Management Theories and Worker Motivation

Management & Workers Partnership

• Managers and workers should view themselves as partners.

Hawthorne Effect

• Paying special attention to employees motivates them to put greater effort into their work.
• This was discovered in the Hawthorne management studies, performed between 1924 – 1932 at Western Electric Company's plant near Chicago.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• Maslow's hierarchy of needs suggests that managers who can help subordinates satisfy their important needs at work will achieve productivity.
• This theory outlines needs from the most basic to the most complex as follows:
  • Physiological Needs
  • Need for Security
  • Need for Social Relations
  • Need for Self Esteem
  • Self Actualization

McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y

• Theory X leaders and managers believe employees are inherently lazy and lack ambition.
• Theory Y leaders and managers believe most employees don’t dislike work and want to make useful contributions to the organization.

Argyris's Theory of Personality and Organization

• Managers who treat people positively and as responsible adults will achieve productivity.
• Advice includes expanding job responsibilities, allowing more task variety, adjusting supervisory styles to allow for participation, and promoting better human relations.

The Quantitative (Management) Science Approach

• This approach emphasizes the use of the scientific method and quantitative techniques to increase organizational success.
• Stemming from the application of Operations Research in problem-solving during World War II, this approach gained popularity post-war in manufacturing and sales.

The Contingency Approach

• Emphasizes what managers do in practice depends on a set of circumstances-- a situation.
• This approach emerged in the 1970s, a period marked by new companies (like Apple), new products (like the IBM PC), and rapid change.

The System Approach

• This approach views the organization as a system, emphasizing understanding the interdependence of its parts to fully understand its operation.
• Gaining popularity in the 1950s and 60s, this approach is linked to the growing consciousness of quality.

The Learning Organization Approach

• Organizations that anticipate change faster than their counterparts gain an advantage in the market.
• Described in Peter Senge’s 1990 book “The Fifth Discipline.”

Managerial Approach to Learning Organization

• Managers must create an environment that encourages learning.
• Managers should encourage information exchange among organization members.
• Managers should promote:
  • Systematic problem-solving
  • Experimentation
  • Learning from experiences and past history
  • Learning from the experience of others
  • Transferring knowledge rapidly throughout the organization.

Building a Learning Organization: Essential Components

• System Thinking: Every organization member understands their job and how it fits into the overall goal of providing final products to the customer.
• Shared Vision: All organization members share a common view of the organization's purpose and are committed to achieving it.
• Challenging Mental Models: Organization members challenge existing practices and thought processes to solve problems.
• Team Learning: Organization members work together to develop solutions to new problems and implement them.
• Personal Mastery: Organization members are committed to a deep understanding of their work, enabling them to confront challenges.
• Building a Learning Organization: This approach can be visualized as a system where different parts of the organization work together, including:
  • System thinking (Systems Approach).
  • Personal mastery (Theory Z/Behavioral).
  • Shared Vision (Chaordic Organization).
  • Challenging of Mental Models (Classical/Management science).
  • Team Learning (Theory Z/Behavioral).

Quality Management Approach

• Focuses on consistently meeting customer requirements and enhancing their satisfaction.
• This approach is aligned with the organization's purpose and strategic direction, as outlined by ISO9001:2015.

History of Management Theories through Key Thinkers:

• Scientific Management:
  • This theory advocates using the scientific method to find the "one best way" to do a job.
  • Involves studying jobs to improve efficiency and find the best possible way to accomplish work.
• Major Contributors to Scientific Management:
  • Fredrick W. Taylor:
    • A mechanical engineer who observed inefficiencies in companies (Midvale & Bethlehem Steel Company) due to the lack of standardized techniques for the same jobs.
    • Taylor's Four Principles of Scientific Management:
    • Scientifically studying each part of a task to develop the best method for performing it.
    • Caringly selecting workers and training them to perform the task using the scientifically developed method.
    • Cooperating fully with workers to ensure that they use the proper method.
    • Dividing work and responsibilities so that management is responsible for planning work methods using scientific principles, while workers are responsible for executing the work.
  • Frank & Lilian Gilbreth:
  • Introduced motion study, evaluating and analyzing workers' movements to eliminate unnecessary or redundant motions.
• Bureaucratic Management:
  • Max Weber, the founder of bureaucratic management, believed it to be a rational and efficient form of organization based on logic, order, and legitimate authority.
• Administrative Management:
  • Henri Fayol outlined fourteen principles of administrative management that emphasize efficiency and effectiveness, including:
    • Division of Work
    • Authority and Responsibility
    • Discipline
    • Unity of Command
    • Unity of Direction
    • Subordination of Individual Interest
    • Remuneration
    • Centralization
    • Scalar Chain
    • Order
    • Equity
    • Stability and Tenure
    • Initiative
    • Esprit de corps
  • Additionally, Fayol identified five functions of management: planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling.

The Human Resource (Behavioral) Approach to Management

• This approach emphasizes increasing organizational success by focusing on human variables (human needs, work groups, and the role of social factors in the workplace).
• This approach emerged around 1910 due to concerns about appalling workplace conditions.

Early Advocates of the Behavioral Approach:

• Robert Owen:
  • Concerned about deplorable working conditions and proposed an idealistic workplace.
  • Argued that money spent on labor’s well-being was a smart investment.
• Mary Parker Follet:
• Argued organizations are viewed from the perspectives of individual and group behavior. Proposed people-oriented ideas over those of scientific management followers.
• Thought organizations should be based on a group ethic.
• Chester Bernard:
  • An active manager who viewed organizations as social systems requiring cooperation.
  • Believed the manager’s job was to communicate and stimulate employees’ high levels of effort.
  • First to argue that organizations were open systems.
• Hugo Munsterberg:
  • Pioneered industrial psychology (scientific study of people at work).
  • Suggested using psychological tests for employee selection, learning theory concepts for employee training, and studies of human behavior for employee motivation.