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Part I
Over the past years, there have evolved several different approach to management there is some theories have gradually lost
its importance over the years wheras some are still in used in today's business management, like scientific management and
human relations. Scientific management emphasized on motivation with the use of money, productivity and efficiency of workers.
Human relations on the other hand emphasied on imformal organisation, communication an motivation towards workers' welfare,
social needs and wealth etc.
Scientific management, according to Taylor believed in "stop watch" method to establish standard time and standard out put
of work. All unneccessary movement could be eliminated in order to produce the best method of doing a job. This best method
would become the standard to be used for all like jobs. Hence achieving higher productivity. Human relation, according to
Mayo, believed it is important to improve the interaction or ralations between the management and workers, at workplace to
achieve higher productivity. His studies on "Howthorne effect" succesfully showed that having an informal organisation leads
to an increased in productivity.
The Gilbreths believed in " One best way" as doing in scientific management. They laid down systematic rules and produres
for the efficient operation of the work and insisted that these rules are to be kept to organisation are said to be of formal
structure due to rigid rules and regulations. Human Relations on the other hand, according to Mayo believed in informal group.
He felt that productivity increased if managers make workers feel important. He also saw the importance of informal communication
which is known as grapevine, allows managers to get things done using informal way of motivation and leadership.
Scientific management motivates workers using money. Henry Gantt introduced a bonus system which allowed workers to challenge
the time allocated for a particular task. He believe in incetives, so long the workers are able to achieve target, they should
be rewarded. This complies to "only a way" and not "one best way". Human relations however emphasized that productivity can
be increased by motivation workers interms of social welfare, needs and health. There's a saying " A happy employee is also
a productive one"
Scientific management emphasized on specialisation of work. Workers and management have almost equal division of work and
responsibilities. Human Relations believed in teamwork as proven in hawthorne studies by Mayo, group work on team approach
increases performance.
In scientific management, workers are viewed as "cogs of machines" Basic human feelings are being ignored and planning and
control of workplace activities were in place in the hands of management. However, human relations considered the human needs
of workers .Therefore, social working condition was improved greatly whereas in scientific management, physical working condition
was improved greatly.
Part II
In my view, Human Relations seems to be more relevant to the business management today than scientific management. The approach
by scientific management is more of looking towards productivity and efficiency of workers whereas the approach by Human relations
is related to workers' needs, which changes over the years. Therefore, the approach of Human relations is more applicable
to the world today as it can adopt to the constant changing of the workers' needs.
People nowadays are better educated than in the past. They have desire to have more say in making decision in the organisation
today. In countries like China, India and Thailand, the management has to use more participative management style rather than
a top-down or autocratic styles of management. Unlike scientific management, higher management always has the final say in
making decision.
In making an organisation successful, creativity and innovation is important. An organisation who takes good care of its workers
is likely to have new products than an organisation which adopts classical theories like scientific management. In USA, people
are more innovative in products than who were in China and former USSR combined together.
As there is a constant changing of the workers' needs and environment, they tend to change in their values too. Workers want
fo have more self-respect and influence of technology influences their needs at work . Example, more gym, childcare centre,
health check-ups especially if the economy progresses. They wanted to demand the basic needs of life.
In other saying, they tend to look for human desire for job satisfaction. The scientific model implies that workers are rational
economic man, They are only interested in higher wages is becoming less applicable in business management today. In Singapore,
where economy is progressing fast, people now look for better social environment rather than money.
Communication is also an important aspect for a manager. When workers are able to support and accept the manager, they are
more willing to work for him. Hence productivity and efficiency increases. This method is much more superior as compared to
strict rules and regulations, which will prove to disatisfaction and conflicts. Workers of today are willing to work if they
are emotionally satisfied.
Human relations is indeed important for an organisation to be successful like Creative Technology and Sony.However, scientific
management is not totally irrelevant to business management today. Though strict rules and regulations no longer play a strong
part today, but money could still be said as being used as a strong motivation towards work in the lower management level.
Therefore, Human Relations is not the only aspect of business management. Other theories and models would need to be considered
in management of organisation towards making it a successful one.
I. Outline and explain the classical view of the main
activities of manager
II.Contrast this view with Mintzberg's "folklore and facts"
of management
" Great manager need to understand that their job is to reinforce their employees' self-assurance and should focus on their
employees' strengths rather than weaknesses....." This article is from Harvard business Review March 2005. But according to
classical theory what did managers do ? In this essay we will outline and explain the classical view of the main activities
of manager and also contrast this view with Mintbergz myths of what did the manager do in reality.
First all managers perform essentially the same functions the difference is when manager move to a higher management level:
lower-level managers emphasize leading while upper-level managers spend more of their time planning, organizing, and controlling.
Managers in small business tend to emphasize the spokesperson role and are generalists. Also, the formal structure and nature
of a manager's job in a large organisation is replaced by more informality in a smal firm. The two main theory of classical
approach are Administrative management(Henri Fayol) and Scientific Management(Taylor). While Talor believe that manager was
born, not made those who want to become a manager already have innate qualities of a manager and. Fayol, however, believed
that management could be taught. Mean that one understood principles and theory of management can become a manager. Hence,
Fayol did more emphasise on manager activity while Taylor studied mainly worker and consider workers as "rational economic
man".
According to Fayol to manage is to plan, organise, control, Lead and coordinate. Planning includes defining goals, establishing
strategy, and developing plans to coordinate activities. Plans give the organisation its objectives and set up the best procedures
for reaching them. Workers carry on activities consistent with the chosen objectives and procedures; and progress towards
the objectives is monitored and measured so that correction action can be taken if progress is unsatisfactory. For example,
in setting up a new restaurant a manager first will define goals for his restaurant (to get more regular customers), second
he need to develops a plan and procedure for his worker(plan include training staff about hygiene, every workers must follow
the safety hygiene procedure).
Organizing is determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom,
and where decisions are to be made. Different goals require different structures. An organisation that aims to develop computer
software, for example, needs a different structure than does a manufacture of blue jeans. Producing a standadize product like
blue jeans requires organizing teams of proffesionals must interact effectively, that cannot be organized like assembly-line
workers. Thus managers must match an organisation's structure to its goal and resources.
Leading includes motivation subordinates, directing others, selecting the most effective communication channels and resolving
conflicts. In facts, leading gets to the heart of managers' relationship with each of the people working for them. Managers
lead in an attempt to persuade other to join them in pursuit of the future that emerges from the planning and organizing steps.
By establishing the appropriate atmosphere, managers help their emploees do their best. However, scientific management , workers
were lead and motivated by the use of money because man is rational econimic man. Basic human feelings are being ignored
and planning controlling of work place is in the hands of managers.
Controlling is monitoring activities to ensure that they are being accomplished as planned and correcting and significant
deviations. It involves three main element first establishing standards of performance second is measuring current performance,
and than comparing these performance to the establishing standards and finally taking corrective action if errors are found.
Through the controlling function, managers keep the organization on track. Although the functional approach is clear and simple,
critics have suggested that it does not provide an accurate description of what managers actually do. In today workplace with
the everchanging business environment, Managers will have to shift their attitude from treating everyone alike to recognizing
differences and responding to those differences in ways that will ensure employees retention and greater productivity, while
at the same time, not discrimination against any individual.
Part II
Foyol's management function now has little validity in the present global environment. While Mintberg's research is more real
to what a manager does in an organisation. According to his research there is a great difference between what a manager is
expected to do and what a manager does. Henry Mintzberg studied real managers at work and from his findings he distinguishes
the "folklore" and fact" of the manager's job.
Firstly The belief that a manager is a reflective and systematic planner is a myth - managerial work is disjointed and discontinuous.
Study after study has shown that managers work at an unrelenting pace, that their activities are characterised by brevity,
variety and discontinuity, and that they are strongly oriented to action and dislike reflective activities. Is this the planner
that the classical view describes? The manager according to classical approach is simply responding to the pressure of his
job while Mintbergz implies planning is conducted on a day to day basis in between more urgent tasks. In his research Mintberg
shown that, CEO terminated many of their own activities, often leaving meetings before the end, and interrupted their desk
work to call in subordinates. They appreciated the opportunity cost of their own time, and they were continually aware of
their everpresent obligations - e.g. email to be answered, customers to attend to, and so on. The manager plan his works in
the context of daily actions, not in some abstract reserved for two weeks of mountain of organisation actions.It is different
from setting objectives and set up the best procedures for reaching them, the plans of the managers seemed to exist only in
their heads - as flexible but often specific, intentions. Indeed, the job of managing does not breed reflective planners;
the manager is a real-time responder to stimulus, an individual conditioned by his job to prefer live to delayed action.
The second myth is that a manager has no regular or routine duties to perform as these have been delegated to juniors. Managers
are constantly being told to spend more time planning and less time seeing customers and engaging in negotiations, which are
not, after all, the true tasks of the manager. In order to handling exceptions, managerial work involves performing a number
of regular duties, including ritual and ceremony, negotiation. It includes tasks which were organised includes tasks are to
be done, who is to do them, how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and where decisions are to be made. E.g.
attending at their staff wedding party, giving speech in the Year-End party of the company,wellcoming new staff, regularly
visit important customers.
Another myth is that the senior manager needs aggregated information, which a formal management information system(MIS) best
provides. It from the classical view that the manager who is on the apex of regulated, hierarchical system, prefer to receive
his information from a giant, comprehensive MIS, However it has become increasingly evident that these MIS systems are not
working as managers are simply not using them. The evidence of every single study of managerial work shows that managers strongly
favor the verbal communication such as telephone calls and meetings. In my opinion managers are human being and we, mostly
seem to prefer gossip, hearsay and speculation, not tons of official documents information. The reason is quiet simple as
today gossip may be tomorrow's fact. For example , a simple talk between Scott McNealy(SUN Microsystem CEO) and Mr Lee Kwong
Cheong ( SIM CEO) in SUNTEC City last week (as i have opportunity to participate) may lead to tomorrow cooperation between
SIM and Sun Microsystem in providing Information security course in SIM.
The fianall myth is that management is or at least is quickly becoming, a science and a profession. Figurehead, the simplest
of roles, describes the manager as a symbol, required by the status of the office, to carry out a variety of social, legal,
and ceremonial duties. They must preside at formal dinners, greet visiting dignitaries, sign various forms and contracts,
and make himself available to the important clients who believe that they merit the chief executive’s attention. Because
he is incharge of an organisational unit, the manager is responsible for the work of the people of that unit. His actions
in this regard consititute to LEADER role. Some of these actions involve leadership directly - for example, in most organizations
the manager is normally responsible for hiring and training his own staff. In addtition, there is the indirect exercise of
the leader role. Every manager must motivate and encourage his employees, somehow reconciling their individual needs with
the goals of the organisation. In virtually every contact the manager has with his employees, subordinates seeking leadership
clues probe his actions. The influence of the manager is most clearly seen in the leader role. Formal authority vests hom
with great potential power ; leadership determines in large part how much of it he will realize.
In conclusion, the 4 roles of manager are still useful for today manager because day to day management activities if we ask
a manager what he does, he will reply you "he is planning, Organising, Leading, Coordinating and controlling". However according
to Mintbergz research, what a manager is expected to do is different from what he actually does - that is the " forklores
and facts" of manager.
By Colin
(to be done by 22-Sep-2005)
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