Four theoretical contributions which are central to the understanding of today's

organizations
By Mohamed Elfadil Ahmed
Organizational theory and behavior course
Scientific management – Taylor

Scientific theory of management is one of the oldest theory’s in management and it represent the

starting point for most of young management professional as it is one of the foundation of

management history. “From I900-20 Taylorism provided the dominant ideas about the 'worker'

and worker-motivation. But money was not enough and a great new idea was taking root. The

view of the worker as an individual personality emerged strongly about 1920 to command the

stage. From I920-40 the worker was seen as a psychological complex, but then 'Psychological

man' faltered, and sociology entered industry” (H, 1964). Taylorism didn’t give any notion about

career-structure, unlike other organizational models available at the turn of the century.

Maslow - Hierarchy of needs

The Maslow Hierarchy of need is built around the concept that the human being have some

essential and supplemental needs and they need to be satisfied. The need is defined as “an

activity of the total organism resulting from a persistent disequilibrium” a drive reflects a “need”

that arises from the lack of some particular thing, such that a “need” can be characterized by, and

defined as, a lack of something that is essential to an organism’s (a person’s) existence or well-

being (Taormina, 2013). Maslow defined five essential needs (physiological, safety–security,

belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization) those five needs represent the majority of general

public as physiological needs as food and sleep are none negotiable. Other needs as safety of the

employee himself in the work place and his security at home can’t be influenced that much by

the company but still important. Belongingness can be directly related to the company loyalty

and can greatly affect the level of commitment presented by the employee. Self-actualization

represents the need for personal growth as an employee who deserve a promoting or a salary

increase and don’t find it will most likely resign for those reasons. (Taormina, 2013)
Hersey-Blanchard-Situational leadership

Situational leadership theory started as the life cycle theory of leadership by 7 Hersey and

Blanch (1977). Using the traditional categories of leader behavior, initiating structure (IS), and

consideration (C), they formulated a situational theory of leadership in which the primary

situational determinant of leader behavior is the task-relevant maturity of the subordinate(s).

Subordinate task-relevant maturity is argued to consist of two factors-job maturity and

psychological maturity and psychological maturity. (Graeff, 1983)

Toyota lean management theory

Toyota one of the main players in the automotive industry has developed its own production

system TPS witch is the unique manufacturing system pioneered by Eiji Toyoda and Taiichi

Ohano at the Toyota Motor company in Japan after World War II (Barney, 2004). A joint

General Motors and Toyota effort to import TPS to the United States resulted in the

transformation of GM’s Fremont, California, plant—one of the worst in the country in terms of

quality, productivity and morale—into the New United Motor Manufacturing plant, which was

recognized within five years as one of the best (Barney, 2004). The processes is built about lean

development and how to achieve best use of resources reduce handling and expose the week

points in the production. The goal is to design an optimal value stream witch involve knowing

every step of the processes to insure that every supplier connected to the flow path dong get left

behind. Evaluation of every supplier and the vale that he provide along wit the past and the end

value that is expected from the pathways. Paying attention to the value stream create several

advantages instill in the workers and the mangers a broad understanding of the process, the

desired endpoint, and the role of each particular job (Barney, 2004).
Bibliography
Barney, H. &. (2004). Toyota Production System/Lean Manufacturing. In S. N. Steche, Organizational
Improvement and Accountability: Lessons for Education from Other Sectors (pp. 35-50). RAND
Corporatio.

Graeff, C. L. (1983). The Situational Leadership Theory: A Critical View. The Academy of Management
Review, 285-291.

H, D. C. (1964). Industrial Sociology. In D. C. H, Industrial Sociology (pp. 645-84). New Yourk : Harper &
Row .

Littler, C. R. (1978). Understanding Taylorism. The British Journal of Sociology, (pp.185-202).

Taormina, R. J. (2013). Maslow and the Motivation Hierarchy: Measuring Satisfaction of the Needs. The
American Journal of Psychology, 155-177.