Part 2:

Understanding the evolution of management thinking

• Evaluate and explain how the historical forces/ management perspectives covered in
the topic 2: The Evolution of Management Thinking is still relevant to the management
practices in this company
- Marks will be given based on how well you relate between the
topic/concepts/principles/perspective/theory in the topic to the company management
practices.
Historical forces refer to management practices that have evolved in reaction to historical

circumstances. Studying management history can help to develop strategic thinking, broaden

perspective and sharpen leadership abilities. Management is formed by the three major

historical forces which are social forces, political forces and economic forces.

Social forces are the characteristics of a society that govern and impact interpersonal

relationships. What are people's priorities? What are the requirements of the people? What

are people's expectations of one another? These pressures influence the social contract as well

as unwritten, common standards and notions regarding interpersonal relationships between

Unilever’s employee and management. Unilever’s employees are changing employment once

in a while and there are growing emphasis for work-life balance as evidenced by the usage of

videoconferencing. The effect of legal and political institutions upon persons and

organizations are referred to as political forces. The political system's fundamental beliefs

like the value of self-government, personal liberty, contract right and equality are all

examples of political forces. In every aspect of their lives, human is seeking power,

engagement and accountability. Economic forces impact productivity and supply, as well as

allocation on goods among competing users inside a community. Digital technology has

altered supply chains in the new emergent economy which is built heavily on ideas,

information and knowledge. Unilever's sales will be directly affected by a market crash or a

downturn. Individuals will be damaged directly to Unilever if they are unable to purchase

products. However, people have more money to purchase or reinvest when the economy is
booming and Unilever benefits. Unilever's adaptability to economic developments and tweak

organizational procedures to meet such changes is vital to its survival. As results of these

social, political and economic influences, management practices and viewpoints change.

Unilever’s managers seek out new ideas to assist them deal during difficult times.

According to the website Chegg Prep, there are three major management perspectives have

emerged which are classical perspective, humanistic perspectives and management science

perspective since the late 1800s. Classical perspective developed during 19th and 20th

centuries. The classical perspective is logical, scientific management approach that aims to

make businesses work like well-oiled machines. Tooling factories, structuring managerial

structures, teaching non-English speaking personnel, scheduling and settling strikes were all

issues in the factory system of the 18th centuries. These new issues as well as the growth of

huge complex organizations like Unilever, necessitated a collaboration and management are

being approached in a different way. The following subfields were included in this

perspective, every little difference in emphasis such as scientific management, bureaucratic

organizations and administrative principles.

Frederick W. Taylor was a pioneer in the field of scientific management. He is the "Father

of Scientific Management”. In order to enhance labour efficiency, he emphasized the

significance of scientific management changes. Scientific management emphasized that

decisions based on rules of thumb and tradition be replaced with exact procedures developed

after careful study of the situation as a method to improve worker efficiency. Scientific

management develops job standards, hires people with appropriate abilities, trains them,

supports them and reduces interruptions and offers wage incentives. Scientific management is

essential, especially the concept of organizing work based on careful task analysis for

maximum efficiency because scientific management failed to consider the social context and
the requirements of workers, it might lead to conflict and clashes between management and

employees.

According to Lumen, Max Weber who is a German sociologist, bureaucracy organizations is

the most effective and rational way to organize human activity and that systematic processes

and hierarchical hierarchies are required to maintain order, optimise efficiency and minimise

favouritism. Through characteristic of Weberian Bureaucracy such as personnel are selected

and promoted based on technical qualification, positions organized in a hierarchy of authority

and separation of management and ownership, bureaucratic organizations stressed

management on an impersonal and rational foundation. Work division with defined power

and responsibility definitions. Managers are bound by rules and processes that assure

consistent and predictable behavior. Personnel are hired and advanced based on their

technical abilities. The manager's ability to give instructions was not dependent on his or her

personality but rather on the legal authority that came with the managerial position. The term

bureaucracy has a definite meaning in today's companies, setting up images of infinite rules

and red tape. Everyone is treated the same regardless. Unilever has been successful due to its

bureaucracy of rules and regulations, well-defined division of labour, and technical

qualification as a hiring consideration.

Instead of focusing on the productivity of individual workers, administrative principles

emphasized the productivity of the entire Unilever. Unilever's management had to maintain a

unity of command which meant that each supervisor had to explain to each of his group or

division's employees what part of their job they should concentrate on. Each supervisor

receives direction and information from the managers above him and passes it on to the next

level of command. Administrative principles were contributed by Henri Fayol, Mary Parker

and Chester I. Barnard. According to administrative principles, workers were focused on the

social components of their professions as well as the monetary recompense they received for
executing the job. Unilever places a strong focus on organizational justice and the premise

that issues must be decided fairly and equally. Unilever restrict the influence of their biases

and personal feelings on their decisions in this way. The management functions of planning,

organizing, leading, coordinating and managing are also specified by administrative

principles.

Mary Parker Follett and Chester Barnard are emphasising need of understanding human

behaviors, needs and attitudes, social interactions and group processes. Human relations

movement, human resources perspective and behavioural sciences approach are all subfields

of the humanistic perspective. The human relations movement highlighted the effective

control comes from within the employee. The study of Nathaniel Hawthorne played a

significant role. In order to improve performance, it was necessary to improve human

relations. People perform best when they are organised in groups have excellent two-way

communication with their leaders and leaders interact and exchange information freely as part

of an overall integrated decision-making process. It will assist in the development of

management practise and research. Jobs should be allocated to address higher-level demands,

according to the human relations perspective, by allowing workers to exercise their full

potential. (Censis Technologies, 2021). The human resources perspective combines

prescriptions for designing of job tasks with theories of motivation because issues frequently

resulted from an inability to meet wants, Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs.

The classical management perspective was founded on Theory X, which assumed that

workers despise labour and prefer to be directed, that they must be forced to work, that they

want to avoid responsibility, that they have no ambition, and that they value security above

all else.

The scientific management perspective is a subset of the classical management perspective

that focuses on empirically determined changes in management practices as a means of

increasing labor productivity. It is applied mathematics, statistics and other quantitative

techniques to managerial problems. The fundamental ideas of scientific management

enhanced productivity considerably across all industries and they continue to be essential

today. Unilever’s workers feel exploited under this system. Unilever’s managers establish a

consistent procedure for each job. Unilever hire people with the right skills for each job and

workers will be trained in standard ways by Unilever. Workers also supported from them by

planning their work and avoiding interruptions. Finally, Unilever will offer monetary

incentives to workers who produce more effort.

A system is a collection of interconnected pieces that work together to accomplish the same

goal. The system works for obtaining information from the outside world, changing them and

then redistributing the modified input to the rest of the globe. There are some components of

systems theory which are input, transformation process, output and feedback. (Kelly, 2021).

The person, money, information, equipment and materials needed to generate Unilever's

goods and services are referred to as input. In the transformation process, Unilever's

management and technological strengths are used by converting input to output. Unilever's

output includes its products, services, earnings, losses, employee happiness or dissatisfaction

and other items. The understanding of outcomes has an impact on the resources chosen in the

next stage of the operation is referred to as feedback. Ideas from system thinking that will

have a major influence on organizational thinking. According to system theory, organizations

like Unilever are open systems with synergy and subsystem interaction. Synergy refers to the

concept of the total of its parts being bigger than most of its parts. Humans, groups and

organizations will achieve so much when they work with each other rather than when they

work themselves. A subsystem is a system component that is interdependent. Open systems

must interact with their surroundings to thrive. On the other hand, closed systems do not.

Unilever is an open system and disregarding the environment may result in failure.
 The contingency viewpoint adds to the humanistic approach by stating that managers' ability

to perceive key variations in the scenario at hand is critical to the successful solution of

organizational difficulties. Certain contingencies or variables are available to assist

management in identifying and comprehending situations. According to the contingency

perspective, understanding critical contingencies in an organizational process is required for

management's action. In contingency view, something functions in one scenario may not

always function from others. Management's job is to keep an eye out for any problems.

Leaders who identify key trends are more likely to succeed and traits in businesses are better

able to tailor solutions to those qualities. The environment, industry, technology and

multinational cultures are all important factors that managers must be aware of. It is the most

practical of Unilever's views since it handles problems on an individual basis and changes

solutions accordingly.

Reference
Lumen. Boundless Management. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-
management/chapter/classical-perspectives/.

Censis Technologies. (2021). How To Change Your Leadership Style and Adapt For The
Right Situation. https://www.censis.com/blog/change-leadership-style-adapt-
situation/#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20Humanistic%20Perspective,as%20vital
%20to%20organizational%20success.

Management. CHAP 2 MANAGEMENT Flashcards | Chegg.com.

https://www.chegg.com/flashcards/chap-2-management-079b7b35-a16d-4baf-8cca-
9d9293788593/deck.

Kelly, J. (2021). Systematic vs. Systemic: There's A System To The Difference.

Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/e/systematic-vs-systemic/.