2 Philosophies and Approaches to Management Practices
CHAPTER 2
PHILOSOPHIES AND APPROACHES TO MANAGEMENT PRACTICE
Lecture Notes
1
The Classical School of Management Thought and Practice
 Proponents of the classical management theory believed that a basic set of laws and principles
(the “one best way”) governs the correct ways of performing work, the design of the
organizational machine, and management practices.
 Classical management theory focuses on economic rationality: the idea that people are driven
by economic motives and that they make logical and rational decisions when trying to
maximize personal returns from a work experience.
A.
The Scientific Management Movement
1.
A movement to increase labor efficiency by managing the work of employees in
the organization’s technical core.
2.
Information is gathered through systematic observation, experiments, or
reasoning.
3.
Charles Babbage
 argued for employee specialization: training workers on a small set of tasks
in order to work as efficiently as possible
 managers should conduct time studies to determine how long it should take
to perform each task
Key Point: Babbage’s recommendations for time studies led to the close forms of supervision and
control-oriented management practices characterized by the classical school.
4.
Figure 2-1
p. 42
5.
Frederick Taylor
 often called the father of scientific management
 argued that organizations were using available employees ineffectively and that
managers needed to increase labor efficiency
 used time-and-motion and fatigue studies to develop very precise descriptions of the
one best way of performing specific tasks
 Taylor’s beliefs:
 managers should develop and implement the science of work: the underlying
laws which govern various work activities
 a mutuality of interest exists between management and employees, rooted in
economic motivation
 productivity and efficiency can be increased by asking the rational and
economically motivated employee to listen and comply with the scientifically
defined ways of work performance
 Taylor’s prescriptions:
 develop the science of work by using time, motion, and fatigue studies to
identify the “one best way” of performing a job
 emphasize an absolute adherence to work standards - make it very difficult to
change the scientifically determined production rate
 scientifically select, place and train workers
 apply a financial incentive system by tying pay to output
 utilize specialized functional supervision, with several expert managers
 develop and maintain friendly labor-management relations
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth
 developed a scheme to classify the motions (“therbligs”) used in the performance of
a job.
 documented the relationship between types and frequencies of motion and worker
fatigue, demonstrating that unnecessary motions wasted energy.
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2 Philosophies and Approaches to Management Practice

6.
Figure 2-2
p. 44
B.
the Gilbreths’ research helped make more of a worker’s energy available for job
performance.
 Lillian Gilbreth pioneered modern human resource management, in particular the
scientific selection, placement, and training of employees.
Henry Gantt
Added two techniques to scientific management:
 The Gantt Chart: a method of summarizing work activities and identifying those that
should be performed simultaneously or sequentially.
 Minimum -wage-based incentive system
 minimum wage should be paid regardless of worker’s achievement of daily
objectives
 bonuses should be given for work beyond the expected standard
 bonuses should be given to supervisors whose subordinates reach their daily
standard
Administrative Management and the Bureaucratic Organization
1.
Concentrated on the management of an entire organization, not just the technical core.
2.
Administrative Management and Henri Fayol
 attributed his success as a manager to his methods, not personal talent. Believed that
other managers could be as successful if they had appropriate guidelines for
managing complex organizations.
 recognized that the nature of managerial work differs from manager to manager
according to such factors as the size of an organization and the manager’s location in
the hierarchy.
 Fourteen Principles:
 division of labor: stressed importance of specialization
 authority: the right to give orders should always carry fitting responsibility
 discipline: respect for rules, policies, and agreements
 unity of command: each employee reports to one superior
 unity of direction: one manager for each organizational plan
 subordination of individual interest to the common good: needs of individual do
not take precedence over the needs of the organization as a whole
 remuneration: equitable and satisfactory wages
 centralization: no level of centralization of decision-making is ideal for all
situations
 scalar chain: exact lines of authority and relationships should be clear and
followed at all times
 order: a place for everything; everything in its place
 equity: employees treated with kindness and justice
 stability of tenure: employee population should be stable
 initiative: subordinates should be encouraged to conceive and carry out their
ideas
 esprit de corps: sense of teamwork should be fostered and maintained
 Key Point: Fayol felt that these principles should be flexible enough to match each
organizational situation. He said, “seldom do we have to apply the same principle twice in
identical condition; allowance must be made for different changing circumstances...”
However, the practice of strictly applying these principles without allowing for flexibility
characterizes the control-oriented approach to management that grows out of the classical
school of management thought.
3.
Table 2-1
p. 46
The Bureaucratic Organization and Max Weber
 the “architect of the bureaucratic organization”
 Weber envisioned an organization managed on an impersonal and rational basis.
 beliefs:
 labor should be divided according to specialization
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2 Philosophies and Approaches to Management Practice



C.
Table 2-2
p. 48
2
authority and responsibility should be assigned to a position, not to an individual
person
organizations should have an elaborate set of rules specifying the rights and
duties of employees and the procedures involved in each work situation
written rules should govern all major activities; all management activities &
decisions should be documented
Contributions and Limitations of the Classical School
1.
Classical management is prescriptive: it describes how people should manage an
organization
2.
The efforts of these researchers spurred additional scientific inquiry into management and
organizational systems
3.
Areas of disagreement
 supervision in the technical core: Fayol advocated unity of command; Taylor called
for functional supervision
 putting principles into practice
 Fayol advocated flexible adherence to principles; in practice, classical
management tended to be closed and rigid.
 Taylor advocated friendly labor-management relations; in practice, classical
management was often cool, impersonal, and adversarial.
4.
Criticisms
 description of employees as rational and economically motivated is incomplete,
ignoring social needs of workers.
 ignoring social needs results in employees being treated as resources for economic
ends, causing adversarial relationships between management and labor
 classical principles are not well-suited to shifting, heterogeneous environments
Hawthorne Studies: A Transition in Thought and Practice
A.
Purpose
1.
A series of worker productivity studies conducted 1924-1933. Focused on context in
which employees performed their work
2.
Strongly influenced the second school of management: behavioral management theory.
3.
Provided a transition between the classical and behavioral management schools of
thought.
4.
Looked at relationship between worker productivity and illumination, length of breaks,
length of workday, provisions for free lunches, and nature of pay plans.
5.
The researchers expected that improvements in these environmental factors would
improve productivity.
B.
Results
1.
Results did not match expectations.
2.
Sometimes productivity actually increased when decreases were expected, e.g., when
lights were dimmed.
3.
Researchers failed to find a simple relationship between work environment quality and
productivity.
 Key Point: As a result of the Hawthorne Studies, the idea began to emerge that the employee
was something other than a “rational and economic being”.
4.
Interviews of subjects revealed that productivity increases were as much an outgrowth of
group dynamics as of managerial demands, physical factors, and financial motives.
 Key Point: The behavioral norms established by informal work groups were found to be very
powerful forces in determining employee productivity. Individuals producing above the
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2 Philosophies and Approaches to Management Practice
group’s norm were pressured by workers to slow down. Those who produced below the
acceptable norm were pressured to speed up.
5.
Following the Hawthorne Studies, a social model of employees was beginning to
compete with the rational-economic model of the classical management school.
An Inside Look: The Hawthorne Studies
The importance of the Hawthorne experiments is a function of how researchers and
scholars explained the unexpected findings.
According to Elton Mayo:
What actually happened was that six individuals became a team and the team gave itself
wholeheartedly and spontaneously to cooperation in the experiment. They were happy in
the knowledge that they were working without coercion from above or limitations from
below. Mayo felt that the experiments satisfied worker’s needs and shifted their attention
from personal problems to productivity.
The major component of employees’ emotional condition was attitude toward supervisor.
Productivity increased because being a part of the experiments made the workers feel
important. Even members of control groups felt important; thus, their productivity was
said to increase as a result.
3
The Behavioral School of Management Thought and Practice
 Members of the behavioral school of thought viewed organizations from a social and psychological
perspective. Employees were seen as having a social need and a need to make a meaningful
contribution.
A.
Early Contributors and Contributions
1.
Robert Owen: called for
 treating workers with respect and dignity
 providing better working conditions
 reducing hours of work
 offering meals for the workforce
 restricting the use of children for labor
2.
Hugo Munsterberg
 “the father of industrial psychology”
 applied psychological concepts to organizational setting
 documented psychological conditions associated with different productivity levels
 used psychological findings to match workers with jobs and motivate workers
3.
Walter Dill Scott
 argued that if managers did not consider employees’ social needs, organizational
effectiveness would be hindered
 managers do not place enough importance on employee selection and supervision
 managers should work at improving employee attitudes and motivation to increase
productivity
4.
Mary Parker Follett
 a manager’s influence and power should flow naturally from knowledge and skill
 managers should coordinate work activities through personal contact, not structured
work systems or written rules
5.
Chester Barnard
 made distinction between formal and informal organizations
 formal organization: an entity consciously created to achieve organizational goals
 informal organization: arises spontaneously as employees interact and form bonds
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2 Philosophies and Approaches to Management Practice

B.
Figure 2-3
p. 53
C.
identified the informal organization’s ability to aid communication, provide
leadership, maintain cohesiveness, and strengthen individual feelings of integrity and
self-respect
The Human Relations Model
1.
Portrayed the employee as a social being motivated by the need for recognition,
acceptance, and inclusion.
2.
Argued that satisfied workers would be productive workers.
3.
Increases in worker productivity depend upon the degree to which an organization can
meet workers’ needs for recognition, acceptance, and group membership.
4.
Work-family programs have been implemented in many organizations as a result of this
movement.
The Behavioral Science Influence
1.
Behavioral scientists stressed the need to conduct controlled studies of workers and their
motivation, attitudes, and behavior.
2.
Abraham Maslow: Need Hierarchy
 to motivate people, organizations must offer members the opportunity to satisfy their
active personal needs
 identified the types of needs that employees have, the order in which employees are
likely to satisfy their needs, and the actions that organizations must take to satisfy
their needs.
 identified employees’ growth needs: the need for self-regard and the need to know
and understand
3.
Douglas McGregor: Theory X and Theory Y
 Theory X: traditional approach to management
 workers inherently dislike work, resists change, and are indifferent to
organizational needs and goals
 managers must coerce, control, direct, and threaten workers with punishment to
get them to put forth adequate effort
 Theory Y:
 workers like work, are motivated to achieve objectives to which they are
committed, are capable of self-direction, and are only resistant to change when
organizational and work-related experiences produce resistance.
 managers should create structures and processes that encourage employee
involvement
Self-Assessment, p. 55: Theory X and Theory Y Beliefs
 Key Point: McGregor and Maslow worked to show that employees are more complex than
either the rational-economic model or the social model portrayed. They believed that
employees have complex motivational patterns, and that behavior is strongly influenced by
the need to exercise self-direction and self-control in pursuit of their full human potential.
4.
5.
6.
Chris Argyris
 studied organizational and management systems’ effect on employees’ attitudes and
behaviors
 the demands placed upon people by bureaucratic organizations are incompatible with
the needs of a mature personality, as they deny people the opportunity to engage in
independent thought and action
 advocated the development of open and flexible organizations which allow
employees to exercise self-direction and self-control.
Rensis Likert
 the most effective managers give their subordinates feelings of personal importance
and self-worth
 more achievement and self-respect results from group participation in decision
making and supervision
Organizational Humanism
 concerned with employee satisfaction and well-being
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2 Philosophies and Approaches to Management Practice


7.
Figure 2-4
p. 58
D.
Table 2-3
p. 60
called for employee participation in decision making
studied the psychological forces that tie individuals to organizations, management of
employee attitudes, motivation, and behaviors in the organization.
 interest in understanding the organization as a social system, the impact that
organizations have on their members, motivation, attitudes, and behavior within the
organization
The Human Resource Model
 managers need to involve workers more in the affairs of the department
 employee involvement increases organizational performance because of the ideas
and perspectives that they bring to decision making
 high involvement
 management functions are carried out by people at all levels and in all positions
throughout the organization
 management achieves a fit among its people, tasks/technology, information
processes, rewards, and organization structure
 requires providing employees with information, skills to perform, power to
control and influence organizational events, and a reward system that shares
organizational gains with members
Contributions and Limitations of the Behavioral School
1.
Contributions
 many of the ideas put forth by these scientists can be found in organizations today
 growth model of the employee: emphasized intrinsic rewards; drive for self-esteem
and self efficacy
 led to less bureaucratization, more openness, flexibility, and employee involvement
2.
Limitations
 uses jargon; lacks a good language for communicating the importance of its ideas to
its managers
 behavioral scientists have not gotten the attention and respect of key managers in top
positions
 many managers still view organizations as mechanical systems or in terms of
financial bottom line
 behavioral theorists assume “one best way” to manage, allow for little deviation from
this perspective
An Inside Look: Partners in Beans
The Philosophy of Starbucks Coffee includes fully involving employees in the company.
Some examples:
 employees are called “partners”
 partners attend classes on customer service, brewing techniques, etc.
 after six months, partners are eligible for stock options
 employees participate in open forums to get information about company strategies
 self-managed work teams make decisions & control daily operations
4
Other Management Perspectives
A.
Figure 2-5
p. 62
Contingency Perspectives
1.
The techniques appropriate for a manager to use depend on the situation.
2.
As situations vary, the consequences of a particular approach to managerial
duties also vary.
3.
The resulting challenge facing management scientists is to identify, understand, and
explain these critical contingencies.
 develop diagnostic skills to identify situational demands and characteristics
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2 Philosophies and Approaches to Management Practice


identify a management style appropriate for the demands of the situation
develop the flexibility to move from one managerial style to another as needed
 Key Point: Throughout the book, contingency perspectives guide discussion of the
management process from planning through controlling.
B.
The Total Quality Management Perspective
1.
The goal of the quality management perspective is the achievement of customer
satisfaction by providing high quality goods and services.
2.
In TQM, the goal is an organization-wide commitment to
 quality
 continuous improvement
 attaining customer satisfaction by meeting or exceeding customer expectations
3.
Pioneers of TQM: Deming, Juran, Ishikawa
4.
The primary purpose of an organization is to stay in business so that the organization can
promote the stability of the community in which it lives, provide products & services that
are useful to its customers, and provide for the satisfaction and growth of its members.
5.
Assumptions:
 it is less costly for an organization to turn out high quality than low quality products
 organizational members are naturally caring about the quality of their work
 organizations are made up of highly interdependent parts, so problems cut across
functional lines
 quality and continuous improvement are the responsibilities of senior management
 the long-term health of an organization is dependent upon treating quality
improvement as a never-ending process
6.
Putting TQM into practice:
 goal setting
 training
 work incentives
 quality control departments
 quality control inspection
 locus of authority; responsibility for quality
 employee involvement
 performance appraisals
 employee communication
 intra-organizational competition
C.
The Systems Perspective
1.
Systems theory is not a separate theory of management, but a way of viewing
organizations.
2.
The organization is a system that is made of interrelated elements, each functioning to
contribute to the purpose of the whole.
3.
If we want to understand the whole, we must understand the context in which the system
is embedded, as well as the interrelationships that connect the parts to make up the whole.
4.
Some systems perspectives
 the organization is part of and dependent upon a larger system (the external
environment)
 the organization derives its inputs from the external environment, and transforms
these inputs back into outputs that are exported back to the external environment
 the organization is a unified whole, yet it consists of a number of interrelated
subsystems
 in order to understand the organization, one needs to understand the context within
which it is embedded, its subsystems, and the way these subsystems are
interconnected
 the activity of any part of the organization affects the entire system
 open organizations attempt to interact with the external environment and build it into
their operations
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2 Philosophies and Approaches to Management Practice

5.
a feedback system communicates to each part of the organization information that is
germane to subsequent input and transformation processes
 left unattended, there is a natural tendency for a system to run down, degenerate, and
eventually die
Prescriptions
 keep internal boundaries more open
 managers need to be sensitive to the needs of the environment as they take resources
from it and interact with it
D.
The McKinsey 7-S Framework
1.
Grounded in systems theory.
2.
There are seven interdependent factors which must be managed harmoniously
 strategy: plans of action to reach goals
 structure: organizational design
 systems: procedures & processes
 staff: personnel groups
 style: modes of managerial behavior
 skills: personnel capabilities
 superordinate goals: shared values
E.
The Theory Z Perspective
1.
Ouchi: offered Theory Z to integrate the merits of the Japanese and American
management styles.
2.
Theory Z is less a major theory of management than a set of organizational and
management style characteristics.
3.
Emphasizes long-term employment, decision-making, responsibility, evaluation &
promotion, control, career paths, and concern for employees’ total life.
4.
Identifies employees as a key component of organizational productivity and
effectiveness; prescribes how employees “should be” managed
Figure 2-6
p. 66
F.
Contributions and Limitations of the Contemporary Schools
1.
Contributions
 unified the classicist’s focus on technical core and behaviorists’ focus on social
elements
 identified the interdependence of the organizational subsystems
 sensitized managers to the fact that no one set of management principles is
appropriate in all situations
2.
Limitations
 each perspective is more complex than classical or behavioral theory; more difficult
and less likely to be used
 no contemporary management perspective has been thoroughly researched
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