MGT 420

PRINCIPLES & PRACTICES Part 1 Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century

OF MANAGEMENT
Chapter
2
Evolution of
Management
Thought

MGT 420

Puan Sharizan Sharkawi

 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
When you have finished studying this chapter, you
should be able to:
2.1 Describe the major influences on the development
of management thought.
2.2 Classical perspectives (Scientific management &
Administrative Management)
2.3 Behavioral perspectives (Elton Mayo & Douglas
Mc Gregor)
2.4 System and contingency approach

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 Environmental Factors Influencing
Management Thought
• Economic Influences
 The availability, production, and distribution of
resources within a society.
• Social Influences
 The aspects of a culture that influence interpersonal
relationships.
• Political Influences
 The impact of political institutions on individuals and
organizations.

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 Environmental Factors Influencing
Management Thought (cont’d)
• Technological Influences
 The advances and refinements in any of the devices
that are used in conjunction with conducting business.
• Global Influences
 The pressures to improve quality, productivity, and
costs as organizations attempt to compete in the
worldwide marketplace.

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 Figure 2.1 Chronological Development of Management Perspectives

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 Figure 2.2 Subfields of the Classical Perspective on Management

Focuses on the
individual worker’s
productivity
Focuses on
the overall
organizational
Focuses on the system
functions of
management

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 Scientific Management: Taylor
• Frederick W. Taylor (1856-1915)
 Father of “Scientific Management.
 attempted to define “the one best way” to perform every task
through systematic study and other scientific methods.
 believed that improved management practices lead to
improved productivity.

 Three areas of focus:

 Task Performance
 Supervision
 Motivation

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 Task Performance
• Scientific management incorporates basic
expectations of management, including:
 Development of work standards

 Selection of workers

 Training of workers

 Support of workers

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 Supervision
• Taylor felt that a single supervisor could not be
an expert at all tasks.
 As a result, each first-level supervisor should be
responsible only workers who perform a common
function familiar to the supervisor.
 This became known as “Functional Foremanship.”

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 Motivation
• Taylor believed money was the way to motivate
workers to their fullest capabilities.
 He advocated a piecework system in which worker’s
pay was tied to their output.
 Workers who met a standard level of production
were paid a standard wage rate.
 Workers whose production exceeded the standard
were paid at a higher rate for all of their production
output.

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Scientific Management: The Gilbreths
• Frank Gilbreth
 Specialized in time and motion studies to determine
the most efficient way to perform tasks.
 Used motion pictures of bricklayers to identified work
elements (therbligs) such as lifting and grasping.
• Lillian Gilbreth
 A strong proponent of better working conditions as a
means of improving efficiency and productivity.
 Favored standard days with scheduled lunch
breaks and rest periods for workers.
 Strived for removal of unsafe working conditions
and the abolition of child labor.

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 Administrative Management: Fayol
• Henri Fayol (1841–1925)
 First recognized that successful managers had to
understand the basic managerial functions.
 Developed a set of 14 general principles of
management.
 Fayol’s managerial functions of planning, leading,
organizing and controlling are routinely used in
modern organizations.

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 Table 2.1 Fayol’s General Principles of Management

1. Division of work 8. Centralization

2. Authority and 9. Scalar chain
responsibility 10. Order
3. Discipline 11. Equity
4. Unity of command 12. Stability
5. Unity of direction 13. Initiative
6. Subordination of 14. Esprit de corps
individual interest to the
common good
7. Remuneration of
personnel

Source: Based on Henri Fayol, General and Industrial Management, trans. Constana Storrs (London: Pittman & Sons, 1949).
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 Bureaucratic Management
• Focuses on the overall organizational system.
• Bureaucratic management is based upon:
 Firm rules
 Policies and procedures
 A fixed hierarchy
 A clear division of labor

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 Bureaucratic Management: Weber
• Max Weber (1864–1920)
 A German sociologist and historian who envisioned a
system of management that would be based upon
impersonal and rational behavior—the approach to
management now referred to as “bureaucracy.”
 Division of labor
 Hierarchy of authority
 Rules and procedures
 Impersonality
 Employee selection and promotion

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 Weber’s Forms of Authority
• Traditional authority
 Subordinate obedience based upon custom or
tradition (e.g., kings, queens, chiefs).
• Charismatic authority
 Subordinates voluntarily comply with a leader
because of his or her special personal qualities or
abilities (e.g., Martin Luther King, Gandhi).
• Rational-legal authority
 Subordinate obedience based upon the position held
by superiors within the organization (e.g., police
officers, executives, supervisors).

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 Table 2.2 Weber’s Three Types of Authority

Type Description
Traditional Subordinate obedience based upon
custom or tradition
Charismatic Subordinate obedience based upon
special personal qualities associated
with certain social reformers, political
leaders, religious leaders, or
organizational leaders
Rational–legal Subordinate obedience based upon
the position held by superiors
within the organization

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 Figure 2.3 Bureaucratic Hierarchical Power Structure

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 Classical versus Behavioral Perspective

vs.

Classical Behavioral
Perspective Perspective
Focused on Acknowledged the
rational importance of human
behavior
behavior
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 Behavioral Perspective
• Followed the classical perspective in the
development of management thought.
 Acknowledged the importance of human behavior in
shaping management style
 Is associated with:
 Mary Parker Follett
 Elton Mayo
 Douglas McGregor
 Chester Barnard

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 Mary Parker Follett
• Concluded that a key to effective
management was coordination.
• Felt that managers needed to coordinate
and harmonize group effort rather than
force and coerce people.
• Believed that management is a
continuous, dynamic process.
• Felt that the best decisions would be
made by people who were closest to the
situation.

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 Follett on Effective Work Groups
• Four principles of coordination to promote
effective work groups:
1. Coordination requires that people be in direct
contact with one another.
2. Coordination is essential during the initial stages of
any endeavor.
3. Coordination must address all factors and phases of
any endeavor.
4. Coordination is a continuous, ongoing process.

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 Elton Mayo
• Conducted the famous Hawthorne Experiments.
 “Hawthorne Effect”
 Productivity increased because attention was paid to the
workers in the experiment.
 Phenomenon whereby individual or group performance is
influenced by human behavior factors.
• His work represents the transition from scientific
management to the early human relations
movement.

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 Douglas McGregor
• Proposed the Theory X and Theory Y styles of
management.
 Theory X managers perceive that their subordinates
have an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if at
all possible.
 Theory Y managers perceive that their subordinates
enjoy work and that they will gain satisfaction from
performing their jobs.

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 Table 2.3 Comparison of Theory X and Theory Y Assumptions

Factor Theory X Assumptions Theory Y Assumptions

Employee attitude Employees dislike work and. Employees enjoy work and
toward work will avoid it if at all possible. will actively seek it.

Management view Employees must be directed, Employees are self-motivated

of direction coerced, controlled, or threatened and self-directed toward achieving
to get them to put forth adequate effort. organizational goals.

Employee view Employees wish to avoid responsibility; Employees seek responsibility;

of direction they prefer to be directed and told what they wish to use their creativity,
to do and how to do it. imagination, and ingenuity in
performing their jobs.
Management style Authoritarian style of management Participatory style of management

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 Chester Barnard
• Felt that executives serve two primary functions:
 Must establish and maintain a communications
system among employees.
 Must establish the objectives of the organization and
motivate employees.
• Developed an acceptance theory of authority:
 Authority of a manager flows from the ability of
subordinates to accept or reject an order from the
manager once they:
 Comprehend what the order requires of them.
 Review the order’s consistency with organization goals.
 Perceive a personal benefit in obeying the order.

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 The Quantitative Perspective
• Characterized by its use of mathematics,
statistics, and other quantitative techniques for
management decision making and problem
solving.
• This approach has four basic characteristics:
1. A decision-making focus
2. Development of measurable criteria
3. Formulation of a quantitative model
4. The use of computers

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 The Quantitative Perspective (cont’d)
• Decision-Making Focus
 The primary focus of the quantitative approach is on
problems or situations that require direct action, or a
decision, on the part of management.
• Measurable Criteria
 The decision-making process requires that the
decision maker select some alternative course of
action.
 The alternatives must be compared on the basis of
measurable criteria.

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 The Quantitative Perspective (cont’d)
• Quantitative Model
 To assess the likely impact of each alternative on the
stated criteria, a quantitative model of the decision
situation must be formulated.
• Computers
 Computers are quite useful in the problem-solving
process.

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 Systems Perspective

Figure 2.4 Basic Structure of Systems

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 Systems Perspective
• An approach to problem solving based on an
understanding of the basic structure of systems.
 Environmental interaction
 Open systems must interact with the external environment to
survive.
 Closed systems do not interact with the environment.
 Synergy: when all subsystems work together making
the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
 Entropy: the tendency for systems to decay over time.

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 The Contingency Perspective
• A view that proposes that there is no one best
approach to management for all situations.
 Asserts that managers are responsible for
determining which managerial approach is likely to be
most effective in a given situation.
 This requires managers to identify the key
contingencies in a given situation.

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 Figure 2.5 Blending Components into a Contingency Perspective

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