EVOLUTION OF

MANAGEMENT
THOUGHT
Module 2
 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT – F.W.
TAYLOR
• American Mechanical Engineer
• ‘Scientific Management Movement’ pioneered by Taylor
• He observed that there was excessive inefficiency in the management and functioning of
industrial enterprises.
• In fact, the primary blame for the inefficient functioning of industrial enterprises was put on
management;
• Because it was management who did not know what constituted a fair day’s task and also the
‘best way’ of doing the same.
• Therefore, he came out with his new concept of management, called scientific management.
• In 1909, Taylor published "The Principles of Scientific Management.“
• In this, he proposed that by optimizing and simplifying jobs, productivity would increase.
• the idea that workers and managers needed to cooperate with one another.
• This was very different from the way work was typically done
• A factory manager at that time had very little contact with the workers, and he left them on
their own to produce the necessary product.
• There was no standardization, and a worker's main motivation was often continued
employment, so there was no incentive to work as quickly or as efficiently as possible.
• Taylor believed that all workers were motivated by money, so he promoted the idea of "a fair
day's pay for a fair day's work." In other words, if a worker didn't achieve enough in a day,
he didn't deserve to be paid as much as another worker who was highly productive
• Scientific management involves the application of a scientific approach to managerial
decision­making (consisting of-collection of data, an analysis of data and basing decisions
on the outcome of such analyses);
• and discarding at the same time, all unscientific approaches, like – rule of the thumb, a hit
or miss approach and a trial and error approach.
 TAYLOR’S FIVE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC
MANAGEMENT

• Science, Not Rule of Thumb:

• adoption of a scientific approach to managerial decision making; and a complete discard of all
unscientific approaches
• There should be a proper cause and effect relationship on which decisions should be made.
• decisions must rest on scientific analysis rather than trial and error. The best way of doing a job
must be selected and adopted.
• Harmony, Not Discord:
• the need for harmony among the employees.
• In case there are any conflicts between the management and the employees, the organization will
not be able to run smoothly.
• There ought to be a realization of mutual importance between the management and employees.
• Cooperation, Not Individualism
• A sense of individualism in terms of an organization can lead to diversion from the unified goals,
ultimately affecting the growth of the entire organization
• must make attempts to remove any competition to create cooperation. This cooperation must
percolate to the lowest levels

• Mental Revolution
• There needs to be a change in the attitude of the management and employees.
• the outlook of the management and employees should change in respect of one another. They
should both work with the collective aim of raising the profits of the organization and work in
unison.
• Development of Every Person to his Greatest Efficiency:
• When you develop and train your employees, you are creating a better workforce to take your
organization to better heights.
• To ensure that you are training the right minds, steps should be taken right from the moment of
selection, recruiting people based on a scientific selection.
• Division of Work: managers amd workers
• Specialization
 DIGITAL (NEW) TAYLORISM
• It is a modern take on the management style.
• Digital Taylorism is based on maximizing efficiency by standardizing and routinizing the
tools and techniques for completing each task involved with a given job.
• Digital Taylorism involves management's use of technology to monitor workers and make
sure they are employing these tools and techniques at a satisfactory level.
• E.g nowadays, in various fields (logistics, transports, maintenance, commercials, customer
service, services to individuals…) workers are equipped with “trackers” giving them real
time data and information about the completion of their tasks, instructions and assessment
messages, comparing their performances to a pre-established target or to their colleagues,
leading to rewards and sanctions based on these measurement
• Eg. The invention of the “sociometer”, a badge worn around the neck that can measure very
closely almost any action of the person wearing it such as the inclination to listen or to talk
or even the tone of the voice
 CRITICISM OF TAYLORISM
• promotes the idea that there is "one right way" to do something
• Rigid, rules-driven organizations really struggle to adapt in these situations.
• Teamwork is another area where pure Taylorism is in opposition to current practice. Essentially,
Taylorism breaks tasks down into tiny steps, and focuses on how each person can do his or her
specific series of steps best. Modern methodologies prefer to examine work systems more holistically
in order to evaluate efficiency and maximize productivity. The extreme specialization that Taylorism
promotes is contrary to modern ideals of how to provide a motivating and satisfying workplace.
• Where Taylorism separates manual from mental work, modern productivity enhancement practices
seek to incorporate worker's ideas, experience and knowledge into best practice. Scientific
management in its pure form focuses too much on the mechanics, and fails to value the people side
of work, whereby motivation and workplace satisfaction are key elements in an efficient and
productive organization.
HENRY FAYOL’S MANAGEMENT
PRINCIPLES
 HUMAN RELATIONS THEORY : THE
HAWTHORNE EXPERIMENTS
• The Hawthorne experiments were groundbreaking studies in human relations that were
conducted between 1924 and 1932 at Western Electric Company's Hawthorne Works in
Chicago
• Elton Mayo is considered the founder of the Human Relations Theory
• They conducted 4 experiments
 PART I - ILLUMINATION
EXPERIMENTS (1924-27)

• These experiments were performed to find out the effect of different levels of illumination
(lighting) on productivity of labour. The brightness of the light was increased and decreased
to find out the effect on the productivity of the test group. Surprisingly, the productivity
increased even when the level of illumination was decreased. It was concluded that factors
other than light were also important.
 PART II - RELAY ASSEMBLY TEST
ROOM STUDY (1927-1929)

• Under these test two small groups of six female telephone relay assemblers were selected.
Each group was kept in separate rooms. From time to time, changes were made in working
hours, rest periods, lunch breaks, etc. They were allowed to choose their own rest periods
and to give suggestions. Output increased in both the control rooms. It was concluded that
social relationship among workers, participation in decision-making, etc. had a greater effect
on productivity than working conditions.
 PART III - MASS INTERVIEWING
PROGRAMME (1928-1930)

• 21,000 employees were interviewed over a period of three years to find out reasons for
increased productivity. It was concluded that productivity can be increased if workers are
allowed to talk freely about matters that are important to them.
 PART IV - BANK WIRING OBSERVATION
ROOM EXPERIMENT (1932)

• A group of 14 male workers in the bank wiring room were placed under observation for six
months. A worker's pay depended on the performance of the group as a whole. The
researchers thought that the efficient workers would put pressure on the less efficient
workers to complete the work. However, it was found that the group established its own
standards of output, and social pressure was used to achieve the standards of output.
 CONCLUSIONS OF HAWTHORNE
STUDIES / EXPERIMENTS

• The social and psychological factors are responsible for workers' productivity and job satisfaction. Only good
physical working conditions are not enough to increase productivity.
• The informal relations among workers influence the workers' behaviour and performance more than the formal
relations in the organisation.
• Employees will perform better if they are allowed to participate in decision-making affecting their interests.
• Employees will also work more efficiently, when they believe that the management is interested in their welfare.
• When employees are treated with respect and dignity, their performance will improve.
• Financial incentives alone cannot increase the performance. Social and Psychological needs must also be
satisfied in order to increase productivity.
• Good communication between the superiors and subordinates can improve the relations and the productivity of
the subordinates.
• Special attention and freedom to express their views will improve the performance of the workers.
 CRITICISM OF HAWTHORNE
STUDIES / EXPERIMENTS
• Lacks Validity : The Hawthorne experiments were conducted under controlled situations. These findings will not work in
real setting. The workers under observation knew about the experiments. Therefore, they may have improved their
performance only for the experiments.

• More Importance to Human Aspects : The Hawthorne experiments gives too much importance to human aspects. Human
aspects alone cannot improve production. Production also depends on technological and other factors.

• More Emphasis on Group Decision-making : The Hawthorne experiments placed too much emphasis on group decision-
making. In real situation, individual decision-making cannot be totally neglected especially when quick decisions are
required and there is no time to consult others.

• Over Importance to Freedom of Workers : The Hawthorne experiments gives a lot of importance to freedom of the
workers. It does not give importance to the constructive role of the supervisors. In reality too much of freedom to the workers
can lower down their performance or productivity.
 MODERN APPROACHES
• the principles of management reached a stage of refinement and perfection. The formation of
big companies resulted in the separation of ownership and management.
• This change in ownership pattern inevitably brought in ‘salaried and professional managers’
in place of ‘owner managers’.
• The giving of control to the hired management resulted in the wider use of scientific
methods of management.
• But at the same time the professional management has become socially responsible to
various sections of society such as customers, shareholders, suppliers, employees, trade
unions and other Government agencies.
 QUANTITATIVE APPROACH TO
MANAGEMENT
Also called operations research or management science

• Evolved from mathematical and statistical methods developed to solve WWII military logistics
and quality control problems
• Focuses on improving managerial decision making by applying:
• Statistics, optimization models, information models, and computer simulations
• It uses scientific techniques for providing quantitative base for managerial decisions.
• It can be expressed in terms of mathematical symbols and relationships or models. Different
mathematical and quantitative techniques or tools, such as linear programming, simulation and
queuing, are being increasingly used in almost all the areas of management for studying a wide
range of problems.
 LIMITATIONS
• This approach does not give any weightage to human element which plays a dominant role
in all organisations.
• In actual life executives have to take decisions quickly without waiting for full information
to develop models.
• The various mathematical tools help in decision making. But decision­making is one part of
managerial activities. Management has many other functions than decision-making.
• This approach supposes that all variables to decision-making are measurable and inter-
dependent. This assumption is not realistic.
• Sometimes, the information available in the business for developing mathematical models
are not upto date and may lead to wrong decision-making
 SYSTEMS APPROACH
• System Defined
• A set of interrelated and interdependent parts arranged in a manner that produces a unified
whole.
• Basic Types of Systems
• Closed systems
• Are not influenced by and do not interact with their environment (all system input and output is
internal).
• Open systems
• Dynamically interact to their environments by taking in inputs and transforming them into outputs that
are distributed into their environments.
THE ORGANIZATION AS AN OPEN
SYSTEM
IMPLICATIONS OF THE SYSTEMS
APPROACH
• Coordination of the organization’s parts is essential for proper
functioning of the entire organization.
• Decisions and actions taken in one area of the organization will
have an effect in other areas of the organization.
• Organizations are not self-contained and, therefore, must adapt
to changes in their external environment.
• The systems approach assists in studying the functions of complex organisations and has
been utilised as the base for the new kinds of organisations like project management
organisation. It is possible to bring out the inter-relations in various functions like planning,
organising, directing and controlling. This approach has an edge over the other approaches
because it is very close to reality.
• Criticism:
• This approach is called abstract and vague. It cannot be easily applied to large and complex
organisations. Moreover, it does not provide any tool and technique for managers.
 2–27

THE CONTINGENCY APPROACH

• Also sometimes called the situational approach.

• There is no one universally applicable set of management principles (rules) by which to
manage organizations.
• Organizations are individually different, face different situations (contingency variables),
and require different ways of managing.
• behaviour within an organisation is contingent on environment, and if a manager wants to
change the behaviour of any part of the organization, he must try to change the situation
influencing it

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

 POPULAR CONTINGENCY VARIABLES 2–28

• Organization size
• As size increases, so do the problems of coordination.
• Routineness of task technology
• Routine technologies require organizational structures,
leadership styles, and control systems that differ from
those required by customized or non-routine
technologies.
• Environmental uncertainty
• What works best in a stable and predictable environment
may be totally inappropriate in a rapidly changing and
unpredictable environment.
• Individual differences
• Individuals differ in terms of their desire for growth,
autonomy, tolerance of ambiguity, and expectations.
• This approach takes a realistic view in management and organisation. It discards the
universal validity of principles. Executives are advised to be situation oriented and not
stereo-typed. So executives become innovative and creative.

• Criticism:
• On the other hand, this approach does not have theoretical base. An executive is expected to
know all the alternative courses of action before taking action in a situation which is not always
feasible.