Evolution of Management Thoughts
1. Scientific Management School: This school considers management to be scientific management.
It indicates that scientific concepts and procedures should be followed and utilised while managing an enterprise’s operations.
Evolution of Management Thoughts: Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915), dubbed the “Father of the Scientific Management Movement,” was the first to recognise and emphasise the need of using a systematic scientific approach to managing a business.
Taylor began his career as a labourer at the Midvale Steel Company in the United States, eventually rising to the post of chief engineer. He then went to work for the Bethlehem Works, where he experimented with his theories and created the contribution to management theory for which he is famous.
He investigated the reasons of poor industrial efficiency and concluded that most of the waste and inefficiency is due to a lack of order and structure in management procedures. He noted that supervisors were often unaware of the amount of work that a person could do in a day and had no clear idea of the optimum way to complete the task.
It was his realisation that there was a lack of efficient work standards, a clear division of labour between managers and employees, a lack of worker motivation, and unscientific worker selection and placement. As a result, he recommended that managers take a “scientific approach” to their job and use scientific procedures to increase productivity.
He undertook a number of experiments in order to improve managerial practises. He evolved his views and practises into a philosophy known as ‘Scientific Management’ on the basis of these trials.
He authored several articles and publications, and his contributions were collected in “The Principles of Scientific Management.” H. S. Person, Henry L. Gantt, Lillian Gilbreth, Harrington Emerson, and M. L. Cooke all enlarged on Taylor’s views on scientific management.
2. Management Process School: School of Management Thought
This school promotes the concept that management is a method of getting things done by working with and through other people in organised organisations. It describes the activities of the management process, such as planning, organising, directing, coordinating, and managing. This procedure is carried out by the executives. The actions of the managers, as well as the basic concepts and norms that they should follow, are given priority in this approach.
Henry Fayol is known as the “Father of the Management Process School.” He emphasises that management is a functional notion that is universal and applies to any sort of organisation, whether it is a corporation or not. J. D. Mooney, A. C. Reiley, Lyndall Urwick, Harold Koontz and O’Donnell, Newman, Luther Gullick, George Terry, E. F. L. Brech, Mcfarland, and others contributed to the development of this technique.
3. Human Relations School
The technological aspect of scientific management is given priority in order to boost the efficiency of organisations. ‘Human Relations School,’ on the other hand, believes in the value of human resources in management. The link between the management authority and the working employees is the emphasis of this method.
Working individuals have a critical role in management. Managers’ efforts become successful and meaningful if their thoughts, goals, wishes, wants, and needs are adequately examined and met. The employees are treated as human beings, which is the most important feature of this method.
This school emphasises the significance of informal social groups in the workplace, strong human interactions, management motivation, increased recognition, involvement, improved communication, and effective leadership.
An organisation, according to this school, is more than just a formal arrangement of persons and functions; it is also a social structure, with the human dimension as the most significant component.
Elton Mayo, a Harvard University professor, realised the significance of this notion via trials and observations at the Western Electric Company facility in Hawthorne City, Chicago, in the early twentieth century. Prof. Elton Mayo’s experiments and findings are known as the ‘Hawthorne Experiment.’
Physical and environmental elements have no discernible impact on employees’ performance or attitude toward their jobs, according to these studies. Mayo initially realised the need of considering and resolving worker concerns using a human relations approach.
He believed that worker productivity is influenced by interpersonal relationships. Roethlis Berger, William J. Dickson, Mary Parker Follet, and A. F. Maslow are all major proponents of this school of management theory.
Human Behavioural School, School of Management Thought, School of Management Thought, School of Management Thought, School of Management Thought, School of Management
The behavioural approach to management refers to the application of psychology and sociology approaches and results to organisational behaviour. This institution places a strong focus on human behaviours and responses in group situations. Emotions, sentiments, goals, instincts, hopes, and wants are all mental responses that control a man’s behaviour or conduct.
The ‘Human Behavioural School’ thinks that successful and meaningful management is impossible until employees’ mental responses are taken into account, and their issues are either addressed or at least attempted by managers to meet their wants and expectations.
Thus, according to this school, effective and decent management is the execution of managerial duties while taking into account the conduct or behaviour of working staff.
After the Hawthorne Experiment, ‘Human Behaviour Management Thought’ emerged as a consequence of numerous psychologists’ and sociologists’ experiments, observations, and investigations. Mary Parker Follet, a member of the Human Behaviour School, made a significant contribution in this regard. A. F. Maslow is another renowned proponent of this school. McGregor, Keith Davis, and Chrris Argrys, F. H. Herzberg, F. H. Herzberg, F. H. Herzberg, F. H. Herzberg, F. H. Herzberg
Other schools of management philosophy that are prominent in contemporary management include:
System Approach School: School of Management Thought 5.
According to this school, management is a’system’ of coordinating a variety of interrelated or interdependent aspects that make up the components of a larger management process. The intended outcome cannot be achieved if the activities linked to the production of a business are carried out by placing a high value on one of its elements or portions without recognising its connection and dependent on other factors.
In management, for example, the elements of production include personnel, machines, money, and raw materials. These parts are not independent of one another; rather, they are linked and interdependent. Production is the outcome of a perfect combination of these variables. Inefficient employees can’t do their jobs properly if their machines aren’t up to par.
Inefficient people using excellent equipment cannot be expected to do good output. As a result, management is a mechanism for putting together the many linked and interdependent variables that make up the overall system. It must be evaluated in the context of the whole environment, and managers must consider the many features and changes as they manage the company.
Kenneth, Boulding, Johnson, F. E. Kast, J. E. Rosenzwig, Katz and Kahn, Forester, and C. W. Churchman are all key contributions to this school.
6. Decision Theory School of Management Thought:
Decision-making is at the heart of management. Whatever a manager does is the result of a choice he makes from a number of options accessible to him. The ‘Decision Theory School’ of management thought focuses on decision-making and treats the various aspects of decision-making as part of the scope of management research.
Advocates of this school believe that decision-making is the most important function of management, and that any study of management should concentrate on it. This school is founded on a rational approach to decision-making.
To correctly and efficiently execute management tasks, one must first master the methods, strategies, causes, and consequences of making choices. Top-level management must make choices during the planning stage, and managers in charge of plan execution must make decisions during the implementation stage.
Only when choices are made in a fair manner can they become legitimate, meaningful, and effective. Herbert Simon, Stephen Robins, and Chester Barnard are three of the most prominent proponents of this hypothesis.
7. Mathematical or Quantitative School of Management Thought:
Management is viewed as a system of mathematical models and processes at this school. The proponents of this school of thought think that a well-organized mathematical or quantitative model may effectively solve the complex difficulties of corporate management. As a logical process, management, organisation, planning, and decision-making may all be stated using mathematical symbols and connections.
Contributors to this school of thinking have used mathematical and quantitative tools to build models of many types of choices and issues encountered in managing organisations in order to better understand them and find answers to them.
Operation Research, Games Theory, Linear Programming, Queing Theory, and Model Building are all methodologies used in this theory. L. Ackoff, C. W. Churchman, Newman, Hicks, and Joel Dean are some of the proponents of this hypothesis.
Contingency Approach 8. School of Management Thought School of Management:
Management, according to this perspective, is a topic that is situational in nature. There are no hard and fast rules or theories. This is, in some ways, a continuation of the system approach. The primary premise of the contingency method is that no one management solution will be appropriate in all circumstances.
The goal of management research, according to this technique, is to uncover the critical factors in a scenario. An suitable management action is one that is based on the external environment as well as internal conditions and requirements. Management may be efficient and productive if its principles and processes are followed correctly, and its methods are utilised effectively in light of the situation.
The systems approach, according to contingency theorists, does not fully define out the exact link between the organisation and its environment. The contingency strategy seeks to bridge this gap by recommending what should be done in the case of an environmental disaster. Lorsch and Lawrence, John Woodward, Fiedler, and H. M. Carlisle are among the adherents of this hypothesis.