Genesis of Modern Management Practices
Genesis of Modern Management Practices
(Lesson Structure)
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Scientific Management
2.3 Human Relations Approach
2.4 Systems Approach to Management
2.5 Summary
2.6 Questions for Exercise
2.0 Objective
This lesson traces the origin of modern management practices. Students can learn
about various aspects of scientific management including management thought of Robert
Owen, Charles Babbage and F.W. Taylor. The principlal objective of this lesson is to highlight
human relations approach and systems approach to management.
2.1 Introduction
The principles of management as in the case of other disciplines, have their impact on
the practice of management. The nature of management principles include: universal
applicability, dynamism, relative but not absolute limits due to human behaviour and the like.
A number of practitioners, thinkers and academicians of management have contributed to
the formation and development of management principles, thought and approaches.
The importance of organisation and administration in the bureaucratic states of antiquity
was manifest in the interpretations of early Egyptian papyri, extending as far back as 1300
B.C. The same kind of records exist for ancient China. Practical suggestions for proper public
administration and admomitions to choose honest, unselfish and capable publice officers
were included in Confucius' parables.
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Even though the records of eary Greece and Rome do not offer much insight into the
principles of management, existence of Athenian Commonwealth and the Roman Catholic
Church indicates a consideration of management principles and functions.
In military organisations too, principles of management have been considered. Although
certain important principles have been applied in recent times, several others were considered
long back in militar organisations.
Public administrations also considered several management principles for
administering the people properly.
The study of theories is more important as they guide management decisions, they
shape our organisation, make us aware of the business environment and are a source of
new ideas.
Now, we shall study these theories in order in know how the management thought is
developed, principles of management are evolved and different approaches to management
are designed. The first among the management theories is scientific management.
Robert Owen :
Robert Owen, who was the manager of different cotton textile mills between 1800 and
1828, was the first person to pay attention to labour welfare. He suggested a change in the
attitude of industgrialists towards workers. He worked up to his maximum possible extent for
the amelioration of working conditions of workers and thereby tried to win over their confidence.
He stated that men should not be treated as secondary and inferior to machines.
Charles Babbage :
Besides Robert Owen, there were some scientists who though of making improvement
in the management by observing the scientific techniques. Prominent among them was
Charles Babbage, a leading British mathematician at Cambridge University from 1828-1839.
He studied the working conditions of factories in England and France and observed that
most of the factory class used to work on the basis of estimates and imagination. They were
tradition-oriented rather tan scientific-minded. Two pioneering works of Babbage are The
Differential Engine and On the Economy of Machinery and Manufacturers. He stated that the
methods of sicence and mathematics could be applied to the solution of the factory's problems.
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Contribution of Babbage :
• Babbage stressed that good machines and efficient workers do not inevitably
ensure success in business. Good management that directs and controls machines
and workers is the most crucial element in successful business.
• He advocated, like Adam Smith, the principle of division of labour. He also
suggested the use of time study techniques.
• Babbage conceived an analytical machine as far back as 1833 which was a
forerunner of today's digital computer. So he was a visionary much ahead of time.
• He considered all aspects of contemporary management thinking-mutuality of
interest between employees and employer, production, incentive pay, quality control,
wage and salary administration, profit sharing, operations research, preventive
maintenance and research and development.
It is rightly stated "He wrote a premiere of management before the world is able to
read it and he invented the computer before its time."
Mcfarland indicates: "To Babbage goes the credit for advocating in relation to industrial
problems in fundamental thinking which proceded the formulation of a science of management."
Hence othe background for the formulation of the science of management was provided
initially by Charles Babbage. Afterwards, credit has been given to F.W.Taylor for enunciating
the area of scientific management.
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his uncompromising nature and this led to the termination of this services unceremoniously.
After leaving Bethleman in 1901, he wrote his pioneering work 'Shop Management'. Besides
this, he wrote several other books and among them the pioneering work was Principles and
Methods of Scientific Management (1911).
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Henry L. Gnatt :
Henry L.Gnatt (1861-1919) had worked on several projects jointly with F.W.Taylor. He
had modified Taylor's incentive system when he worked independently. He abandoned the
differential reate system as having too little motivational impact, introduced 50% bonus to
those workers who could complete a day's work. He also introduced bonus to the supervisors
for each worker who could compleate a day's work and additionaal bonus, if all the workers
reached it, with a view to enable the supervisors to train their workers to do a better job. Gnatt
also built upon Ownen's idea of rating an employee's work publicity.
The Glibreths :
Frank B.Gilbreth (1868-1924) and Lillian M.Gilberth (1878-1972) made their
contributions to the scientific management movement as a husband and wife team. Although
both of them collaborated on fatigue and motion studies, Lillian also focused on ways of
promoting the individual workers' welfare. According to her, the ultimate aim of scientific
management was to help workers reach their full potential as human beings. According to
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them, a worker would do his/her present job, prepare fo the next highest job and train his/her
successor, all at the same time. Thus every worker would always be a doer, a learner and a
teacher.
The developments in the scientific management approach and principles led to the
development of administrative management. Now. we shall discuss the contributions to
administrative management.
Hawthorne Expreriments :
An intensive and systematic analysis of human factor was made in the form of
Hawthonre Experiments. Elton Mayo is generally recognised as the father of human relations
approach although a number of professors of the Harvard Business School and managers of
Hawthrone Plant of Western Electric Company USA where the experiments were conducted
between 1924 and 1933 had been associated with him. The series of experiments conducted
may be classified as:
1. Phase-1. Illumination Experiments
This experiment was conducted to know the impact of illumination on productivity. The
experiment invlved the proplonged observation of two groups of employees making telephone
relays. The intensity of light under which one group worked (test group) systematically varied
while the light was held constant for the second group (control group). The productivity of the
test group and control group increased. The researchers concluded that some other variables
were contaminating the effect of the light changes.
2. Phase-2. Relay Assembly Test Group
A small group of workers was placed in a separate room and a number of variables
were latered-like wages were increased, rest periods of varying lengths were introduced, the
workday and work week were shortened. The supervisors, who acted as observers, also
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allowed the groups to choose their own rest periods and members of their own groups and to
involve in decision making regarding suggested changes. Performance tended to increase
over the period but it aslo increased and decreaed erratically.
3. Phase-3. Interviewing Programme
Mayo initated a three year long interviewing programme in 1828, covering more than
21,000 employees to find out th ecauses for increased productivity. The emphasis of this
phase was on human relations rather than on working conditions. This programme initially
proved to be useless as employees often gave stereotyped responses. This led the interviews
towards asking indirect questions. Then the employees began to air their feelings freely. The
point demonstrated by this interviewing programme is central to the human relations approach.
And for the first time, the importance of the informal work group is recognised. Then, the bank
wiring room experiment was set up in order to find out h ow informal work groups operate.
4. Phase-4. The Bank Wiring Observation Room Experiment (1931-32)
In this experiment, 14 male workers formed into a work group and intensively observed
for seven months in the bank wiring room, engaged in the assembly of terminal banks for the
use in telephone exchanges. The employees were paid individual wages and a bonus based
on group effort. It was expected that highly efficient workers would bring pressure on others
for increased output and high bonus. However, the expected results did not come about an
indeed the group developed specific mechanisms to protect themselves based on certain
sentiments:
The rate buster sentiment : don't turn out too much work
The chiseler sentiment : don't turn out little work.
The squealer sentiment : don't tell superiors anyting that owuld harm an associate.
The officious sentiment : don't act too officious in performing duties, conform
rather to work group norms.
Work group norms, beliefs, sentiments had a greater impact in influencing individual
behaviour than did the monetary incentives offered by the management. Thus, the Hawthorne
Experiments indicated that employees were not only economic beings but social and
psychological beings as well.
The researchers concluded that employees would work better had they believed that
the management was concerned about their welfare and supervisors paid special attention
to them. This phenomenon (subsequently labelled the Hawthorne effect), has remained quite
controversial to this day.
The conceptual social man, according to Mayo, motivated by social needs, wanting,
rewarding, on-the-job relationships and responding more to work-group pressures than to
management control - was necessary to complement the old concept of rational man motivated
by personal economic needs.
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Basic Model :
The humanistic approac is based on two assumptions viz. (i) the organisation is a
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system designed to produce or distribute a product of a service at a reasonable price and (ii)
the organisation is a social system through which individuals try to find expression for their
needs, goals and aspirations. The basic model for this approach should be employer
participation, job satisfaction and increased productivity.
The Individual: According to the neoclassical theory, individual behaviour is affected
by feelings, sentiments and attitudes. An individual is motivated not only by economic factors
but also by social factors. Due consideration should be given to economic and socail factors
in motivating employees.
The Work Group: The social group is the centre of focus fo human relations studies.
The Hawthorne studies proved that the informal work groups exert tremendous influence over
workers' behaviour patterns. Work is a social interaction, where workers are more satisfied
as members in a social group.
The Organisation and the Work Enviroment: An industrial organisation is a techno-
economic and social system. Hence it necessary to understand rational as well as non-rational
and formal as well as informal aspects and the work environment of an organisation. Posivite
work environments are characterized by factors like: clearly stated goals, incentives to improve
performance, performance feedback, employee involvement in decision making, rules to the
minimu, extent, interesting and challening work and the like.
The leader: The leader has to use all types of resources including human resources
in the process of attaining organisational goals. Proper utilisation of human resources enables
the leader to achieve these goals effectively. A leader can contribute significantly for high
productivity by creating a conducive and free-work environment.
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2.5 Summary
Contingency Apporach :
Contigency approach is also called situational apporach. This approach was
developed by managers, consultants and researchers who tried to apply the concepts of the
major schools to real life situations. They sought to know the causes for the success of methods
in one situation and failure in another situation. Advocates of this approach answered that
results differ sitations differ, as such a technique that works effectively in one situation will not
necessarily work in all cases. Hence managers have to identify the techninque which will best
contribute to the attainment of the management's goal in a particular situation, under particular
circumstances and a particular time. Classical theoriests suggest work implication for increase
in productivity whereas behavioural scientists suggest jo enrichment. But the manager under
contingency apporach shoulld find out which method will work better in that particular situation.
This approach builds upon systems approach. The composition of a particular situation or
system will help to kno technique best suited to that particular situation or system.
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salary administration, creating conducive work environment, providing challenging job and
maintaining sound industrial result in the empoyee contribution for achievement of
organizational goals.
Management Science Approach :
Science is a systematically organized body of knowledge based on proper findings
and exact principles and is capable of verification and general application. Science is
systematic in the sense that certain relationships between variables have been ascertained,
priciples and their limitations have been discovered, tested and establised. Facts are
determined based on events or things observed initially with the help of scientific methods.
The accuracy of the facts are verified through observations on a continuous basis. Thus, the
knowledge obtained must be verifiable in scientific method. Any subject to be called science
must have the following characteristics:
1. Systematic body of knowledge
2. Method of scientific enquiry
3. Should establish cause and effect relationship
4. Principles should be verifiable
5. Should ensure predictable results
6. Should have universal application.
Management has a systematized body of knowledge pretaining to its field. The
scientific character of management is well supported by mathematial models and operations
research. A manager can slo take appropriate decisions based on science like any scientist.
The principles underlying time and motion studies, market research, morale, motivation,
job satisfaction etc. are developed based on scientific enquiry. Many management principles
like planning, direction, organisation, motivation, morale etc., esablish cause and effect
relationship. Management principles like unity of comman, span of control and unity of direction
can be verifiable. Those in the category of job satisfaction, morale and job enrichment ensure
predicable results. Almost all the management principles are universally applicable.
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6. What are the contributions Elton Mayo's experiments towards Human Relations
Approach?
7. What are the contributions of Human Relations Approach towards management
thought?
8. What are the criticims against human relations apporach?
9. What is Systems Approach to management?
10. What are the key concepts and features of Systems Apporach to Management?
11. What is the contribution of contingency approach to management thought?
12. What is the contribution of human resource management approach to
management thought?
13. What is the contribution of management science apporach to management
thought?
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