EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT PRACTICE & THEORY
Contents
EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT PRACTICES 4
PRE SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT PERIOD 4
ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT THEORY 7
INTRODUCTION
The Evolution of Management is a procedure the roots of which could be found way back in the early days of civilization. The only thing constant in the world is change and change in thought of management, theory and practice is directly proportional to it. The management needs to keep an eye on the factors which are important for successful management and achievement of organizational goals, some of these important factors are culture, motivation, leadership, coordinating, planning, and controlling. Management practices are an ongoing endeavor that never stops, it is continuously changing as per the need to achieve growth of the organization management has to introduce new practices, which favors the growth and success of the firm (Wren and Bedeian, 2020). The following essay will explain the changes or evolution in the practices of management undertaken by organizations from early ages to until date.
BODY
EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
The Concept of Management Practices has been around since the beginning of civilization. Before the Industrial Revolution, the evolution of advanced management practices can be identified in Roman Catholic Church and military forces. After that, the Industrial Revolution changed the practices and theory of management many writers like Professor Charles Babbage, Robert Owens, Henry Robson Towne, James Watt Junior, Seebohm Rowntree, wrote about management and contributed to pre-scientific management theory to help people. This is a broad topic and can only be understood through understanding the areas where the evolution occurred and the said evolution has been divided into the following stages for developing a better understanding and these stages include Pre-scientific management period, Classical theory, Neo-classical theory or behavior approach, Bureaucratic Model of Max Weber and Modern Management Theory (Kulkarni, 2017).
PRE SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT PERIOD
The Era before the Industrial Revolution has huge importance to contributing what management is today, Although management topic had huge changes after it had gone through the industrial revolution, the shape and importance that management has gained in today’s world is due to a strong base (that is Pre-Scientific Management Period) (Agogbua et.al. 2017). The following renowned writers were among the first to share the theories about Advance Management Practices-
Professor Charles Babbage -
Prof. Babbage was a professor in Mathematics at Cambridge, he realized the need for a strong base for decision making, he saw that the Manufacturers at that time were relying on instincts and guesswork, as they didn't have any information for efficient decision making, therefore he suggested that the managerial decisions can be based on Mathematics and Science so that the decision-making process can be made more accurate.
Robert Owens -
Management and Robert Owens are two synonyms, as whoever knows about management knows about Robert Owens, Robert Owens is regarded as the father of the management, because of their management practices were focused on employee welfare, rather than just focusing on the organizational profit, he believed that the performance of an employee could be increased to a large extent by some factors which lead to employee welfare and well-being like training, shorter working hours, etc. (Agogbua et.al. 2017).
THE CLASSICAL THEORY
There are more names to the list of the persons who contributed to the evolution of management, these people brought revolutionary change to the science of management, although the pioneers of management were Prof Babbage and Robert Owens, their contribution to management was limited to the Introduction and basic implementation of management, when compared to the huge contribution of Emerson, F.W. Taylor, H.L. Grant, and others, they introduced what was called Scientific Management (Nhema, 2015).
The Classical theory states that employees only have physical and economical needs. This Management style does not consider the social requirements of the employees and promotes specialization of labor and consolidated guidance and efficiency in making decisions. It was designed to streamline operations and maximize productivity (Saxena, 2019).
It provided proper management structure and knowledge about operations and functions of a manager.
The division of labor aids in simplifying the tasks and helps in completing the work efficiently and thus, enhancing productivity.
Clearly defined tasks and roles of staffs (Nhema, 2015).
Taylor Scientific Management Theory –
FW Taylor is called the father of scientific management; Taylor’s concern was to increase efficiency in the production. The challenge for Taylor was to increase the efficiency of the workers along with reducing costs, on the other hand increasing pay for the workers for higher productivity (Khorasani and Almasifard, 2017).
Under his study, 4 factors are emphasized
Observation
Measurement
Experimentation
Inference
Taylor has defined the following elements of scientific management.
Work-Study
Work-Study means can be explained as a study method or a measurement of work that is used to ensure the most efficient utilization of employees for performing a particular activity or task. It focuses on removing the non-productive operations and achieving the most efficient way, to increase productivity (Khorasani and Almasifard, 2017).
Standardization of Tools and Equipment -
Proper equipment and tools are necessary for increasing productivity and performing work in the most productive way possible.
Scientific Selection, Placement, and Training -
Taylor suggested that employees must be chosen for a kind of work after taking into consideration their educational qualification, work experience, and their behavior and attitude towards the work. The most suitable candidates must be placed in different job roles based on their interest and caliber (Nhema, 2015).
Development of Functional Foremanship -
Taylor introduced the functional foremanship concept and According to Taylor the planning and doing should be separated and the workers and factory executives should not be assigned any work related to planning, they should only focus on performance.
Introducing Costing System -
One of the most important elements that Taylor defined as Cost Management, which included cost reduction and cost control, reduction of wastages by calculation of cost per unit, and total cost estimation, which finally lead to properly channelizing the resources (Khorasani and Almasifard, 2017).
Mental Revolution -
This element emphasizes on changing the attitude of employees and business towards each other (Kitana, 2016).
ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT THEORY
Henri Fayol is recognized as the father of Modern Management Theory and is often compared with F.W Taylor who developed scientific management. Fayol has defined five key responsibility areas for good managers which are:-
Planning – This includes managers' responsibility to Strategize plan and its stages also determine the technological feasibility for implementation.
Organizing – Organizing and Providing all the necessary resources for the implementation of such a plan, is another responsibility of good managers.
Command – Delegation of authority and an understanding of long-term goals for the betterment of the organization.
Coordination – It simply refers to the integration of all the activities and communication between different tasks to facilitate organizational success.
Monitoring – This means the comparison of actual performance to the plan of action (Wren and Bedeian, 2020).
Henri Fayol’s 14 principles of management
Division of work – This principle helps in the division of work between the workforce, which helps in specialization and it also helps in removing any redundancy or duplicity in the work.
Authority and responsibility – Authority and responsibility go hand in hand as authority facilitates efficiency, on the other hand, responsibility makes a person responsible for his as well as for the work done under his leadership.
Discipline – Discipline is the core for any organization, without discipline nothing can be achieved, if present it helps make work easier and helps in the organization’s as well as employee’s growth. In absence of the discipline, the performance of the organization is hampered.
Unity of Command – It defines that an employee should have only one commanding authority, this helps in avoiding confusion and conflicts in the organization.
Unity of direction – All the persons working in a company should have a common goal in mind.
Subordination of Individual Interest – This indicates that the individual interest of an employee should always be subordinate to the interest of the company, it is the manager's responsibility to make an understanding among the employees that they are working to achieve a common goal, as the achievement of company's goal will finally lead to the achievement of employee's goal.
Remuneration – It is one of the most motivating factors for an employee, it can be monetary or non-monetary (like Promotion, higher responsibility, etc).
Centralization – This Principle focuses on Centralized decision making and such decision making should be the same across the whole organization (Including Branches)
Scalar Chain – This principle defines that there shall be a defined authority chain so that an employee should know his immediate senior and can contact them if required.
Order – A company should have a favorable work order to boost productivity (Wren and Bedeian, 2020).
Equity – Each employee shall receive justified and equal treatment and does not face any kind of discrimination.
Stability – Job security creates a stable mindset for an employee, which helps in delivering the best performance.
Initiative – It is the management's responsibility to encourage employees to take initiative in organizational activities.
Esprit de corps – This Principle deals with the Development of trust and understanding among management and its employees (Kitana, 2016).
NEO-CLASSIC THEORY
The Neo-Classical Theory was an up-gradation to the classical theory, The Neo-Classical theory focused on improving and implementing the behavioral sciences into management to eliminate the problems that managers were facing in classical theories. The Neo-Classical theory was concerned with employee’s motivation and support rather than just getting things done by employees in an organization as defined in the classical theory (Adebayo, 2019).
Hawthorne Experiment:
Elton Mayo is known for his study known as the Hawthorne experiment, these experiments were conducted on the workers to find out the effect of better physical facilities on worker’s output. Hawthorne Study Included many experiments like:-
Illumination Experiment – It was undertaken to find out if and how the varying levels of illumination affected productivity, but the result was that illumination didn’t affect the production (Wren and Bedeian, 2020).
Test Room Experiment – Test room experiments were undertaken to determine if a change in working conditions affects the group productivity. This experiment has shown how changes in working hours and other working conditions affect productivity.
Mass Interviewing Program – Conducting plant-wide interviews to understand the worker’s caliber and potential.
Bank wiring observations – This Experiment was conducted to analyze the functioning of a small group and its impact on individual behavior (Adebayo, 2019).
BUREAUCRATIC THEORY
One of the most important contributors to the modern organizational theory Max Weber is known for his work on Management theory we know as bureaucratic management theory, this theory has two essential elements, the organization should be structured in a hierarchy, which refers to the arrangement of an organization according to the authority levels defined and as each element helps in achieving organizational objectives, there should be rules defined for rational-legal decision making, to help decision-making process so that it doesn’t harm company’s performance(Adebayo, 2019).
Characteristics of Bureaucracy:
Hierarchical structure – It includes defined authority levels from higher to lower authority.
Division of labor – Clear defining of tasks and it focuses on achieving specialization through the repetitive performance of tasks.
Formal selection process – It eliminates the chances of bias selection as employee’s selections are based on their experience performance and technical qualification.
Rules and Regulations –These are defined, documented, and communicated throughout the organization to ensure their compliance, and managers have to consider these rules to make a decision (Agogbua et al. 2017).
MODERN THEORY
Under Modern theory, 3 types of approaches have been observed that are as follows:
Quantitative or Mathematical approach –
This approach evolved and gave a quantitative source for taking effective decisions and it considers administration as a part of mathematical models and procedures.
Systems Approach –
This approach considers the organization as a system that consists of different independent parts referred to as subsystems, which interact with each other (Tabatadze, 2020)
Contingency Approach –
This approach can be defined as an upgraded version of the systems approach, The Interaction between subsystems has been recognized by the systems approach but the Contingency approach further seeks to identify the nature of interactions and inter-relationships. This approach discards the universality of management principles and it states that managers should take a situation-oriented action and be more realistic in their approach (Tabatadze, 2020).
CONCLUSION
In this report, the evolution of management before the Industrial Revolution has been described. Scientific management origination and its advancement have been explained, we have discussed how the Neo-Classical theory proved to be an improvement of scientific theory, and the evolution of all these theories have to lead us to the modern management theory.
REFERENCES
Adebayo, O.R., 2019. EVALUATE THE INFLUENCE OF CLASSICAL AND HUMAN RELATIONS APPROACHES IN MANAGEMENT TODAY.
Agogbua, S.N., Anekwe, E.A. and Abugbum, H., 2017. Evolution of Management Thought: A Continuous or Discontinuous Process. Evolution, 9(35).
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Kitana, A., 2016. Overview of the managerial thoughts and theories from the history: Classical management theory to modern management theory. Indian Journal of Management Science, 6(1), p.16.
Kulkarni, V., 2017. Contingency theory. The International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication, pp.1-6.
Nhema, A.G., 2015. Relevance of classical management theories to modern public administration: A review. Journal of Public Administration and Governance, 5(3), pp.165-179.
Saxena, N., 2019. An Overview of Classical Management Theories. BICON-2019, 173.
Tabatadze, L., 2020. The New Vision of Modern Management Theory. The New Economist, 15(1, 2020), pp.1-1.
Wren, D.A. and Bedeian, A.G., 2020. The evolution of management thought. John Wiley & Sons.
