evolution of management thought explanation


evolution of management thought explanation

The Evolution management is as old as when human started living in groups. In old time strong men organized the people into groups, by influenced their intelligence, physical and mental capabilities. in ancient Greece, we can see the example of Evolution of Management, the organization of the Roman Catholic Church and the organization of military forces.
Evolution of Management Thought:
The Evolution of management thoughts are four types.
Pre scientific management theory.
Classical management Theory.
Neo classical management Theory or Behaviour Approach. Evolution of Management Thought Explanation FAQs Notes evolution of performance management,
Modern Management Theory or Systems Approach.

Pre scientific Management Theory:

The industrial revolution in the middle of the eighteenth century was the big impact on management. By the using of tools,  new machine, organization of labour increased the production and profit of the companies.
All these changes, in the field of Traditional, conventional or customary ideas of management, given new birth to scientific and modern management principles. L. F. Urwick said, "Modern management has thrown open a new branch of human knowledge, a fresh universe of discourse". industrial revolution, challenge the traditional character of management by introducing new ideas, approach and character of management.
The famous contributor of that time Professor Charles Babbage, we also know him as father of computer, was a Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University. He found that manufacturers applied use of science and mathematics, He give attention to taking business decisions on the use of accurate observations, measurement and precise knowledge. He influence the management of an enterprise, to use the accurate data obtained through rigid investigation, finding out the number of times each operation is repeated each hour, dividing of work according to mental and physical efforts, determining the precise cost for every process, and paying bonus to the workers in proportion to his own efficiency, and according to profit of enterprise.
James Watt Junior and Mathew Robinson Boulton contributed to the development of management thought by implementing certain management techniques in their engineering factory at Soho in Birmingham. Robert Owens, the promoter of co-operative and trade union movement in England, he urged to human intervention in industry, by influencing the working conditions and treatment of workers, for achieving better performance of the company. He give new ideas of human and industry relations, like shorter working hours, housing facilities, training of workers in hygiene, education of their children, provision of canteen etc. Robert Owen, relation was from a group of textile mills in Lanark, Scotland, where he implemented his ideas of human relations.  Robert Owen approach was paternalistic, so he is called as the father of Personnel Management.
Henry Robinson Towne was from USA, and he was the president of the famous lock manufacturing company "Yale and Town". He used the combination of engineers and economists as industrial managers.
Seebohm Rowntree from UK, created the need of labour welfare scheme and improvement in labour and industrial relations.

Classical Management Theory:

F.W. Taylor are known as father of scientific management, and Henry Fayol are founders of administrative management. They lay down the foundation of science and art of management.

Features of Classical Management Period:
The industrial revolution gave birth to the rise of large scale enterprise, and implemention of new management principles like, scientific management, Administrative management theory, bureaucratic model, and micro economics and public administration.
Frederick Winslow Taylor known as the founder of scientific management, Taylor suggested adopting scientific approach to managing employees and enterprise efficiency and growth. He suggested use of "scientific method" for achieving higher efficiency. These scientific method are,
Observation,
Measurement,
Experimentation and Inference.
He emphasized the necessity of perfect understanding and co-operation between the management and the workers, use of scientific investigation and knowledge in industrial work, for the enlargement of profits of the enterprise.
Taylor's Elements of Scientific Management are,
Scientific Task and Rate-setting,
work improvement,
Planning the Task,
Vocational Selection and Training,
Standardization of working conditions and material equipment,
Specialization,
Mental Revolution,
The objections raised in these techniques and principles, were later remedied by the other contributors to scientific management, like Henry L Gantt, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth and Harrington Emerson.
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth were husband and wife, They worked for wasted motions in work. Frank Gilbreth is regarded as the father of motion study. Gilbreth's main contributions are.
For doing a job or work, minimum motion should be included in an accessible area. and elimination of inefficient and wasteful motions involved in the work.
He emphasized on the workers training, so that they may achieve competence as early as possible. he considered to occupy three positions for employees.
First the job he held before promotion to his present position,
Second his present position,
and third the next higher position. The workers should be teaching the man below him and learning from the man above him. This would help for employees qualify for promotion and preparation a successor to his current job.
Gantt give a chart to compare actual to planned performance. Which is called Gantt chart, which shows graphically presented day-to-day production planning.
Task-and-bonus plan for remunerating workers indicating a more humanitarian approach.
Harrington Emerson was an American Engineer. He worked on efficiency in industry. first time he used the term 'efficiency engineering', he called his philosophy "The Gospel of Efficiency". According to him, "efficiency means that the right thing is done in the right manner, by the right man, at the right place, in the right time".
Emerson gave for management following principles of efficiency,
Ideals,
Common Sense,
Competent Counsel,
Discipline,
Fair Deal,
Proper Records,
Dispatching,
Standards and Schedules,
Standard Conditions,
Standardized Operations,
Standard practice instructions and
Efficiency Reward.

Neo classical management Theory or Behaviour Approach:

Neoclassical Theory is improved and extended version of the classical theory. The primarily focus of Classical theory on job content and management of physical resources whereas, neoclassical theory gave more focus on individual and group relationship in the workplace. The neoclassical theory plays the role of psychology and sociology, in the understanding of individual and group behaviour in an organization.

The Hawthorne Experiment:

George Elton Mayo was born in Australia, educated in Logic and Philosophy at St. Peter's College, Adelaide. He led a team of researchers on human problems at the Hawthorne Plant of Western Electrical Company at Chicago. They investigated informal groupings, informal relationships, patterns of communication, patterns of informal leadership etc. Elton Mayo is known as the father of Human Relations School. and his experiments known as Hawthorne Experiments, Other prominent contributors to this school include Roethlisberger, Dickson, Dewey, Lewinetc.
from 1927 up to 1932. The Hawthorne Experiments find out that the productivity of the employees is not the function of only physical conditions of work and money wages paid to them. but also Productivity of employees mainly depends upon the satisfaction of the employees in their work situation. Mayo told that logical factors were far less important, than emotional factors in determining productivity efficiency. Mayo concluded that to meeting the objective requirements of production, must also satisfy the employee's subjective requirement of social satisfaction at his work place.
The Hawthorne experiment consists of four parts.
Illumination Experiment.
Relay Assembly Test Room Experiment.
Mass Interviewing Programme.
Bank Wiring Test Room Experiment.

Illumination Experiment:

This experiment shows relationship between output and illumination. When the intensity of light was increased, the output also increased.  on the other hand when the light intensity was gradually brought down to the normal level. the output of the production was also high Therefore, it shows that there is no consistent relationship between output of workers and illumination in the company. There are some other factors which affect productivity.

Relay Assembly Test Room Experiment: 

This experiment consists not only the impact of illumination on production but also other factors, like length of the working day, rest hours, and other physical conditions. In this experiment, a small homogeneous work group of six girls, who were friendly to each other and, asked them to work in a very informal atmosphere under the supervision of a researcher. Productivity and morale was high during the period of the experiment. Productivity went on increasing and stabilized at a high level, even when all the improvements were taken away and the pretest conditions were applied. The researchers found the result that, socio psychological factors such as feeling of being important, recognition, attention, participation, cohesive work group, and non directive supervision held the key for the high productivity.

Mass Interview Programme:

This programme was started to, study of the employees' attitudes which would reveal the meaning which their "working situation" has for them. The researchers interviewed a many number of workers with regard to their opinions on work, working conditions and supervision. Initially interviews asked questions considered important by managers and researchers. The researchers found that the replies of the workers were guarded. Next time this approach was replaced by an indirect technique, where the interviewer simply listened to, what the workers had to say. The findings confirmed the importance of social factors at work in the total work environment.

Bank Wiring Test Room Experiment:

This experiment was conducted by Roethlisberger and Dixon, to observation of accurate information about social groups within a company. and to find reasons that impact on production. This experiment was done on a group consisted of 14 activists. After the experiment, the production records of this group were compared to their earlier production records. It was observed that, the group developed its own production criteria for each individual worker, which was lower than what was set by management. For this reason, workers will only produce the same, which can beat the stimulus system. Activists who tried to produce more than the norms of the group were isolated, tortured or punished by the group. The findings of the study are, Each individual was restricting output. Groups had their own "informal" standards of performance. Individual production remained fairly stable over a period of time. Informal groups play an important role in the work of an organization. features of hawthorn experiment are, A business organization is basically a social system. This is not just a technical economic system. Workers can be motivated by psychological and social desires, because its behavior is also influenced by emotions, economic incentives are not the only way to inspire people. Management should develop cooperative approach and not only the order. Participation in human relations is an important instrument. To gain participation, an effective two way communication network is essential. Productivity is linked to employee satisfaction in any business organization. Therefore, management should be more interested in employee satisfaction. Group psychology plays an important role in any business organization. Therefore, we should rely more on the efforts of the informal group. In Neo classical principles man is a living machine and is more important than a non living machine. Therefore, the key to high productivity is employee morale. Higher outputs have higher morale.
Elements of Behavioural Theory:
There are three elements of behavioural theory.

The Individual: 


Neoclassical theory emphasized that each individual have, different feelings, perception and attitude. Every person is unique. In determining productivity, the internal world of labor is more important than external reality. Thus human relations at work, determine the increase or decrease in productivity. Therefore, productivity can be increased by motivation, which is based on economic, personal and social factors.

Work Groups: 


Workers are not treated separately by management, they are social being. The existence of informal organization is natural. Management now welcomes the worker's involvement, in planning the job content and job management. Neoclassical theory focuses its attention on workers. Plant layouts, machinery, equipment etc. Modern management has thought to place equal emphasis on man and machine, and we can develop suitable human machine relationship, to secure both productivity and achievement of goals.

Limitations of Human Relations Approach:


Human psychological relations are more important then economic, structural and technical aspects. It is believed that all organizational problems can be resolve through human relationships. Human relations put more emphasis on making decisions for groups. But in practice, the groups can create problems, and it can not be possible to make collective decisions.

Modern Management Theory or System Approach:


The systems approach is a fourth major principle of management called modern management theory. Modern theory considers an organization, as an adaptive, defined structured process, in which the person communicates for achieving goals andobjectives. the word system is made up of Greek words, which means bring together or combine. A system is a set of mutual and inter related elements or component, to achieve certain goals. A system has three important parts, Each system should be goal oriented, and must have a purpose to achieve it. When the system approach is applied to the organization, we have the following characteristics in the organization, It should be subsystem of its wider environment, It should be goal oriented, people with a purpose. It should be technical subsystem, using knowledge, techniques, tools and facilities.
Characteristics of Modern Management Thought:
The Systems Approach or modern management thought has five basic parts,
Input,
Process,
Output,
Feedback,
Environment.
for inputs to produce certain desirable outputs. The success of these outputs can be judged by means of feedback. to meet the enviornment changing demands.
We have a dynamic process of interaction within the organization's structure. The systems approach indicates a complex multilevel and multidimensional character.