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Traditional and Contemporary

Issues and Challenges
Classical perspective
Behavioural perspective
Quantitative Perspective
Integrating perspective
Contemporary Issues

Theory and History

• Theory
– Conceptual framework for providing knowledge
and blueprint of action
• Reflects upon cause-effect relationship
– Higher pay, better performance
– Better behaviour, more effort
– Developed from intuition, experience, trials, etc.
– Tested and found to be working under given
conditions
• Better management requires achievement of higher
effect for a given causation.
– Old theory can develop into newer and better theory

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Theory and History

• History
– Management evolved through development and
enhancement of theories over hundreds of years.
• New dimensions added to achieve better results
• Changes in surroundings lead to development of new
theories.
• Modifications in old theories lead to development of
new theories.
– Study of history of management is very important.

Management in Antiquity
• Instances
– Functions of planning, organising, and controlling
found to have been practiced in ancient Egypt in
the construction of the pyramids.
– Alexander the Great employed a staff organization
to coordinate activities during his military
campaigns
– Well defined structure developed in the Roman
empire to facilitate communication and control.
– Plato described job specialization in 350 b.c.
– Alfarabi listed several leadership traits in a.d. 900.

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Early Pioneers
• Robert Owen (1771–1858)
– Recognised importance of human resources
• Believed that workers deserved respect and dignity.
• Implemented better working conditions, a higher
minimum working age for children, meals for
employees, and reduced work hours.
• Assumed that giving more attention to workers would
pay off in increased output.

Early Pioneers
• Charles Babbage (1792–1871)
– Focused on of production efficiency
– Placed great faith in division of labour (job
specialisation)
– Advocated application of mathematics to such
problems as the efficient use of facilities and
materials
– Understood that a harmonious relationship
between management and labour could serve to
benefit both,
• Favoured profit-sharing plans

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The Classical Management Perspective

• Scientific Management School
– Frederic Winslow Taylor
• The Gilbreths
• Henry Lawrence Gantt
• Harrington Emerson
• Administrative/Functional School
– Henri Fayol
• Lyndall Urwick
• Max Weber
• Mary Parker Follet
• Chester Barnard

The Classical Management Perspective

Scientific Management
• Focused on increasing productivity of labour
– Short in supply compared to growth of businesses
after industrial revolution
• Frederic Winslow Taylor was the main
proponent
– Soldiering
• Deliberate work-performance at a slow pace compared
to their capabilities
• Attempted to find ways that workers would work to
their full potential.

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The Classical Management Perspective

Scientific Management
• Increase labour efficiency
– Jobs broken down to component task to find out
the best way each task could be performed.
• Piecework/differential pay system
– Extra pay for producing more than the target set
for a given job
• Rest periods
– To reduce fatigue

The Classical Management Perspective

Scientific Management
• Four principles
– Development of a true science of management to
determine the ‘one best way’ of performing each
task of a job.
– The scientific selection of workers to ensure that
the worker best suited to do a task gets it.
– The scientific education and development of the
worker.
– Intimate, friendly cooperation between
management and labour.

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The Classical Management Perspective

Scientific Management
• Results
– Productivity increased manifold (about 9 times)
• Criticised as labour exploitation
– a device to get more work from each employee
and to reduce the total number of workers
needed
• Congressional investigation
– Alleged falsification of findings

The Classical Management Perspective

Scientific Management
• Other contributors
– The Gilbreths
• Frank Gilbreth: Developed the “Motion Study”
– Every motion removed from a task removed fatigue and
improved efficiency
» Use in brick laying operations reduced motions from 18 to
5 and increased output about 200 percent
• Lillian Gilbreth: Contributed to industrial psychology
and personnel management

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The Classical Management Perspective

Scientific Management
• Other contributors
– Henry Lawrence Gantt
• Developed the “Gantt chart,”
– A means of scheduling work and can be generated for each
worker or for a complex project as a whole.
– Refined Taylor’s ideas about piecework pay systems.
– Harrington Emerson
• Strong advocate of
– scientific management
– Job specialisation

The Classical Management Perspective

Administrative Management
• Focus on managing the total organisation
• Henri Fayol was the biggest contributor
– He attempted to systematise the practice of
management to provide guidance and direction to
other managers.
– Developed the principles of managing organisations
• Most are still applicable
– First to identify the specific managerial functions of
planning, organising, leading, and controlling.
• Still used today

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The Classical Management Perspective

Administrative Management
• Other contributors
– Max Weber
• Developed the concept of bureaucracy
– In a large organisation with thousands of workers, legalised
and hierarchical structure and carefully controlled regulation
of activities should be established.”
– Chester Barnard
• Developed the acceptance theory
– Subordinates weigh the legitimacy of a supervisor’s directives
and then decide whether to accept them.
– An order is accepted if the subordinate understands it, is able
to comply with it, and views it as appropriate

The Classical Management Perspective

Administrative Management
• Other contributors
– Lyndall Urwick
• Integrated (combined) Scientific management with
administrative management
– Advanced modern thinking about managerial functions
– Developed a list of guidelines for improving managerial
effectiveness
– Contributions are not considered original but enhancement

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The Classical Management Perspective

Classical Management in perspective
• Contributions
• Laid foundation for later developments in management
theory.
• Identified important management processes, functions,
and skills that are still recognised today.
• Focused attention on management as valid subject of
scientific inquiry.
• Limitations
• More appropriate for stable and simple organizations than
for today’s dynamic and complex organisations.
• Often prescribed universal procedures that are not
appropriate in some settings.
• Not enough focus on human element
– Employees viewed as tools rather than human resources.

The Behavioural Management

Perspective
• Recognised importance of behavioural
processes in workplace and emphasised
– Individual attitudes and behaviour
– Group process
• Development of behavioural management
– Industrial psychology movement
– Human relations movement
– Organisational behaviour

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The Behavioural Management Perspective

Industrial Psychology Movement

• Applied psychological concepts to industrial
settings
• Key contributors
– Henry Munsterberg
– Mary Parker Follet
– Elton Mayo

The Behavioural Management Perspective

Industrial Psychology Movement

• Hugo Munsterberg
– Suggested that psychologists could make valuable
contributions to managers in the areas of
employee selection and motivation
• Mary Parker Follet
– Great believer of the group where individuals
could combine their diverse talents into
something bigger.
• Believed that no one could become a whole person
except as a member of a group growing relationships
with others in the organisations.

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The Behavioural Management Perspective

Industrial Psychology Movement

– Elton Mayo
• Hawthorne study
– When “employee management” stimulates more and better
work there is effective human relations in the organisation.
– Hawthorne Effect
» Employees would work more efficiently if they believed
management was concerned about their welfare and
supervisors paid special attention to them.
• Piecework incentive pay plan for group
– Contrary to suggestion of scientific management, group itself
established acceptable level of output for its members.
– As group members approached this acceptable level of
output, workers slacked off to avoid overproducing
– Wage incentives were less important to the individual workers
than was social acceptance in determining output

The Behavioural Management Perspective

Human Relations Movement

• Proposed that
– Workers respond primarily to the social context of
the workplace, including social conditioning,
group norms and interpersonal dynamics.
• A basic assumption
– Manager’s concern for workers would lead to
increased satisfaction, which would in turn result
in improved performance
• Key contributors
– Abraham Maslow
– Douglas McGregor

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The Behavioural Management Perspective

Human Relations Movement

– Abraham Maslow
• People are motivated by a hierarchy of needs
– Physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self actualisation
– As lower level needs get satisfied, higher level needs start to
dominate
– Managers should be watchful of employee need and try to
fulfill those needs
– Douglas McGregor
• People maybe viewed as
– Theory X: lazy and unwilling to work. They have to be made to
work by force
– Theory: people do not inherently dislike work. Given the right
conditions, they will excel
– McGregor advocated the use of theory Y.
» (Refer to Table 2.2)

The Behavioural Management Perspective

Emergence of Org. Behaviour

• Contemporary theorists notes
– Many assertions of the human relationists were simplistic
and provided inadequate descriptions of work behaviour.
• Assumption that worker satisfaction leads to improved
performance has been shown to have little validity.
– If anything, satisfaction follows good performance rather than
precedes it.
• Organisational behaviour
– Draws from a broad, interdisciplinary base of psychology,
sociology, anthropology, economics, and medicine.
– Takes holistic view of behaviour and addresses individual,
group, and organisation processes.
• These processes are major elements in contemporary management
theory.
– Important topics include job satisfaction, stress, motivation, leadership, group
dynamics, organisational politics, interpersonal conflict, and the structure and
design of organisations.

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Quantitative Management Perspective

• Focuses on decision making, economic
effectiveness, mathematical models, and use of
computers.
– Management science
• Focuses on development of mathematical models.
– Simplified representation of a system, process, or relationship
» Simulation techniques, sensitivity analysis, etc.
– Operations management
• Concerned with increasing efficiency and effectiveness
production and productivity
– Plant location, plant layout, CPM, PERT, Linear programming

Integrating Perspectives for Managers

• Recognises the importance of all three major
perspectives of managing (Classical, Behavioural
and quantitative)
– Systems Perspective
– Contingency Perspective

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Integrating Perspectives for Managers

Systems Perspective
– Views organisation as a system of interrelated parts
where the output of the whole is greater than the
sum of the outputs of its parts separately. (Figure
2.3)
• Open system:
– Interacts with the environment and responds to changes there in
• Subsystems:
– Smaller systems within a system that have to be integrated
among themselves and also with the whole system
• Synergy:
– Sum of the whole is bigger than sum of individual parts
• Negative entropy:
– The ability to survive and continue through proper interaction
with environment

Integrating Perspectives for Managers

Contingency Perspective
• Universal theories cannot be applied to
organisations because each organisation is
unique.
– Instead, appropriate managerial behaviour in a given
situation depends on, or is contingent on, unique
elements in that situation
– Effective managerial behavior in one situation
cannot always be generalized to other situations

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Contemporary Issues
– New Organisational Environments:
• Various internal and external factors affecting organisational management.
– Ethics and Social Responsibility:
• Values and and culture of people embodying the organisation.
– Globalisation and Management:
• Effects of the borderless world.
– Inventing and reinventing organisations:
• The search for ways to unleash creative potential of employees and
management and Structuring the organisation to adapt to changing
conditions.
– Cultures and Multiculturalism:
• Recognition of various perspectives and values of multicultural work force
as a significant source of contributors.
– Quality:
• Stress on conducting every organisational process to provide high-quality
products.

Best

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