The roles of managers as leaders within a firm require them to plan future economic objectives for the firm to reach. However in order to achieve these plans, control is needed to ensure that workplace compliance and high levels of efficiency are achieved. Through control, management are able to establish processes, implement them and if necessary redesign them. This essay will introduce key management theories from the likes of Frederick Winslow Taylor, Henri Fayol and Max Weber and discuss how these theories help to enforce workplace compliance.
(Allen, Gemmy)
Frederick Winslow Taylor was the creator of scientific management. As an adolescent, Taylor was known for his counting and measuring of things in order to discover a better way of completing a task. Although Taylor excelled in mathematics and sports he chose to work as a machinist and pattern maker in Philadelphia at the Enterprise Hydraulic Works.
(Weisbord 1987)
Within six years working in the factory, Taylor advanced to become chief engineer. While working he introduced “piece by piece” work in the factory. His goal was to find the most efficient way to perform specific tasks. He closely watched how work was done and would then measure the quantity produced.
(Kanigel 44)
Taylor believed that in order to reach a high level of productivity the problem for management was to find the right challenge for each individual employee then to pay that employee well for increased output. Those who did not reach their quota would get a much lower pay rate. Taylor
The Term Paper on Frederick Winslow Taylor Business Management
Frederick Winslow Taylor: Business Management Lenoir Community College Frederick Winslow Taylor Business Management David Mercer Tuesday, February 04, 1997 CONTENTS. Introduction... 6 II. The Younger Years... 7 III Midvale Steel Company... nIV Inventions... nV. Pig-Iron Handling Experiments... nVI. Shoveling Experiments... nVI I. Conclusion... nAPPE NDI... n SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY... n LIST OF ...
succeeded in doubling productivity using time study, systematic controls, tools and his new wage paying scheme.
(Wredge and Greenwood 270-272)
At the Simonds Roller Bearing Company he increased overall productivity while improving the speed and accuracy of the production lines. Taylor’s critics said he was too harsh because his innovative plan caused people to lose their jobs, referring to his replacing of 120 workers with only 35 at Simonds. In practice, Taylor “took a harsh, often ruthless approach” to cutting the workforce rather than saving jobs. He believed that unions wouldn’t be necessary if workers were paid their individual worth.
(Weisbord 1987)
Much of Taylor’s famous book “The Principles of Scientific Management” was written from transcripts of talks that Taylor gave at his estate years after leaving the workforce. Taylor attempted to fill his book with as much of his thinking and innovations to solving his client’s problems and motives for each of the particular situations that he resolved. Taylor was the first person in history to make a systematic attempt to improve both output and work life in factories.
(Weisbord 1987)
Taylor’s core values where; the rule of reason, improved quality, lower costs, higher wages, higher output, labour-management cooperation, experimentation, clear tasks and goals, feedback, training, mutual help and support, stress reduction, and the careful selection and development of people. He was the first person to present a systematic study of interactions among job requirements, tools, methods, and human skill, to fit people to jobs both psychologically and physically, and to let data and facts do the talking rather than prejudice or opinions.
(Weisbord 1987)
Taylor had four objectives of management under scientific management; firstly the development of a science for each element of a man’s work to replace old methods. The scientific selection, training and development of workers instead of allowing them to choose their own tasks and train themselves as best they could. The development of cooperation between workers and management to ensure work can be carried out in accordance with scientifically devised procedures. The division of work between workers and management in almost equal shares, each group taking over the work for which it is best fitted instead of the former condition in which responsibility largely rested with the workers.
The Term Paper on Scientific Management – Frederick Taylor
... people were disdainful of Taylor’s scientific management (Roper). The theory was believed to be too dehumanizing (Roper). However, scientific management’s worker efficiency and work processes were still ... if their families were unable to pay for them. Taylor’s jobs, although he worked as a machinist for years, also indicate that he ...
(Taylor 1911)
Taking into account some of Taylor’s scientific management, control can easily be applied to modern workplaces. Taylor believes in rewarding a worker based on merit using daily quotas as a benchmark for production workers to achieve. Those workers who reach or exceed their quota are rewarded while those who fail face financial implications.
For the workers, scientific management required them to stop worrying about divisions between their wages and company profits, by sharing in the prosperity of the firm through satisfying the quota or expectations placed over them by management and receiving wage increases or promotion. The concept of a quota psychologically removes the idea of time wasting by workers and helps to enhance cooperation with the management in developing the science. It would therefore be expected that workers will accept that management would be responsible for planning and determining what the job was that needed to be done and how, while agreeing to be trained in new methods where applicable.
(Allen, Gemmy)
The benefits for management arising from scientific management are evident through the rational approach to organisational work. This enables tasks and procedures to be measured with a considerable degree of accuracy. This accuracy allows managers to make measurements of current paths and processes therefore allowing evaluations to occur which ultimately may lead to the availability of useful information on which improvements can be made. By improving work methods it is possible to increase productivity as it enables employees to be paid by results and to take advantage of incentive payments when they exceed their quotas.
Higher Authority Work Pupils Negotiation
Primary Education & Post Plowden Legacy Subject: Primary Education & Post Plowden Legacy Tutor: Alastair HorburyAssignment: Critique of given text - Chapter 6, 'Pupils at Work.' Due: Mon 14 Nov 94 INTRODUCTION The task assigned was to read all six chapters provided, select one and produce a critique on the subject matter. The chapter selected was number six which analysed pupils' and ' ...
A greater sense of practical realism can be seen in the work of Henri Fayol (1949) who outlined a series of ‘principles of management’ by which an organisation might be effectively controlled.
1. Division of work. Fayol saw specialisation as a natural human process. Repetition of the same function brings speed and accuracy, thus increasing output. If work is divided according to skill and technical expertise, each item of work can be given to the employee most able to deal with it.
2. Authority and responsibility. Fayol defined authority as ‘the right to give orders and the power to exact obedience.’ He emphasised the importance of linking authority to responsibility, which together required increasing judgement and morality at senior levels. He justified higher pay for commercial managers in comparison with senior civil servants since, in his view, the latter exercised authority without responsibility.
3. Discipline. Defined as obedience, application, energy, behaviour and outward marks of respect. Fayol regarded discipline as essential for the smooth running of business without which an enterprise is unable to prosper. He attributed discipline to good leadership.
4. Unity of command. For any action whatsoever, an employee should receive orders from one superior only.
5. Unity of direction. ‘One head and one plan for a group having the same objective.’
6. Subordination of individual interests to the general interest. There should be no conflict of interest between individual ambition and the well-being of the organisation as a whole.
7. Remuneration of personnel. Fayol looked for some basic principles in the method of payment: assurance of fair remuneration that encourages keenness by rewarding well-directed effort and it shall not lead to over-payment going beyond reasonable limits.
8. Centralisation. Part of the ‘natural order’, Fayol considered that an element of centralisation must always be present. He regarded the debate between centralisation and decentralisation to be one which had no exact solution.
9. Scalar chain (line of authority).
The unity of command can lead to tangled chains of authority which hinder communication. Hierarchic organisations regularly demanded that departments communicate with each other only through their heads. This meant that the volume of work handled by a department mushroomed as items went up and down the chain.
The Term Paper on Communication People Employees Management
"Communication is not only the essence of being human, but also a vital property of life. ." Language was the first success he had for expressing his feelings and thoughts to others. Today, we are fighting the same struggle, but for the betterment of communication. The research topic these days is the media of communication. We have advanced to the level where communication between two distant ...
10. Order. ‘A place for everyone and everyone in his place.’ For Fayol, this assumed the resolution of ‘the two most difficult managerial activities: good organisation and good selection.’ He saw the basic problem as the balancing of an organisation’s requirements with its resources. The larger the business, the more difficult this became:
11. Equity. In order to obtain commitment from employees, they must be treated equally and fairly.
12. Stability of tenure of personnel. Matters of proportion, but employees need a period of stability in a job to deliver of their best.
13. Initiative. Being allowed to think through a problem and implement a solution is a rewarding experience which increases motivation. Fayol cautions managers against the personal vanity which prevents them from allowing this opportunity to their subordinates.
14. Esprit de corps. ‘Dividing enemy forces to weaken them is clever, but dividing one’s own team is a grave sin against the business.’
(Fayol 1949)
Fayol was the first person to give an actual definition of management which set out guidelines on forecasting, planning, organising, commanding and coordinating control. He also laid most of the basic terminology and concepts which would be elaborated upon by researchers in the futures such as division of labour and unity of command and centralisation. However Fayol was essentially only describing the structure of formal organisation. While many of these principles have been absorbed into modern day organisations, many of the principles were not designed to cope with conditions of rapid change and issues of employee and shareholder participation in the decision making process of organisations.
Max Weber is often regarded as the most important of the classical sociological theorist because he investigated many areas and had a wide range of interests including politics, history, language, religion, law, economics and administration. There appears to be similarities between Weber and Karl Marx concerning topics such as economic determinism and the extent to which these economic factors alone can be considered at the core of social structure.
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Introduction In today’s working environment, one of the most vital responsibilities that the management embraces is to make sure that the employees’ performance is both successfully and professionally carried out to the best of their abilities. Nowadays, there is the view that the practices and policies that a management holds within an organization in Australia are used against the employees, for ...
(Cuff, p. 97)
Weber is well known for his theories on bureaucracy. In the context of management it is the organisation form of certain dominant characteristics such as a hierarchy of authority and a system of rules. Weber identified three basic types of legitimate authority; traditional, charismatic, and rational.
(Gerth and Mills, p. 18)
Authority has to be distinguished from power. Power is a unilateral thing which enables a person to force another to behave in a certain way whether by means of strength or by rewards. Authority on the other hand implies acceptance of the rules by those over whom it is to be exercised within limits agreeable to the subordinates that Weber refers to in discussing legitimate authority.
The main features of bureaucracy according to Max Weber were a continuous organisation of functions bounded by rules that individuals functioned within the limits of the specialisation of the work the degree of authority allocated and the rules governing the exercise of authority. There also exists a hierarchical structure of offices, appointment to offices made on the grounds of technical competence only. The separation of officials from the ownership of the organisation and the authority was vested in the official positions and not in the personalities that held those posts
(Gerth and Mills)
Weber’s theories share a considerable amount of common ground with the thinking of Fayol. In particular, features such as scalar chain, specialisation, authority and the definition of jobs which were so essential to successful management as described by Fayol, are typical of bureaucracy.
Bureaucracy does have certain advantages that can help administer control in the workplace. The fact that appointment, promotion and authority were dependent on technical competence and reinforced by written rules and procedures of promoting those most able to make managers rather than those favoured to manage practically forced workers seeking authority or promotion to comply with set standards. This process, although taken for granted prevents the emergence of nepotism and corruption, by forcing employees to comply to set controls if they wish to seek promotion and the financial incentives which come with it.
The Business plan on Introducing Performance Management System Yen Employees
Introduction This report is an attempt to analyse the existing Performance Management System for Large Financial Service Organisation (LFSO) and from this information, recommend, and implement an appropriate new performance management system. LFSO is an organisation, which traditionally has a paternalistic culture with low levels of unionization. LFSO current Performance Management system was ...
The adoption of a bureaucratic type of management systems allow organisations to grow and expand into large complex organized systems that are geared towards reaching goals. By setting an explicit goal for the firm to reach, head managers are able to gear the firm and all of the employees towards reaching the required goal through stimulating workplace productivity and offering promotional rewards and merits as incentives for employees to excel at their job.
Using classical management theories, modern managers are able to devise ways of enforcing workplace compliance. Money and other financial rewards, which play a central role in our day to day lives, now play a fundamental part of the relationship between the worker and the firm. Organisations now reward employees based on their level of competence with rewards and promotions which help to stimulate healthy competitiveness amongst workers, increasing production efficiency. Scientific management and the division of labour allow job specialisation to greatly enhance a workers output thorough training and development. Taking into account these processes, managers through effective planning and reviewing are able to use these incentives and theories to better control employee behaviour and output.
References
Allen, Gemmy, “Management Modern”, Supervision, 1998. BMGT – 1301 DCCCD
Cuff, E. C., W. W. Sharrock and D. W. Francis, “Perspectives in Sociology”, third edition, London, Routledge, 1992. HM66 P36 1984
Fayol, H. (1949) “General and Industrial Management”, translated from the French edition (Dunod) by Constance Storrs, Pitman.
Gerth, Hans and C. Wright Mills, From Max Weber: “Essays in Sociology”, New York, Oxford University Press, 1958.
Kanigel, Robert. “Frederick Taylor’s Apprenticeship.” The Wilson Quarterly Summer 1996: 44
Taylor, Frederick Winslow. “The Principles of Scientific Management.” 1911
Weisbord, Marvin R. “Productive Workplaces”. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers, 1987.
Wrege, Charles D. and Greenwood, Ronald G. “Organisation Theory and Frederick Taylor.” Public Administration Review May/June 1993: 270-272.
