Evolving of Management Theories - Literature review Example

Running Header: Management Theories Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Management Theories Introduction According to Kolb, Rubin & McIntyre (1984), the role, views and theories of management have changed with years. Several years ago, manager was seen by many people as the boss, which might be the case even today for some organizations. However, this has changed under several circumstances and managers see themselves as leaders today. The change of management theories can be associated with change of management roles. Theories of management have changed over years. Management theories have evolved from Classical thought to behavioral theories, quantitative, contingent or subsystem, and modern theory of management. However, all those can be viewed in different perspectives that include mechanistic, power, organic, and culture. Mechanistic perspective entails management prerogative, money as motivator, efficiency, output, sanction and obedience. Cultural perspective involves language, ceremony, attitudes, values, beliefs, rituals and inclusiveness. Organic is another perspective that includes interdependence, collaboration, effectiveness, collectiveness, concern for welfare, and cooperation. The last perspective is power and politics, and it involves dominance, position, exclusiveness, punishment or reward, collation formation, and control. Have mechanistic, organic, cultural, and power and politics perspectives changed with change in management theories? Management Theories Formulation Classical thought emerged throughout the late nineteen century and early twentieth century mainly due to the industrial revolution. Industrial revolution put emphasis on the significance of better management as companies and businesses became more complex and bigger. Managers had to develop scheduling, production, controlling inventory and human resource systems as industries continued to grow. The managers, who emerged during the industrial revolution era, discovered the importance of organized methods. This was to assist in discovering answers to workplace problems. There were several classical management theorists during the industrial revolution era. They thought of one way of solving problems of management. Classical management theorists had theories which assumed that, in trying to maximize personal gains in all working areas, management had to make rational and logical decisions. Scientific management was the basis of the classical school of management. Scientific management had its roots from Max Weber’s ideas who was a German sociologist, and Henri Fayol’s work that was based in France. Scientific management bases standards on facts gathered by experimentation, observation, or sound reasoning. Scientific management was developed further by individuals in the United States. These individuals included Frederick Taylor (1856-1915), Frank (1868-1924) and Lilian (1878-1972). First scientific management theory was developed first by Frederick Taylor in 1890s. It was geared towards assembly line and mechanical work. At this time, tasks were usually standardized. The theory by Taylor assigned success measurement relating to those tasks. According to mechanistic perspective, quantity of work was put into place. Workers were rewarded after reaching their goals. This was according to politics view whereby those who did not reach the targets or goals were punished. This scientific theory had no element of human included in the management; it was strictly based on tasks. However, there was no interference of politics or control and dominance of politicians. Manab (1998) has details that, scientific theory was used by many companies in United States until 1930s. During this period, Max Weber tweaked a little bit Taylor’s scientific theory. Max’s main focus was to separate organizations into several hierarchies like shift leaders, assembly workers and plant mangers. In an organic perspective, there was interdependence of each level. This was to increase the effectiveness in an organization according to organic perspective. Tasks were no longer assigned to individuals but rather to levels or groups. Each level had a collective responsibility. This was after Weber thought that, operating procedure needed to be standardized in each organization. The tasks were assigned to levels and not individuals. Behavioral management thought came after classical management. Classical theorists were machine-oriented which made behavioralists began developing their thinking on better ways of approaching management. Behavioral managers viewed management from a physiological and social perspective. These managers were more concerned about workers well being. They felt that workers needed to be treated like people and not like machines. Robert Owen was one of the early behavioral theorists. He was a British industrialist who was first to promote human resource management in an organization. Another theorist was Walter Dill Scot (1869-1955); he saw the importance of managers improving motivation and attitude of workers. This was meant to increase productivity. Human relation movement dominated behavioral management period. There were human relations movement advocates who believed that, managers needed to focus on employees and not on mechanistic production. This makes workers more productive if they become more satisfied. The concept that managers needed to be paternalistic was supported by Human relations management. This was to ensure they workers were satisfied and hence productive. Behavioral management emphasized the need for employees developing and growing. This was ensuring that workers remained productive, and self respected. However, there was nothing like money motivation in this era. Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) advocated for behavioral science of movement. He came up with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Douglas McGregor (1906-1964), developed Theory X and Theory Y. they were a concern about how workers were being treated by Labor unions between 1930s and 1940s. Another theorist concerned about management was Mayo. He impacted the theories of management with movements that were human factored. Human resource departments were developed by labor unions and government regulations from Mayo’s experiments. This led to fair treatment of employees where both employers and employees benefited. This was a concern for employees’ welfare. William (2003) maintains that the need of workers was well understood by management taking into consideration how their needs would become satisfied. This was meant to increase productivity in the working place. In a cultural perspective, worker values in the working places were realized. Output was increased significantly if looked at a mechanistic perspective. There was cooperation between the management and workers and all levels of management. Use of Taylor’s Science management tool was not adopted by organizations until world war-II. Managers were helped by this approach in making decisions through the development of formal mathematical models. They utilized the approach in making solutions of problems at hand. This scientific, quantitative method has become possible through the use of computer. Quantitative theories emerged during the Second World War. It emerged as military planners were thinking of operation research techniques. Quantitative theory was meant to provide decisions regarding those operations that were under control. It had other names like quantitative management, operational research and operational analysis. The operation research technique was extremely effective during the Second World War that, it was adopted after the war. The techniques were applied after Second World War to solve problems in society, industries and businesses. Operational research started to be used in finance, logistics, and airlines sectors among others. Operation research focus moved on the development of mathematical models that analyzed and optimized complex systems. The use of operational research used various scientific research based principles and strategies. It used analytical methods like mathematical modeling, statistics and numerical algorithms among others. This was mainly used in trying to get power during the war. Qualitative theory assisted management decision making by arriving at optimal solutions involving decision problems that were complex. Management science or operation research helped organizations in achievement of goals by use of scientific methods. Use and application of operation research helps to enlighten the issues of management. This also helped in solving problems of management that leads to organizational excellence. One of the main techniques used was Queuing theory, which is still in use even today. Others are simulation, math forecasting, and linear programming as well as inventory modeling. Quantitative management emerged mainly due to mathematical as well as statistical solution development. It was meant to solve problems involving military during the Second World War. British used it in determining aircraft maximum effectiveness against Germans. Quantitative approach is used by managers in improving decisions on resource allocation by use of linear programming. Several theories continue to evolve through integrating other theories. The contingency approach considers major factors in a situation before making a decision. It is usually a problem-solving approach. It incorporated and, integrated principles by replacing them with simplistic principles. Contingency management focused on analyzing and appraising organization’s entire managerial environment. Appraisal focuses on the need to focus on values and attitudes of the organization. Contingency management assumes that there is agreement between internal and external environment and organization. This in organic perspective shows that there is collaboration between the organization and both internal and external environment. It also assumed that there was collectiveness and interdependence in terms of relationship between all organizations. According to contingency plan, it assumes on the best management. It looks at how and what is to be done. It examines on who is to do it. It as well examines on impact it will have on the organization’s attitude, beliefs, and values. This is mainly through a culture perspective. The contingency approach promotes the organization’s effectiveness at a greater extent. Some of the approaches used in the contingency plan were closed and open management systems. Classical and behavioral approaches focused only within the organization in improving efficiency and productivity. In Closed management system, organization operates in such a way that it is in its own environment. All the outside politics and other influences are blocked out. In open management system, organization operates with the external environment. There is collaboration between outside forces and inside forces. Contingency management stresses on the analysis and appraisal need of whole managerial environment in the organization. Analysis and appraisal are vital in determining which organization designs, work features, personnel and technology are fit for a specific situation. In organic view, it tries to evaluate how several factors cooperate or collaborate towards effectiveness of the organization. Smith (2001) has details that Peter Senge is one man who contributed to the field of management as well. He had five disciplines that managers needed to embrace in order to improve management skills in organizations. These five principles included systems thinking, personal mastery, team learning, building shared vision and mental models. Senge’s theory can be viewed in various perspectives including organic where the need for collaboration is required and, it is of paramount. In power perspective, he emphasizes on the need of being an expert in terms of being an expert. Inclusiveness is also important according to Senge’s principles in terms of shared vision. The modern management theories involve the utilization of total quality management (TQM). Total management theory was introduced by Deming in 1950. This mainly involves the use of statistics to analyze variables in production so as to improve the quality of product. Management focuses more on quality. Juran is a great man behind this quality management theory of modern days. According to Juran, 20 percent of quality problems are mainly due to workers while the rest is due to management. Therefore, Juran saw the need of involving managers in quality training in order to improve and manage quality. According to Answers.com (2010), the modern management has also been interfered with by political powers at a greater extent. This is totally different from previous management. Other modern theories of management include kaizen and visionary theory. Visionary theory is characterized by strong self-confidence, willingness of taking personal risks and ability of influencing other people. However, politicians are inspirational figure heads and in most cases they interfere with management. Politicians control most organizations especially top management. The chief motivator in the modern management is money. The higher the performance the higher the money earned. Sanctions sometimes are imposed by international organizations and governments. Conclusion Management theories have evolved for years changing drastically while taking different views and directions as well as perspectives. Management has been concerned more by the entire organization rather than a particular section as it was previously. Quality has become a key issue rather than the quantity of production. Management is more concerned with the overall organization performance taking into consideration the production of every person. There are efforts by organizations to motivate workers so as to maximize their production as well. Several individuals including scholars were involved in making and developing management theories being used even currently. Several management theories can be combined to ensure effective working of management. Various perspectives related to management have been used in analyzing the change of management theories. They clearly show how theories evolve with time. Therefore, there is a need, for the organization to embrace management theories even if it involves combing several of them to ensure their organizations produce the best. References Answers.com, 2010, Management. Reference Answers, viewed 18 April 2010, Kolb, D, Rubin, I & McIntyre, M 1984. Organizational Psychology: Readings on Human Behaviour in Organizations. Fourth Edition. Prentice Hall Inc., Englewood-Cliffs, N.J. Manab, T 1998, Management today: principle and practice. 3rd edn, Tata McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. Smith, M 2001, Peter Senge and the Learning Organization, the encyclopedia of informal education, viewed 18 April 2010, William, J 2003, Management and the arts. 3rd edn, Elsevier, Michigan, US. Read More