Management: It’s Nature and History - DonsDocs · Management: It’s Nature and History ... by...

Management Itrsquos Nature and History

copy2007 The Learning House Inc Page 1


Introduction

Management concepts are not anything new to global society or even anything developed within recent centuries In fact management skills although not formally labeled as such can be traced back at least as far as when the pyramids were erected This lesson will address what constitutes management how a manager is defined types of managers hierarchy of managers and management styles and theories How management practices have evolved into what they have become today is a combination of trial and error along with observation of what works and doesnrsquot work Point in fact management principles and practices are still changing The student will be introduced to three basic ways of looking at management practicesndash in terms of roles in terms of skills and in terms of functions All methods offer valid arguments as to why management should be viewed in its terms However this course will look at management in terms of functions as opposed to roles or skills

About Managers and Management

Managers are evident in all walks of life One can consider those that head Fortune 500 companies as managers as well as those who train animals to perform and behave In either respect managers are responsible for leading controlling planning and organizing terms which will be defined later in this lesson Therefore management can be seen as the acts that a manager performs with the means made available to attain the desirable end

Who Are Managers Today managers carry various titles and are located within different levels of an organization Those managers that directly relate to non-management employees may be deemed

supervisors shift managers team coordinators or the like and would be considered the first-line managers Whatever they may be called they are responsible for making sure that the work of the organization is carried out at its lowest level by working through the means (people) that they have to get the end (goals of the company) accomplished Above that level are a group of managers known collectively as middle managers Their responsibility is to manage the first-line manager and to act as a liaison between the first-line manager and the top level of management Finally at the top of this configuration are the top managers some who may carry such titles as the organizationrsquos chief executive officer (CEO) executive vice president or chief operating officer (COO) This configuration of management with the majority of employees at the bottom of the organization and the least number of employees at the top is known as a pyramid It is a very traditional way of looking at the way management should be structured yet it is still used and still very effective

Some organizations have gotten away from the pyramid configuration in its strictest sense and have gone to a more contemporary arrangement where employees share in some of the decision-making and planning and managers perform some non-management type tasks The managers will still be charged with tying things together or in essence continue to work through the non-management employee to attain organizational goals but suggestions and input from non-management employees are not only welcomed but encouraged



What is Management Management can be described as overseeing the work of the company to make sure that it is implemented or carried out through employees to achieve the designated end In order to do this the manager must make sure that the work is done with efficiency or getting the most output (the quality of the product is not sacrificed) from the least amount of inputs In other words the work is done right Then too it is the responsibility of the manager to make sure that the right thing is done or effectiveness completing activities so that organizational goals are attained is included in the mix In successful organizations it is not enough to just get the job done but it must also be done without surrendering integrity In the end it is a win-win situation because both customer and company are satisfied

What Do Managers Do As stated in the introduction there are three schools of thought as to how management should be viewed ndash by functions as roles and by skills

Functions Approach Planning

Management Roles Interpersonal roles

Management Skills Technical skills

Organizing Informational roles Human skills Leading Decisional roles Conceptual skills Controlling

Each of these looks at what managers do but as you can see by the layout above differ in how they should be categorized

Functions Approach to Management In the early and mid twentieth century two theories regarding the functions approach to what managers do emerged The first attributed to the functions of manager the activities of planning organizing commanding coordinating and controlling and the second one included planning organizing staffing directing and controlling Each assigned managers five functions Most textbooks today still focus on the functions approach to management however they combined some of the functions together to reduce the number of functions to only four

1) planning or defining goals establishing strategies for achieving those goals

developing plans to integrate and coordinating activities 2) organizing or determining what tasks are to be done who is to do them how the

asks are to be grouped and who reports to whom and where decisions are to be

made



3) leading or motivating people subordinates influencing individuals or teams as they work selecting the most effective communication channel or dealing in any way with

employee behavior issues and 4) controlling or monitoring actual performance comparing actual to standard and

taking action if necessary

Although the functions approach to management is very popular and can be seen in the way a lot of organizations operate internally some feel this approach is not appropriate and regard one of the other approaches that will be addressed in the next two sections as more suitable

Management Roles Approach to Management Each person in his everyday life is called on to wear many hats or in other words take on many roles The idea that the work of managers could be viewed as roles or what is called the management roles approach was introduced by Henry Mintzberg a well-known management researcher By studying several managers on the job he concluded that everything that a manager did regardless of level of management could be categorized as a role or pattern of behavior interpersonal informational and decisional Further he deduced that depending upon the level of management managers would use some roles more than others As an example he observed that leadership roles were more closely aligned with first-line managers rather than with middle or upper lever management while those roles of liaison figurehead or negotiator were mainly reserved for middle or higher-level management Researchers that have since looked at the Mintzberg approach regard it as credible and that indeed the work of managers could be viewed in terms of roles

Management Skills Approach to Management The word lsquoskillrsquo implies an expertise or proficiency in doing something or knowledge of something Hence managers employ certain skills as they go about their day-to-day job responsibilities Robert L Katz another management researcher for this reason separated what managers do into a list of required skills He then placed these skills under three main groups

Technical skills meaning the knowledge of and proficiency in a specialized field such as engineering

Human skills meaning the ability to work with people on all levels as wells as individually and in groups

Conceptual skills meaning the ability to concentrate or deliberate on abstract ideas or situations

Technical skills as you may have already surmised most often are required at the lowest level of management since it deals with those employees who are doing the actual work of the organization Human skills would be used at all levels of management within the organization because it requires that the person employing it be able to relate to people on all levels Finally conceptual skills would most often be employed at higher levels of management because they deal with being able to see the big picture ndash not only how to get the organization from point A to point B but what the future of the organization should


Page 5 copy2007 The Learning House Inc


look like and how to keep the organization on the cutting edge of things Although many innovative ideas of how to improve things for the organization have been a product of not only lower and middle management but actual workers themselves

The chart below is a look at how the three schools of thought regarding what managers do compare As you can see from the chart there may or may not be a relatable item between all three or any two approaches

Functions Management Roles Management Skills

Planning

Define goals

Interpersonal

Figurehead

Technical

Knowledge of and proficiency in specialized field

Establish strategies Leader

Develop plans

LiaisonCoordinate activities

Organizing

Determine what is to be done

Informational

Monitor

Human

Communicate

Who is to do task

Disseminator

Motivate

How task are grouped Lead

Reporting chart

SpokespersonWhere decisions are made

Inspire

Leading

Motivate subordinates

Decisional

Entrepreneur

Conceptual

Solving business problems

Influence individuals or teams

Disturbance handler

Identify innovative opportunities

Select effective communication method

Resource allocator

Recognize problems Implement solutions

Deal with human behavior Negotiator

Isolate critical data from masses of data

Controlling Monitor Grasp how

How Do They Stack Up


performance business uses technology

Compare actual to standard performance

Understand organizationrsquos business model

Correct performance if necessary

Comparable tasks between approaches have been identically color-coded

How the Managerrsquos Job is Changing Managers jobs are constantly changing In particular managers have to continue to assess technology improvements security concerns ethics behavior and competitiveness Since security threats to organizations are the exception rather than the rule and since most people behave ethically in the workplace competition customer satisfaction and innovation require more scrutiny on a continual basis When a company is ignorant of what the customer needs or does not service the accounts the company is subject to lose customers Additionally if the company does not update to stay competitive customers can again be loss Therefore managers must always be open to learning and having workers learn new ways of doing things and learning new things to do

What Is an Organization

Whether it is referred to as a corporation a company or a business all managers work in what is collectively known as an organization The student now knows that managers carry out functions use skills and behave in certain manners within the framework of an organization However as yet an organization has not been defined An organization consequently can be defined as a deliberate arrangement of people to accomplish some specific purpose Organizations whether traditionally arranged or fashioned in a contemporary manner share three characteristics They

1 Have a purpose 2 Have people 3 Have a structure

Today most companies state their purpose in the form of a mission statement that is a formal business statement of aims or a formal document that states the aims of a company or organization The student is encouraged to look at websites of churches non-profit organizations and some more well-known organizations to see what their mission statements consist of A one-man operation cannot be considered an organization because by definition an organization must have people and not just lsquoa personrsquo Lastly an organization is characterized by some type structure Everyone canrsquot be the boss and



everyone canrsquot be a worker Therefore some type of reporting scheme must be in place along with guidelines that indicate who does what work schedules etc

Why Study Management

For those students majoring in management-oriented courses the necessity of studying management is readily apparent However the necessity of studying management for those majoring in other fields may not be so obvious For one thing organizations are found in every walk of life Your grocer your pharmacists your mortgage holder your dentist ndash they are all part of an organization Some of these individuals lead the organization while others are employed by the organization They exist in every country and are not restricted to any particular society For this reason organizations are said to be universal

Every individual at some point in time will have to deal with an organization You may be employed by an organization or you may manage one Consider therefore the consequences of dealing with an on-line company that had no rules had no structure and had no people Who then would take your order If by chance your order were to be filled who would guarantee that you would receive your order as specified or even at all Any number of additional questions could be asked regarding this company but the costs associated with lack of management in the company start to reveal themselves in the scenario Consequently management is not only universal but knowing the difference between poor management and good management and how to help improve management skills and practices is essential if you manage or want to be a part of an organization that is successful

Then too there are rewards associated with good management Good management may result in bonuses promotions or other perks Even a housewife or househusband that organizes and manages the household well finds time for leisure and time to do some of the things they like to do

Historical Background of Management

In the early twentieth century management theories began to crop up The six theories that surfaced will be discussed next but to understand the basis for how the originators of the theories believed organizations should be viewed and managed it may be advantageous to look at some historical examples that deployed some of these methods of management on which some of these theories may be based

You would not have to look too far to see examples of excellent management skills if you were to consider The Seven (Man-Made) Wonders of the World From the pyramids and Great Sphinx of Egypt to the hanging gardens of Babylon or the statues of Zeus and temple of Artemis someone had to decide what was to be done and how as well as who would carry out the work The decision makers were the managers and the workers made up the people required for the organization To complete each of these undertakings took several years This



meant that both managers (or overseers) as well as workers were forced to attend to projects whose results were very slow in coming With todayrsquos equipment these same structures would not have taken as long and within a matter of months some type of progress would have readily been seen Can you imagine what type management discipline would have been required in those days to complete such tasks

More recently in the nineteenth century to be exact there were two events that helped bring about the study of management styles and structure The first was the idea of division of labor or the breakdown of jobs into narrow or repetitive tasks This concept was presented by Adam Smith in a book that he wrote and published called the Wealth of Nations in 1776 He argued that both time and expertise could be realized if a worker did the same task over and over rather than letting each worker do several different tasks His theory as you well know panned out and is even used today

The second occurrence was the Industrial Revolution in which machine power was substituted for manpower This event started in Great Britain but soon came to the United States Machines had been invented which could now do some of the tasks that previously man was required to do This gave rise to large factories to do work that may have been done in homes and these factories would require management tools and skills in order to function Management would be needed to see to making sure that materials to make products would be made available in a timely fashion customer demand for products would be met and workers would be managed in such a way as to get the jobs accomplished The need for theories to guide managers into new territory became quite evident

Management Theories

In the next several sections six management theories that came about as a result of the need to train managers on how to run factories will be discussed The student will be able to note similarities as well as differences between theories and at the same time may notice from interfacing with various organizations on different levels that many companies employ more than one theory within their organization

Scientific Management Frederick W Taylor is credited with introducing the scientific management theory as put forth in his book titled Principles of Scientific Management Scientific management is the use of scientific methods to define the ldquoone best wayrdquo for a job to be done In studying a particular factory he noted that workers were not matched to their aptitude or ability there were no set standards for doing the job and there were no set standards people worked when they wanted and rested when they wanted From working to correct this method of performance which took him two decades he came up with four principles of management that he felt when applied would work to correct job performance and productivity These four principles were



a Develop a science for each element of an individualrsquos work which will replace the old rule-of-thumb method

b Scientifically select and then train teach and develop the worker c Heartily cooperate with the workers so as to ensure that all work is done in

accordance with the principles of the science that has been developed d Divide work and responsibility almost equally between management and workers

Management takes over all work for which it is better fitted than the workers

Through his studies and work to apply the scientific management method along with the results achieved Taylor became known as the ldquofatherrdquo of scientific management

Other contributors to the scientific management method and avid supporters of Taylorrsquos approach to management were Frank and Lillian Gilbreth ndash Frank a construction contractor and his wife Lillian a psychologist They added to this approach by their study of wasteful hand and body motions In their study of bricklaying they discovered that the bricklayer performed 18 body motions to lay a single brick They successfully reduced the number of motions to lay bricks from 18 to 5 for external bricklaying and from 18 to 2 for internal bricklaying In addition they invented the microchronometer which recorded workersrsquo motions They discovered that there were 17 basic hand motions which they called therbligs

The guidelines that Taylor presented and the motions study that the Gilbreths did are still used today They have helped many organizations to get the right people in the right positions and reduce the amount of time to get jobs done

General Administrative Theorists Two of the most prominent general administrative theorist figures are Henri Fayol a French managing director of a coal-mining firm and Max Weber a German sociologist Unlike Taylor whose principles applied mainly to first-line supervision Fayol theorized concerning the entire organization and developed a set of 14 principles of management that could be applied to all types of organizations even in the home

Max Weber is probably best known for his description of an ideal organization ndash a bureaucracy or a form of organization characterized by division of labor a clearly defined hierarchy detailed rules and regulations and impersonal relationships Of course this organization exists in theory only as there is no ideal organization The rigidity of the principles of management of Max Weber makes his model somewhat unpopular today in more contemporary organizations where formal rules and impersonality are seen as a negative rather than positive although some of his bureaucratic components are still practiced among many corporations

Quantitative Approach Theory to Management The quantitative approach to management has its origin with the military who used it as a mathematical and statistical tool to find solutions to military problems during World War II A group of military officers nicknamed the Whiz Kids after the war began to work for Ford Motor Company and there applied these same techniques to the business world Two of the more well-known individuals responsible for using this approach at Ford were Robert McNamara former US Secretary of Defense and Charles Thornton founder of Litton Industries This approach is best used for planning and control as a method to handle inventory budgeting scheduling and quality control Because this method requires constructing quantitative models it can be somewhat intimidating and is not as well used as some of the other approaches



Organizational Behavior Theory Four individual figures are well-known for their contributions to the organizational behavior or the field of study concerned with the actions (behavior) of people at work approach to management These figures were Robert Owens Hugo Munsterberg Mary Parker Follett and Chester Barnard Although each of their contributions were different together they are responsible for ideas that provide the foundation for four critical components of organizational behavior

1 Employee selection procedure 2 Employee motivation programs 3 Employee work teams 4 Organization-environmental management

techniques

Yet the single most important contribution to this field of approach came from the Hawthorne Studies that were conducted by the Western Electric Company Works in Cicero Illinois What began as a scientific management approach experiment yielded information that would be useful in the organizational behavior approach The experiment in brief studied the effects of lighting on workersrsquo performance using both control and experimental groups The results were that worker productivity was not affected except with lighting equivalent to that of a moonlit night Further information yielded that workers were more affected by employee relations than economic incentives The results that came out of the study were surprising and its conclusions criticized yet it still has greatly influenced the way organizations have been set up even today

Systems Approach Theory A system is a set of interrelated and interdependent parts arranged in a manner that produces a unified whole The systems approach to management was borrowed from science which views systems as either open or closed Organizations referred to as being systems automatically infer the open system or a system that dynamically interacts with its environment because it takes in (resources) from the environment transforms them and outputs them back into the environment Hence it is an open system In the systems approach all facets of the organizationrsquos internal works as well as interfacing with the external environment either on a receiving or disbursing basis are taken into account How one department interfaces with another how what one department does affects another department how customer relations are handled and everything else from attitude to compensation are considered interrelated in the systems approach to management

Contingency Approach Theory The final modern day approach to management that has been identified is the contingency approach or the concept that organizations are different face different situations and require different ways of managing Within any given organization different departments by necessity will operate differently than other departments and this is what makes the contingency approach a well-received approach Proponents of this approach have identified what they call variables that when taken into consideration show why it impossible to apply an exact method to the way an organization should be managed Although the number of contingency variables or lsquowhatrsquo variables is more than 100 with this approach four lsquomainrsquo contingency variablesrsquo or lsquowhatrsquo variables have been identified These are



1 Organization size 2 Routineness of task technology 3 Environmental uncertainty 4 Individual differences

Current Trends and Issues

A number of current trends serve to influence the way managers do their jobs today Included in this list are Globalization Ethics Workforce diversity Entrepreneurship E-business Knowledge management Learning organizations Quality management

To begin with management reaches beyond national borders as companies have expanded their businesses globally While globalization of companies has provided opportunities for companies to grow and change the lives of people in other countries in a positive manner there are problems associated with it Some have argued that countries including the United States have become more vulnerable to conflicts between various cultures and people

Ethics is a subject that appears to be at the forefront of a lot of current news issues Whether speaking about the ethics related to gun control the ethics exhibited by individuals in public office or the ethics of entertainers from various venues ethics is really being discussed today So too are the ethics in the workplace ndash so much so that in light of the Enron scandals and the Martha Stewart scandal firms are now updating employee handbooks engaging in mandatory ethics training programs for both management and non-management employees and even policing lsquoso to speakrsquo ethical behavior

Workforce diversity is another trend that is affecting the way that managers manage With the influx of various ethnic groups into the country the face of America is becoming more diversified and so too is the workplace More and more women are in the workforce now and

consequently organizations have found the need to make sure that their workforce looks more like the face of America Additionally rather than assimilate ethnic groups are bringing their customs into the workplace which means that the workplace must be more compliant

Entrepreneurship impacts management especially today when more and more people are going into business for themselves These



individuals who have decided to go it on their own have had to find innovative ideas or innovative ways to make their product viable in todayrsquos marketplace So many people have left good paying jobs to pursue their own interests and have created businesses that have yielded astounding results

E-business or the way companies do business using electronic means has really changed the way business is done today Some companies have originated as e-business companies like eBay and Amazoncom and actually make sells using e-commerce which is the marketing component of e-business Others use e-business to enhance their sells like Wal-Mart or Target Yet others use e-business as a means to transfer information to their customers Then there are those companies which have reorganized to transfer what was formally was a non e-business company to a strictly e-business company

By the time you purchase the state-of-the-art computer and take it out the door something new and more innovative has already taken its place as state-of-the-art When new technologies and better ways of doing things come out daily organizations have got to stay abreast of this information Knowledge management or the culture which fosters continued learning and

sharing within an organization is vital to its growth and existence This is but another current trend affecting management and management style

Quality management is essential to be included the way organizations are managed today Quality management is defined as a philosophy of management that is driven by continual improvement and responding to customer needs and expectations In the 1980rsquos some American organizations felt that the public was concerned with the bottom line cost of a product only Emphasis was placed on cost but quality of product was not stressed However organizations in the United States learned a valuable lesson when their Japanese counterparts surpassed them in sells because they offered a quality product at an affordable cost Companies now in the United States put just as much effort into providing a quality product as making it affordable



Introduction

Management concepts are not anything new to global society or even anything developed within recent centuries In fact management skills although not formally labeled as such can be traced back at least as far as when the pyramids were erected This lesson will address what constitutes management how a manager is defined types of managers hierarchy of managers and management styles and theories How management practices have evolved into what they have become today is a combination of trial and error along with observation of what works and doesnrsquot work Point in fact management principles and practices are still changing The student will be introduced to three basic ways of looking at management practicesndash in terms of roles in terms of skills and in terms of functions All methods offer valid arguments as to why management should be viewed in its terms However this course will look at management in terms of functions as opposed to roles or skills

About Managers and Management

Managers are evident in all walks of life One can consider those that head Fortune 500 companies as managers as well as those who train animals to perform and behave In either respect managers are responsible for leading controlling planning and organizing terms which will be defined later in this lesson Therefore management can be seen as the acts that a manager performs with the means made available to attain the desirable end

Who Are Managers Today managers carry various titles and are located within different levels of an organization Those managers that directly relate to non-management employees may be deemed

supervisors shift managers team coordinators or the like and would be considered the first-line managers Whatever they may be called they are responsible for making sure that the work of the organization is carried out at its lowest level by working through the means (people) that they have to get the end (goals of the company) accomplished Above that level are a group of managers known collectively as middle managers Their responsibility is to manage the first-line manager and to act as a liaison between the first-line manager and the top level of management Finally at the top of this configuration are the top managers some who may carry such titles as the organizationrsquos chief executive officer (CEO) executive vice president or chief operating officer (COO) This configuration of management with the majority of employees at the bottom of the organization and the least number of employees at the top is known as a pyramid It is a very traditional way of looking at the way management should be structured yet it is still used and still very effective

Some organizations have gotten away from the pyramid configuration in its strictest sense and have gone to a more contemporary arrangement where employees share in some of the decision-making and planning and managers perform some non-management type tasks The managers will still be charged with tying things together or in essence continue to work through the non-management employee to attain organizational goals but suggestions and input from non-management employees are not only welcomed but encouraged














made



















Planning

Define goals

Interpersonal

Figurehead

Technical



Develop plans


Organizing


Informational

Monitor

Human

Communicate

Who is to do task

Disseminator

Motivate


Reporting chart


Inspire

Leading


Decisional

Entrepreneur

Conceptual



Disturbance handler



Resource allocator
































Management Theories



















techniques


































made



















Planning

Define goals

Interpersonal

Figurehead

Technical



Develop plans


Organizing


Informational

Monitor

Human

Communicate

Who is to do task

Disseminator

Motivate


Reporting chart


Inspire

Leading


Decisional

Entrepreneur

Conceptual



Disturbance handler



Resource allocator
































Management Theories



















techniques







































Planning

Define goals

Interpersonal

Figurehead

Technical



Develop plans


Organizing


Informational

Monitor

Human

Communicate

Who is to do task

Disseminator

Motivate


Reporting chart


Inspire

Leading


Decisional

Entrepreneur

Conceptual



Disturbance handler



Resource allocator
































Management Theories



















techniques



























Planning

Define goals

Interpersonal

Figurehead

Technical



Develop plans


Organizing


Informational

Monitor

Human

Communicate

Who is to do task

Disseminator

Motivate


Reporting chart


Inspire

Leading


Decisional

Entrepreneur

Conceptual



Disturbance handler



Resource allocator
































Management Theories



















techniques
















































Management Theories



















techniques




































Management Theories



















techniques


























Management Theories



















techniques





































techniques

























techniques














































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Management: It’s Nature and History - DonsDocs · Management: It’s Nature and History ... by...

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