Scientific and human relations management in the 21st century

Scientific and human relations management In the 21st century

Scientific and human relations management in the 21st century

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT 3 INTRODUCTION 4 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT Definition 5 Founders and contributors 5 Principles 5 Applications 6 Strengths and weaknesses 7 HUMAN RELATION APPROACH Definition 8 Founders and contributors 8 Principles 8 Applications 9 Strengths and weaknesses 10 st SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN THE 21 CENTURY Main features of 21st management 10 The applicability of two approaches in todays organization 11 CASE STUDY: INTEL Inc, Vietnam 12 CONCLUSION RECOMMENDATIONS REFERENCES 13 13 14

Scientific and human relations management in the 21st century

ABSTRACT

espite the vast research by many authors on the scientific management and human relation approaches used in the 21st centurys organizations, little is known about the demonstration of

the possibility of these approaches still applied for organizations of 21st century. This study recovers the central question: Are scientific management and human relations approaches still applicable to organizations of the 21 st century? In addition, this study also holds some examples of the firms organizations nowadays, which add nuance to our understanding of this issue. In using a largely published source from e-papers, this essay is supposed to contribute to future research on similar topics. Along with what is expected of you, there will be key issues consisting of: The theory of scientific and human relation approaches Scientific management in the 21st century Case study

Scientific and human relations management in the 21st century

INTRODUCTION
Simply speaking, management is what managers do. Interestingly, management has evolved through long history, from ancient times with the construction of Egyptian Pyramids and the Great Wall of China as the proof of projects in tremendous scope, hiring thousands of people to complete until the modern worlds business activities, even in some small organizations. It also can be traced back to the 1770s to mid 1800s, when the birth of job specialization came and became an essential part in the success of business[1]. Some large efficient factories needed someone to forecast demand and calculate the sufficient input, was on hand to ensure the efficient work performance, assign tasks and effective activities directly day by day, and so forth. That someone was known as a manager. Thus, these managers would have formal guidelines to follow. It was not until the early 1900s, however, that the first step toward innovating and unifying such theories was taken widely. As the industrial revolution came, there had been many advocates, who proposed various approaches towards the management theories. Without question, much of what the early pioneers in this sector proposed have provided the most basis background forming two different methods in management: scientific management and human relation management. Thus, these approaches, which were initially developed into different direction, have shaped the various managing style. One of them belongs to the classical contributors, emphasizes the rationality and operates the organization and workers as efficient as possible while another one, which is often known as the contemporary approach, focuses on what influences the organization from the external environment and pays attention to human as the central factor of the organizations. Following this essay, I shall present my overall understanding of management, which I absorbed from various articles, compare the theories to the real practices in particular examples and find out the answer for this topic, Are scientific management and human relation management still applicable to organizations in the 21st century?.

Step P.Robbins, Mary Coulter, Management 11th edition, Prentice Hall Press, 2012.

Scientific and human relations management in the 21st century

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
1. Definition
Scientific management[1] - the classical approach - is defined as the application of scientific methods in use of indicating one best way for completing the job effectively and efficiently. According to the theory, improving the consistent productivity can be compounded to the systemization and the combination of techniques, procedures and the correct tools. In other words, all techniques and guidelines are devised for bettering the production efficiency.

2. Founders and Contributors

The most important contribution of this approach came out of the magnum opus, namely Frederick W. Taylors principles of management. Thus, Based on the groundbreaking studies of manual work with scientific management, Taylor became regarded as the father of this approach officially and consequently, the term Taylorism being introduced. As the first time it had been published, its content was embraced by managers around the world and later, his ideas were furthered by individuals such as Gilbreth and Gantt so far.

3. Principles
As far as Taylor studies concerned in The Principles of Scientific Management (1911)[2], he drew out the four fundamental principles of Scientific management: 1. Develop a science for each element of an individuals work to replace the old rule of thumb method 2. Scientifically select and then, train, teach and motivate the workers

1
2

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/scientific-management.html Frederick W Taylor, Principles of Scientific Management, Harper & Row, 1911.

Scientific and human relations management in the 21st century

6 3. Heartily cooperate with the workers so as to ensure that all work is done in accordance with the principles of science have been developed. 4. Divide work and responsibility almost equally between managers and workers. Management does all work in which it is better suited than the workers.

4. Application
In recent times, it is also obvious to prove that several of our current management strategies can be directly addressed back to the foundation of the scientific management. For example, the McDonald fast food restaurant company, which spread its business worldwide successfully, had implemented the time-and-motion study into reality work, where employees work along with the assembly line. For further explanation, the way in which McDonalds serve their fast food to customers is a relative form of deskilling and division of labor and respectively, they have simplified the daily job by breaking down the job into small tasks. Firstly, they grill the burger, put in lettuce and tomatoes, add sauce etc, then, put onto rolls and finally, wrap it up.[1] As can be clearly described, by having every single person do each task, it not only boosts up the level of efficiency but also creates the specialized personnel in the competitive working environment. Indeed, no matter what country you are in every branch of McDonalds is the same as original with similar ways to prepare food, place dishes, clean floors, even promote staffs and lock up on closing. As a result, McDonald brand name undoubtedly dominated the fast food market all over the world by adapting scientific management into its business operation. In general, the application of scientific management is commonly adapted but sooner varied largely due to the differences in business contexts of different firms. In a sense, scientific management has no single particular applications of use. In the meantime, it is precisely the possibility that the companies only adopt and accept some key points of scientific management
1

Ritzer, The Mcdonaldization of Society, pg 34

7 upon on some specific situations, or even mix it with other management

Scientific and human relations management in the 21st century

methods.

5. Strengths and weaknesses

Spencer, J.C and Kijne, H. (Eds) published a book in 1996, which listed some strengths and limitation as can be followed below:

Strengths: One of the first formal division between managers and workers Contribution to efficient production methods, leading to a major increase of living standards Focus on the individual task and worker level, comparing with Business process engineering (process level) Direct rewards mechanisms for workers rather than pointless end of year profit sharing schemes Systematic and early proponents of quality standards Suggestion schemes for workers, who should be rewarded by cash premiums Emphasis on measuring, measurement enables improvement Pragmatic and useful in times Taylorism can easily be abused to exploit human beings. Conflicts with labor unions Not useful to deal with groups or teams Leaves no room for individual preferences or initiative Overemphasis on measuring and no attention for soft factors Mechanistic and treating people as machines Separation of planning function and doing Loss of skill level and autonomy at worker level, not very useful in current knowledge worker environments (except as an antithesis)

Weaknesses:

Scientific and human relations management in the 21st century

At this current crossroads, I personally doubt whether such scientific management principles are still able to cope with uncertainty and rapid change in a new business environment, where wholly it is either director and indirect responses to the inadequacies of Taylors paradigm. It, especially, adds more and more challenges to such merely manufacturing company without a clearly defined service in competing with other firms, which attach special importance to the customer care service and particularly focus on the service industry.

HUMAN RELATION MANAGEMENT

1. Definition
Human relation management approach[1] is completely opposite to the classical ones in terms of meaning. To some extent, it can be defined as the application of how people, individuals and group act and co-operate in the organizations in order to ensure the employees best performances as well as its focuses mainly on trying to understand the factors affecting the human behavior.

2. Founders and advocates

Undoubtedly, Elton Mayo[2] is known for his experiments and research, which can be easily found in the Hawthorne Studies. The research he conducted at the Western Electric Company Works has laid the theory of the importance of groups in affecting to the individual behavior at work. Earlier than the appearance of the Hawthorne Studies, there were number of advocates, who contributed various ideas in consolidating the belief of the importance of human factor in an organization. Initially, some could be named out as the early advocate of this approach. For example, Abraham Maslow was famous
1

Stephen P. Robbins, David A. Decenzo, Mary Coulter, Fundamentals of Management: Essential Concepts and Applications, 2 Henri Fayol, General and Industrial Management, Pitman, 1949.

9 for encapsulating and expanding the theory of human needs defining the
Scientific and human relations management in the 21st century

fundamental understanding of motivation; Frederick Herzberg was also wellknown for describing two key factors (intrinsic and extrinsic), clearly pointing out the hygiene factors and the job interests. Moreover, Mary P. Follet had proposed thinking, which could be seen as theoretical emphasis on integration, synthesis and unifying differences. The following quotations serve as examples of Folletts ethos of management and resonate with todays ideas about organizational citizenship and the importance of employee involvement. The ramifications of modern industry are too widespread, its organization too complex, its problems too intricate for industry to be managed by commands from the top alone. The leader knows that any lasting agreement among members of the group can come only by their sharing each others experience. The difference between competition and joint effort is the difference between a short and a long view.

3. Principles
Basically, there are 10Cs in HR approach[1], which should be adhered to. They are: Comprehensiveness: This involves the proper management of all aspects of the people you are working with bearing in mind that human resources is the most valuable resource your firm has. Cost-effectiveness: Companies should ensure that they remunerate their employees accordingly. Control: company must ensure the quality and productivity always in maintenance regularly. Coherence: All the steps taken by a firm in the management of human resources must be in line with the mission and vision of the firm. Communication is very important in every organization. Creativity is a key if a firm is to be efficient in human resources
1

Alan Price, Human resource management in a business context 3rd edition.

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management. Firms should adopt new ways of human resources management as long as it fits their companies. Competence: It is an organizations responsibility to ensure that their employees are skilled to do their duties. Credibility: Strategies should be clear to set it for employees to follow and achieve goals. Change is inevitable for businesses. Commitment: to meet these goals, firms need committed staff therefore it is the firms responsibility to keep their employees motivated so as to ensure they are committed to the organizations course.

4. Application
Although hardly ever the significant and clear case of applying HR approach in management has been found on websites, HR application at work is actually practiced. Lets take a look back to the recession of couples years ago when it was really difficult for managers to keep employees motivated and maintain the productivity under such challenging circumstances as layoffs, tight budgets, minimal or no pay raises, benefits cut and even working hours extended longer to meet the deadline. Managers came to realize that they had to ensure their staffs effort energized and sustained toward achieving goals. While doing such things, they were forced to look at ways that did not involve money or that was relatively cheap. Surprisingly, in order to deal with tight budget on health benefit, some companies set up vegetable and herb gardens as an easy and inexpensive way to motivate staffs, improve their health and help them save money on their food bills. In company gardens, employees can also work together and harvest their green products. Mot only companies can use their gardens for team-building exercises but also, employees can release their stresses by participating in such activities. Besides, there is a common form of HR management in firms, which is gathering to set up a trade union (or labor union). In these organizations, the leader will negotiate some working benefits to his employers through contracts and rules.

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5. Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths: Human is valued as the most important asset in an organization. Gaining more contributions and efforts of employees in increasing productivity The working environment becomes more friendly, open and comfortable. It is easy to retain and recruit highly skilled employees for firms. Adaptable in such companies having changeable strategies and flexible organization Weaknesses: It is not easy to manipulate and control human relations due to its complexity. Consuming time and other resources to operate and produce efficiently Side effects may be occurred if keeping wrong motivating staff strategies. Internal and external factors are considered carefully. Productivity is raised through an indirect and dedicated way.

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN THE 21St CENTURY

Main features of the management in the 21st century
As this section will give extra insights on how the management in the 21st century operates, there is also said that the changeable environment in organizations has led manager confront the uncertainty and complexity in achieving organizational goals. Nevertheless, there are also new management ideas and controlling techniques on upward trend. Also, willing to discover new fields by analyzing these methods can make the matter questionable and wait lots of time to find the suitable answers.

12 Some ideas however, can be found involved to management. First of all,

Scientific and human relations management in the 21st century

Management can be adopted for all people at all level of education no matter where they are from and which job they involve[1]. Secondly, management can be learned whenever it is possible. In facts, with the undeniable support from Internet and media, it opens up more opportunities for learners to absorb knowledge widely. Yet even currently satisfying customers needs is thought to be the vital point in an organization, more and more have extended that message to every day world. Moreover, Ability to adapt change is put on the priority of gaining competitive position, which means how fast the firm can do so is considered virtually. Finally, the more dramatically fierce the market appears to be, the higher require in customer service in companies as many other competitors continue to grow when the boundaries are getting to less effective.

The applicability of two approaches in todays organization

In the modern world, for the sake of establishing a foothold in markets and keeping competitive, the firms have to adapt to change and constantly maintain flexible in their activities. However, scientific management could result in employees becoming specialised in their tasks and hence it could become their culture. Obviously, this can bring out the side effect as it could result them in becoming resistant to change and hence as long as the customers demand is altered from one product to another, it will pose to a manager. Another reason for why scientific management is hard to apply in the 21st century is that individuals need to be cognitive in a group and desire to move up the managerial ladder. However, implementing such scientific management style seems to be impossible as the highly skilled workers are ignored and they are required to repeat a highly simplified boring task, which in effect devalues their skills and ultimately their output. Besides, another side effect of this approach is that it totally denies the social and psychological side of employees as Taylor concluded that money is everything. However, when referencing to Herzbergs sayings, it is stated that social status and a sense of achievement are even bigger motivators.
1

Management2002 Team, 2008

13 Putting aside the Taylors principles of scientific methods, HR approach has

Scientific and human relations management in the 21st century

appeared to be noticed. On the contradiction with Taylorism ideas, the Human Relations study found that social factors had a positive influence on work behavior. Thoroughly, It also indicates the importance of team work and how women worker better working in groups and this absolutely was opposed to the Taylorism whose saying as I do not like dealing with too much men at the same time hence suggesting that group work can even be a failure. Not only the Human Relations approach confirms the idea of the success brought by the HR approach but also it adds some social aspects to work and lead to satisfy the workers. Hence, this study is still being applied in place of scientific management nowadays with the appearance of the call centers and food manufacturers. Food manufacturers are using groups to produce work and each product can be traced back to that particular group and hence all individuals are bearing a responsibility for quality and this increases motivation (according to both Herzberg and Maslow).

CASE STUDY: INTEL Inc. Vietnam

After having a real field trip visiting Intel Inc, Vietnam, I am going to demonstrate my answer for this topic by putting on this report many distinctive characteristics at the way Intel operates, works and motivate others. Additionally, I believe understanding the working environment at Intel helps clearly seeking the best concept of management in todays business world.

Background information about Intel Inc. Vietnam

Intel, the world leader in processor innovation, develops technologies, products work build and and initiatives live. memory to continually advance how people Intel, Vietnam located in District 9, In HCM city, Vietnam has been Founded in 1968 to products, worlds 1971. Intel first introduced the in microprocessor

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assembling and producing microchips since 2010, with the initial investing capital of over 1 billion USD. At the current time, Intel VN has recruited 4000

employees with a variety of nationalities and its value of exporting products is estimated at 5 billions USD each year.

Intel Inc, Vietnam with its scientific management approach at first glance
To begin with, I can truly see that there is an open and well-social working environment with all the construction designed friendly and simple to people. At Intel, they divide two sectors: one is for the white-collar workers, who are responsible for marketing product, analyzing strategies and promoting products while another one focuses on producing final product and checking mistakes before distribution. In the plant of assembling products, I was really amazed at the way they work. Interestingly, before starting to work, employees have to follow the basic steps as: dressing on their special costumes, which is comfortable for working with machine; wearing protective equipments to prevent them from being harm in such hazardous circumstance. Because of producing microchips at the nano-size, workers are always checked to ensure they are clean enough to dealing with such products. In the progress of working, there is an alarming device, which enables workers to detect mistakes of product fast and fix them without wasting time. In addition, they work under the assembly line with the help of machinery system. During their working times, there is also a planed machine, which observes the overall progress from the starting point to the finishing procedure. This means a lots of time can be saved and the staffs will feel easy to check and work according to plan. Not only are there of Gilbreth and Ford approach being used in Intel plant but when studied closely, there is also evidence to see that Taylors ideas have also been implemented. In fact, the arrange of location from assembly plant to the distribution area allows Intel easy to transport goods as well as comfort the manufacturing matters.

15 Surprisingly, the engineers and workers both have the schedule time to
Scientific and human relations management in the 21st century

work. This means that although they only have to work about 3 days per week instead of totally working full time, they still receive the equal amount of salary. Applying the scientific management method in production contributes a significant proportion in raising productivity and plays a major role in increasing the competitive position in the market.

Intel Inc, Vietnam Human Relations movement in reality

At Intel, there is no surprise when it is unable to find any separate room for single individual. With the open space in office, staffs can directly talk or discuss with their boss without entering any room. Every floor is designed with a different style to be in concord with different culture and geographical specialties. Furthermore, because of that special working environment, the workers are able to work in cooperation without feeling defensive or hesitating either. Especially, I was interested in the way Intel takes care of their employees. For example, alongside with the working sector, the staffs may enter some entertainment rooms and relax rooms, where they can play billiards, read books and even taking a short snap without being bothered. Additionally, Intel also takes many interests in the employees health as they have comfortable rooms for female staffs after their pregnancy period. Besides that, in Intel faculties, it is obvious that there are a lot of multifunctional rooms for meeting, for carrying group project and even it has a one on one meeting room for those whom desire to have a private conversation, not to mention the fact that the existence of many sport clubs inside Intels hall with the sporting competitive tournament event held every month. In conclusion, by merging the scientific management and HR approach together, Intel believes such operating standards are keys to address privacy needs and providing a level playing field for business. As well as success is shared across the board, every Intel employee is eligible for stock options along with receiving two annual bonuses base on the companys performance.

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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

In conclusion, I strongly believe that scientific management and human relation are still applicable to the organization in some circumstances. From my own knowledge and experience, it is simply safe to say that in organizations like McDonalds and Ford, Those management strategies have a significant impact on how these organization dominate the market as the monopoly trader and they still apply these approaches as they have done for years. Definitely, they continue to broaden and sharpen these strategies in the near future. Nevertheless, no matter what, companies also attend to the human work force, which can influences to how it shapes the organizations performance, respectively. However, I suppose as long as the constantly changing market remains and the apparent exist of various customer demands, there will be difficult to successfully apply these core scientific principles whether it makes companies resistant to change.

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REFERENCES
1. Definition of management, retrieved from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/scientific-management.html 2. Don Hellriegel, Organizational Behaviour, 3rd edition, pg 37 from http://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/employee-motivation.php 3. George Ritzer, The McDonaldization of Society, Revised new century edition, pg 134 4. Richard M.Hodgetts, Management, pg 55-60 5. Henri Fayol, General and Industrial Management, Pitman, 1949 from http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/258475? uid=3739320&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=47698900431347 6. Stephen P. Robbins, David A. Decenzo, Mary Coulter, Fundamentals of Management: Essential Concepts and Applications, Retrieved from http://www.12manage.com/methods_taylor_scientific_management.html 7. Graham, Pauline (ed.). Mary Parker Follett: Prophet of Management A Celebration of Writings from the 1920s, Harvard Business School Press, 1995 Tonn, Joan C. Mary P Follett: Creating Democracy, Transforming Management , Yale University Press. 8. Torrington, Derek (2004), Human resource management (6th Edition), Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall from http://www.scribd.com/doc/24450747/18959996Human-Resource-Management-6th-Edition 9. Buchanan D .Torrington Derek, Laura Hall and Stephen Taylor (2005), Human Resource Management, FT Prentice Hall from www.cefims.ac.uk/documents/sample113.pdf 10. David H. Freedman, Is management still a science 1992, Harvard Business Review. A Pearson Custom Publication Core Programme Volume 1, Jorgen Legaard, Mille Binslev, Organizational Theory, Ventus Publishing ApS 2006. 11. Chris J. Brewster, Handbook of Research on Comparative Human Resource Management, retrieved from http://books.google.com.vn/books/about/Handbook_of_Research_on_Comparative_Hu ma.html?id=LNsf_H3OR8wC&redir_esc=y

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