MGT101: LESSON 2

• Theory


  A conceptual framework for organizing knowledge and providing a blueprint for action
• History


  Understanding the historical context of management provides a sense of heritage and can help managers avoid the mistakes of others
• The Egyptians used management functions of planning, organizing, and controlling when they constructed the pyramids
• Figure 2.1 illustrates a few of the most important management breakthroughs and practices over the last 4000 years
• Classical Management Perspective


  Ideas of the early 20th century theorists and managers converged with the emergence and evolution of large-scale business and management practice
• Viewpoints within the Classical Management Perspective

  • Scientific management
  • Administrative management
• Scientific Management


  • Concerned with improving the performance of individual workers
  • Frederick Taylor developed this system, which he believed would lead to a more efficient and productive work force
• Steps in Scientific Management

  1. Develop a science for each element of the job

  2. Scientifically select employees and then train them to do the job

  3. Supervise employees to make sure they follow prescribed methods

  4. Continue to plan the work, but use workers to get the work done
• Administrative Management


  • Deals with managing the total organization
  • Laid the foundation for later development in management theory
  • More appropriate for stable and simple organizations than for today's dynamic and complex organizations
• Table 2.1 provides more details on Administrative Management
• Behavioral Management Perspective

  Placed more emphasis on individual attitudes and behaviors and on group processes and recognized the importance of behavioral processes in the work place
• Human Relations Movement

  Proposed that workers respond primarily to the social context of the workplace, including social conditioning, group norms, and interpersonal dynamics
• Organizational Behavior


  The field that draws from a broad, interdisciplinary base of psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, and medicine to study human behavior in organizations
• Theory X


  • Assumptions: Employees dislike work, are irresponsible, lack ambition, and resist change
• Theory Y


  • Assumptions: Employees are willing to work, self-directed, accept responsibility, creative, and self-controlled
• Management Science


  Focuses specifically on the development of mathematical models
• Quantitative Management

  Applies quantitative techniques to management
• Table 2.4 provides more details on Management Science vs Quantitative Management
• Systems Perspective of Organizations

  • Inputs from the environment: material, human, financial, and information
  • Transformation Process: technology, operating systems, administrative systems, and control systems
  • Outputs into the environment: products/services, profits/losses, employee behaviors, and information outputs
  • Feedback
• Synergy


  Two or more subsystems working together may often be more successful then working alone
• Entropy


  A normal process leading to system decline
• Universal perspective


  Tempting to identify one best way
• Contingency perspective


  Depending on elements in that situation
• Management Perspectives


  • Classical Management
  • Behavioral Management
  • Quantitative Management
• Contingency Perspective


  Recognition of the situational nature of management. Response to particular characteristics of situation
• Systems Approach


  Recognition of internal interdependencies. Recognition of environmental influences
• System


  An interrelated set of elements functioning as a whole
• Types of Systems


  • Open System: an organizational system that interacts with its environment
  • Closed System: an organizational system that does not interact with its environment
  • Subsystem: a system within a broader system
• Operations Management


  Techniques generally concerned with helping the organization produce products or services more efficiently
• A complete understanding of management requires an appreciation of classical, behavioral, and quantitative approaches
• The systems and contingency perspectives can help managers integrate the three approaches and enlarge understanding of all three
• Figure 2.5 shows the emergence of modern management perspectives