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Management theories classical and contemporary
Principles used in modern theories of management
Today's management theories
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Taylorism is a system that was designed in the late 19th century, not only to maximise managerial control, but to also expand the levels of efficiency throughout workplaces. With this being said, productivity levels increased and fair wage distribution was the main result. However, with other, more recent theories and systems, such as Maslow and Herzburg’s theories, these helped to focus on the satisfaction and motivation of the workers rather than the concern of managerial control and empowerment. Fredrick W. Taylor ended up developing 4 main principles to help increase the work efficiency and productivity in workplaces; these will be discussed later on. Other theories relating to this include, Fayol, Follett, Management Science Theory as well as Organisational-Environmental Theory. All theories listed have an influence on the way businesses work effectively and put their skills to action. This essay will highlight how Taylorism was designed to maximise managerial control and increase productivity, furthermore, showing how more recent theories were developed to focus on empowering employees and to extend the use of organisational resources.
Scientific Management Theory
Fredrick W. Taylor’s main intentions for his theory of Scientific Management was to effectively increase the amount of productivity and efficiency within an organisation. As Robbins and Coulter stated, ‘the use of scientific methods to define the “one best way” for a job to be done’. (Robbins, Coutler, n.d, pg. 29). Taylor introduced a ‘fair days wage’ as mentioned in Episode 143: Fredrick Winslow Taylor’s Scientific Management (2013) to be paid regardless for the amount of output each person produced. This wage was determined by the standard a worker should be pr...
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...the best output.
Reference
Episode 143: Fredrick Winslow Taylor’s Scientific Management 2013, YouTube, Alanis Business Academy, 19 Nov, retrieved April 4 2014,
Helmit. K. Anheier, 2005, NonProfit Organistions Theory Management Policy, Routledge, USA
Jackell, 1988, Looking Up and Looking Around, Oxford University Press
Parker, 2002, Against Management. Wiley
Richardson, Chapman, 2011, Key Concepts in VCE Business Management 2nd Edition, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd, Queensland.
Ritzer, 2011, An Introduction to McDonaldization, Sage Publishers
Robbins, Coulter, n.d., Management Eleventh Edition, Prentice Hall, New Jersey
Waddell, Jones, George, 2013, Contemporary Management 3rd Edition, McGraw-Hill Book Co, North Ryde.
2006, Collins Australian School Dictionary, HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty Limited
Coulter, M., Decenzo, D. A., & Robbins, S. P. (2013). Fundamentals of Management (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Robbins, S. P., Decenzo, D. A., & Coulter. M. (2013). Fundamentals of Management (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
“Management is a process of planning, organisation, command, coordination, and control” (Morgan 2006, p.18). Rational organisation design is a bureaucratic method of management which emphasizes efficiency to achieve the end goal and the management of multiple companies have taken upon this system. Figures such as Frederick Taylor and Henry Ford have both shown and laid a path way for Rational Organisation which has become known as Taylorism and Fordism. The design has received criticism and both Taylor and Ford have been portrayed as villains with Taylor being called “enemy of the working man” (Morgan 2006, p.23) as the system dehumanised workers by taking all of the thought and skill from them and giving it to the managers this is because the tasks given were simple and repetitive. As staff needed little training they became an easily replaceable asset and thus more machine than human.
Based on research so far in this essay, it seems that the whole reason behind Frederick Taylor’s theory is that he tends to aim for making the most of his employees, to work to their highest standards for a successful company. When we look at the Ryanair case study on Management, D. Boddy pg 23 we can see that one of the key points is that the staff must turn an aircraft round between the flights in a matter of 25 minutes, which has a positive effect on increasing revenue. However, this leaves the employees under pressure, but this also tells us that the Ryanair organisation makes the most out of their employees, just like Frederick Taylor’s theory. Getting these tasks completed by the employees is all in the manager’s responsibility, Ryanair regulates their staff so that the managers are held responsible for providing the strategies for the employees as mentioned in the case study on Management, D. Boddy pg 23.
It will be unfair to say that Taylor’s theory did not do any good for the economy as a whole. In fact it really helped the economy in age of industrial development. But presently, in the age of high technologies we do not need to stress people to work hard. Many jobs require qualified people that being fired very hard to replace. Creating a workaholic – Type A persons, can be very dangerous for future economics of single company and nation’s economy in the whole.
Robbins, S. P., & Coulter. M. (2014). Management (12th ed.). Retrieved from: Colorado Technical University eBook Collection database.
Frederick Taylor and Henri Fayol are both considered classical contributors to management theory. Both were developing and expression their viewpoints at similar time period with the aim of “raising standard of management in industry” (Brodie,1967, p7) in a period were very few publications and theories on management. While both theories were developed with the same influencing factors such as war, social struggles and industrial revolution (Urwick. 1951, p7) each developed quite different management theories. Frederick Taylor is considered the Father of Scientific management and he developed scientific principles of management, focusing on the individual,...
Robbins, S., Decenzo, D., & Coulter, M. (2013). Fundamentals of management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
These emerging theories have enabled managers to appreciate new patterns of thinking, new ways of organising, and new ways of managing organisations and people. Over the years these different theories have enabled the study of trends that have taken place in the management field. The major management viewpoints- which include the classical, behavioural and contingency approaches- have assisted in the formation of the contemporary twenty-first century management theory and techniques (S. C. Certo & S. T. Certo, 2006). Although, there are significant differences among all these approaches, they seem to be unified by the efforts of improving an organisation’s efficiency in terms of proper human resources management. Furthermore, the dissimilarities seen in these approaches are due to the ever-changing organisations and environments which demand new management practices and techniques be applied to maintain the efficiency of an organisation.
The founding father of scientific management theory is Fredrick Winslow Taylor. He was an American mechanical engineer and an inventor. Modern management theorist Edward Deming credited Taylor for his contributions while Joseph Juran criticized his work for extracting more work from workers. However a careful reading of Taylor’s work will disclose that he placed workers interest as high as the employer’s in his studies. Before the principles of management are discussed it is very important to understand the causes which led Taylor to derive the four principles of management. The three causes are as follows:
There are several theories that examine an organization and it’s approach to managing work in an effort to develop efficiency and increase production. Two classical approaches to management are Taylor’s scientific management theory and Weber's bureaucratic management theory. Both men are considered pioneers of in the study of management.
the study of time and action; b) the management on assignment; c) the theory of organization. (8)Taylor’s theory created a revolution in the subject of management because it was the first scientific method in field of management science. (1)After that, management became a truly scientific knowledge and it expanded and modified by later generations. Therefore, Taylor is “known as the father of scientific management”. (2) Taylor put forward a perspective which was “study the character, the nature and the performance of each workman” and moreover, to “train and help and teach this workman”. (3) In the following paragraphs, will exploring the relevant and irrelevant hypotaxis between Scientific Management and organizations.
Frederick Taylor thought that changes in the work process and/or rules would advance efficiency and productivity. He originated the scientific management approach in public administration. It was based on the idea that work processes should be observed via experiments which would greatly improve productivity. It would do so by doing away with the rule of thumb work methods and replacing them with the results of actual timed observations (14). The application of the scientific approach to management methods would lead to optimizing task time by simplifying the job. It would mean observing work processes to find the one best way to perform each job (15). Once the best way was discovered, all employees were to use it. The simplification of the job would improve task time. This method would lead to increased productivity, higher wag...
According to (Leonard et al, 2004) explored on how great ideologies turn to become great works. They explained how Frederick Taylor preached the gospel of scientific management. Even though it has been criticised it sites example and explain how the theory of scientific management came to being and the impact is still having on both private and public organisation.
The evolution of management though the decades can be divided into two major sections. One of the sections is the classical approach. Under the classical approach efficiency and productivity became a critical concern of the managers at the turn of the 20th century. One of the approaches from the classical time period were systematic management which placed more emphasis on internal operations because managers were concerned with meeting the growth in demand brought on by the Industrial revolution. As a result managers became more concerned with physical things than towards the people therefore systematic management failed to lead to production efficiency. This became apparent to an engineer named Frederick Taylor who was the father of Scientific Management. Scientific Management was identified by four principles for which management should develop the best way to do a job, determine the optimum work pace, train people to do the job properly, and reward successful performance by using an incentive pay system. Scientifi...