The Evolution of Management Thoughts

A. Classical Approach
B. Contemporary Approach

Classical Approach:

 Systematic Approach
 Scientific Approach
 Administrative Approach
 Human Relations
 Bureaucracy Approach

Contemporary Approach:

 Quantitative Management
 Organizational Behavior
 Systematic Theory
 Contingency Theory

Systematic Management
Adam Smith was the founder of systematic management
The systematic management approach attempted to build specific procedures and
procedures into operations to ensure coordination of effort.
Key Concepts
 Systemized manufacturing organization
 Coordination of procedures and processes built into internal operations
 Emphasis on economical operations, inventory management and cost control
Contributions
 Beginning of formal management in the united states
 Promotion of efficient and uninterrupted production
Limitations
 Ignored relationship between an organization and its environment
 Ignored differences in managers’ workers’ views

Scientific Management
Frederick Taylor introduced a second approach to management
The scientific approach advocated the application of scientific methods to analyze work
and to determine who to complete production tasks efficiently. Taylor introduced four
principles of scientific management:
A. Management should develop a precise scientific approach for each element of
an individual’s work to replace general guidelines
 B. Management should scientifically select, train, teach and develop each
worker so that the right person has the right job
C. Management should cooperate with workers to ensure that job matches plans
and principles
D. Management should ensure an equal division of work and responsibility
between managers and workers
Key Concepts
 Analyzed work using scientific methods to determine the “one best way”
to complete production tasks
 Emphasized study of tasks, selection and training of workers and
cooperation between workers and management
Contributions
 Improved factory productivity and efficiency
 Introduced scientific analysis to the workplace
 Piece rate system equated worker rewards and performance
 Increased cooperation between management and workers
Limitations
 Simplistic motivational assumptions
 Workers viewed as parts of a machine
 Potential for exploitation of labor
 Excluded senior management tasks
 Ignored relationship between the organization and its management

Administrative Management
An explicit and broad framework for administrative management emerged in 1916, when
Henri Fayol published a book summarizing his management experiences. He identified
five functions and 14 principles of management. The five functions are very similar to the
four functions of management and are as under
1.Planning, 2.Organizing, 3.Commanding, 4.Coordination, 5.Controlling
Key Concepts
 Fayol five functions and 14 points
 Executives formulate the organization’s purpose, secure employees and
maintain communications
 Managers must respond to changing developments
Contributions
 Viewed management as a profession that can be trained and developed
 Emphasized the broad policy aspects of top-level managers
 Offered universal managerial prescriptions
Limitation
 Universal prescriptions need qualifications for environmental,
technological and personnel factors

Human Relations Approach

 It developed during the early 1930’s
  This approach aimed at understanding how psychological and social
processes interact with the work situation to influence performance.
 It was the first major approach to emphasized informal work relationships
and work satisfactions
The hawthorne Studies
 It was conducted from 1924 to 1932.
 In this study the influence of physical working conditions on workers’
productivity and efficiency was investigated.
 The Researches concluded that the workers performed and reacted
differently because they know that researchers were observing them.
 The Conclusion led the researchers to believe productivity may be
affected more by psychological and social factors than by physical or
objective influences.

Maslow’s Need Hierarchy

 In 1943, Maslow suggested that humans have five levels of need
 1.Pysciological, 2. Safety, 3. Social, 4. Ego, 5. Self actualization or
personal fulfillment
 Maslow argued that people try to satisfy their lower level needs and then
progress upward to higher-level needs.
 This approach generated research into Leadership.
Key Concepts
 Productivity and employees behavior are influenced by the informal work
group
 Cohesion, status and group norms determine output
 Managers should stress employees welfare, motivation and
communications
 Social need have precedence over economic needs
Contributions
 Psychological and social processes influence performance
 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Limitations
 Ignored workers’ rational side and the formal organizations’ contribution
to productivity
 Research findings later overturned the simplistic prescription that happy
workers are always more productive

Bureaucracy Approach
Max Weber, a German sociologist, showed how management itself could
be more efficient and consistent in his book “ The Theory of Social and Economics
Organization”

Key Concepts
 Structured, formal network of relationships among specialized positions in
an organization
 Rules and regulations standardized behavior
 Jobs staffed by trained specialists who follow rules
 Hierarchy defines the relationship among jobs
Contributions
 Promotes efficient performance of routine organizational activities
 Eliminates subjective judgment by employees and management
 Emphasizes positions rather than the person

Limitations
 Limited organizational flexibility and slow decision making
 Ignores the importance of people and interpersonal relationships
 Accumulation of power can lead to authoritarian management
 Rules may become ends in themselves
 Difficult to dismantle once established