THE INFLUENCE OF CLASSICAL AND HUMAN RELATION THEORIES OF MANAGEMENT TODAY Written by: Madalitso Mbewe Jr (original) (raw)
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Procedia Computer Science, 2015
From traditional approach to scientific approach and then Scientific Management to Modern phase; methodology, principles and approaches have reached its current stage. Taylor, the originator of scientific management brought a revolution in the twentieth century by introducing scientific aspects of formulating patterns and disciplines within project management. Scientific management emphasizes on profit maximization by utilizing the workers through controlled mechanism, training, monetary incentives under managers, however it has been scrutinized and criticized highly for its short term focus on profit, treating workers as a machine like forms which eventually argued to result negative performance in the long run. Therefore, a drift towards behavioral study emerged and social factors have been included to address the challenges which Taylor's method neglected. This paper through an extensive literature review showed that, the advancement of technology and globalization stimulated the modern management approach to adjust and complement the scientific management by supplementing the human factor and their contributions within an organization rather than substituting the traditional approach. Therefore together with productive activities and completion of defined tasks, a successful modern day project management model highly values employee contribution and feedbacks at all level.
Theory A for Optimizing Human Productivity
Optimizing human productivity is a challenging process for the organizations and this process involves getting the best performance from employees within the organizational constraints. Even though the performance of human resources in organizations mainly depend on technology and external environment, ways of thinking individually and by teams, and humanistic orientation are important. Various models are used in developing a strategy to improve the people's performance in organizations. Such for example, are theory X, theory Y and theory A. All these in common are based on presumptions about the human behaviour at work. Theory X and Y are opposing each other in predicting human nature. Theory X describes human nature as lazy, dislikes work and avoids, lacks responsibility, seeks security, lack of ambition and therefore should be forced, controlled, threatened or closely supervised to get work. Theory Y believes in the exercise of self-direction and self-control investing faith in individual potential, imagination, creativity and its application to work. Against this is theory A which focuses innate human potential, inherent urge for creativity, self-expression and contribution to the organization as motivators. As such, managers have to transform average employee to real performers using role models and self-exploration. This paper attempts to compare factors affecting organizational performance in all these aforesaid theories. It also details a set of model operational steps in introducing the theory of accountability. It also makes a SWOC analysis of theory A and its application to different types of organizations.
The exercise of administration started as soon as man initially made an effort to complete objectives through functioning collectively in numbers (Mainul and Abdul, 2009, p.29). The classical and human relations approaches to management are two theories which have contributed highly in the way organizations are run, employees motivated and productivity increased in small, medium and large organizations across the globe. Companies have adopted the human relations approach more than the classical approach for the concern that the classical approach is more impersonal and mechanistic while human relations focusses on the social aspect of workers which is an important element in achieving satisfactory productivity to ensure profitability. The classical approach looks at contributions from Fredrick Taylor, who is the father of scientific management, Henri Fayol with his administrative principles approach and Max Weber with his Bureaucratic organization approach. On the other hand human relations approach looks at the work of Elton Mayo with his Hawthorne studies, Abraham Maslow and his theory of human needs, Douglass McGregor with the Theory X and Theory Y, Chris Ayris's personality and organization and lastly Mary Parker Follett with an approach that organizations should be viewed as communities. These theories have been used in isolation and at times together and others are belt upon thoughts from other theories. This discussion will look at definitions where applicable and the elements within the classical and human relations theory, the way companies have adopted these ideas, the impact they have had on companies in the modern world using examples in the corporate and public institutions. Scientific management, classed within the classical theory generally looks at specialization and partition of labor. Taylor looked at four leading points in managing scientifically which includes developing a scientific method of designing jobs to replace other rules by devising the best way possible to carry out work, secondly taking on board skilled personnel to do the job, giving workers the right reward to enhance productivity and giving workers the right skills to do their jobs as they progress and supporting them accordingly. The core parts of Taylor's thoughts were to find better ways of controlling people and managing organizations scientifically. The scientific theory application can be seen in J.R.V Company founded by James. R. Vail in 1905. In its establishment the work was organized scientifically and jobs were done using the most efficient method and people were and are still put in jobs which suit them. The successors of the company have adopted almost the same approach to date. The other portion of classical management is the administrative approach; Henry Fayol's ideologies of organization are that controlling is a nonstop practice commencing with forecasting and completing with governing (Mainul and Abdul, 2009, p.32). He looked at management in a different way and included five guidelines which include forecasting, resourcefulness, commanding, coordinating and controlling which have been adopted as functions of management in today's world. Finally the Bureaucracy approach looks