UNIT -1 - Introduction to Management

Introduction to Management:
What Would You Do?
Like many students, maybe you’ve worked in the restaurant industry at some time or another. It’s not an easy job. It can be
hot, dirty, and exhausting. Customers can be rude and demanding. And your work experiences, whether in a restaurant or in
some other workplace, are likely to have been influenced by the skills and abilities of your manager. Lisa is a good example
of what today’s successful managers are like and the skills they must have in dealing with the problems and challenges of
managing in the twenty-first century. This book is about the important managerial work that Lisa and the millions of other
managers like her do. The reality facing today’s managers is that the world has changed. In workplaces
of all types—restaurants, offices, retail stores, factories, and the like—managers must deal with changing expectations and
new ways of managing employees and organizing work. In this chapter, we introduce you to managers and management by
looking at why managers are important, who managers are and where they work, and what managers do. Finally, we wrap up
the chapter by looking at the factors reshaping and redefining the manager’s job and discussing why it’s important to study
management.

Why Are Managers Important?

“ . . . A great boss can change your life, inspiring you to new heights both professionally and personally, and energizing you
and your team to together overcome new challenges bigger than any one of you could tackle alone.”2 If you’ve had the
opportunity to work with a manager like this, count yourself lucky. Such a manager can make a job a lot more enjoyable and
productive. However, even managers who don’t live up to such lofty ideals and expectations are important to organizations.
Let’s look at three reasons why. The first reason managers are important is that organizations need their managerial skills
and abilities more than ever in these uncertain, complex, and chaotic times. As organizations deal with today’s challenges—
the worldwide economic climate, changing technology, ever increasing globalization, and so forth—managers play an
important role in identifying critical issues and crafting responses. For example, John Zapp, general manager of several car
dealerships in Oklahoma City, has struggled to keep his businesses afloat and profitable in the current economic
environment, just as many other car dealers have.3 However, after four decades in the car business, Zapp understands that
he’s the one calling the shots and his “call” right now is to focus on selling more used cars. How? By keeping inventory
moving and by keeping his salespeople engaged through small cash payment rewards for hitting sales goals. His skills and
abilities as a manager have been crucial in guiding his organization through these challenging times. Another reason
managers are important to organizations is that they’re critical to getting things done. For instance, in our chapter-opening
story, Lisa wasn’t the person greeting and seating customers, taking their orders, cooking their meals, or preparing a table for
another customer,
but she was the person who creates and coordinates the workplace systems and conditions so that others can perform those
tasks. Although she often pitches in when and where needed, her job as manager is to ensure that all the employees are
getting their jobs done so the organization can do what it’s in business to do. If work isn’t getting done or isn’t getting done
as it should be, she’s also the one who must find out why and get things back on track. Finally, managers do matter to
organizations! How do we know that? The Gallup Organization, which has polled millions of employees and tens of
thousands of managers, has found that the single most important variable in employee productivity and loyalty isn’t pay or
benefits or workplace environment; it’s the quality of the relationship between employees and their direct supervisors.4 In
addition, global consulting firm Towers Watson found that the way a company manages and engages its people can
significantly affect its financial performance.5 Also, a recent study of organizational performance found that managerial
ability was important in creating organizational value.6 What can we conclude from such reports? That managers are
important and they do matter!
Who Are Managers and Where Do They Work?
Managers may not be who or what you might expect! Managers can be under the age of 18 to over age 80. They run large
corporations as well as entrepreneurial start-ups. They’re found in government departments, hospitals, small businesses, not-
for-profit agencies, museums, schools, and even such nontraditional organizations as political campaigns and music tours.
Managers can also be found doing managerial work in every country on the globe. In addition, some managers are top-level
managers while others are first-line managers. And today, managers are just as likely to be women as they are men.
However, the number of women in top-level manager positions remains low—only 27 women were CEOs of major U.S.
corporations in 2010.8 But no matter where managers are found or what gender they are, the fact is . . . managers have
exciting and challenging jobs!

Who Is a Manager?
It used to be fairly simple to define who managers were: They were the organizational members who told others what to do
and how to do it. It was easy to differentiate managers from nonmanagerial employees. Now, it isn’t quite that simple. In
many organizations, the changing nature of work has blurred the distinction between managers and nonmanagerial
employees. Many traditional nonmanagerial jobs now include managerial activities.9 For example, at General Cable
Corporation’s facility in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, managerial responsibilities are shared by managers and team
members. Most of the employees at Moose Jaw are cross-trained and multi-skilled. Within a single shift, an employee can be
a team leader, equipment operator, maintenance technician, quality inspector, or improvement Planner.
So, how do we define who managers are? A manager is someone who coordinates and oversees the work of other people so
that organizational goals can be accomplished. A manager’s job is not about personal achievement—it’s about helping
others do their work. That may mean coordinating the work of a departmental group, or it might mean supervising a single
person. It could involve coordinating the work activities of a team with people from different departments or even people
outside the organization, such as temporary employees or individuals who work for the organization’s suppliers. Keep in
mind, also, that managers may have work duties not related to coordinating and overseeing others’ work. For example, an
insurance claims supervisor might process claims in addition to coordinating the work activities of other claims clerks. Is
there a way to classify managers in organizations? In traditionally structured organizations (which are often pictured as a
pyramid because more employees are at lower organizational levels than at upper organizational levels), managers can be
classified as first-line, middle, or top. (See Exhibit 1-1.)

At the lowest level of management, first-line managers manage the work of nonmanagerial employees who typically are
involved with producing the organization’s products or servicing the organization’s customers. First-line managers may be
called supervisors or even shift managers, district managers, department managers, or office managers. Middle managers
manage the work of first-line managers and can be found between the lowest and top levels of the organization. They may
have titles such as regional manager, project leader, store manager, or division manager. In our chapter-opening dilemma,
Lisa is a middle manager. As the general manager, she’s responsible for how her restaurant performs, but also is one of about
60 general managers company-wide who report to someone at corporate headquarters. At the upper levels of the organization
are the top managers, who are responsible for making organization-wide decisions and establishing the plans and goals that
affect the entire organization. These individuals typically have titles such as executive vice president, president, managing
director, chief operating officer, or chief executive officer.
Not all organizations get work done with a traditional pyramidal form, however. Some organizations, for example, are more
loosely configured with work being done by ever-changing teams of employees who move from one project to another as
work demands arise. Although it’s not as easy to tell who the managers are in these organizations, we do know that someone
must fulfill that role—that is, there must be someone who coordinates and oversees the work of others, even if that
“someone” changes as work tasks or projects change.

Where Do Managers Work?

It’s obvious that managers do their work in organizations. But what is an organization? It’s a deliberate arrangement of
people to accomplish some specific purpose. Your college or university is an organization; so are fraternities and sororities,
government departments, churches, Facebook, your neighborhood grocery store, the United Way, the St. Louis Cardinals
baseball team, and the Mayo Clinic. All are considered organizations and have three common characteristics. (See Exhibit 1-
2.)

First, an organization has a distinct purpose. This purpose is typically expressed through goals that the organization hopes to
accomplish. Second, each organization is composed of people. It takes people to perform the work that’s necessary for the
organization to achieve its goals. Third, all organizations develop some deliberate structure within which members do their
work. That structure may be open and flexible, with no specific job duties or strict adherence to explicit job arrangements.
For instance, at Google, most big projects, of which there are hundreds going on at the same time, are tackled by small
focused employee teams that set up in an instant and complete work just as quickly.11 Or the structure may be more
traditional—like that of Procter & Gamble or General Electric—with clearly defined rules, regulations, job descriptions, and
some members identified as “bosses” who have authority over other members. Many of today’s organizations are structured
more like Google, with flexible work arrangements, employee work teams, open communication systems, and supplier
alliances. In these organizations, work is defined in terms of tasks to be done. And workdays have no time boundaries since
work can—and is—done anywhere, anytime.

What Do Managers Do?

Simply speaking, management is what managers do. But that simple statement doesn’t tell us much, does it? Let’s look first
at what management is before discussing more specifically what managers do.
Management involves coordinating and overseeing the work activities of others so that their activities are completed
efficiently and effectively. We already know that coordinating and overseeing the work of others is what distinguishes a
managerial position from a nonmanagerial one. However, this doesn’t mean that managers can do what they want anytime,
anywhere, or in any way. Instead, management involves ensuring that work activities are completed efficiently and
effectively by the people responsible for doing them, or at least that’s what managers aspire to do.

Efficiency refers to getting the most output from the least amount of inputs. Because managers deal with scarce inputs—
including resources such as people, money, and equipment—they’re concerned with the efficient use of those resources. It’s
often referred to as “doing things right”—that is, not wasting resources. For instance, at the HON Company plant in
Cedartown, Georgia, where employees make and assemble office furniture, efficient manufacturing techniques were
implemented by doing things such as cutting inventory levels, decreasing the amount of time to manufacture products, and
lowering product reject rates. These efficient work practices paid off as the plant reduced costs by more than $7 million in
one year.13 It’s not enough, however, just to be efficient. Management is also concerned with being effective, completing
activities so that organizational goals are attained.

Effectiveness is often described as “doing the right things”—that is, doing those work activities that will help the
organization reach its goals. For instance, at the HON factory, goals included meeting customers’ rigorous demands,
executing world-class manufacturing strategies, and making employee jobs easier and safer. Through various work
initiatives, these goals were pursued and achieved. Whereas efficiency is concerned with the means of getting things done,
effectiveness is concerned with the ends, or attainment of organizational goals (see Exhibit 1-3).

In successful organizations, high efficiency and high effectiveness typically go hand in hand. Poor management (which leads
to poor performance) usually involves being inefficient and ineffective or being effective, but inefficient. Now let’s take a
more detailed look at what managers do. Describing what managers do isn’t easy. Just as no two organizations are alike, no
two managers’ jobs are alike. In spite of this, management researchers have developed three approaches to describe what
managers do: functions, roles, and skills.

Management Functions
According to the functions approach, managers perform certain activities or functions as they efficiently and effectively
coordinate the work of others. What are these functions?
POSDCORB is an acronym which means Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting and Budgeting
which was first coined in a paper on administrative management that was written for the Brownlow Committee by Luther
Gulick and Lyndall Urwick. POSDCORB can be used as a systematic framework for efficiently executing business
processes in a company or by an individual.
Steps of POSDCORB
As we have already understood that POSDCORB is a series of steps for management, we need to understand these steps.
These are various steps or stages involved in a typical administrative process. POSDCORB can be explained sequentially in
detail below:
1.Planning

This essentially refers to establishing a broad sketch of the work to be completed and the
procedures incorporated to implement them. Planning is the first and most important step in POSDCORB as it sets the
overall structure of the process with activities and timelines.
2.Organizing
Organizing involves formally classifying, defining and synchronizing the various sub-processes or subdivisions of the work
to be done. It makes sure that the activities and timelines in the first step of planning are refined and organized further so
that right people can be staffed to execute these tasks.
3.Staffing
This involves recruiting and selecting the right candidates for the job and facilitating their orientation and training while
maintaining a favorable work environment.
4.Directing
This entails decision making and delegating structured instructions and orders to execute them. Directing is an important step
in the POSDCORB cycle as it makes thing happen by giving clear objectives to teams and individuals.
5.Coordinating
This basically refers to orchestrating and interlinking the various components of the work.
6.Reporting
Reporting involves regularly updating the superior about the progress or the work related activities. The information
dissemination can be through records or inspection.
7.Budgeting
Budgeting involves all the activities that under Auditing, Accounting, Fiscal Planning and Control.

Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles and a Contemporary Model of Managing

Henry Mintzberg, a well-known management researcher, studied actual managers at work. In his first comprehensive study,
Mintzberg concluded that what managers do can best be described by looking at the managerial roles they engage in at
work.16 The term managerial roles refers to specific actions or behaviors expected of and exhibited by a manager. (Think
of the different roles you play—such as student, employee, student organization member, volunteer, sibling, and so forth—
and the different things you’re expected to do in these roles.) When describing what managers do from a roles perspective,
we’re not looking at a specific person per se, but at the expectations and responsibilities that are associated with being the
person in that role—the role of a manager. As shown in Exhibit 1-5, these 10 roles are grouped around interpersonal
relationships, the transfer of information, and decision making. The interpersonal roles are ones that involve people
(subordinates and persons outside the organization) and other duties that are ceremonial and symbolic in nature. The three
interpersonal roles include figurehead, leader, and liaison. The informational roles involve collecting, receiving, and
disseminating information. The three informational roles include monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson. Finally, the
decisional roles entail making decisions or choices. The four decisional roles include entrepreneur, disturbance handler,
resource allocator, and negotiator.

As managers perform these roles, Mintzberg proposed that their activities included both reflection (thinking) and action
(doing).18 Our manager in the chapter opener would do both as she manages. For instance, reflection would occur when
Lisa listens to employees’ or customers’ problems, while action would occur when she resolves those problems.

Management Skills
Dell Inc. is a company that understands the importance of management skills.24 It started an intensive five-day offsite skills
training program for first-line managers as a way to improve its operations. One of Dell’s directors of learning and
development thought this was the best way to develop “leaders who can build that strong relationship with their front-line
employees.” What have the supervisors learned from the skills training? Some things they mentioned were how to
communicate more effectively and how to refrain from jumping to conclusions when discussing a problem with a worker.
What types of skills do managers need? Robert L. Katz proposed that managers need three critical skills in managing:
technical, human, and conceptual.25 (Exhibit 1-6 shows the relationships of these skills to managerial levels.)
Technical skills are the job specific knowledge and techniques needed to proficiently perform work tasks. These skills tend
to be more important for first-line managers because they typically are managing employees who use tools and techniques to
produce the organization’s products or service the organization’s customers. Often, employees with excellent technical skills
get promoted to first-line manager. For example, Mark Ryan of Verizon Communications manages almost 100 technicians
who service half a million of the company’s customers. Before becoming a manager, however, Ryan was a telephone
lineman. He says, “The technical side of the business is important, but managing people and rewarding and recognizing the
people who do an outstanding job is how we (Verizon) are going to succeed.”26 Ryan is a manager who has technical skills,
but also recognizes the importance of human skills, which involve the ability to work well with other people both
individually and in a group. Because all managers deal with people, these skills are equally important to all levels of
management. Managers with good human skills get the best out of their people. They know how to communicate, motivate,
lead, and inspire enthusiasm and trust. Finally, conceptual skills are the skills managers use to think and to conceptualize
about abstract and complex situations. Using these skills, managers see the organization as a whole, understand the
relationships among various subunits, and visualize how the organization fits into its broader environment. These skills are
most important to top managers. Other important managerial skills that have been identified are listed in Exhibit 1-7.

In today’s demanding and dynamic workplace, employees who want to be valuable assets must constantly upgrade their
skills, and developing management skills can be particularly beneficial in today’s workplace. We feel that understanding and
developing management skills is so important that we’ve included a skills feature at the end of each chapter. (The one in this
chapter looks at developing your political skill.) In addition, you’ll find other material on skill building as well as several
interactive skills exercises in our my management lab. As you study the four management functions throughout the rest of
the book, you’ll be able to start developing some key management skills. Although a simple skill-building exercise won’t
make you an instant expert, it can provide you an introductory understanding of some of the skills you’ll need to master in
order to be an effective manager.

How Is the Manager’s Job Changing?

“At Best Buy’s headquarters, more than 60 percent of the 4,000 employees are now judged only on tasks or results. Salaried
people put in as much time as it takes to do their work. Those employees report better relationships with family and friends,
more company loyalty, and more focus and energy. Productivity has increased by 35 percent. Employees say they don’t
know whether they work fewer hours—they’ve stopped counting. Perhaps more important, they’re finding new ways to
become efficient.”27 Welcome to the new world of managing! In today’s world, managers are dealing with global economic
and political uncertainties, changing workplaces, ethical issues, security threats, and changing technology. For example,

Dave Maney, the top manager of Headwaters MB, a Denver-based investment bank, had to fashion a new game plan during
the recession. When the company’s board of directors gave senior management complete freedom to ensure the company’s
survival, they made a bold move. All but seven key employees were laid off. Although this doesn’t sound very responsible
or resourceful, it invited those laid off employees to form independent member firms.

Now, Headwaters steers investment transactions to those firms, while keeping a small percentage for itself. The
“restructuring drastically reduced fixed costs and also freed management to do more marketing, rather than day-to-day
investment banking transactions.” As Maney said, “It was a good strategy for us and positioned us for the future.”28 It’s
likely that more managers will have to manage under such demanding circumstances, and the fact is that how managers
manage is changing. Exhibit 1 8 shows some of the most important changes facing managers. Throughout the rest of this
book, we’ll be discussing these and other changes and how they’re affecting the way managers plan, organize, lead, and
control. We want to highlight three of these changes: the increasing importance of customers, innovation, and sustainability.

Importance of Customers to the Manager’s Job

John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, likes to listen to voice mails forwarded to him from dissatisfied customers. He says,
“E-mail would be more efficient, but I want to hear the emotion, I want to hear the frustration, I want to hear the caller’s
level of comfort with the strategy we’re employing. I can’t get that through e-mail.”29 This manager understands the
importance of customers. You need customers. Without them, most organizations would cease to exist. Yet, focusing on the
customer has long been thought to be the responsibility of marketing types. “Let the marketers worry about the customers” is
how many managers felt. We’re discovering, however, that employee attitudes and behaviors play a big role in customer
satisfaction. For instance, passengers of Qantas Airways were asked to rate their “essential needs” in air travel. Almost every
factor listed was one directly influenced by the actions of company employees—from prompt baggage delivery, to courteous
and efficient cabin crews, to assistance with connections, to quick and friendly check-ins.

Why Study Management?

You may be wondering why you need to study management. If you’re majoring in accounting or marketing or any field
other than management, you may not understand how studying management is going to help you in your career. We can
explain the value of studying management by looking at three things: the universality of management, the reality of work,
and the rewards and challenges of being a manager.

Management is universally needed in all organizations, so we want to find ways to improve the way organizations are
managed. Why? Because we interact with organizations every single day. Are you frustrated when you have to spend two
hours in a state government office to get your driver’s license renewed? Are you irritated when none of the salespeople in a
retail store seems interested in helping you? Is it annoying when you call an airline three times and customer sales
representatives quote you three different prices for the same trip? These examples show problems created by poor
management. Organizations that are well managed—and we’ll share many examples of these throughout the text— develop
a loyal customer base, grow, and prosper, even during challenging times. Those that are poorly managed find themselves
losing customers and revenues. By studying management, you’ll be able to recognize poor management and work to get it
corrected. In addition, you’ll be able to recognize and support good management, whether it’s in an organization with which
you’re simply interacting or whether it’s in an organization in which you’re employed.

Rewards and Challenges of Being a Manager

Early Management
Management has been practiced a long time. Organized endeavours directed by people responsible for planning, organizing,
leading, and controlling activities have existed for thousands of years.

Classical Approach
Although we’ve seen how management has been used in organized efforts since early history, the formal study of
management didn’t begin until early in the twentieth century. These first studies of management, often called the classical
approach, emphasized rationality and making organizations and workers as efficient as possible. Two major theories
comprise the classical approach: scientific management and general administrative theory. The two most important
contributors to scientific management theory were Frederick W. Taylor and the husband-wife team of Frank and Lillian
Gilbreth. The two most important contributors to general administrative theory were Henri Fayol and Max Weber. Let’s take
a look at each of these important figures in management history.
How today’s managers use scientific management
Many of the guidelines and techniques that Taylor and the Gilbreths devised for improving production efficiency are still
used in organizations today. When managers analyse the basic work tasks that must be performed, use time-and-motion
study to eliminate wasted motions, hire the best-qualified workers for a job, or design incentive systems based on output,
they’re using the principles of scientific management.

General administrative theory focused more on what managers do and what constituted good management
practice. We introduced Henri Fayol in Chapter 1 because he first identified five functions that managers perform: planning,
organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling.5 Fayol wrote during the same time period as Taylor. While Taylor
was concerned with first-line managers and the scientific method, Fayol’s attention was directed at the activities of all
managers. He wrote from his personal experience as the managing director of a large French coal-mining firm. Fayol
described the practice of management as something distinct from accounting, finance, production, distribution, and other
typical business functions. His belief that management was an activity common to all business endeavours, government, and
even the home led him to develop

14 principles of management—fundamental rules of management that could be applied to all organizational

situations and taught in schools. These principles are shown in Exhibit MH-3.

Weber (pronounced VAY-ber) was a German sociologist who studied organizations. Writing in the early 1900s, he
developed a theory of authority structures and relations based on an ideal type of organization he called a bureaucracy—a
form of organization characterized by division of labor, a clearly defined hierarchy, detailed rules and regulations, and
impersonal relationships. (See Exhibit MH-4.) Weber recognized that this “ideal bureaucracy” didn’t exist in reality. Instead
he intended it as a basis for theorizing about how work could be done in large groups. His theory became the structural
design for many of today’s large organizations. Bureaucracy, as described by Weber, is a lot like scientific management in
its ideology. Both emphasized rationality, predictability, impersonality, technical competence, and authoritarianism.
Although Weber’s ideas were less practical than Taylor’s, the fact that his “ideal type” still describes many contemporary
organizations attests to their importance.

How today’s managers use general administrative theory

Several of our current management ideas and practices can be directly traced to the contributions of general administrative
theory. For instance, the functional view of the manager’s job can be attributed to Fayol. In addition, his 14 principles serve
as a frame of reference from which many current management concepts—such as managerial authority, centralized decision
making, reporting to only one boss, and so forth—have evolved. Weber’s bureaucracy was an attempt to formulate an ideal
prototype for organizations.
Although many characteristics of Weber’s bureaucracy are still evident in large organizations, his model isn’t as popular
today as it was in the twentieth century. Many managers feel that a bureaucratic structure hinders individual employees’
creativity

and limits an organization’s ability to respond quickly to an increasingly dynamic environment. However, even in flexible
organizations of creative professionals such as Microsoft, Samsung, General Electric, or Cisco Systems—some bureaucratic
mechanisms are necessary to ensure that resources are used efficiently and effectively.

Behavioral Approach
As we know, managers get things done by working with people. This explains why some writers have chosen to look at
management by focusing on the organization’s people. The field of study that researches the actions (behavior) of people at
work is called organizational behavior (OB). Much of what managers do today when managing people—motivating,
leading, building trust, working with a team, managing conflict, and so forth—has come out of OB research.

Hawthorne Studies, a series of studies conducted at the Western Electric Company Works in Cicero, Illinois. These
studies, which started in 1924, were initially designed by Western Electric industrial engineers as a scientific management
experiment. They wanted to examine the effect of various lighting levels on worker productivity. Like any good scientific
experiment, control and experimental groups were set up with the experimental group being exposed to various lighting
intensities, and the control group working under a constant intensity. If you were the industrial engineers in charge of this
experiment, what would you have expected to happen? It’s logical to think that individual output in the experimental group
would be directly related to the intensity of the light. However, they found that as the level of light was increased in the
experimental group, output for both groups increased. Then, much to the surprise of the engineers, as the light level was
decreased in the experimental group, productivity continued to increase in both groups. In fact, a productivity decrease was
observed in the experimental group only when the level of light was reduced to that of a moonlit night. What would explain
these unexpected results? The engineers weren’t sure, but concluded that lighting intensity was not directly related to group
productivity, and that something else must have contributed to the results. They weren’t able to pinpoint what that
“something else” was, though.
How today’s managers use the behavioral approach
The behavioral approach has largely shaped how today’s organizations are managed. From the way that managers design
jobs to the way that they work with employee teams to the way that they communicate, we see elements of the behavioral
approach. Much of what the early OB advocates proposed and the conclusions from the Hawthorne studies have provided
the foundation for our current theories of motivation, leadership, group behavior and development, and numerous other
behavioral approaches.

Quantitative Approach
Although passengers bumping into each other when trying to find their seats on an airplane can be a mild annoyance for
them, it’s a bigger problem for airlines because lines get backed up, slowing down how quickly the plane can get back in the
air. Based on research in space time geometry, one airline innovated a unique boarding process called “reverse pyramid” that
has saved at least 2 minutes in boarding time.9 This is an example of the quantitative approach, which is the use of
quantitative techniques to improve decision making. This approach also is known as management science.

A quality revolution swept through both the business and public sectors in the 1980s and 1990s.10 It was inspired by a small
group of quality experts, the most famous being W. Edwards Deming (pictured at right) and Joseph M. Juran. The ideas and
techniques they advocated in the 1950s had few supporters in the United States but were enthusiastically embraced by
Japanese organizations. As Japanese manufacturers began beating U.S. competitors in quality comparisons, however,
Western managers soon took a more serious look at Deming’s and Juran’s ideas . . . ideas that became the basis for today’s
quality management programs.

Total quality management, or TQM, is a management philosophy devoted to continual improvement and
responding to customer needs and expectations. (See Exhibit MH-6.) The term customer includes anyone who interacts with
the organization’s product or services internally or externally. It encompasses employees and suppliers as well as the people
who purchase the organization’s goods or services. Continual improvement isn’t possible without accurate measurements,
which require statistical techniques that measure every critical variable in the organization’s work processes. These
measurements are compared against standards to identify and correct problems.
Contemporary Approaches
As we’ve seen, many elements of the earlier approaches to management theory continue to influence how managers manage.
Most of these earlier approaches focused on managers ‘concerns inside the organization. Starting in the 1960s, management
researchers began to look at what was happening in the external environment outside the boundaries of the organization.
Two contemporary management perspectives—systems and contingency—are part of this approach.

Systems theory is a basic theory in the physical sciences, but had never been applied to organized human efforts. In 1938,
Chester Barnard, a telephone company executive, first wrote in his book, The Functions of an Executive, that an organization
functioned as a cooperative system. However, it wasn’t until the 1960s that management researchers began to look more
carefully at systems theory and how it related to organizations. A system is a set of interrelated and interdependent parts
arranged in a manner that produces a unified whole. The two basic types of systems are closed and open. Closed systems are
not influenced by and do not interact with their environment.
In contrast, open systems are influenced by and do interact with their environment. Today, when we describe organizations
as systems, we mean open systems. Exhibit MH-7 shows a diagram of an organization from an open systems perspective. As
you can see, an organization takes in inputs (resources) from the environment and transforms or processes these resources
into outputs that are distributed into the environment. The organization is “open” to and interacts with its environment.
How does the systems approach contribute to our understanding of management? Researchers envisioned an organization as
being made up of “interdependent factors, including individuals, groups, attitudes, motives, formal structure,
Interactions, goals, status, and authority.”12 What this means is that as managers coordinate work activities in the various
parts of the organization, they ensure that all these parts are working together so the organization’s goals can be achieved.
For Example, the systems approach recognizes that, no matter how efficient the production department might be, the
marketing department must anticipate changes in customer tastes and work with the product development department in
creating products customers want or the organization’s overall performance will suffer.
How relevant is the systems approach to management? Quite relevant. Consider, for example, a shift manager at a Starbucks
restaurant who must coordinate the work of employees filling customer orders at the front counter and the drive-through
windows, direct the delivery and unloading of food supplies, and address any customer concerns that come up. This manager
“manages” all parts of the “system” so that the restaurant meets its daily sales goals.
The early management theorists came up with management principles that they generally assumed to be universally
applicable. Later research found exceptions to many of these principles. For example, division of labor is valuable and
widely used, but jobs can become too specialized. Bureaucracy is desirable in many situations, but in other circumstances,
other structural designs are more effective. Management is not (and cannot be) based on simplistic principles to be applied in
all situations. Different and changing situations require managers to use different approaches and techniques. The
contingency approach (sometimes called the situational approach) says that organizations are different, face different
situations (contingencies), and require different ways of managing.
A good way to describe contingency is “if, then.” If this is the way my situation is, then this is the best way for me to
manage in this situation. It’s intuitively logical because organizations and even units within the same organization differ—in
size, goals, work activities, and the like. It would be surprising to find universally applicable management rules that would
work in all situations. But, of course, it’s one thing to say that the way to manage “depends researchers continue working to
identify these situational variables. Exhibit MH-8 describes four popular contingency variables. Although the list is by no
means comprehensive—more than 100 different variables have been identified—it represents those most widely used and
gives you an idea of what we mean by the term contingency variable. The primary value of the contingency approach is that
it stresses there are no simplistic or universal rules for managers to follow.
So what do managers face today when managing? Although the dawn of the information age is said to have begun with
Samuel Morse’s telegraph in 1837, the most dramatic changes in information technology have occurred in the latter part of
the twentieth century and have directly affected the manager’s job. Managers now may manage employees who are working
from home or working halfway around the world. An organization’s computing resources used to be mainframe computers
locked away in temperature-controlled rooms and only accessed by the experts. Now, practically everyone in an organization
is connected—wired or wireless—with devices no larger than the palm of the hand. Just like the impact of the Industrial
Revolution in the 1700s on the emergence of management, the information age has brought dramatic changes that continue
to influence the way organizations are managed.

CHAPTER SUMMARY
• Describe some early management examples.
• Studying history is important because it helps us see the origins of today’s management practices and recognize
what has and has not worked. We can see early examples of management practice in the construction of the Egyptian
pyramids and in the arsenal of Venice. One important historical event was the publication of Adam Smith’s Wealth of
Nations, in which he argued the benefits of division of labor (job specialization). Another was the industrial revolution
where it became more economical to manufacture in factories than at home. Managers were needed to manage these
factories and these managers needed formal management theories to guide them.

• Explain the various theories in the classical approach.

• Frederick W. Taylor, known as the “father” of scientific management, studied manual work using scientific
principles—that is, guidelines for improving production efficiency—to find the one best way to do those jobs. The Gilbreths’
primary contribution was finding efficient hand-and-body motions and designing proper tools and equipment for optimizing
work performance. Fayol believed that the functions of management were common to all business endeavors but also were
distinct from other business functions. He developed 14 principles of management from which many current management
concepts have evolved. Weber described an ideal type of organization he called a bureaucracy, characteristics that many of
today’s large organizations still have. Today’s managers use the concepts of scientific management when they analyze basic
work tasks to be performed, use time-and-motion study to eliminate wasted motions, hire the best qualified workers for a
job, and design incentive systems based on output. They use general administrative theory when they perform the functions
of management and structure their organizations so that resources are used efficiently and effectively.

• Discuss the development and uses of the behavioral approach.

• The early OB advocates (Robert Owen, Hugo Munsterberg, Mary Parker Follett, and Chester Barnard) contributed
various ideas, but all believed that people were the most important asset of the organization and should be managed
accordingly. The Hawthorne Studies dramatically affected management beliefs about the role of people in organizations,
leading to a new emphasis on the human behavior factor in managing. The behavioral approach has largely shaped how
today’s organizations are managed. Many current theories of motivation, leadership, group behavior and development, and
other behavioral issues can be traced to the early OB advocates and the conclusions from the Hawthorne Studies.

• Describe the quantitative approach.

• The quantitative approach involves applications of statistics, optimization models, information models, and
computer simulations to management activities. Today’s managers use the quantitative approach, especially when making
decisions, as they plan and control work activities such as allocating resources, improving quality, scheduling work, or
determining optimum inventory levels. Total quality management—a management philosophy devoted to continual
improvement and responding to customer needs and expectations— also makes use of quantitative methods to meet its goals.

• Explain the various theories in the contemporary approach.

• The systems approach says that an organization takes in inputs (resources) from the environment and transforms or
processes these resources into outputs that are distributed into the environment. This approach provides a framework to help
managers understand.