Reflection Paper

The Philosophy of Management during the Industrial Revolution: Problem and issues
and their proposed solution.

The main features involved in the Industrial Revolution were technology and
Machineries.  the use of new basic materials, steel and irons, discovering new energy
resources.
The technological and economic aspects of the Industrial Revolution brought about
significant sociocultural changes. In its initial stages it seemed to deepen laborer’s
poverty and misery. Their employment and subsistence became dependent on costly
means of production that few people could afford to own. Job security was lacking:
workers were frequently displaced by technological improvements and a large labor
pool. Lack of worker protections and regulations meant long work hours for miserable
wages, living in unsanitary tenements, and exploitation and abuse in the workplace. But
even as problems arose, so too did new ideas that aimed to address them. These ideas
pushed innovations and regulations that provided people with more material
conveniences while also enabling them to produce more, travel faster, and
communicate more rapidly.

The Industrial Revolution, also known as the First Industrial Revolution, changed the
way companies operated and resulted in an everlasting impact on the societies we see
today. It stretched across the 1700s to 1800s.
Through economies of scale, businesses streamlined their processes and created more
products at reduced costs. It increased employment opportunities and the wages
associated with them. Workers flocked to cities to find work at the factories being set up,
which, in the beginning, often paid more than farming.
Cities saw changes in their planning to adjust for the mass influx of people and to keep
living conditions acceptable. Governments put in regulations to keep factory workers
safe and reduce the exponential increase in pollution that the era saw.
The change also saw entrepreneurs and current businesses in more need of capital.
Banks developed to be able to supply the necessary capital for these high-growth
areas.

The Industrial Revolution changed the world utterly and completely and there are very
few aspects of everyday day life that have not been irretrievably altered as a result,
including management.

The Industrial Revolution has given rise to huge urban areas that need vast municipal
services and so is responsible for creating a very specialized interdependent economic
life. This means that employees within these sectors are far more reliant on the absolute
will of their employers than perhaps their historical rural counterparts ever were.
This led to many incidences of unrest between capital and the labor force and many
organizations sprang up to deal with the changes. One of these was Marxism, and
another were the doctrines developed by Adam Smith and David Ricardo and which are
referred to as laissez-faire, which takes the view that an economic system will function
best if there is no interference from government. This belief is based on the idea that a
natural economic order will give maximum well-being for an individual and a community
if it is free of artificial regulation or stimulus.

However, the Industrial Revolution brought a need for state intervention and laissez-
faire soon gave way and management in industry and business reflected the political
stances that were being made.

The Industrial Revolution has provided an economic base that has given rise to
professions, a huge expansion in the population and an improvement in living standards
across the developed world; features that are still being worked towards in less
developed countries and as such has provided the basis for many different
management models.

There are many people who object to the word revolution being used to describe the
huge events that took place, first in Britain, then Europe and the United States because
it implies violence, when in fact many of the changes were gradual. This was also
reflected in management as that too changed to meet the growing demands of the
workplace, and also as management methods have been honed.

The role and performance of managers will be crucial. manager will need to recognize
that in the future, as in the past, regardless of the particular issues involved, the
environment in which their organization operate will continue to change. managers will
have to recognize that the appropriateness of their decision will be judged by a wider
set of criteria and a wider range of stakeholders than in the past. At the same time
management will continue to have to find ways of ensuring that their organization and
its environment and the other constraint under which it operated, are, as far as possible
keep aligned. Managers seek to influence the constrains under which their organization
operates and the pace and timing of change to make them more favorable to their
preferred way of working.

The biggest challenge facing industrial management today is globalization. The creation
of a unified world market place Allied to globalization, however, are three other
challenges; how to achieve sustainability in a world of dwindling natural resources and
increasing environmental pollution; how to manage an increasingly diverse workforce, at
a time when business leaders are considered less trust worthy than ever before, how to
manage ethically. It has never been easy to define the role of manager, though this has
not prevented a great number of attempts over the years.
Definition of the role of management have ranged from attempts to list basic tasks:
plans , organizes, directs and controls on proprietors or on behalf, an industrial,
commercial or other undertaking, organization and  co-ordinates the work of
departmental managers or other immediate subordinates.( Quoted in Dakin and
Hamilton, 1990:32) To more ambitious attempts to define the essence of the manager’s
role : the manager has the take task of creating a true whole that is larger than the sum
of its parts, a productive entity that turns out more than the sum of resources put into it.
(Drucker 1985:53) Drucker  (1985) also linked the manager to the conductor of
symphony orchestra. Handy (1986), on the other hand, linked the manager to a doctor:
the manager is the first recipient of problems.

The manager’s role is, therefore, to identify the symptoms in any situation, to diagnose
the disease or cause of the trouble; to decide how it might be dealt with, through a
strategy for health; and to start the treatment. Duncan(1975) has a holistic view of the
role of the manager. He identifies three distinct levels of management activity :
philosophical(goal information), scientific(goal accomplishment and evaluation); and
art(implementation of decisions). At the philosophical level the manager is mainly
concerned with the effects of the actions and reactions of other individuals and groups
which the organization is set. At this level,

The managers formulate clear and precise strategies that can result from the set goals.
It is also at this level that the ethics of managerial behavior, values and priorities of the
organization are formulated and established. At the scientific level, Manager develops
plans, methods and techniques for achieving set goals.
The art level is concerned with the implementation. This is the level at which tactical and
administrative decision are made to deploy the organization’s resources. Mullins (1989)
argued, that management is both a science and an art. By its very nature, management
is forced to deal with both, science-based activities, such as the design and operation of
manufacturing, and less rational, more intuitive activities, especially those concerning
managing and motivating people.
 SORSOGON STATE COLLEGE
SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES
Sorsogon City

MIDTERM EXAMINATION
(PA 505 ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT)

REFLECTION PAPER
The Philosophy of Management during the Industrial Revolution and
Problem and issues and their proposed solution.

SUBMITTED BY:
MRS. LEVY ALVAREZ EBID
STUDENT-MAMPA

SUBMITTED TO:

MRS. LIBRADA ESPLANA

PROFFESOR