...summed up his efficiency techniques in his book The Principles of Scientific Management. He started the Scientific Management movement, and he and his associates were the first people to study the work process scientifically. They studied how work was performed, and they looked at how this affected worker productivity. Taylor's philosophy focused on the belief that making people work as hard as they could was not as efficient as optimizing the way the work was done. In 1909, Taylor published "The Principles of Scientific Management." In this, he proposed that by optimizing and simplifying jobs, productivity would increase. He also advanced the idea that workers and managers needed to cooperate with one another. This was very different from the way work was typically done in businesses beforehand. A factory...
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...Drawing on Weber’s ideal type, critically consider the relevance of bureaucratic administration to the management of twenty-first century organizations. Max Weber was a German sociologist in the twentieth century; he was famous for his classical management theory. Weber classified three different types of authority, traditional, charismatic and legitimate authority. Traditional authority is based on traditions and customs that the leader has the legitimate right to use authority. Charismatic authority is the belief that the leader whose mission and visions will inspire others. Legitimate authority is based on formal, system of rules. In the 1930s, Weber introduced that the bureaucratic form as being the ideal way of organizing government agencies. This soon became popular in both the private and public sectors. Weber believes that the development of rational forms to be the most important characteristics in the development of Western society and capitalism. He considered the traditional and charismatic forms as irrational. Rationality is based on reasoning, calculation and logic. One of the many types of rationality includes the formal rationality. The notion of formal rationality is important to the emergence of industrial capitalism as capitalism values reason, calculation and precision, science and logic. Formal rationality is a form of rationality that characterizes bureaucratic organizations. Bureaucracy refers to the execution of tasks that are governed by official administrative...
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...an evaluation assessing my progress so far will be embodied. 2. Background This briefing paper is essential because it clearly presents the process that I will undergo to complete the individual paper, it will provide guidance, advice and include specific resources. I will critically analyze the key issues HR managers face with reference to managing job design and flexibility and how HR managers could address the issues mentioned. This valued topic has been chosen because well managed job design increases the value of the position to the organization, engages the worker and reduces individual and organizational risk. It is substantial because it leads to greater organizational effectiveness and efficiency as well as better results from employees. The areas I will cover in this paper include various approaches to job design and flexible working and how they affect employee motivation, the implications to new ways of working, the psychological contract and the impact they appoint. 3. Findings 4.1 What is the assignment...
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...various past management styles. My principal argument is that three significant lessons are apparent through the examination of this history. First, that the complexity of managerial work is often underestimated and misconceived broadly as planning, organising, coordinating and controlling, without taking into account the various extensive roles of a manager. I draw on this point in Section One by studying the works of Henry Mintzberg, Gareth Morgan, Tony Watson and Martin Parker. Secondly, I argue that the transition from pre-capitalist to the industrialised economic system has been conflict-ridden. In Section Two I discuss the transition of economic systems and issues encountered by managers, through the drawing upon studies conducted by David Jaffee, Bill Cooke and Keith Grint. Finally, I explain how the capacity of management to effectively control employees is often challenged. In Section Three, I magnify upon the third key lesson exploring the use of Taylorism and the limitations of this system. I will conclude my essay by briefly revisiting my key arguments that managerial work can be complex and that the role of managers can be difficult in evolutions of labour/work. Section One The work of a manager is often misconceived as simply the planning, organising, coordinating and controlling of business practice and that lower level subordinates produce the majority output of work. It is commonly ignored that managers usually work in the interest of shareholders...
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..."merely the elements or details of the mechanisms of management" Task allocation is the concept that breaking task into smaller and smaller tasks allows the determination of the optimum solution to the task. "The man in the planning room, whose specialty is planning ahead, invariably finds that the work can be done more economically by subdivision of the labour; each act of each mechanic, for example, should be preceded by various preparatory acts done by other men." devised a means of detailing a division of labor in time-and-motion studies and a wage system based on performance. http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/Anthro/Anth101/taylorism_and_fordism.htm Frederick Winslow Taylor is a controversial figure in management history. His innovations in industrial engineering, particularly in time and motion studies, paid off in dramatic improvements in productivity. At the same time, he has been credited with destroying the soul of work, of dehumanizing factories, making men into automatons. What is Taylor's real legacy? I'm not sure that management historians will ever agree. extensions of the four principles of management.[2] 1. The development of a true science 2. The scientific selection of the workman 3. The scientific education and development of the workman 4. Intimate and friendly cooperation between the management and the men. Taylor taught that there was one and only one method of work that maximized efficiency. "And this one best method and best implementation...
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...flexibility over periods of time. Nowadays in this fast-moving world where new technologies and innovations lay in the foreground of the business, management improvements are inevitable – ‘The nature of work and industrial organisation is truly changing with unnerving speed’ ( Kumar,1991,p201, Bradley, 1999). This perception has been a subject of many discussions and analyses and is still very relevant and popular among the managers worldwide. Therefore considering management development as a crucial part from the giant machine called ‘industrial business’, my chosen organisation is a massive global company with strong history heritage in this current area. In this essay the main topic for discussion will be how Unilever changed its management strategies in terms of its people over the years based on a few management ideologies, and what are the positive and negative outcomes from these alterations. The basic management theories which are going to be used are Systematic management (Taylorism, Fordism), People Management and Environmental Management as well as some additional theories which will support and clarify the made arguments in order to be achieved both depth and breadth of the critical analysis. The main reason why Unilever was chosen to be discussed in this paper is because it is one of the most successful organisations in the fast-moving consumer goods industry today, with strong, built market position. Therefore it would be a great example for describing how its management...
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...increase. In this context an ethical dilemma raised, so two crucial issues were addressed: either go further with the production of Pinto regardless the defects and the danger to future customers, or delay the production and modify the original model to assure safety and reliability, regardless the higher costs? Ford’s decision was to continue the production of the defective design while basing it on a cost-benefit analysis. In this context another dilemma was created: should such an analysis be used in situations where defects could lead to death or cause tremendous harm, such as in the Ford Pinto situation? Utilitarianism Based on the information provided by Ford, the company assumed and decided that the most benefit would come from going ahead with the production of the initial design. Utilitarianism is defined as a normative, empirical philosophy that is based on the principle that “the right thing to do, in any situation, is whatever would produce the best overall consequences for all those who will be affected by the action”, so basically it defines right or acceptable actions as those that maximize total utility, or the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism can be used when considering a business decision that seeks to maximize positive effects and minimize...
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...Lecture 6: The Deskilling Thesis H. Braverman – Labor and Monopoly Capital (1974) • The central text in what has come to be called the labour process approach. • Context for Braverman: ❑ Braverman associated with Monthly Review journal – founded in 1949 by Paul Sweezy and Leo Huberman. An influential journal but little impact on American sociology. Best known product of this school is Baran and Sweezy’s Monopoly Capital (1966). Indeed, Braverman’s analysis of work is predicated theoretically upon Baran and Sweezy’s analysis of ‘Monopoly Capital’ [ie oligopolistic, ‘organized’ capitalism. ❑ After mid-1960s increasing interest in neo-Marxism in the US – partly result of social conflicts evident in America in late 1960s which threw doubt of the utility of the structural-functionalist paradigm. ❑ In the 1970s – re-emergence of radical political economy in both the USA and Western Europe. Produced the Union of Radical Political Economists and the journal Insurgent Sociologist in USA and wide array of groups and journals in Western Europe – of which the most well known are: New Left Review, Capital and Class and Economy and Society. • In the late 1960s in the USA two sets of ideas had emerged within the social sciences which formed the concepts against which Braverman reacted: ❑ H. Marcuse, One Dimensional Man: a German social philosopher, member of the Frankfurt school, who argued that the affluence generated...
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...Dr Alf Crossman Organisational Behaviour Management Work 1 Key Areas of Focus • Division of Labour • Adam Smith • General Principles of Management • Scientific Management • Frederick Winslow Taylor Organisational Behaviour • Henri Fayol • Bureaucracy • Max Weber 2 Session Objectives • To explore the nature of classical organization theory • To become familiar with the key classical theorists’ work • To understand the principles and impact of: Organisational Behaviour • Bureaucracy • Management • To understand the principles and impact of: • Division of labour • Scientific management/Taylorism • Fordism • To explore the arguments surrounding ‘deskilling’ and labour process 3 The Obsession with Organization Before the factory system production took place primarily in cottages – the ‘putting out’ system and small workshops. Output was the main priority. Self-organization was the predominant approach. The introduction of the factory system introduced a new imperative – time. Time became a valuable resource and organization of labour became increasingly important Organisational Behaviour 4 Of the Division of Labour • Adam Smith – An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776 • Pin-making example • Division of Labour In an early chapter of his book, Smith observes: “One worker could probably make only twenty pins per day. However, if ten people divided up the eighteen steps required to make a pin...
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...critically evaluate the statement “Mechanistic and bureaucratic organisations will probably struggle to encourage organisational learning”. I will approach this statement by highlighting my main argument then providing four key points which will reinforce said statement. I understand of this question that encouraged to be defined as “To give support” in the sense of designing policies to encourage organisational learning. With this in mind main argument for this statement is mechanistic organisations wouldn’t struggle to encourage organisational learning however scope for learning will be limited due to employee behaviours and management styles and in order to enable full capacity within organisation learning a shit would be required away from the mechanist approach. First of all I believe it would be simple for burecratic organisations to encourage organisational learning due to the Strict hierarchy, rules and regulations and power in position slides which exists combined with employee’s to have strong compliance to manager commands, processes and rulers and regulations (Max Weber). I believe if managers were to enforce forms of organisational learning such as group work, single and double loop learning (Agyris & Schon, 1978), Kolbs learning cycle (Kolb, 1984) employees would follow procedures due to the high controlling authairitive relationship which exists between employees and managers. An example of this would be when working at costa there is a very mechanistic approach...
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...pace of working, and to take the responsibility for planning each activity to ensure that every step was in line with business objectives. Moreover, based on the assumption that workers can not be trusted to perform their jobs diligently, work activities were tightly controlled through supervision and monitoring. However, Taylor believed that people were rational beings who could be motivated through financial incentives. Piece rate reward system was used to reward people when they reached a certain target (Buelens et al, 2011). Critiques of Taylorism mostly come from humanistic side. Although social scientists agree that modern management methods have led to greater material wealth and thus a higher standard of life, they question the price people have to pay for this greater standard of life. For example, in Foxconn, employees often suffer inhumane treatment. Because of great labor intensity, employees can hardly get any respect from managers, and always suffered the inhumane...
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...understanding the very core of the concept of Job Design, one can take very different perspectives on every task. For example, an experienced worker would look at job design in a very different way to a fresh graduate. It is not that any of these perspectives are ‘wrong’ as such. Rather that they emphasise different aspects of job design. The reality of job design is that most of the perspectives presented in this chapter will have to be used. More often, job design is the systematic and purposeful allocation of tasks to individuals and groups within an organization. One concept is Taylorism, which stresses standardization of tasks, and properly training workers to administer the tasks for which they are responsible. Second is Socio-Technical Systems Approach, a theory that maps the evolution from individual work to work-groups. The organization itself is structured to encourage group autonomy and productivity. Third concept is the Core Characteristics Model which connects job characteristics to the psychological states that the worker brings to the job. It emphasizes designing jobs such that they lead to desired outcomes. 3. Enumerate and discuss at least 4 supply chain strategies. * Many suppliers; play one against another - This strategy has many sources per item, it has adversarial relationships, it is short term, little honesty, bargaining, it has high prices, it’s irregular as well as a delivery to receiving dock. Example for many suppliers is Marks and Spencer’s...
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...Critical Review and Personal Analysis of Scientific Management Introduction Comparing to the economic environment in past decades, in today’s economy, more and more large companies and firms tend to find suitable management methods to regulate and operate their labour forces in consideration of maximizing efficiency and profits. Certainly, without an applicable management method, firms and corporations will lack of dynamic and motive power to operate decently. Taylorism, also known as scientific management, is one of the most well-known and widely applied management method introduced by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the late 18th century, and this theory was peaked in the early 19th century. Taylor argued that the fundamental of seeking wealth for both employers and employees is to have working efficiency and productivity maximized; to reach this working stage, a company is required to manage and operate scientifically rather than empirically. (Wikipedia, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management) In fact, Taylor’s scientific management is criticized by socialists and workers as it only focus on productivity and efficiency and treat workers as ‘machines and animals’, and it is also argued to be the tool of exploitation for capitalists. Indeed, in my opinion, despite the efficiency and productivity advantages that scientific management can generate, its inconsideration of employees personal affects and emotions will not only impair the future of a company, but also...
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...has motivated administrators and students of managerial technique. Taylor was an American manufacturing manager, mechanical engineer, and then a management consultant in his later years. He is often called "The Father of Scientific Management". His approach is also often referred to as Taylor's Four Principles, or Taylorism. Taylor argued that the principal object of management should be to secure the maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for each employee. He argued that the most important object of both the employee and the management should be the training and development of each individual in the establishment, so that he can do the highest class of work for which his natural abilities fit him. Taylor demonstrated that maximum prosperity can exist only as the result of maximum productivity, both for the shop and individual, and rebuked the idea that the fundamental interests of employees and employers are necessarily antagonistic. Taylor described how workers deliberately work slowly, or “soldier”, to protect their interests. According to Taylor, there were three reasons for the inefficiency: First. The fallacy, which has from time immemorial been almost universal among workmen, which a material increase in the output of each man or each machine in the trade would result...
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...are certain practices that are best for any firm seeking a competitive advantage * Despite technology determining job quality to a large extent, it is designed by humans and thus subject to political choice * Two crucial concepts that contribute to job quality are skill and autonomy * Employee involvement, empowerment, commitment and participation are important aspects of job quality * Workplace politics is a large determinant of organisation of jobs, and thus job quality, rather than technology and ‘scientific and politically neutral management’ * Recently there has been a resurgence in the interest in job quality, due to changes in the nature of jobs and fragmentation of the labour market * Some changes in the labour market that have occurred due to this interest in job quality includes; * Expansion of jobs * Dissolution of boundaries * Chris Warhurst argues that it is not possible to form a universally accepted list of job quality indicators * Employee capability is a key consideration in the design of work, as job design can exclude capability of develop it 1. What is the ‘mechanistic’ approach to work design? In your answer refer to Taylorism, scientific management and Fordism. * Humans produce what their means of subsistence by specialising and trading with each other and through the use of technology. This production is aimed to be done so in the most efficient and productive manner due to the economic system of capitalism...
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