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0 Introduction
Management theories are implemented to help face these issues and to increase organizational
productivity and service quality. Despite the inexactness and relative crudity of management
theory and science, the development of thought of management dates back to the days when
people first attempted to accomplish goals by working together in groups. We can see that the
many different contributions of writers and practitioners have resulted in different approaches to
management.
In this developing field of management, there have been several theories and experimentations
conducted by theorists and practitioners in order to enhance the understanding that could lead to
improvements to elevated productivity.
Specific Objective:
To discuss the theories of management.
To find the contributions and importance of the theories.
To find the limitations and criticism of the theories.
1.2.0 Motivation
I am pleased to say that I have completed my assignment on Analysis of Management
Theories. My report focuses on the four major theories of management and their Contributions
and criticism. It has been a huge learning experience for me and I have enjoyed preparing this
report and look forward to do more research on these related topics further.
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Frank and Lillian Gilbreth: Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, were a husband-and-wife. They
were industrial engineers. Frank Gilbreths most interesting contribution was to the craft of
bricklaying. After studying bricklayers at work, he developed several procedures for doing the
job more efficiently. For example, he specified standard materials and techniques, including the
positioning of the bricklayer, the bricks, and the mortar at different levels. The results of these
changes were a reduction from 18 separate physical movements to five and an increase in output
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of about 200 percent. Lillian Gilbreth made equally important contributions to several different
areas of work, helped shape the field of industrial psychology, and made substantive
contributions to the field of personnel management. Working individually and together, the
Gilbreths developed numerous techniques and strategies for eliminating inefficiency. They
applied many of their ideas to their family and documented their experiences raising 12 children
in the book and original 1950 movie Cheaper by the Dozen.
Henry Gantt: Henry Gantt, the inventor of Gantt chart, is another contributor to
scientific management. He was an associate of Taylor. He developed few techniques for
improving worker output. One of them is Gantt chart, is still used today. A Gantt chart is
essentially a means of scheduling work and can be generated for each worker or for a complex
project as a whole. Gantt also refined Taylors ideas about piecework pay systems.
Harrington Emerson: Harrington Emerson was another management consultant. He
came to the light in 1910 when he appeared before the Interstate Commerce Commission to
testify about a rate increase requested by the railroads. As an expert witness, Emerson asserted
that the railroads could save $1 million a day by using scientific management. He was also a
strong advocate of specialized management roles in organizations, believing that job
specialization was as relevant to managerial work as it was to operating jobs.
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XIII.
XIV.
Lyndall Urwick: Lyndall Urwick, a noted management theorist and consultant was a
British army officer at the starting of his carrier. He integrated scientific management with the
work of Fayol and other administrative management theorists. He also advanced modern
thinking about the functions of planning, organizing, and controlling. Like Fayol, he developed a
list of guidelines for improving managerial effectiveness.
Max Weber: Max Weber is known for his Bureaucracy Theory. He lived and worked at
the same time as Fayol and Taylor, but his contributions were not recognized until some years
had passed. Weber was a German sociologist. The concept of bureaucracy based on a rational set
of guidelines for structuring organizations in the most efficient manner. The main features of
bureaucracy according to Weber were:
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It began in the 1920s with theorists such as Elton Mayo, Abraham Maslow, and Mary Parker
Follett.
Hugo Munsterberg: Hugo Munsterberg (June 1, 1863 December 19, 1916) was a
German-American psychologist. He was one of the pioneers of applied psychology, extending
his research and theories to industrial/organizational (I/O), legal, medical, clinical, educational,
and business settings. According to Munsterberg, Industrial psychology, focuses on topics such
as hiring workers with personalities and mental abilities best suited to certain types of vocations,
as well as on ways to increase motivation, performance, and retention. Many of Munsterberg's
ideas, especially the idea of matching an individual's personality with the correct job set and
skills, are common in the use of industrial/organizational psychology today.
Elton Mayo & Hawthorne Studies: Elton Mayo's contributions came as part of
the Hawthorne studies, a series of experiments that rigorously applied classical management
theory only to reveal its shortcomings. The Hawthorne experiments consisted of two studies
conducted at the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company in Chicago from 1924 to
1932. The first study was conducted by a group of engineers seeking to determine the
relationship of lighting levels to worker productivity. Surprisingly enough, they discovered that
worker productivity increased as the lighting levels decreased that is, until the employees
were unable to see what they were doing, after which performance naturally declined.
A few years later, a second group of experiments began. Harvard researchers Mayo and F. J.
Roethlisberger supervised a group of five women in a bank wiring room. They gave the women
special privileges, such as the right to leave their workstations without permission, take rest
periods, enjoy free lunches, and have variations in pay levels and workdays. This experiment
also resulted in significantly increased rates of productivity.
In this case, Mayo and Roethlisberger concluded that the increase in productivity resulted from
the supervisory arrangement rather than the changes in lighting or other associated worker
benefits. Because the experimenters became the primary supervisors of the employees, the
intense interest they displayed for the workers was the basis for the increased motivation and
resulting productivity. Essentially, the experimenters became a part of the study and influenced
its outcome. This is the origin of the term Hawthorne effect, which describes the special attention
researchers give to a study's subjects and the impact that attention has on the study's findings.
The general conclusion from the Hawthorne studies was that human relations and the social
needs of workers are crucial aspects of business management. This principle of human
motivation helped revolutionize theories and practices of management.
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twentieth century. But the two have little in common and should not be confused. Management
science focuses specifically on the development of mathematical models. A mathematical model
is a simplified representation of a system, process, or relationship. At its most basic level,
management science focuses on models, equations, and similar representations of reality. For
example, managers at Detroit Edison use mathematical models to determine how best to route
repair crews during blackouts. Citizens Bank of New England uses models to figure out how
many tellers need to be on duty at each location at various times throughout the day. In recent
years, paralleling the advent of the personal computer, management science techniques have
become increasingly sophisticated. For example, automobile manufacturers Daimler AG and
General Motors use realistic computer simulations to study collision damage to cars. These
simulations give them precise information and avoid the costs of crashing so many test cars.
Operations Management: Operations management is somewhat less mathematical and
statistically sophisticated than management science and can be applied more directly to
managerial situations. Indeed, we can think of operations management as a form of applied
management science. Operations management techniques are generally concerned with helping
the organization produce its products or services more efficiently and can be applied to a wide
range of problems. For example, Rubbermaid and Home Depot each use operations management
techniques to manage their inventories. (Inventory management is concerned with specific
inventory problems, such as balancing carrying costs and ordering costs, and determining the
optimal order quantity.) Linear programming (which involves computing simultaneous solutions
to a set of linear equations) helps United Airlines plan its flight schedules, Consolidated
Freightways develop its shipping routes, and General Instrument Corporation plan what
instruments to produce at various times. Other operations management techniques include
queuing theory, break-even analysis, and simulation. All of these techniques and procedures
apply directly to operations, but they are also helpful in such areas as finance, marketing, and
human resource management
3.0.0 Conclusion
Theories are important as organizers of knowledge and as road maps for action. Understanding
the historical context and precursors of management and organizations provides a sense of
heritage and can also help managers avoid repeating the mistakes of others. Evidence suggests
that interest in management dates back thousands of years, but a scientific approach to
management has emerged only in the last hundred years. During the first few decades of this
century, three primary perspectives on management emerged. These are called the classical
perspective, the behavioral perspective, and the quantitative perspective.
The classical management theory has two branches as scientific management and administrative
management. Scientific management is concern with improving efficiency and work methods for
individual workers on the other hand administrative management is more concern with how
organizations should be structured and arranged for efficient operations. Both branches paid little
attention to the role of the worker.
The behavioral management perspective, developed by a concern for individual and group
behavior, emerged primarily as a result of the Hawthorne studies. The human relations
movement recognized the importance and potential of behavioral processes in organizations but
made many overly simplistic assumptions about those processes. Organizational behavior, a
more realistic outgrowth of the behavioral perspective, is of interest to many contemporary
managers.
The quantitative management and its two components, management science and operations
management, attempt to apply mathematic techniques to decision making process and problem
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solving. Mangers contributions have been facilitated by the tremendous increase in the use of
personal computers and integrated information networks.
The three major theories are actually complementary, not a contradictory. Each theory has
importance and value to offer. The key is to understanding how to use them effectively. Two
relatively recent additions to management theory, the systems and contingency perspectives,
appear to have great potential both as approaches to management and as frameworks for
integrating the other perspectives.
Management theories are implemented to help face these issues and to increase organizational
productivity and service quality. Combination of a number of theories, depending on the
workforce, purpose and workplace can lead to organization's success.
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