The Development of Management Thought-December 2007

[Golda]

Question 1 (a) , (b) and (c)

(a) State the importance of examining the development of management
thought and ideas (5 marks)

(b) Summarise the contribution of the following writers to the study
of people in organisations:

F W Taylor , E Mayo (12 marks)

Hint: Allocate 6 marks to discussing each theorist. There is no need
to over do it here, simply summarize the main ideas that each theorist
contributed toward management of people in the workplace.

(c) Explain the behavioral limitations of Taylor's approach to people
in organisations (8 marks)

Hint: The key word here is "behavioral" ...why did Taylor's scientific
approach impractical for dealing with behavioral problems?

[Suzette Matterson]

Dec 2007 1 (a)

State the importance of examining the development of management
thought and ideas (5 marks)

Answer:

It is generally accepted that, people who ignore the past are destined
to relive it. For this reason the study of the development of
management thought and ideas is integral to the success of any
organization. We as intelligent beings learn from our mistakes and the
mistakes of others therefore it would be wise to look at a past
pattern of practices and management functions which existed, how
effective or ineffective they were in the achievement of
organizational objectives, and use that as a guide towards current
development of management practices.

1 (b)
Summarize the contribution of the following writers to the study
of people in organizations:
F W Taylor, E Mayo (12 marks)

F.W. Taylor was a member of the Classical Scientific School of
Management in organizations. Also known as the Father of Scientific
Management the ideas he espoused were mainly concerned with and
applied to the Manufacturing environment (Factories) during the time
of England’s Industrial Revolution.

Taylor’s methods of scientific management encouraged management by
Scientific methods. Workers were scientifically selected, educated and
trained. He urged proper use of time, labor and tools and to this end
he introduced a scientific time management method (stop-watch timing)
for tasks being performed in the workplace. He realized that having
one person perform the same task over and over led to increased
efficiency and maximization of time and as such a piece rate system
was introduced. He stressed greater cooperation between management and
labor and also introduced work breaks.

E.Mayo was a member of the Behavioral Perspective school of Management
which placed more emphasis on the human behavior patterns in the
shaping of Management in organizations.
Mayo is most known for his famous Hawthorne experiments where he
examined the impact of work conditions on employees’ productivity.
He examined the physical and environmental influences of the workplace
(e.g. brightness of lights and humidity) and then moved to examining
the psychological aspects (e.g. breaks, group pressure, work hours,
leadership styles) and their impact on employee motivation as it
applies to productivity.

In essence Mayo’s experiments showed that productivity increased
because more attention was paid to the workers in the experiment.
Employees are more productive because they know they are being
studied. It should be noted here that Mayo’s Behavioral perspective
represents the transition from Scientific management to early Human
relations movement.

1(c)

Explain the behavioral limitations of Taylor's approach to people

in organizations (8 marks)

Taylor’s scientific approach to management was seen to be deficient in
several ways:
-There was only a monetary reward approach to motivation on job which
totally ignored job satisfaction.
-It resulted in fears of becoming obsolete and retrenchment in the
work place leading to strikes and long lasting resentments.
-Workers began to distrust the work measurement and time motion
studies which forced them to work harder for the same compensation.
-Workers were treated like machines and the social group aspect was
totally ignored.
-Specialization led to boredom and monotony in the workplace and
ignored the individuals need for variety.

All in all, these deficiencies in Taylor’s approach to management led
to employees being resistant to change in the workplace and with the
start of the Trade Union movement, workers were no longer willing to
accept the type of management which failed to acknowledge and
reconcile their more human need for social interaction with that of
the organizations mechanically inclined needs and objectives.