The Evaluation of Management Thought and the Patterns of Management Analysis

Despite the inexactness and relative crudity of management theory and science, the development of thought on management dates back to the days when people first attempted to accomplish goals by working together in groups. Although modern operational management theory dates primarily from the early twentieth century, there was serious thinking and theorizing about managing many years before. In this assignment, I will describe about Taylors scientific management, Fayols industrial activity and Mintzbergs principle.

Scientific Management

Creating efficient work processes is an abiding obsession for managers. Witness the fascination in the 1990s with re-engineering and more recently with outsourcing. Maximising outputs and controlling inputs lies at the heart of management concerns. In the late 19th century these issues had hardly been identified, let alone examined. Frederick Winslow Taylor changed this through the observation of his fellow workers. His starting point was the identification of a number of problems. Taylor noticed that workers engaged in what was then called soldiering. Instead of working as hard and as fast as they could, they deliberately worked slowly. They had no incentive to go faster or be more productive. Furthermore, it was in their interest, Taylor said, to keep their employers ignorant of how fast work could be done. Nineteen out of twenty

workmen throughout the civilised world firmly believe that it is for their best interests to go slow instead of to go fast. They firmly believe that it is for their interest to give as little work in return for the money that they get as is practical, Taylor wrote. Taylor went on to identify another crucial problem: the workers h ad a notable advantage in that their superiors had no idea how long a job should take. Irritated by such brazen inefficiency, and believing it was morally wrong to waste any resources, Taylor set to work. Armed with a stopwatch, he set out to study the nature of peoples work by examining exactly what was taking place and how long it took. Taylor surmised that such a minute examination of a task would enable the observer to establish the best means of carrying out a given job. A single, preferred, efficient means of completing the task could then be established and insisted on in the future. This was the basis of what he labeled scientific management.

Frederick W. Taylor and his Principles

In 1911, Frederick Winslow Taylor published his work, The Principles of Scientific Management, in which he described how the application of the scientific method to the management of workers greatly could improve productivity. Scientific management methods called for optimizing the way that tasks were performed and simplifying the jobs enough so that workers could be trained to perform their specialized sequence of motions in the one "best" way. Prior to scientific management, work was performed by skilled craftsmen who had learned their jobs in lengthy apprenticeships. They made their own decisions about how

their job was to be performed. Scientific management took away much of this autonomy and converted skilled crafts into a series of simplified jobs that could be performed by unskilled workers who easily could be trained for the tasks. Taylor became interested in improving worker productivity early in his career when he observed gross inefficiencies during his contact with steel workers.

Soldiering
Working in the steel industry, Taylor had observed the phenomenon of workers' purposely operating well below their capacity, that is, soldiering. He attributed soldiering to three causes: The almost universally held belief among workers that if they became more productive, fewer of them would be needed and jobs would be eliminated.

Non-incentive wage systems encourage low productivity if the employee will receive the same pay regardless of how much is produced, assuming the employee can convince the employer that the slow pace really is a good pace for the job. Employees take great care never to work at a good pace for fear that this faster pace would become the new standard. If employees are paid by the quantity they produce, they fear that management will decrease their per-unit pay if the quantity increases.

Workers waste much of their effort by relying on rule-of-thumb methods rather than on optimal work methods that can be determined by scientific study of the task.

The Factor:
To counter soldiering and to improve efficiency, Taylor began to conduct experiments to determine the best level of performance for certain jobs, and what was necessary to achieve this performance.

Time Studies
Taylor argued that even the most basic, mindless tasks could be planned in a way that dramatically would increase productivity, and that scientific management of the work was more effective than the "initiative and incentive" method of motivating workers. The initiative and incentive method offered an incentive to increase productivity but placed the responsibility on the worker to figure out how to do it. To scientifically determine the optimal way to perform a job, Taylor performed experiments that he called time studies, (also known as time and motion studies). These studies were characterized by the use of a stopwatch to time a worker's sequence of motions, with the goal of determining the one best way to perform a job. The following are examples of some of the time-and-motion studies that were performed by Taylor and others in the era of scientific management. 1. Pig Iron If workers were moving 12 1/2 tons of pig iron per day and they could be incentivized to try to move 47 1/2 tons per day, left to their own wits they probably would become exhausted after a few hours and fail to reach their goal. However, by first conducting experiments to determine the amount of resting that was necessary, the worker's manager could determine the optimal timing of lifting and resting so that the worker could move the 47 1/2 tons per day without tiring.

Not all workers were physically capable of moving 47 1/2 tons per day; perhaps only 1/8 of the pig iron handlers were capable of doing so. While these 1/8 were not extraordinary people who were highly prized by society, their physical capabilities were well-suited to moving pig iron. This example suggests that workers should be selected according to how well they are suited for a particular job. The Science of Shoveling In another study of the "science of shoveling", Taylor ran time studies to determine that the optimal weight that a worker should lift in a shovel was 21 pounds. Since there is a wide range of densities of materials, the shovel should be sized so that it would hold 21 pounds of the substance being shoveled. The firm provided the workers with optimal shovels. The result was a three to four fold increase in productivity and workers were rewarded with pay increases. Prior to scientific management, workers used their own shovels and rarely had the optimal one for the job. 2. Bricklaying Others performed experiments that focused on specific motions, such as Gilbreth's bricklaying experiments that resulted in a dramatic decrease in the number of motions required to lay bricks. The husband and wife Gilbreth team used motion picture technology to study the motions of the workers in some of their experiments. Taylor's 4 Principles of Scientific Management After years of various experiments to determine optimal work methods, Taylor proposed the following four principles of scientific management:

1. Replace rule-of-thumb work methods with methods based on a scientific study of

the tasks.

2. Scientifically select, train, and develop each worker rather than passively leaving
them to train themselves.

3. Cooperate with the workers to ensure that the scientifically developed methods are
being followed.

4. Divide work nearly equally between managers and workers, so that the managers
apply scientific management principles to planning the work and the workers actually perform the tasks. These principles were implemented in many factories, often increasing productivity by a factor of three or more. Henry Ford applied Taylor's principles in his automobile factories, and families even began to perform their household tasks based on the results of time and motion studies.

Drawbacks of Scientific Management

While scientific management principles improved productivity and had a substantial impact on industry, they also increased the monotony of work. The core job dimensions of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback all were missing from the picture of scientific management. While in many cases the new ways of working were accepted by the workers, in some cases they were not. The use of stopwatches often was a protested issue and led to a strike at one factory where "Taylorism" was being tested. Complaints that Taylorism was dehumanizing led to an investigation by the United States Congress. Despite its controversy, scientific management changed the way that work was done, and forms of it continue to be used today.

Frank and Lillian Gilberth , A Follower of Taylor

The ideas of Taylor were also strongly supported and developed by the famous husband-wife team of Frank and Lillian Gilberth.They were influenced by the followings: Electric availability Advancements in manufacturing technology Manufacturing Technology Changed the following: Managements presence Pay issues Working conditions Labor problems

Gilbreths Contributions to Management Theory are: Drifting process and Motion study

Analyzing an activity into its smallest possible elements, and from the results synthesizing a method of performing the activity that shall be more efficient. --Frank Gilbreth Gilbreths Study of Motion was with: Doctors Disabled persons Baseball players Golfers Brick layers Homemakers

Gilbreths Main Goals

Increase efficiency by removing unnecessary movements Reduce fatigue for employees

Gilbreths Contributions to Management

Employer and employee must cooperate in the work process for benefits to occur.Frank and Lillian integrated science into management by: Proper planning Gathering Arranging Systematizing information

Gilbreths Methods of Data Collection Pictures Motion pictures Cyclographs Chronocyclographs

Gilbeths Methods of Analyzing Data Therbligs System developed to analyze the basic movements of the body. Simo chart (Simultaneous motion chart)

Gilbreths Contribution to Management Theory

Items to determine the one best way Motion study Fatigue study Skill study Time study

Criticisms of Gilbreths Work

Not necessarily good to standardize everything Consider human element in work Motion study can be frustrating

Henry Fayols Principles

The 14 Management Principles from Henri Fayol (1841-1925) are: 1. Division of Work. Specialization allows the individual to build up experience, and to continuously improve his skills. Thereby he can be more productive. 2. Authority. The right to issue commands, along with which must go the balanced responsibility for its function. 3. Discipline. Employees must obey, but this is two-sided: employees will only obey orders if management play their part by providing good leadership. 4. Unity of Command. Each worker should have only one boss with no other conflicting lines of command. 5. Unity of Direction. People engaged in the same kind of activities must have the same objectives in a single plan. This is essential to ensure unity and coordination in the enterprise. Unity of command does not exist without unity of direction but does not necessarily flows from it. 6. Subordination of individual interest (to the general interest). Management must see that the goals of the firms are always paramount. 7. Remuneration. Payment is an important motivator although by analyzing a number of possibilities, Fayol points out that there is no such thing as a perfect system. 8. Centralization (or Decentralization). This is a matter of degree depending on the condition of the business and the quality of its personnel.

9. Scalar chain (Line of Authority). A hierarchy is necessary for unity of direction. But lateral communication is also fundamental, as long as superiors know that such communication is taking place. Scalar chain refers to the number of levels in the hierarchy from the ultimate authority to the lowest level in the organization. It should not be over-stretched and consist of too-many levels. 10. Order. Both material order and social order are necessary. The former minimizes lost time and useless handling of materials. The latter is achieved through organization and selection. 11. Equity. In running a business a combination of kindliness and justice is needed. Treating employees well is important to achieve equity. 12. Stability of Tenure of Personnel. Employees work better if job security and career progress are assured to them. An insecure tenure and a high rate of employee turnover will affect the organization adversely. 13. Initiative. Allowing all personnel to show their initiative in some way is a source of strength for the organization. Even though it may well involve a sacrifice of personal vanity on the part of many managers. 14. Esprit de Corps. Management must foster the morale of its employees. He further suggests that: real talent is needed to coordinate effort, encourage keenness, use each persons abilities, and reward each ones merit without arousing possible jealousies and disturbing harmonious relations.

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Fayols Industrial Activity

Henri Fayol was a French mining engineer and management theorist. He developed the theory of Scientific Management. He studied at the mining school "Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines" in Saint-Etienne of France. He is well known as the father of modern management theory. Fayol started as an engineer at a mining company and he became its managing director in 1888. Fayol's contributions were first published in book titled "Administration Industrielle et Generale", in 1916. He looked at the problems of managing an organisation from top management point of view. He has used the term 'administration' instead of 'management'. His contributions are generally termed as operational management or administrative management.

Activities of an Industrial Organisation

Fayol has divided the activities of an industrial organisation into six groups.

Technical: Related to production. Commercial: Related to buying, selling and exchange. Financial: It is search for capital and its optimum use. Security: Protection of property and person. Accounting (Including statistics). Managerial: It includes planning, organisation, command, coordination, and control.

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Managerial Qualities
Fayol has identified the qualities required in a manager. According to him the qualities a manager has to possess are as under :

Physical (health, vigour, and address) Mental (ability to understand and learn, judgement, mental vigour, and capability) Moral (energy, firmness, initiative, loyalty, tact, and dignity) Education (general acquaintance) Technical (peculiar to the function being performed) Experience (arising form the work).

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Hawthorne Effect
The Hawthorne effect an increase in worker productivity produced by the psychological stimulus of being singled out and made to feel important. Individual behaviors may be altered by the study itself, rather than the effects the study is researching was demonstrated in a research project (1927 - 1932) of the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company in Cicero, Illinois. This series of research, first led by Harvard Business School professor Elton Mayo along with associates F. J. Roethlisberger and William J. Dickson started out by examining the physical and environmental influences of the workplace (e.g. brightness of lights, humidity) and later, moved into the psychological aspects (e.g. breaks, group pressure, working hours, managerial leadership). The ideas that this team developed about the social dynamics of groups in the work setting had lasting influence the collection of data, labor-management relations, and informal interaction among factory employees. The major finding of the study was that almost regardless of the experimental manipulation employed, the production of the workers seemed to improve. One reasonable conclusion is that the workers were pleased to receive attention from the researchers who expressed an interest in them. The study was only expected to last one year, but because the researchers were set back each time they tried to relate the manipulated physical conditions to the worker's efficiency, the project extended out to five years. Four general conclusions were drawn from the Hawthorne studies:
o

The aptitudes of individuals are imperfect predictors of job performance. Although they give some indication of the physical and mental potential of the individual, the amount produced is strongly influenced by social factors. Informal organization affects productivity. The Hawthorne researchers discovered a group life among the workers. The studies also showed that the relations that supervisors develop with workers tend to influence the manner in which the workers carry out directives. 13

Work-group norms affect productivity. The Hawthorne researchers were not the first to recognize that work groups tend to arrive at norms of what is a fair day's work; however, they provided the best systematic description and interpretation of this phenomenon. The workplace is a social system. The Hawthorne researchers came to view the workplace as a social system made up of interdependent parts.

For decades, the Hawthorne studies provided the rationale for human relations within the organization. Then two researchers (Franke, Kaul, 1978) used a new procedure called time-series analyses. Using the original variables and including in the Great Depression and the instance of a managerial discipline in which two insubordinate and mediocre workers were replaced by two different productive workers, with one who took the role of straw boss (see note below); they discovered that production was most affected by the replacement of the two workers due to their greater productivity and the affect of the disciplinary action on the other workers. The occurrence of the Depression also encouraged job productivity, perhaps through the increased importance of jobs and the fear of losing them. Rest periods and a group incentive plan also had a somewhat positive smaller effect on productivity. These variables accounted for almost all the variation in productivity during the experimental period. Early social sciences may have readily to embrace the original Hawthorne interpretations since it was looking for theories or work motivation that were more humane and democratic. Along with Frederick Taylor's work, this study gave rise to the field known as Industrial Psychology as social group influences and interpersonal factors must also be considered when performing efficiency research such as time and motion studies.

No single fact, no single view about the Hawthorne Effect

The term "Hawthorne effect" refers back to a series of experiments on managing factory workers carried out around 1924-33? in the Hawthorne works of the Western Electric Company in Chicago. However there is no one precise meaning for the term, since the results were puzzling to the original experimenters, and their interpretation continues to be sporadically debated. Generally, references to the Hawthorne effect all concern effects on an experiment's results of the awareness of participants that they are the subject of an intervention. However there are many different possible mechanisms, and all may be 14

important in particular cases. What is not disputed is that there is an important issue here, and it is clear that there is a need for a term to refer to these issues: the term "Hawthorne effect" tends to get re-appropriated for any issue in the general area. What is not understood is what the full range of issues is, and authors have often (re)defined the term solely in terms of the one aspect and interpretation that concerns them. An attempt to list some of the different mechanisms and effects is made below. Part of the variation in meaning comes from the different interpretations put on the original studies, part comes from the different disciplines concerned with studies of humans (e.g. management science, medicine, psychology, aircraft crash investigation), but underlying it all is the absence of a comprehensive catalogue of the ways in which human awareness sometimes affects the outcomes of experiments on human participants.

The original Hawthorne effect

Basically, a series of studies on the productivity of some factory workers manipulated various conditions (pay, light levels, rest breaks etc.), but each change resulted on average over time in productivity rising, including eventually a return to the original conditions. This was true of each of the individual workers as well as of the group mean. Clearly the variables the experimenters manipulated were not the only nor dominant causes of productivity. One interpretation, mainly due to Mayo, was that the important effect here was the feeling of being studied: it is this that is now referred to by "the Hawthorne effect".

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MintzBergs Principles
The Canadian academic, Henry Mintzberg who had trained as a mechanical engineer, wrote his PhD thesis at the MIT Sloan School of Management analysing the actual work habits and time management of chief executive officers (CEOs). In 1973, Mintzberg's thesis on the nature of managerial work was adopted as a study and published for a wider audience.

Mintzberg (1973) groups managerial activities and roles as involving: Managerial activities interpersonal roles - arising from formal authority and status and supporting the information and decision activities. Associated roles

Figurehead liaison leader

information processing roles

monitor/recipient disseminator spokesman

decision roles: making significant decisions

improver/changer disturbance handler resource allocator negotiator

The broad proposition is that, as a senior manager enacts his/her role, these will come together as a gestalt (integrated whole) reflecting the manager's competencies associated with the roles. In a sense therefore they act as evaluation criteria for assessing the performance of a manager in his/her role.

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Figurehead. Social, inspirational, legal and ceremonial duties must be carried out. The manager is a symbol and must be on-hand for people/agencies that will only deal with him/her because of status and authority.

The leader role This is at the heart of the manager-subordinate relationship and managerial power and pervasive where subordinates are involved even where perhaps the relationship is not directly interpersonal. The manager

Defines the structures and environments within which sub-ordinates work and are motivated.

Oversees and questions activities to keep them alert. Selects, encourages, promotes and disciplines. tries to balance subordinate and organizational needs for efficient operations.

Liaison This is the manager as an information and communication centre. It is vital to build up favors. Networking skills to shape maintain internal and external contacts for information exchange are essential. These contacts give access to "databases"facts, requirements, probabilities.

As 'monitor' - the manager seeks/receives information from many sources to evaluate the organizations performance, well-being and situation. Monitoring of internal operations, external events, ideas, trends, analysis and pressures is vital. Information to detect changes, problems & opportunities and to construct

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decision-making scenarios can be current/historic, tangible (hard) or soft, documented or non-documented. This role is about building and using an intelligence system. The manager must install and maintain this information system; by building contacts & training staff to deliver "information".

As disseminator - the manager brings external views into his/her organization and facilitates internal information flows between subordinates (factual or value-based). The preferences of significant people are received and assimilated. The manager interprets/disseminates information to subordinates e.g. policies, rules, regulations. Values are also des-seminated via conversations laced with imperatives and signs/icons about what is regarded as important or what 'we believe in'. There is a dilemma of delegation. Only the manager has the data for many decisions and often in the wrong form (verbal/memory vs. paper). Sharing is timeconsuming and difficult. He/she and staff may be already overloaded. Communication consumes time. The adage 'if you want to get things done, (it is best to do it yourself' comes to mind. Why might this be a driver of managerial behaviour (reluctance or constraints on the ability to delegate)?

As spokesman - the manager informs and lobbies others (external to his/her own organizational group). Key influencers and stakeholders are kept informed of performances, plans & policies. For outsiders, the manager is an expert in the field in which his/her organization operates.

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A senior manager is responsible for his/her organizations strategy-making system - generating and linking important decisions. He/she has the authority, information and capacity for control and integration over important decisions.

As initiator/changer He/she designs and initiates much of the controlled change in the organization. Gaps are identified, improvement programmes defined. The manager initiates a series of related decisions/activities to achieve actual improvement. Improvement projects may be involved at various levels. The manager can

Delegate all design responsibility selecting and even replace subordinates. Empower subordinates with responsibility for the design of the improvement programme but e.g. define the parameters/limits and veto or give the go-ahead on options.

Supervise design directly.

Senior managers may have many projects at various development stages (emergent/dormant/nearly-ready) working on each periodically interspersed by waiting periods for information feedback or progress etc. Projects roll-on and rolloff,

Disturbance handler - is a generalist role i.e. taking charge when the organization hits an iceberg unexpectedly and where there is no clear programmed response. Disturbances may arise from staff, resources, threats or because others make mistakes or innovation has unexpected consequences. The role involves stepping in to calm matters, evaluate, re-allocate, support - removing the thorn - buying time. The metaphors here are

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As resource allocator - the manager oversees allocation of all resources (money, staff, reputation). This involves:

scheduling own time programming work authorizing actions

With an eye to the diary (scheduling) the manager implicitly sets organizational priorities. Time and access involve opportunity costs. What fails to reach him/her, fails to get support. The managerial task is to ensure the basic work system is in place and to programme staff overloads - what to do, by whom, what processing structures will be used. Authorizing major decisions before implementation is a control over resource allocation. This enables coordinative interventions e.g. authorization within a policy or budgeting process in comparison to ad-hoc interventions. With limited time, complex issues and staff proposals that cannot be dismissed lightly, the manager may decide on the proposer rather than proposal. To help evaluation processes, managers develop models and plans in their heads (they construe the relationships and signifiers in the situation). These models/constructions encompass rules, imperatives, criteria and preferences to evaluate proposals against. Loose, flexible and implicit plans are up-dated with new information. The negotiator - takes charge over important negotiating activities with other organizations.

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McKinseys 7-S Approach

The 7-S framework for management analysis was developed by the respected consulting firm of McKinsey & Company. It was gained popularity. The approach is summarized in the following figure.

There are two levels of S. Hard-S and Soft-S.

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THE HARD Ss

Strategy: the direction and scope of the company over the long term. Structure: the basic organization of the company, its departments, reporting lines, areas of expertise and responsibility (and how they interrelate). Systems: formal and informal procedures that govern everyday activity, covering everything from management information systems, through to the systems at the point of contact with the customer (retail systems, call center systems, online systems, etc).

THE SOFT Ss

Skills: the capabilities and competencies that exist within the company. What it does best. Shared values: the values and beliefs of the company. Ultimately they guide employees towards 'valued' behavior. Staff: the company's people resources and how the are developed, trained and motivated. Style: the leadership approach of top management and the company's overall operating approach.

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7-S Approach as Problem Solving

The problem is not always the problem Create structure through M.E.C.E. Dont reinvent the wheel Every client is unique (no cookie cutter solutions) Dont make the facts fit your solution Make sure your solution fits your client Sometimes let the solution come to you No problem is too tough to solve

Conclusion
Many writers and practitioners have contributed to the development of management thought. Some of these thoughts are mentioned and described in this assignment. These approaches are very important in the study of management.

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