Brand Course for International Students
The four major approaches to the study of management are scientific, general administrative, quantitative, and organizational behavior. Each is correct and makes an important contribution to our overall understanding of management.
Some early evidences of management practice are the Egyptian pyramids, the Great Wall of China, and the status of Venice as a major economic trade center in the 1400s.
Frederick Taylor defined four principles of management—develop a science for each element of an individual’s work; scientifically select, train, teach, and develop each worker; cooperate with workers to ensure that all work is done in accordance with the principles of science; and divide work and responsibility almost equally between management and workers.
Frederick Taylor defined four principles of management—develop a science for each element of an individual’s work; scientifically select, train, teach, and develop each worker; cooperate with workers to ensure that all work is done in accordance with the principles of science; and divide work and responsibility almost equally between management and workers.
4. Explain how today’s managers use scientific management.
Guidelines devised by Taylor and others to improve production efficiency are still used in today’s organizations. However, current management practice is not restricted to scientific management practices alone. Elements of scientific management still used include:
a. Using time and motion studies to increase productivity
b. Hiring the best qualified workers
c. Designing incentive systems based on output
5.Describe Fayol’s principles of management, and how they compare with Taylor’s.
Henri Fayol’s principles of management were division of work, authority, discipline, unity of command, unity of direction, subordination of individual interests, remuneration, centralization, scalar chain, order, equity, stability of tenure of personnel, initiative, and esprit de corps. In contrast to Taylor’s principles, Fayol’s focused on the entire organization and not just the individual worker.
6.Describe Weber’s contribution to the general administrative theories of manage-ment?
Max Weber described an ideal type of organization called a bureaucracy, characterized by division of labor, a clearly defined hierarchy, detailed rules and regulations, and impersonal relationships. Rules and controls were to be applied uniformly, avoiding involvement with individual personalities and preferences of employees.
7. Explain how today’s managers use general administrative theory.
Some current management concepts and theories can be traced to the work of the general administrative theorists.
a. The functional view of a manager’s job relates to Henri Fayol’s concept of management.
b. Weber’s bureaucratic characteristics are still evident in many of today’s large organizations —even in highly flexible organizations that employ talented professionals. Some bureaucratic mechanisms are necessary in highly innovative organizations to ensure that resources are used efficiently and effectively.
8.Describe the Hawthorne studies and their contribution to management practice.
The Hawthorne studies, conducted at the Western Electric Company Works in Cicero Illinois, from 1924 through the early 1930s, exposed an experimental group of workers to various lighting intensities while providing a control group with constant intensity. As the level of light was increased in the experimental group, the output of both groups increased. The series of studies led to a new emphasis on the human behavior factor and helped change the dominant theme of the time that employees were not different from any other machines the organization used.
The behavioral approach assists managers in designing jobs that motivate workers, in working with employee teams, and in facilitating the flow of communication within organizations.
The behavioral approach provides the foundation for current theories of motivation, leadership, and group behavior and development.
The quantitative approach is the use of quantitative techniques to improve decision making. It involves applying statistics, optimization models, information models, computer simulations and other quantitative techniques to management activities.
The quantitative approach has contributed most directly to managerial decision-making, particularly in planning and controlling. The availability of sophisticated computer software programs has made the use of quantitative techniques more feasible for managers.
12.Describe an organization using the systems approach.
Answer
The systems approach says that an organization takes in inputs (resources) from the environment and transforms or processes these resources into outputs that are distributed into the environment. This approach provides a framework to help managers understand how all the interdependent units work together to achieve the organization’s goals.
13.Discuss how the systems approach helps us management.
Using the systems approach, managers envision an organization as a body with many interdependent parts, each of which is important to the well-being of the organization as a whole.
Managers coordinate the work activities in the various parts of the organization, realizing that decisions and actions taken in one organizational area will affect other areas. The systems approach recognizes that organizations are not self-contained; they rely on and are affected by factors in their external environment.
14.Discuss how the contingency approach helps us understand management.
The contingency approach says that organizations are different, face different situations, and require different ways of managing. It helps us understand management because it stresses that there are no simplistic or universal rules for managers to follow. Instead, managers must look at their situation and determine that if this is the way my situation is, then this is the best way for me to manage.
