Origins of Modern Management

Origins of Modern Management

• Division of labor: Breaking down jobs into narrow, repetitive tasks.
• Industrial Revolution: Transition to new manufacturing processes, combining machine power and division of labor to create large, efficient factories.

Classical Approach

• Focus: Emphasizing rationality and efficiency in organizations and workers.
• Key Theories: Scientific management and general administrative theory.

Scientific Management

• Focus: Using scientific methods to find the "one best way" to perform a job.
• Key Figures: Frederick W. Taylor, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, Henry Gantt.
• Taylor's Principles:
  • Develop a science for each element of a job.
  • Scientifically select, train, and develop workers.
  • Cooperate with workers to ensure work follows principles.
  • Divide work and responsibilities between management and workers.
• Taylor's Pig Iron Experiment: Increased daily output by almost 4 times through scientific job design.
• Key Elements Contributing to Productivity Increase:
  • Matching workers to tasks and tools.
  • Ensuring workers follow instructions.
  • Motivating workers with incentives.
• Gilbreths’ Contributions:
  • Eliminating inefficient motions to increase productivity and reduce fatigue.
  • Used motion picture films to study hand and body motions.
  • Developed "therbligs" (classification scheme of basic hand motions).
• Gantt Charts: Scheduling charts to visualize planned and actual output, showing whether tasks are ahead of, behind, or on schedule.

General Administrative Theory

• Focus: Defining management practices and identifying manager functions.
• Key Figure: Henri Fayol.
• Fayol's Management Functions: Planning, organizing, coordinating, controlling, commanding.
• Fayol's Fourteen Principles of Management:
  • Division of work, Authority, Discipline, Unity of Command, Unity of Direction, Subordination of individual interests to general interest, Remuneration, Centralization, Scalar Chain, Order, Equity, Stability of Tenure of Personnel, Initiative, Esprit de Corps – promoting team spirit.
• Key Figure: Max Weber.
• Weber's Bureaucracy: Ideal type organization with division of labor, hierarchy, formal rules, and impersonal relationships.

Behavioral Approach

• Focus: Individual attitudes, behaviors, and group processes in the workplace.
• Key Figures: Hugo Münsterberg, Mary Parker Follett, Chester I. Barnard, Elton Mayo, Douglas McGregor.
• Münsterberg: Pioneer of industrial psychology. Studied employee selection, training, and motivation to improve efficiency.
• Follett: Focused on the human side of organizations, emphasizing worker participation and shared goals.
• Barnard: Viewed organizations as cooperative systems, recognizing informal organizations.
• Hawthorne Studies: Studies by Elton Mayo at Western Electric that revealed social norms and group standards affect individual work behavior.
• Mayo's Findings: Productivity increased with changes to working conditions (even when the changes were negative).
• McGregor's Theory X & Y: Theory X assumes workers dislike work and need close supervision, while Theory Y assumes workers are self-motivated and seek responsibility.

Quantitative Approach

• Focus: Using quantitative techniques for better decision-making.
• Applications: Resource allocation, inventory levels, total quality management, planning, and control.

Contemporary Approaches

Systems Approach

• Focus: Viewing organizations as open systems interacting with their environment.
• Concept: Interrelated parts within a system, with decisions affecting other areas.

Contingency Approach

• Focus: Recognizing differences in organizations and management approaches based on various contingencies.
• Key Variable Focus: Size, environmental uncertainty, individual differences.