Thesis on "Natural Systems Model 'Mayo and the Human"

Thesis 7 pages (1972 words) Sources: 1 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Natural Systems Model

'MAYO and the HUMAN RELATIONS SCHOOL'

DESCRIPTION of THEORY

Mayo in collaboration with Roethlisberger, was a member of the Harvard Business School faculty. He was trained as an industrial psychologist and his earliest work was derived from the scientific management tradition of Taylor. (Scott, 2003, paraphrased) Mayo studied individual factors that affected work including fatigue and his interest lay in that direction due to his attempts in determining the optimal length and spacing apart of period of resting to realize maximum productivity. Mayo is noted as having stated as follows:

"The conditions of scientific experiment had apparently been fulfilled -- experimental room, control room; changes introduced one at a time; all other conditions held steady. And the results were perplexing.… Lighting improved in the experimental room, production went up; but it rose also in the control room. The opposite of this: lighting diminished from 10- to 3-foot-candles in the experimental room and the production again went up; simultaneously in the control room, with illumination constant, production also rose. (Mayo 1945: 69; as cited in Scott, 2003, p. 61)

Reports state that the researchers "were in confusion. Other conditions were run with similar inexplicable results. In desperation, they decided to ask the workers themselves. what was going on and learned that the workers were so pleased to be singled out for special attention that they had tried to do the best they could for the researchers and for the company. The "Hawthorne effect" was discovered." (Scott, 2003, p.61)



BARNARD'S COOPERATIVE SYSTEM

DESCRIPTION of THEORY

It is reported by Scott (2003) that simultaneous to Mayo and his colleagues' conduction of their studies and of extrapolation for highlighting the critical nature of interpersonal processes and informal structures that "Chester I. Barnard was developing his own view of the nature of organizations." (2003, p. 66) While not an academic, Barnard was an executive serving as president of the New Jersey Bell Telephone company. (Scott, 2003, paraphrased)

Barnard emphasized that organizations "are essentially cooperative systems integrating the contributions of their individual participants." (Scott, 2003, p. 66) Channel decision-making has been informed by the view of organizations on the part of Barnard as being of the nature that arise "from the limitations of individuals -- physical, but more important cognitive constraints." (Scott, 2003, p. 66)

Also emphasized by Barnard is that the organization is reliant on the participant's willingness to make contributions and that individuals must be "induced to make contributions -- " and that individuals are motivated by various rewards including material as well as "...opportunities for distinction, prestige, and power -- and make them in sufficient quantities, or the organization cannot survive." (Scott, 2003, p. 66)

SELZNICK'S INSTITUTIONAL APPROACH

DESCRIPTION of THEORY

Philip Selznick -- student of bureaucracy under Merton at Columbia and intellectual descendent of Michels and Barnard -- developed unique natural system model. "For Selznick, "the most important thing about organizations is that, though they are tools, each nevertheless has a life of its own" (1949: 10). He agrees with the rational system analyst that the distinguishing characteristic of formal organizations is that they are rationally ordered instruments designed to attain goals. However, these formal structures can "never succeed in conquering the nonrational dimensions of organizational behavior" (1948: 25). The sources of these nonrational features are

(1) individuals, who participate in the organization as "wholes" rather than acting merely in terms of their formal roles; and (2) organizational structures that include the formal aspects but also the complex informal systems that link participants with one another and with others external to the official boundaries." (Scott, 2003, p. 69)

Scott (2003) relates that the early work of Selznick emphasized "the constraints imposed by individual and environmental commitments, his later work increasingly recognized that these same processes could be a source of strength. In some cases, participants came to share a common set of commitments and a unity of purpose that could create a formidable weapon." (Selznick, 1952as cited in Scott, 2003, p. 69). Selznick emphasized the critical nature of 'institutionalization' or the "processes by which an organization "takes on a special character" and "achieves a distinctive competence or, perhaps, a trained or built-in incapacity." (Selznick, 1996; as cited in Scott, 2003, p. 69)

PARSON'S AGIL SCHEMA

DESCRIPTION of THEORY

Parson's AGIL Schema (Naturalist system tradition) developed explicit model detailing the needs that must be met if a social system is to survive. AGIL is representative of the four basic needs of: (1) Adaptation -- the problem of acquiring sufficient resources; (2) Goal attainment -- the problem of setting and implementing goals; (3) Integration -- the problem of maintaining solidarity or coordination among the subunits of the system; and (4) Latency -- the problem of creating, preserving, and transmitting the system's distinctive culture and values.

According to Parson's scheme the ecological level views organizations as they are related to the functioning of the larger society. Parsons posits a "functional linkage" in which the "place or role of the subsystem is legitimated within the value system of the overarching social order. Parsons in the Grand Theory tradition attempted to bring about revival and synthesis in works of European leading sociological theorists. One of Parson's project involved perfection of a "general analytic model suitable for the analysis of all types of collectivities -- from small primary groups to entire societies.

SOCIAL CONFLICT MODEL

DESCRIPTION of THEORY

The Social Conflict model is one of the natural system perspective which is stated to exhibit two subtypes: (1) the social consensus; and (2) the social conflict variants. (Scott, 2003) Each of these are stated to have supporters with more Europeans scholars than U.S. scholars supporting this theory. Each of these are reported to be "grounded in general sociological theory with applications made to organizations, the conflict version developing later than the consensus model." (Scott, 2003)

Scott (2003) states that conflict theory most often is traced directly to the writings of Marx although "...a number of conflict scholars claim Weber and Michels as early progenitors because of their recognition that organizations are systems of domination serving the interests of those holding power. This school emphasizes the extent to which participants' interests diverge and values of stakeholders conflict. Change is seen to be as natural and common as is stability, and much of the stability of social order results from the dominance of one group or coalition of interests over others, not to be mistaken for unity or harmony of interests."(Scott, 2003)

RATIONAL SYSTEMS MODEL

TAYLOR'S SCIENTIFIC Management

DESCRIPTION of THEORY

(Frederick W. Taylor, 1911) Part of a series of developments between 1880 and 1920. As the industrial revolution matured engineers begin to promote rationalization of practice through standardization principles including such as "fittings, nuts, bolts, screws" and finally standardization of the human element in production. Taylor and colleagues held that it was possible to analyze tasks performed by individual workers in order to discover those procedures that would result in the maximum output with the minimum input of energies and resources. (Scott, 2003) Efforts are stated to have been focused on analyzing individual tasks" however attempts to rationalize labor at the level of the individual workers inevitably led to changes in the entire structure of work arrangements." (Scott, 2003) it is stated "Taylor believed that the adoption of scientific management principles by industrial concerns would usher in a new era of industrial peace. The interests of labor and management would be rendered compatible. Workers could be scientifically selected to perform those tasks for which they were best suited. Scientifically determined procedures would allow them to work at peak efficiency, in return for which they would receive top wages." (Scott, 2003) it is stated: "Taylor was also a leader in formulating the elements of what Cole (1994) has termed the "traditional quality paradigm." This approach stressed the "importance of identifying work tasks and then making that method the standard," together with an emphasis on inspection, involving elaborate designs to ensure that the inspectors' activities were themselves subject to careful review." (Scott, 2003) "Taylor bequeathed a clockwork world of tasks timed to the hundredth of a minute, of standardized factories, machines, women, and men. He helped instill in us the fierce, unholy obsession with time, order, productivity, and efficiency that marks our age. (Kanigel, 1997:

SIMON'S THEORY of ADMINISTRATIVE BEHAVIOR

DESCRIPTION of THEORY

Herbert Simon -- clarified the processes by which goal specificity and formalization contribute to rational behavior in organizations." (Scott, 2003, p.50) p.50 Simon distinguished between: (1) an individual's decisions to join and to continue to participate in an organization and (2) the decisions an individual is asked to make as a participant in the organization." (Scott, 2003, p.50) the organization's ultimate goals are stated to be "frequently somewhat vague and imprecise." (Scott, 2003, p.50) March and Simon argue that organizational goals "provide few cues for guiding the behavior of participants [and] can serve as the starting point for the construction of means-end chains" (Scott, 2003, p.50). Involved are the following: (1) starting with the general goal… READ MORE

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