" with
no specialist know-how?
What is this general mgt know-how ?
Are there jobs that only require this know-how & nothing else?
What know-how is needed to shape & drive organisational
purposes & objectives within a changing environment?
Subject disciplines?
What subject disciplines, knowledge & ability, inform the
know-how needed to
- create a business & bring structure & order to it ?
- sustain & transform the business?
- analyse & evaluate business effectiveness:
productivity, results, value for money, innovation,
shareholder & customer satisfaction?
- do managers need to be bound by high morals?
Must we "work with & thru. other people" or are employees
merely factors of production to hire & fire?
Should managers
- participate in ownership?
- avoid politics & power struggles?
Can we differentiate entrepreneur & managerial behaviour?
A Model for Manager Development?
1. Command of basic facts:
organisational, technical, hard,
soft
2. Relevant professional
knowledge
3. Continuing sensitivity to events
4. Problem-solving, analytical &
decision/judgement skills
5. Social skills & abilities
6. Emotional resilience
7. Proactivity - inclination to
respond purposefully to events
8. Creativity
9. Mental agility
10. Balanced learning habits &
skills
11. Self-knowledge
basic knowledge
& information
skills and
attributes
THE
SUCCESSFUL
MANAGER
meta-
qualities
Pedler, Burgoyne, Boydell, 1978, A Manager's Guide to Self Development, McGraw Hill
The nature of management theory
Statements
"Tesco appears to be the undisputed world leader in Internet
grocery sales. Its on-line home delivery service is now profitable. It
has struck a deal in the USA with Safeway which will use Tesco's
system for a home shopping service."
"Underpinning Tesco's success is excellent management and an
obsession with operational efficiency and productivity gains to
keep prices low or improve service not just merely increase profit
margins".
Prescriptive theory
Descriptive theory: analysis & prediction
Questioning, analysing, verifying
Abstraction and Reification
concepts become concrete when they are not
assign real qualities to abstractions e.g.
"system", "the organisation, "the community"
"Tesco" is a legal entity with form, positions & duties
"organisational interests" - actors
unequal power distribution
affect organisational actions
organisational behaviour reflects member actions
abstracting organisational actions/attributes is useful
influences & functions, what & how managers behave
we observe, compare & model - patterns of behaviour
comprehend & mobilise the whole (holism)
describe, classify & sometimes predict

Schools & emergence of management ideas
Classical
functional principles and Bureaucracy
management science hard measurements &
methods
Human relations from Hawthorne to leadership,
occupational psychology, groups & teams
Systems & cybernetic feedback & control hard & soft
Contingency & situation responses to change
Other perspectives?
Power, conflict & politics
Globalisation
Ethical
Today - POMO: deconstruction of social order e.g.
management as a seductive discourse & Bentham's
Panopticon
Classical Managerial Roles what managers do
Henri Fayol 1905
forecast, plan, organise, direct, motivate, communicate, control,
evaluate resources to achieve objectives.
generate & follow policies, rules & procedures (admin. > mgt?) &
solve problems
Bring order & control + handle & direct resources:
, materials, equipment, facilities, time
information & technology
people
Have 'subordinates' & communicate
information, instructions, ideas.
tell people what to do & how to do it?
have vision & provide sense of direction?
Functions & levels:
accounting, marketing, production, legal services, R&D, logistics,
Information systems, personnel
Strategic, operational, front-line, back-office

How is "classical management" done?
define functions & roles?
establish tasks & assign to groupings & roles?
decide methods, work processes & arrangements?
design work points & people-machine relationships?
determine work standards, targets, monitoring, control &
feedback arrangements?
acquire, brief and train staff. Establish norms?
decide reporting/control structure?
anticipate problems & developments?
decide reward & employment rules?
supervise, check and follow-up?
Managerial Roles what managers do?
down-size? remove layers?
substitute info. systems to link top
mgt & ops staff directly
Strategic brain
of the firm: vision,
change, policy,
configuration,
corporate
Operational
delivery, production,
service, methods,
performance, quality,
Middle functional,
coordinative, administrative,
controlling
Managerial Roles Mintzberg 1971
Ten roles managers perform over time
Interpersonal roles
- Figurehead
- Leader
- Liaison
Informational Roles
- Monitor
- Disseminator
- Spokesperson
Decisional roles
- Entrepreneur
- Disturbance handler
- Resource allocator
- Negotiator
Dauphinais: senior & middle managers
Create & implement strategy
Influence to follow goals & paths
Stabilise,consolidate, integrate, improve.
Drive adaptation & change.
(after H Mintzberg- The Nature of Managerial Work)
Hitchins - Generic Reference Model
Behaviour Management
cognition
belief systems
decisions
intent
Function Management
mission
responsibilities, duties
variability
resources
Form Management
structure
potential
influence
System
thinking
being
doing
stimulus
http://www.hitchins.co.uk Source
The Managerial Message: Goal-setting & Structuring
Corporate Mission
Strategy - plans, programmes, positions, ploys
Objectives + results
Inputs, processes, outputs and learning
Assumptions about
- control via "cascading" objectives
- integrating organisational & individual goals
- resource allocation & zero-based budgeting
Management by objectives - top-down, bottom-up
- key result areas
- critical success factors
- standards of performance
- monitoring and evaluation

Managerial Styles how managers "should" act in their roles
human (soft) vs. technical (hard) behaviours

Directive
practical, authoritative, impersonal, power centred
Analytical
intellectual, data, info & control, evaluative, plans &
prediction
Visionary
insight, enthusiasm, innovative, personal, flexible, adaptive
Behavioural
sociable, persuasive, promoting loyalty & respect
Leadership styles
predominant set of behaviours. Typically two
dimensions
Task orientation
Goal setting, planning, organising, scheduling,
controlling
Relationships orientation
Supporting, communicating, enabling
interaction, listening, giving feedback
What is missing?
Luck, timing, political nous ?
An ideal style the virtuous manager?
useful insight?
value as a model of preferred behaviours?
culturally bound?
compare "ideal" to
self interest
cooperation, competition, conflict
toughness, single-mindedness, multiple agendas
altruistic, concern for the other (satisfy everyone?)
acting under uncertainty + dilemmas
political judgement, flexibility & timing
using rhetoric (persuasive language) effectively
Management - practical not theoretical
applied common sense
statements about good mgt are obvious
bad mgt still occurs.
we 'know' with hindsight post hoc
successful practitioners have "frameworks of theory"
learned things - explaining how things happen
consolidated experience observations, rules, principles, guidelines
mgt theory is inductive in nature generalisation
observe propositions that "explain"
descriptive theory e.g. how MNCs are typically organised
shared understanding re 'principles'
some deduction from "principles" .....if A + B then C
prescriptive theory recipes
How things 'ought to be' (norms, values, beliefs)
'How best' to run an MNC
Evaluate these statements
Management engages in
systematic regular planning.
Managers have few regular duties
to perform.
Senior managers need plenty of
information provided by a formal
information system.
Management is a science and a
profession or if not it is rapidly
becoming one.
True or false?





Read www.brunel.ac.uk/~bustcfj/bola/mintzberg.html
Why historical perspectives?
Generalisations & hypotheses let us say
- "X or Y action will have the following effects"
where does the theory originate?
- experience, reports of others, shared traditions
study & theory takes understanding beyond common sense
history of management theory
- calibrates our view of the present & our interpretation
- helps explain how, what, why
- may indicate possible influences/causes
- see cultural, situational & longtitudinal differences
Questions
A. Explain & present examples of the 2004
application of scientific management?
B. What is the relevance of Fayol's principles of
management today?
C. Why are bureaucratic systems so important to
us today?
D. What is the problem of reification when we talk
of a business organisation as a 'system'? Give
examples.