Research Paper on "Evolution of Management Principle"

Research Paper 6 pages (1639 words) Sources: 3

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Evolution of Management Principle

The study of management has progressed significantly in the past one hundred years. The classical theory of management has given way to a number of different theories, each competing for attention. Those that have been demonstrated successful have taken hold inn business today. There has been constant adaptation of ideas and theories to the point where there is no one correct theory but a number of concepts and approaches that can be used by managers to help improve their businesses.

Classical management was developed in the Industrial Revolution and was focused on developing the "one best way" to perform a task. This helped managers with training and with task allocation (Cliff Notes, 2010). This concept continues to exist in management today with concepts such as "best practices." Classical management was simple, and it was not until several decades later that management theorists began to expand on its concepts.

One of the first management theorists was Frederick Taylor, who developed the school of scientific management. The Principles of Scientific Management was published in 1911 and paved the way for the modern understanding of management. Taylor took what were considered to be skilled tasks and broke them down to simple jobs. In this way, labor became less specialized. This allowed management to better deploy labor to suit the needed tasks of the day (NetMBA.com, 2007). Taylor's concepts paved the way for managers to take greater control of production processes, which until that point where still driven by trade-based labor.

Following on Taylor's work, a series of management theorists emerged. One of the most important was Henry Ford, who was known for his work in production management, including the development of the assembly line. Ford's work was based on Taylor's ideas about simplifying tasks and his assembly line was highly simplified labor that allowed for easy training. To account for the banality of the job, Ford offered abnormally high wages for the day.

Other theorists of this era included Henry Gantt and the husband-and-wife team of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth (Cliff Notes, 2010). Where Taylor had proposed that tasks be studied and optimized, Gantt provided a system of charts -- still used today -- that allowed managers to best organize tasks according to the time taken to completion. The objective was to organize tasks so that the objective was achieved in the shortest amount of time, given that time is often a significant variable relating to the cost of a task. The Gilbreths also focused on task, but their emphasis was on motion studies. They studied movements of workers using cameras and sought to develop the best work methods for each task, maximizing productivity and minimizing worker stress per unit of output (Ibid.)

While these theorists focused on task-oriented management, other theorists were developing ideas about organizational structure. Many organizations in the late 19th century were organized as small enterprises with a familial structure. Max Weber and other theorists developed ideas about organizational structure that incorporated concepts such as the development of hierarchy, the division of labor, specialization and impersonal relationships between managers and workers (Ibid).

Mary Follett contributed to the body of work by discussing the issue of goal orientation. She focused on "the importance of establishing common goals" for employees. This work advanced the notions of Taylor and Ford in that while those theorists were task-oriented, it was simply assumed that those tasks were oriented towards organizational goals; Follett made this relationship explicit.

After these early theorists, management theory became more specific, focusing on particular elements of the organization, with occasional attempts to synthesize this specific research with the understanding of the organization as a whole. Chester Bernard recognized that within an organization many informal groups existed and that these groups performed a necessary function within the organization with respect to communication and leadership (Ibid). Bernard therefore introduced a political perspective to management theory, something that appears today in our concepts of organizational culture, behavior and change.

Taylorism and the theories from which it was built formed the core of systems theory. Companies are viewed as a set of systems. Inputs including raw materials, capital, labor and technology enter the system and there then processed to become outputs. These outputs range from products to profits to employee turnover. Each system contributes in different ways to the overall function of the organization. The best performing organizations under systems theory are those in which the different systems are aligned both with each other and with the overall strategic objectives of the organization (McNamara, no date).

Another important theory in management science is the contingency theory. Contingency theory holds that managers when making decisions must take into account all aspects of the current situation when making decisions. Flowing from contingency have been a number of different models developed in the modern era that help managers to understand the different elements of their situations prior to making strategic decisions. Michael Porter's models such as the Five Forces and the Generic Strategies are among the leading management tools that help to describe a situation for managers operating under the contingency theory.

Peter Drucker was another instrumental figure in the development of management theory. Drucker was a contrarian in his time, focusing on the human elements of management. Management theory at the time (1940s) was dominated by task-oriented research and ideas about optimal organizational structure. Drucker followed on the lesser tradition of incorporating sociology into management theory. Drucker focused on how managers could maximize the human potential of organizations. His work proved influential in organizational behavior, motivation and organizational culture, among other contemporary management disciplines.

Several influential theories emerged that related back to Taylor's work on tasks. Deming coined the term "total quality management" that focused management on reducing deviations in tasks from objectives as a means of improving productivity and profitability. Toyota executives explicitly rejected the Ford school of management following a visit to Detroit and in doing so developed their own system of management that was based in part on Deming's work. The Toyota Production System (TPS) was developed and contained the antecedents of many reforms, including just-in-time ordering, that would eventually become ingrained in American management theory as well.

Also flowing from Deming's work on quality is the concept of Six Sigma, which was first introduced at Motorola. This concept is a highly structured system that focused on mathematical identification of both errors and the means to correct those errors. Reduction of rejects is central to the system, resulting in reduced costs and increased productivity.

Modern management theory is focused on the concepts of strategic management. This theory begins with the organization's mission or stated objectives. From there, management assesses the organization's strengths and weaknesses before analyzing the external environment. Strategic management bases managerial decisions both at the broad strategic level and at the tactical level as well on the idea that all actions that the company undertakes should support the firm's overall strategic objectives. Strategic management is intended as a synthesis of different perspectives -- contingency theory, stakeholder perspectives, and systems theory together. By bringing these different perspectives together, managers and leaders can develop strategies that will best utilize the organization's assets to achieve its goals. This underlying concept is in modern practice quite different from the task optimization concepts of scientific management, yet in philosophy it is essentially the same in that an asset is being maximized. Strategic management merely takes the task concept to a macro level, increasing its complexity but also increasing the effectiveness of the action.

Whereas much of traditional management theory has focused on commercial organizations, branches of management theory in recent decades have also incorporated non-profit enterprises and government agency management. Many of the same theories are adapted to meet the specific objectives of these different types of organizations. These branches of management… READ MORE

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