Human resource management
Yukari Yamada
yukari.yamada@upol.cz
Human resource management
 How to make the best out
of available human
resources
Objectives of this lecture
 To know concepts of four different management
theories that clearly have influence on modern
organizations
 To get an idea how to manage human resources in
your own way
Major management theories
Frederick Taylor - Scientific Management
Elton Mayo - Human Relations Movement
Max Weber - Bureaucracy
Henri Fayol - Administration
Scientific management
 Frederick Taylor (1856-1915)
 A mechanical engineer and
sought to improve industrial
efficiency
 He believes that a group of
ordinary men, following a
scientific method, would
perform better than the older
"personally brilliant" captains
of industry
 Wage has to be in concordance
with the task.
Bethlehem Steel works
 600 workers use the same shovel for all
materials
 He broke a job into its component parts
and measure each to the hundredth of a
minute by time and motion study
 He determined that the most effective
load was 21½ lb, and found or designed
shovels that for each material would scoop
up that amount
 Significant improvement in productivity
was seen
 reducing the workers needed to shovel from
500 to 140
 To increase productivity, optimizing the way that
tasks were performed and simplifying the jobs
enough so that workers could be trained to perform
their specialized sequence of motions in the one best
way is needed.
Principles of scientific management
Replace rule of thumb work methods with methods based on a scientific study of the tasks
Scientifically select, train, and develop each worker rather than passively leaving them to train
themselves
Cooperate with the workers to ensure that the scientifically developed methods are being
followed
Divide work nearly equally between managers and workers, so that the managers apply
scientific management principles to planning the work and the workers actually perform the
tasks.
Taylor's influence
Implications and criticisms
 While scientific management principles improved
productivity and had a substantial impact on industry,
they also increased the monotony of work.
 Skill variety, task identity, autonomy, and feedback
were all missing ----innovation will not occur
Human Relations Movement
 Elton Mayo (1880-1949)
 Social contacts a worker has at the workplace are
very important
 He believed that workers could be motivated by
acknowledging their social needs and making
them feel important
Hawthorne Studies
 Illumination studies（11.1924-4.1927）
 To see ways of improving productivity by changing lighting
conditions in the workplace
 Physical environment didn’t have effect on productivity
 Relay assembly experiments（4.1927-5.1932）
 To see how changes in work environment impacted the group's and
individuals' productivity
 Chose two women and asked them to choose four other workers to
join the test group
 Together the women worked in a separate room where they had a
supervisor who discussed changes in environment with them
Hawthorne Studies
 Any changes usually increased productivity, even if it was just
a change back to the original condition
 It was interpreted that the workers worked harder because
they thought that they were being monitored individually
 Bank wiring room experiments（11.1931-5.1932)
 To see how payment incentives would affect productivity by
introducing payment according to individual productivity
 Productivity decreased because the workers were afraid that
the company would lower the base rate if overall productivity
increases.
 The existence of informal groups or "cliques" within the
groups were interpreted to have controlled their behaviors.
Influence
 "group dynamics",
"teamwork“, "
organizational behaviors
" and "social systems" all
stem from Mayo's work in
the mid-1920's
Implications for management
Employees should be given freedom to make decisions on their job
Individual workers cannot be treated in isolation, but must be seen as members of a
group.
Informal or unofficial groups formed at work have a strong influence on the behavior of
those workers in a group, therefore it should be treated seriously
Where norms of cooperation and higher output were established because of a feeling of
importance, physical conditions or financial incentives had little motivational value
Managers must be aware of these 'social needs rather than work against it.
Bureaucracy
 Order is the most important
part
 Max Weber (1864-1920)
 Described many ideal types of
public administration and
government
 A classic, hierarchically
organized civil service of the
continental type is called
"Weberian civil service"
6 characteristics
 Imperial positions
 Rule-governed decision
making
 Professionalism
 Chain of command
 Defined responsibilities
 Bounded authority
 A stable, defined set of
general rules for the
employees that they must
abide by at all times
Influences and criticisms
 Many aspects of modern public administration go
back to him
 Increasing rationalization traps individuals in the iron
cage of bureaucratic, rule-based, rational control
 Ideas for development are hard to be generated
 Not flexible for unusual situations and changes
 Lack of an ability to make a decision on even a small
thing among those in lower level ( inefficiency)
 Monopoly of power
Ideal bureaucracy
 Hierarchical organization
 Delineated lines of authority in a fixed area of activity
 Action taken on the basis of and recorded in written
rules
 Bureaucratic officials need expert training
 Rules are implemented by neutral officials
 Career advancement depends on technical
qualifications judged by organization, not individuals
So, how to manage people in
practice
Provide manual
Less freedom
Equal payment for
equal job
Remuneration of
staff
Stability of tenure
Esprit de corps
Order
Specialization/division of
labor
Scalar chain/line of authority
Centralization
Unity of direction
Unity of command
Administration
 Henri Fayol (1841-1925)
 Management has five
principle roles
Forecasting
and planning
control
Co-ordination
Organization
Commanding
Principles of administration
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Specialization/division of labor
Authority with responsibility
Discipline
Unity of command
Unity of direction
Subordination of individual interest to the
general interest
Remuneration of staff
Centralization
Scalar chain/line of authority
Order
Equity
Stability of tenure
Initiative
Esprit de corps
The final two principles, initiative and esprit de corps, show a difference
Weber predicted a completely impersonal organization with little human
level interaction between its members. Fayol clearly believed personal
effort and team dynamics were part of a "ideal" organization.
1. Specialization/division of labor
 A principle of work allocation and specialization in
order to concentrate activities to enable
specialization of skills and understandings, more work
focus and efficiency.
2. Authority with corresponding
responsibility
 The R = A correspondence is important to
understand.
 A manager should never be given authority without
responsibility--and also should never be given
responsibility without the associated authority to get
the work done.
3. Discipline
 Discipline is essential for
the smooth running of a
business and without it standards, consistency of
action, adherence to rules
and values - no enterprise
could prosper.
4. Unity of Command
 The idea is that an
employee should receive
instructions from one
superior only.
6. Subordination of individual
interest to the general interest
 One employee's interests or those of one group
should not prevail over the organization as a whole.
 Who decides that the interests of the organization as
a whole are?
 Ethical dilemmas and matters of corporate risk and
the behavior of individual "chancers" are involved
here.
7. Remuneration of staff
 The general principle is
that levels of
compensation should be
"fair" and as far as
possible afford
satisfaction both to the
staff and the firm
8. Centralization
 A natural consequence of
organization
9. Scalar chain/line of authority
 The scalar chain of
command of reporting
relationships from top
executive to the ordinary
shop operative or driver
needs to be sensible,
clear and understood.
Authority Flows from Top to
Bottom
Managing Director
↓
Marketing Manager
↓
Sales/ Media Manager
↓
Salesmen
11. Equity
 Equity, fairness and a sense of justice "should
"pervade the organization - in principle and practice.
12. Stability of tenure
 Time is needed for the employee to adapt to his/her
work and perform it effectively.
 Stability of tenure promotes loyalty to the
organization, its purposes and values.
13. Initiative
 At all levels of the organizational structure, zeal,
enthusiasm and energy are enabled by people having
the scope for personal initiative.
14. Esprit de Corps
 Here, Fayol emphasizes the need for building and
maintaining of harmony among the work force , team
work and sound interpersonal relationships.
Short test for health care
management
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Who are health care managers?
Describe the activity based accounting?
Describe three parts of hospital organizations.
Which management style would you prefer working
as a member?
 Does it differ if you become a manager?