Week 4 - Assessment Point 1

Critically Evaluate The Influence of Classical and Human Relations

Approaches in Management Today.

Benson Gilbert Odo

A2002D10328392
Theories of Management (19606)
Dr. Attridge Mwelwa
15.10.2020

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 Abstract
The purpose of this article is to evaluate the influence of classical and
human relations approaches in management policies and practice today.
The classical theories mainly consist of scientific theory by Frederick
Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) and administrative theory by Henri Fayol
(1841-1925). On the other hand human relations theories consists of
theories from Elton Mayo, McGregors’s Douglas, Abraham Maslow and
others.
All of the above theories have contributed greatly in managing
organizations and from literature review it will be shown that
organizations have tried to use multiple/combination of more than one
theory at the same time in managing their organization affairs.
In this report firstly I will introduce the conceptual background of
classical and human relations theories. Secondly I will elaborate the
similarities and differences between classical and human relations
approaches. Thirdly I will identify relevant approaches of
contemporary organizations and lastly I will conclude with an
evaluation statement.

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 Introduction
In order for an organization to be confident about their progression/ development then it’s
management must assure their products/ services are continually advanced/ developed so that
to have greater customer satisfaction than their competitors. Schaper suggests that “The
mistery and functional management of people in organization is the initial affair of human
resource management.” (Nidas Schaper, 2004). The development of products and/or services
mainly depends upon technological improvement as well as training of employees so as to
improve worker’s knowledge concerning developed tasks. As a result effectiveness and
efficiency of management leads into greater productivity and performance of workers.
“Management is a process by which managers create, direct, maintain and operate purposive
organization through systematic coordinated and cooperative human effort.” - McFarland
While theory as stated in Business Dictionary references, is a set of assumptions,
prepositions, or accepted facts that attempts to provide a plausible or rational explanation of
cause-and-effect (casual) relationships among a group of observed phenomenon.
Management theory as stated in Business Dictionary references is a collection of ideas
which set forth general rules on how to manage a business or organization. Management
theory address how managers relate to their organizations in the understanding of it’s
objectives, the implementation of effective means to get the objective accomplished and how
to motivate performance of workers so as to produce above the average scale.
Although today’s management is not far different from management in previous decades and
century yet some changes both internal and external an organizational environment leads into
approaches which seems quite different from the previous approaches.

Review of Classical Theories

As stated in the abstract there are two mainly types of classical management approaches
namely scientific management and administrative principle. Generally the approaches Focus
on levels to improve productivity.

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Scientific Management Coined by Frederick Taylor
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) invented the scientific management theory in 1910 as
manufacturing industries were shifting from manual planning and execution into machine
usage. Scientific management is the process of using scientific ways to tackle organizational
problems and make decisions. (Frederick .W. Taylor, 1911). Despite the principles of
scientific management to bring revolution in organizations and assured the success of this
theory for the purpose of economic efficiency and labor productivity they have some
advantages and disadvantage hence must be modified so as to suit current situations and
environment.
Efficiency during this management approach was assured by suggesting bonuses to those
workers who produce above average expected products and hence workers try their level best
to be efficient in their line of production. (Taylor, 2004)
Scientific management principles.
The suggested principles for helping management includes,
Science study of element of work were the procedure is studied and the maximum possible
production way is observed. (Taneja et al, 2011)
Scientific selection and training must be used in order to have competent human resources.
Cooperation between management and workers. It helps to reassure workers that they are
valued by an organization and hence they must as well work hard for the organization.
Division of responsibility. Planning and doing tasks must be separated where, managers will
be planning and supervising while workers will be the ones doing the tasks by following
orders and instructions from their supervisors.
Mental revolution. The negative thoughts upon each other (management and workers) must
come to an end so as to bring the harmony environment. (Chen & Hitt, 2019)
Maximum prosperity. An organization must make sure among others that both workers and
organization do get good wages/profit at the end.
Taylor along with the Scientific Principles he did suggest techniques which will help to carry/
follow out the principles stated.
Techniques of Scientific Management. (Oberoi, 2016)
1. Time Study. Each activity must be studied well so that to know time taken on average to
perform the task.
2. Motion Study. Every procedure is studied and waste procedure are removed.

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3. Standardisation. Output standard is determined as well as equipment, tools and raw
materials
4. Functional Foremanship. Chain of command and communication must be observed so that
each and everyone can be responsible for his/ her actions.
5. Differential Piece rate Plans. Taylor suggest a way of motivating employees where he sets
higher wages for those who produce above average as well as low rate wages for those
producing below average.

Administrative theory Coined by Henri Fayol

Henri Fayol (1841-1925) invented the Administrative theory in 1911 at a local mine in
France where he was working. Since management was less effective due to lack of resources
for them to perform their work then he suggests that management must be dealing with
planning future tasks of an organization, organizing resources with accordance to the plan,
commanding and ordering workers on their specific tasks, coordinating to ensure team work
is attained and controlling all the organizational activities to see if the outputs resemble the
standard being stated before. Along with the functions of a manager he also suggested
fourteen principles of administration so that to increase productivity of the organization.
Below is the list of fourteen principles which were stated by Fayol,
1. Division of labour, 2.parity of authority and responsibility, 3.Discipline, 4.Unity of
command, 5.Unity of direction, 6.Subordination of individual to general interests, 7.Fair
remuneration, 8.Centralization and decentralization, 9.Scalar chain, 10.Order, 11.Equity,
12.Stability of tensure of personnel, 13.Initiative and 14.Esprit-de-corps. (Heames et al,
2010)
The functions of a manager as suggested by Fayol are five as explained below; (Khorasani
& Almasifard, 2017).
1. Planning. This is the basic task of any manager were the whole production process depends
on it.
2. Organizing. Managers do coordinate the resources and their allocation so as bring out the
effect of the already made plans.
3. Commanding. The task of directing and giving orders so that to facilitate work
performances.
4. Coordinating. They make sure the goals of an organization are attained as planned.
5. Controlling. Here managers make sure the actualization of the plan is done well and all the
gaps are well filled so that to produce above average/ standard.

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Generally when observing Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henri Fayol principles of
management we can say that;
“Despite the two principles being focusing on different points of view where Taylor’s
Scientific theory tries to increase efficiency (bottom-up view of organization) as well as
Fayol’s Administrative theory focuses it’s energy to make sure that effectiveness is attained
(top-down perspective), Brunsson(2008) also the two principles resemble in terms of
production as both insists on mutual cooperation between management and it’s workers and
the importance of employees and management at all levels for development/increase of an
organization productivity.” Pryor & Taneja (2010).
Review of Human Relations Theories
These theories emerged due to the set backs such as (1) Considering financial
rewards(Bonuses) are the only catalysts for workers to increase productivity, that is all
workers are economic men (2) Human side of an organization was completely left out. These
observations from the classical theories of management leads into formulation of various
Human relations theories. Human relations theorists examined factors other than economic
ones which harmonize the working place environment so as to increase production. These
social/human factors includes personal wants and needs, attitudes, positive relationships,
people feelings in the working environment as well as people’s perceptions. (Safferstone,
2005).
Human relations theorists such as Elton Mayo, McGregor, Herzberg, Abraham Maslow,Mary
Follet and others focuses their attention on what cause a certain human behaviour by looking
at the effects of supervision, working environments/conditions and incentives. (“What
motivates people?”). Therefore the theory itself was established in order to meet the needs to
consider for employee’s behaviour and motivation (P. Wolfgang, R. S. Kim and P. Suk,
1995).
The Theory of Human Needs put forward by Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) is based on
assuming that as long as a human is alive then his/her needs can not be completely satisfied
and that the sooner one need is satisfied the sooner the other need will emerge. He suggested
that human needs do vary in their importance ranging from basic, lower to higher level needs.
Where they start to decrease in number as they climb from basic to higher level.
Maslow Hierarchy of needs was as follows basic needs included Physiological needs such
as food water and shelter also safety and security needs. Lower/Psychological needs included

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Esteem needs as prestige and feeling of accomplishment, Belongingness and love needs as
intimate relationships and friends. Higher/Self-fulfilment needs such as achieving one’s full
potential.
Theory X and Theory Y was coined by McGegor (1906-1964). This theory explains about
how a manager tends to decide how he/ she will supervise his/ her sub-ordinates depending
on how his/ her assumption was upon their behavior.
Theory X managers always assume that employees are lazy and that they will not put their
full potential into the work ahead of them, hence they need to be closely organized and
directed through out the production process. Therefore in the end an average person tends not
to be very sensitive to accept accept responsibilities.
Theory Y managers assume employees have good self-control and so they put the required
effort on production process and tend to accept responsibilities with good conditions.
Mary Follet (1868-1933) putting into consideration that an organization is a group of people
who share a common understanding, manner/ tradition, she introduced the idea of social
work. Through this she insists on group /tasks/ works rather than people working
individually.
Goal-setting theory was introduced by Edwin Locke suggesting on contrary to many other
management theories which rely upon satisfactory outcomes. Locke believed that the goal
itself provides the driving force/ motivation.

Similarities and Differences Between Classical and Human

Relations Approaches
First of all we have to admit that putting aside their similarities and dissimilarities, both
Classical approaches and Human Relations approaches were and still are very important
theories of organization since the main aim of both theories is to increase productivity of an
organization as well as to increase efficiency in the organization.
The major similarity then between the two theories is their Objective/ Goal which is
economy and organization growth. Classical approach provides scientific principles so as to
increase productivity and efficiency of an organization while Human Relations approach does
so by providing social - psychological satisfaction to the employees.
The classical approach mainly encourage about formal organizational structure where each
worker would be given his job descriptions while Human relations approach encourage about

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informal organization where workers relationship within an organization will mainly be of
social nature.
The classical approach claims that economic incentives and good environmental conditions
are the good motivations to the employees while the Human relations approach felt that it is
non-economic factors such as social-psychological rewards are the good factors for
employees motivation to work.
Classical approach considers workers as equal as other factors of production such as
machines and raw materials where Human relations approach takes and treats workers in a
very special way compared to other factors of production because they claim that workers are
social beings that do react to management.
The Classical approach emphasis the authoritarian style of supervision, that is “decision are
made by top level and orders are given to the lower level employees” while Human relations
approach emphasis on democratic type of supervision, that is “decision is made by
considering inputs from workers of all levels as part of an organization”

Relevant Approaches in Contemporary Organizations

Case studies
Information Technology Industry
Google
Google, LLC is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-
related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, a search
engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware. It is considered one of the Big
Four technology companies in the U.S. information technology industry,
alongside Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft.
Google was founded in September 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were
Ph.D. students at Stanford University in California. Their primary priority was and still is
their customers and they always want to provide their customers (end users) with instantly
important information they are looking for.
Since Google leverage on their worker’s talent then Googlers section always recruits
people who are disciplined, creative and hardworking and rewards them with incentives if it
seems necessary. This proves that Taylor’s scientific management principle were the process

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of selecting workers is scientific and also training and development was taking under
consideration by the Google management.
“Google's employees are hired based on a hierarchical system. Employees are split into
six hierarchies based on experience and can range from entry-level data center workers at
level one to managers and experienced engineers at level six.”. This shows the application of
Taylor’s scientific management technique that is “functional foreman-ship” as well as the
scalar chain as suggested by principles of management by Fayor were commands and
communication made quickly and smoothly from level six to level one can as well be
observed.
Close cooperation between workers and management as well as division of
responsibilities between management and workers as suggested by Taylor’s scientific
principles can be witnessed on (founders’ IPO letter, 2004) “Employees are always
encouraged by their employer to be creative and innovators and are allowed to spend up to
twenty percent (20%) of their work time on creative and innovative thinking that will benefit
google” . Also Fayol’s principles of management such as Initiative for personal development
as well as Subordination of individual interests to general interest is very encouraged which
as a result brings maximum prosperity to both parties which is Google’s employers and
employees.
On Fortune magazine's list of the best companies to work for, Google ranked first in 2007,
2008 and 2012. (Wikipedia)
Facebook
Facebook, Inc is an American social media conglomerate corporation based in Menlo Park,
California. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, along with his fellow roommates and
students at Harvard College.
Although Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes states that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has too much
power, that the company is now a monopoly but early Facebook investor and former
Zuckerberg mentor Roger McNamee described Facebook as having “the most centralized
decision-making structure I have ever encountered in a large company” which leads Nathan
Schneider, a professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder to argue for
transforming Facebook into a platform cooperative owned and governed by the users.
(Wikipedia).
This clearly shows the application of one of Taylor’s management principle of Centralization
and decentralization which he suggests that “The relationship between centralization and

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decentralization is a matter of promotion and optimum balance should be maintained between
the two, keeping in view the needs and circumstances of the organizations). (Edwards, 2018).

Conclusion
About a century has passed since the start of almost all Classical as well as Human Relations
theories and despite the fact that there was quit a lot of differences between the two
approaches but it is worth saying that they still contribute greatly on developing efficiency
and effectiveness in today’s organizational activities. Regardless of the type of industry/
business a combination of two or more approaches seems to be used by modern management
systems to establish and run their activities depending on their objectives and needed outputs
as I have thoroughly describe on the contemporary organizations approaches section above.
Therefore, as it may not be seen directly which theory is nowadays used by modern
organizations, it is as well very arguably that the principles and techniques from the so called
Classical and Human Relations theories are the core sources of the Modern Management
systems in making new methods, principles and policies to run their organizations.

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REFERENCES
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Google Founders’ IPO Letter (2004). Retrieved from https://abc.xyz/investor/founders
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Taneja, S., Pryor, M. G., & Toombs, L. A. (2011). Frederick W. Taylor's scientific
management principles: Relevance and validity. Journal of Applied Management and
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