(Evolution of management theory)

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 Introduction:

The evolution of management thought is a process that started in the early days of
man. It began since the period man saw the need to live in groups. Mighty men were
able to organize the masses, share them into various groups. The sharing was done
accord to the masses’ strength, mental capacities, and intelligence. The point is that
management has been practiced in one way or the other since civilization began.

Scientific management (Historical perspective):

Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) is called the father of Scientific

Management. His experience from the bottom-most level in the organization gave
him an opportunity to know at first the problems of the workers. Taylor’s principal
concern was that of increasing efficiency in production, not only to lower costs and raise
profits but also to make possible increased pay for workers through their higher
productivity. Taylor saw productivity as the answer to both higher wages and higher
profits. He believed that the application of the scientific method, instead of customs and
rule of thumb could yield this productivity without the expenditure of more human energy
or effort. The fundamental principal of Taylor saw underlying the scientific approach to
management may be summarized as follows:

1. Replace rule-of-thumb work methods with methods based on a scientific study of the
tasks.

2. Scientifically select, train, and develop each worker rather than passively leaving
them to train themselves.

3. Cooperate with the workers to ensure that the scientifically developed methods are
being followed.

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4. Divide work nearly equally between managers and workers, so that the managers
apply scientific management principles to planning the work, and the workers perform
the tasks.

The Hawthorne studies:

The Hawthorne studies were conducted on workers at the Hawthorne plant of the
Western Electric Company by Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger in the 1920s. The
Hawthorne studies were part of a refocus on managerial strategy incorporating the
socio-psychological aspects of human behavior in organizations. The studies originally
investigated whether workers were more responsive and worked more efficiently under
certain environmental conditions, such as improved lighting. The results were
surprising: Mayo and Roethlisberger found that workers were more responsive to social
factors—such as the people they worked with on a team and the amount of interest their
manager had in their work—than the factors (lighting, etc.) the researchers had gone in
to inspect. The Hawthorne studies discovered that workers were highly responsive to
additional attention from their managers and the feeling that their managers cared
about, and were interested in, their work. The studies also found that although financial
motives are important, social issues are equally important factors in worker productivity.

There were several other experiments conducted in the Hawthorne studies, including
one in which two women were chosen as test subjects and were then asked to choose
four other workers to join the test group. Together, the women worked assembling
telephone relays in a separate room over the course of five years (1927–1932). Their
output was measured during this time—at first, in secret. It started two weeks before
moving the women to an experiment room and continued throughout the study. In the
experiment room, they had a supervisor who discussed changes with them and, at
times, used the women’s suggestions. The researchers then spent five years measuring
how different variables impacted both the group’s and the individuals’ productivity.

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Some of the variables included giving two five-minute breaks (after a discussion with the
group on the best length of time), and then changing to two 10-minute breaks (not the
preference of the group).

The Hawthorne studies showed that people’s work performance is dependent on social
issues and job satisfaction, and that monetary incentives and good working conditions
are generally less important in improving employee productivity than meeting
individuals’ need and desire to belong to a group and be included in decision making
and work.

Management science:

Management science generally refers to mathematical or quantitative methods for

business decision making. The term “operations research” may be used
interchangeably with management science.

History:

Frederick Winslow Taylor is credited with the initial development of scientific

management techniques in the early twentieth century. In addition, several
management science techniques were further developed during World War II. Some
even consider the World War II period as the beginning of management science, as
this global conflict posed many military, strategic, logistic, and tactical problems.
Operations research teams of engineers, mathematicians, and statisticians were
developed to use the scientific method to find solutions for many of these problems.
Computer technology continues to play an integral role in management science.
Practitioners and researchers can use ever-increasing computing power in conjunction
with management science methods to solve larger and more complex problems. In
addition, management scientists are constantly developing new algorithms and
improving existing algorithms; these efforts also enable management scientists to solve
larger and more complex problems.

Management science techniques are used on a wide variety of problems from a vast

array of applications. For example, integer programming has been used by baseball
fans to allocate season tickets in a fair manner. When seven baseball fans purchased a
pair of season tickets for the Seattle Mariners, the Mariners turned to management

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science and a computer program to assign games to each group member based on
member priorities.

In marketing, optimal television scheduling has been determined using integer

programming. Variables such as time slot, day of the week, show attributes, and
competitive effects can be used to optimize the scheduling of programs. Optimal
product designs based on consumer preferences have also been determined using
integer programming.

Similarly, linear programming can be used in marketing research to help determine the

timing of interviews. Such a model can determine the interviewing schedule that
maximizes the overall response rate while providing appropriate representation across
various demographics and household characteristics.

Human relation theory by Elton mayo:

In stark contrast to Weber's bureaucratic theory of management, the human relations

theory emphasizes relationships. Mayo believed that productivity increases when
people feel like they are part of a team and valued by their co-workers.

The human relations theory emphasizes praise and teamwork as motivational factors.
This is basically the opposite of the bureaucratic theory. While emphasizing personal
factors is a good idea, there can be too much of a good thing. Valuing relationships
above all else can lead to tricky situations like office romances and promotions based
on personality rather than job accomplishments.

A happy medium between the bureaucratic theory and human relations theory might be
a better goal for managers. Some rules are necessary, but you shouldn't dehumanize
employees either.

Leadership: Leadership theories seek to explain how and why certain people become
leaders. Such theories often focus on the characteristics of leaders, but some attempt to
identify the behaviors that people can adopt to improve their own leadership abilities in
different situations. As interest in the psychology of leadership has increased over the
last 100 years, several different leadership theories have been introduced to explain
exactly how and why certain people become great leaders. Early leadership theories
focused on what qualities distinguished between leaders and followers, while
subsequent theories looked at other variables such as situational factors and skill levels.

Human resource management:

Personnel administration, which emerged as a clearly defined field by the 1920s (at
least in the US), was largely concerned the technical aspects of hiring, evaluating,
training, and compensating employees and was very much of "staff" function in most
organizations. The field did not normally focus on the relationship of disparate
employment practices on overall organizational performance or on the systematic
relationships among such practices. The field also lacked a unifying paradigm. 

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HRM developed in response to the substantial increase in competitive pressures
American business organizations began experiencing by the late 1970s as a result of
such factors as globalization, deregulation, and rapid technological change. These
pressures gave rise to an enhanced concern on the part of firms to engage in strategic
planning--a process of anticipating future changes in the environment conditions Human
resource management (HRM), also called personnel management, consists of all the
activities undertaken by an enterprise to ensure the effective utilization of employees
toward the attainment of individual, group, and organizational goals.

In the post-hire phase, the organization develops HRM practices for effectively
managing people once they have "come through the door." These practices are
designed to maximize the performance and satisfaction levels of employees by
providing them with the necessary knowledge and skills to perform their jobs and by
creating conditions that will energize, direct, and facilitate employees' efforts toward
meeting the organization's objectives. Human resource management has changed in
name various times throughout history. The name change was mainly due to the
change in social and economic activities throughout history. 

Situational leadership:

The term “situational leadership” is most derived from and connected with Paul Hersey
and Ken Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory. This approach to leadership
suggests the need to match two key elements appropriately: the leader’s leadership
style and the followers’ maturity or preparedness levels.

The theory identifies four main leadership approaches:

 Telling: Directive and authoritative approach. The leader makes decisions and

tells employees what to do.
 Selling: The leader is still the decision maker, but he communicates and works
to persuade the employees rather than simply directing them.
 Participating: The leader works with the team members to make decisions
together. He supports and encourages them and is more democratic.
 Delegating: The leader assigns decision-making responsibility to team members
but oversees their work.

Situational theories of leadership work on the assumption that the most effective style of
leadership changes from situation to situation. To be most effective and successful, a
leader must be able to adapt his style and approach to diverse circumstances.

For example, some employees function better under a leader who is more autocratic
and directive. For others, success will be more likely if the leader can step back and
trust his team to make decisions and carry out plans without the leader’s direct
involvement. On a similar note, not all types of industries and business settings require
the same skills and leadership traits in equal measure. Some fields demand a large

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measure of innovation, whereas in others, personal charisma and relational connection
with clients are far more important.

Systems management: The  systems management theory believes that a system is

a collection of parts brought together to accomplish some end goal or objective. Looking
at it from that perspective, if one part of the system fails or is taken out, the system itself
cannot work. Think about if you have a system to get ready for work in the morning and
part of that system is taking a shower. If there is no hot water (or worse yet, no water at
all), the system breaks down, and it is changed. There is still a system, just not the one
you are used to, and you must change the system in order to get out the door and go to
work.

That concept is really the foundation of the systems management theory. For this
theory, everything is part of a system. All pieces go together, and while it can indeed
function if one part is taken out, the functionality is impaired and the system itself has
changed. In systems management theory, we have three basic system types:

 Open System: A system that continually interacts with the environment around
it. For example, a manufacturer might use several different suppliers of flour to
make the product they produce, or an organization might have to move or
change as the demands of consumers change.
 Closed System: Is the opposite of an open system. It is a system (or company)
independent of the environment around it. Usually when we look at closed
systems, we are looking at very high-tech types of products that have limited
sources of input and produce a consistent product or output (like space
satellites). In fact, satellites are produced in a protected environment, like a lab,
to ensure there is no contamination.

References:

Frederick Winslow Taylor http://www.eldritchpress.org/fwt/taylor.html

Hawthorne studies https://courses.lumenlearning.com/

Bibliography: Camm, D. Jeffrey, and James R. Evans. Management Science

& Decision Technology. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western Publishing, 2000.

(https://www.verywellmind.com/kendra-cherry-2794702)

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