Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lecture 14
Ir. ing. Robert De Bruyn Office: Room 4.103 Building: R1 r.debruyn@fontys.nl 27th October 2008
Planning
Planning consultancy meetings as of this week
See planning schedule in lecture 13
Classical approaches to organisational analysis Machine thinking Classical approaches to organisational analysis Organic approaches Exercises
Organizations
Machine or Organism?
Machines
Predictability Mechanical & electrical parts Depersonalised Plan or formula Engineers required Science Emotions, values, desires are removed Social aspect of life removed
Organisations as Machines
Organisational life is often routinized with the precision demanded by clockwork. many organisations are designed like machines and employees are expected to behave as if they were parts of the machine. McDonalds, Tesco & Disneyland are all to some extent examples of organisations using this approach. Machine type organisations are often called bureaucracies. Organisation derives from the Greek word oragon, meaning tool or instrument.
Examples
Can you think of an organisation that might display some of the characteristics of machine thinking?
Frederick W. Taylor
Taylor advocates five simple principles
Shift all responsibility for the organisation of work from the worker to the manager. Use scientific methods to determine the most efficient way of doing work specialisation Select the best person to perform the job. Train the worker to do the work efficiently. Monitor worker performance constantly.
Source: http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/scientific/
Another anecdote
Franks philosophy of sickness was to ignore it. He said, A sick person drags down the performance of the entire group ... You have been given health and its your job to keep it. Yet, in spite of his admonitions (Warnings), Frank was told that his tonsils needed to be removed. To enhance efficiency, he decided that as long as he was to have his tonsils out, the entire family would have their tonsils taken out at the same time. Frank even set up motion picture equipment to film the operating efficiency of the surgeon performing the tonsillectomies.
Lilian Gilbreth
Focused on the psychology of management to complement her husband One of the first working female engineers holding a PhD She is arguably (proven) the first true industrial & organizational psychologist Partnered together with Frank in a management consulting firm of Gilbreth, Inc. which performed time and motion studies
6 Subordination of Individual Interest to General Interest. The interests of the organization should take priority over the interests of any one individual employee.
7 Remuneration of Employees. The overall pay and compensation for employees should be fair to both employees and the organization.
8 Centralization. There is a need to balance subordinate involvement through decentralization with managers retention of final authority through centralization.
9 Scalar Chain. Organizations should have 10 Order. People and materials must be in suitable places at the appropriate time for a chain of authority and communication maximum efficiency. that runs from the top to the bottom and should be followed by managers and subordinates. 11 Equity. Good sense and experience are needed to ensure fairness to all employees, who should be treated as equally as possible. 13 Initiative. Workers should be encouraged to develop and carry out their plans for improvements. 12 Stability of Personnel. Employee turnover should be minimized to maintain organizational efficiency.
14 Esprit de Corps. Management should promote a team spirit of unity and harmony among employees.
Weber on Bureaucracy
Three types of authority: Rational - legal
legality of patterns of normative rule rights of those in authority
Traditional
sanctity of tradition legitimacy of those exercising authority under tradition
Charismatic
devotion to specific & exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person normative patterns of order stemming from leader
Advantages of bureaucracy
1. Employee behavior is consistent because of set policies, procedures, and rules. 2. Overlapping or conflicting job duties are eliminated because jobs are defined clearly. 3. Behavior is predictable because there is a hierarchy of authority (supervision). 4. Hiring and promotion are based on merit or expertise. 5. Employees develop expertise in their jobs because they specialize in those jobs. 6. There is continuity in the organization because it emphasizes the position rather than the person (that is, when one person leaves a position, another person assumes that same position).
Disadvantages of bureaucracy
1. There is too much red tape and too much paperwork. 2. Employees do not care about the organization. 3. Employees are treated impersonally (according to the rules). 4. Regulations result in conformity in behavior. 5. Relying on rules and policies stifles the growth of employees.
ISO 9000:2000
Rationale
Focus
One best way to do each Job level job One best way to put an organization together Rational and impersonal organizational arrangements Organizational level Organizational level
Assignment
1. The postal services in many countries are typical examples of bureaucracies. Explain why these companies chose such a perspective? 2. Can you give other examples of bureaucracies? 3. Are there different types of bureaucracies?
Organisations as Organisms
Organisations exist in a wider environment: open rather than closed systems organisational form varies dependent upon environmental conditions notion of organisation as an organism rooted in metaphor of biology:
adaptation to environment organisational health organisational life-cycles species of organisation ecological considerations
Assignment
Imagine an organisation as a brocoli What does this metaphore tell you about an organisation? Can you give an example of an actual organisation that fits this metaphore?
Theoretical Positions
Open Systems Theory Human Relations Contingency Theory
Source: http://www.accel-team.com/business_process/systems_analysis_01.html
An open system:
is in continuous contact with its environment transforms inputs from the environment into outputs returned to the environment need to adapt to changes in the environment
Father of human relations movement social man democratic management Leader of the Hawthorne studies (plant of Western Electric in Chicago)
Hawthorn studies
Illumination Experiment The initial experiment in the Hawthorne studies was an illumination experiment. In this experiment, workers performed their jobs under varying light conditions. As the lights were turned up or down, worker productivity rates were charted. Surprisingly, this study showed that whether lights were turned up or down, employee productivity increased. These researchers thus concluded that some factors other than light were responsible for the increased productivity.
Hawthorn studies
Relay Assembly Test Room Experiments Following the illumination experiment, some workers were placed in the relay assembly test room, and various experiments under different work conditions were conducted. As a result of these experiments, about 20,000 interviews were conducted. The Hawthorne researchers realized that people were not leaving their feelings, attitudes, and emotions at home. The employees were not at work simply for economic benefit. Other dimensions also affected their performance.
Hawthorn studies
Bank Wiring Room Experiment A final experiment was conducted in the bank wiring room with a small group of employees. In this study researchers discovered that the production quota set by the company (using scientific management techniques) was not the number of units actually produced by the workers. The researchers discovered that the workers had developed their own idea of the level of output that was fair. This informal standard of behavior, called a norm, was enforced by the work group to the point that output was restricted. Any worker who produced more than that number was pressured by coworkers to comply with the norm.
Followers of Mayo
Chris Argyris Organisational learning Fred Hertzberg Motivation-Hygiene theory Douglas McGregor Theory X Theory Y Rensis Likert Likert Scale
Contingency Theory
No one best way of organising or managing Appropriate form of organising or managing depends on the type of task and the environment Effective organisation depends on achieving a balance between:
strategy structure technology human need (s) external environment
Organisations are not functionally unified i.e harmony - as found in biological systems
perhaps unity cannot be achieved in organisational life discounts power & politics in organisational life
Rationale
Organizations must be thought of as open systems. Managerial actions must be set up on a contingent basis. Organizations must be designed to consider a variety of individual needs.
Assignment
1. Analyse the organisation McDonalds from the machine metaphore and the organism metaphore (Group 1) 2. Please explain the level of success (and currently failure) of McDonalds globally? (Group 2) 3. To what extend are companies free to chose a certain configuration (machine organism)? (Group 3) 4. Dell can be seen as a virtual organisation. How do virtual organisations deal with the tension between rules and regulations on one side and freedom and entrepreneurship on the other side? (Group 4)
Weblinks
http://www.accel-team.com/scientific/index.html http://www.accel-team.com/motivation/index.html http://www.accelteam.com/productivity/approaches_00.html http://www.biz.colostate.edu/faculty/dennism/Manageme nt-Evolution.html http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/scientific/