GOVERNMENT COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING KANNUR

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

6th SEMESTER ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONICS ENGG. 2021 Admsn

HUT 310: MANAGEMENT FOR ENGINEERS

MODULE 1:
INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT THEORY
PART 02
References:
1. H. Koontz, H. Weihrich, Essentials of Management, Tata McGraw Hill, 10th Ed.
2. O. P. Khanna, Industrial Engineering and Management, Dhanpat Rai & Sons, 1991.
3. R. L. Daft, New Era Management, 11th Ed., Cengage
4. H. Weirich, M. V. Cannice and H. Koontz, Management: A Global, Innovative and
Entrepreneurial Perspective, McGraw Hill Education, 14th Edition
5. J. P. Mahajan, Management, Theory and Practices, Ane Books, ND, 2011.
6. L. J. Krajewski, M. K. Malhotra, L. P. Ritzman and S. K. Srivastava, Operations
Management, Pearson, 11th Ed.
7. Rajesh Kumar R, Principles of Management, Jothis Publications, Kochi, 2017.
8. B. R. Mishra, Management Principles and Application, DDCE Utkal.
9. M. Mahajan, Industrial Engineering and Production Management, Dhanpat Rai &Co.
10. OpenStax, Principles of Management, Rice University, Texas
11. M. Carpenter, T. Bauer, B. Erdogan, Management Principles, Creative Commons.

MANAGERIAL GRID:
Managerial Grid Model helps to identify how the managers behave with their concern for production
and people.
Managerial Grid Model is based on two behavioral dimensions:
- Concern for people and
- Concern for production.
The two dimensions of leadership are marked as axes for the grid. i. concern for people on ‘vertical’
axis and ii. concern for production on the ‘horizontal’ axis, 1-9 as the levels.
 Concern for people: This is the degree to which a leader considers the needs of team members,
their interests, and areas of personal development when deciding how best to accomplish a task.
Concern for production: This is the degree to which a leader emphasizes concrete objectives,
organizational efficiency, and high productivity when deciding how best to accomplish a task.
Depending on the managers style or attitude towards the work and relations with his subordinates,
we can rate the into different sets.
The five critical positions are:
• Impoverished style: - indifferent style- : The manager has low concern for people and a low
concern for production- (1,1) position in the grid. His performance is poor performance wrt
managing. He just wants to preserve his job and job seniority. He is not ready to take any
responsibility. This style will not support innovation- not taking responsibility
• Country club style: - accommodating type-: yield and comply- high concern for people and
a low concern for production- (1,9) position. Manager pays attention to the security and
comfort of the employees, assuming that comfortable workers will produce more.
• Produce or perish style: - dictatorial type-. Based on theory X. Manager uses punishments
and bonus to motivate the subordinates. This style may be effective in cases of crisis
management.
• Middle-of-the-road style:- status quo – (5,5) position representing balance and compromise.
This type of manager tries to balance between company goals and workers' needs.
• Team style: - sound style- contribute and commit- The manager has high concern for
production, at the same time high concern for people also. (9,9) position in the grid- most
creative or innovative style.

DEVELOPMENT OF MANAGEMENT THOUGHT – MODERN THEORY

As already mentioned in Module 1, Evolution of management thought may be divided into four
stages
• Pre-scientific management period.
• Classical Theory
- Scientific Management of Taylor
- Administrative Management of Fayol
- Bureaucratic Model of Max Weber
• Neo-classical Theory or Behaviour Approach
• Modern Theory or Systems Approach
• Contingency Approach

THE BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH

The behavioural approach focused on trying to understand the factors that affect human behaviour at
work.
This includes various motivational theories from:
a. Maslow, (already explained in Part 01)
b. X-theory,
c. Y-Theory,
d. Z- Theory etc.
The basic features and comparison are given below.

McGregor Theory X of Motivation:
Theory X : has the basic concept that: people dislike work, have little ambition, and are unwilling to
take responsibility.
In general, Theory X style managers believe their employees are less intelligent, lazier, and work
solely for a sustainable income.
Managers with this assumption motivate their people using a rigid control actions like approach.
It includes rewards for good performance and punishment for poor performance.
• Assumptions of Theory X
- An average employee intrinsically does not like work and tries to escape it whenever
possible.
- Since the employee does not want to work, he must be persuaded, compelled, or warned with
punishment so as to achieve organizational goals.
- A close supervision is required on part of managers. The managers adopt a more dictatorial
style.
- Many employees rank job security on top, and they have little or no aspiration/ ambition.
- Employees generally dislike responsibilities.
- Employees resist change.
- An average employee needs formal direction.
• Disadvantages of Theory X
- Some employees do not work well under such strict enforcement.
- Not everyone is motivated by financial gain, so they might not make much of an effort to
achieve more.
- Can be detrimental to employee learning and development.

McGregor Theory Y of Motivation

• We can say that Theory X presents a pessimistic view of employees’ nature and behaviour at
work, while Theory Y presents an optimistic view of the employees’ nature and behaviour at
work.
• Theory X is based on the assumption that the employees emphasize on the physiological needs
and the safety needs;
while Theory Y is based on the assumption that the social needs, esteem needs and the self-
actualization needs dominate the employees.
• Assumptions of Theory Y
- Employees can perceive their job as relaxing and normal.
- They exercise their physical and mental efforts in an inherent manner in their jobs.
- Employees may not require only threat, external control and coercion to work, but they can
use self-direction and self-control if they are dedicated and sincere to achieve the
organizational objectives.
- If the job is rewarding and satisfying, then it will result in employees’ loyalty and
commitment to organization.
- An average employee can learn to admit and recognize the responsibility. In fact, he can even
learn to obtain responsibility.
- The employees have skills and capabilities. Their logical capabilities should be fully utilized.
In other words, the creativity, resourcefulness and innovative potentiality of the employees
can be utilized to solve organizational problems.

Ouchi’s Theory Z of Motivation
Theory Z is an approach to management is a hybrid system which incorporates the strengths of
American management (individual freedom, risk taking, quick decision-making, etc.) and Japanese
management (job security, group decision-making, social cohesion, holistic concern for employees,
etc.) systems.
Maslow first developed a basic Z- theory , then Ouchi’s modified it.
• Z- theory is characterized by long-term job security, consensual decision making, slow
evaluation and promotion procedures, and individual responsibility within a group context.
• Theory Z focused on increasing employee loyalty to the company by providing a job for life with
a strong focus on the well-being of the employee, both on and off the job.
• According to Ouchi, Theory Z management tends to promote stable employment, high
productivity, and high employee morale and satisfaction.
• The important characteristics are:
1. Mutual Trust:
2. Strong Bond between Organisation and Employees
3. Employee Involvement
4. Integrated Organisation
5. Coordination
6. Informal Control System
7. Human Resource Development
• Managers should develop new skills among employees.
• Under Theory’ Z, potential of every person is recognized and attempts are made to develop and
utilise it through job enlargement, career planning, training, etc
• If a company wants to realize the benefits described above, it need to have the following:
- A strong company philosophy and culture ,
- Long-term staff development and employment,
- Consensus in decisions,
- Generalist employee,
- Concern for the happiness and well-being of workers.
- Informal control with formalized measures,
 - Individual responsibility.

MODERN THEORY OF MANAGEMENT: SYSTEM APPROACH

SYSTEMS APPROACH TO MANAGEMENT THEORY:
The systems approach focuses on understanding the organization as a system that transforms inputs
into outputs.
A system is a set of interconnected and inter-related elements or component parts to achieve certain
goals.
The systems approach focuses on the organization as a whole, its interaction with the environment,
and its need to achieve equilibrium.
Generally as open system, but feedbacks are required for the functioning.
Modern theory considers an organization as an adaptive system which has to adjust to changes in its
environment.
An organization is now defined as a structured process in which individuals interact for attaining
objectives.
A simplified block diagram of the systems approach is shown below.

Features of Systems Approach to Management

• The systems approach focuses on the organization as a whole, its interaction with the
environment, and its need to achieve equilibrium.. etc
• Approach considers the Internal and external environment....
• It emphasizes the inter-relatedness and inter-dependence of all activities within an organisation.
• It attempts to identify the nature of relationships of various parts of the system.
• An organization as a system has five basic parts :
i. Input, ii. Process,
iii. Output, iv. Feedback and
v. Environment.
• As a system, an organisation draws inputs (energy. information, materials, etc.) from its
environment.
• It transforms these inputs and returns the output back into the environment in the form of goods
and services, etc.
• An organisation consists of many sub-systems. Parts or sub-system or elements are arranged
orderly.
• The attention is given to the overall effectiveness of the system, rather than effectiveness of any
sub-system...
• The organisation provides a boundary, which separates it from other systems. It determines
which parts are internal and which parts are external.
• The organisation is responsive to environmental effect. It is vulnerable for the changes in
environment.
• Management is multidisciplinary as it draws and integrates knowledge from various disciplines.
• Systems approach points out complex multilevel and multidimensional character.
• Systems approach recognizes that there may be Multi-motivations, multi-variable and
adaptiveness.
•

• Some more details of the parts are given below:

• It is also a dynamic system as the equilibrium in it is always changing.

• Management is expected to regulate and adjust the system to secure better performance.

CONTINGENCY APPROACH/ Situational Management:

Contingency theorists often implicitly or explicitly criticize the classical approach for its emphasis
on the universality of management principles.
- The situational/ contingency theory of leadership refers to those leaders who adopt different
leadership styles according to the situation and the development level of their team members.
- The contingency approach focuses on applying management principles and processes as dictated
by the unique characteristics of each situation.
- It emphasizes that there is no one best way to manage;
it depends on various situational factors.
- Situational conditions/ contingency depends on: the external environment, technology,
organizational characteristics, characteristics of the manager, and characteristics of the
subordinates.
- It discards the universal validity of principles. Managers are situation-oriented and not
stereotyped.
- Helps itself to an innovative and creative management style.

The Quantitative Approach
The quantitative approach focuses on improving decision making via the application of quantitative
techniques. Its roots can be traced back to scientific management.
(i) Management Science (Operations Research): Management science (also called operations
research) uses mathematical and statistical approaches to solve management problems. It
developed during World War II as strategists tried to apply scientific knowledge and methods
to the complex problems of war. Industry began to apply management science after the war.
(ii) Production and Operations Management: This approach focuses on the operation and control
of the production process that transforms resources into finished goods and services.
It has its roots in scientific management but became an identifiable area of management study
after World War II.
It uses many of the tools of management science.
Operations management emphasizes productivity and quality of both manufacturing and
service organizations.
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