-
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was born in Scotland during the early 1800s. Around the mid-1800s Carnegie’s family moved to the U.S. At age 17 Carnegie was made a personal telegrapher for Tom Scott, a top manager at the Pennsylvania Railroad. By age 30 Carnegie was superintendent of the whole railroad. Carnegie is known for his hard work and determination in building the U.S. steel industry. He was constantly looking for ways to reduce operating costs and increase productivity. (George & Jones, 2014) -
Scientific Management Theory
Scientific management is defined as “the systematic study of relationships between people and tasks for the purpose of redesigning the work process to increase efficiency.” Frederick Taylor, the founder of scientific management believed that if the amount of time and effort to produce a finished good was reduced by increasing specialization and labor, the production process will become more efficient. (George & Jones, 2014) -
Frank and Lilian Gilbreth
The Gilbreths are well known for their time-and-motion study and considered themselves as an efficient family. The movie, Cheaper by the Dozen shows how the Gilbreths tried to live their lives according to their efficiency principles. They would analyze individual actions and break them into component actions. Then they would find better ways to perform each action and finally would reorganize each action so it could be performed more efficiently. (George & Jones, 2014). -
Administrative Management Theory
Administrative Management Theory is defined as “the study of how to create an organizational structure and control system that leads to high efficiency and effectiveness.” This theory could help managers find better ways of organizing and monitoring resources, which would lead to an increase in performance. (George & Jones, 2014) -
Behavioral Management Theory
Behavioral Management Theory is defined as “the study of how managers should behave to motivate employees and encourage them to perform at high levels and be committed to the achievement of organizational goals.” (George & Jones, 2014). -
Max Weber
Max Weber developed the Theory of Bureaucracy. Weber wrote five principles that include, a bureaucracy should have a clearly specified hierarchy of authority, a system of written rules and standard operating procedures, clearly specified system of tasks and role relationships, and a selection and evaluation system that rewards employees fairly and equitably. Weber believed that a bureaucracy would ensure efficiency and effectiveness. (George & Jones, 2014) -
The Principles of Scientific Management
Frederick Taylor publishes “The Principles of Scientific Management.” Taylor believed that workers were motivated by money. He stated, “A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.” Taylor’s four principles include: 1) Study the way workers perform their tasks, 2) Organize methods and tasks into written rules, 3) Match workers to their job based on capability and motivation, 4) Establish a fair or acceptable level of performance for a task. (George & Jones, 2014) -
Fordism
In 1914 Henry Ford noticed that he was experiencing a very high level of employee turnover (300-400%). This was because employees could not handle all the work related stress. Ford recognized this problem by introducing “$5 Day” to motivate his workforce. Ford decided to reduce the length of the workday from nine hours to eight hours and double the daily wage from $2.50 to $5.00. This new approach is what coined the term Fordism. (George & Jones, 2014), (Roediger, 1988) -
Management Science Theory
Management Science Theory includes four branches of management. 1) Quantitative management is the use of mathematical techniques. 2) Operations management is a set of techniques that managers can use to analyze an organizations production system. 3) Total quality management focuses on organization's input and conversion. 4) Management information systems informs managers about events that occur inside the organization. (George & Jones, 2014) -
Fayol’s Principles of Management
Henri Fayol identified 14 principles that he believed were essential to increase the efficiency of the management process. Fayol’s 14 principles include division of labor, authority and responsibility, unity of command, line of authority, centralization, unity of direction, equity, order, initiative, discipline, remuneration of personnel, stability of tenure of personnel, subordination of individual interests to the common interest, and espirt de corps. (George & Jones, 2014) -
The Human Relations Movement
Elton Mayo, a Harvard professor proposed the idea that "managers should become more people-orientated” Mayo conducted experiments on conditions in the workplace and incorporated the well-published findings of the Hawthorne Studies, Mayo declared that “logical factors were far less important than emotional factors in determining productive efficiency. Mayo stated that managers need to “accept a new role” in their relationship with workers, and create a new concept of authority. (Bosman, 2009) -
The Hawthorne Studies
The Hawthorne Studies begin in 1924. The research was to determine if the level of lighting or illumination had any affect to worker fatigue and performance. Productivity only decreased when the level of illumination was dropped to moonlight, where workers were unable to see to continue work. This study lead to the Hawthorne effect, defined as, “the findings that a manager’s behavior or leadership approach can affect workers’ level of performance.” (George & Jones, 2014) -
Mary Parker Follett
Mary Parker Follett supported “authority should go with knowledge… whether it is up the line or down.” What Follett meant by this was if workers have the knowledge, then workers should be in control of the work process rather than managers. Managers should act as coaches and facilitators instead of monitors and supervisors. Follett also came up with cross-functioning, which was members of different departments working together in teams to complete projects. (George & Jones, 2014) -
Mechanistic structure
Mechanistic structure is based on the following characteristics: 1) Division of labour by functional specialization, 2) A well-defined hierarchy of authority, 3) A system of rules covering the duties and rights of all employees, 4) A system of procedures for dealing with work situations, 5) Impersonal relations among people, 6) Selection and promotion of personnel based upon technical competence and excellence. (Chand, 2015) -
Organic structure
Organic structures are considered flexible structures. "The organic structure suits companies operating in fast-moving, unpredictable environments." Companies with organic structures see enhanced communication and cooperation. Authority with organic structures is decentralized to middle and first-line managers. Employees are encouraged to coorperate and respond quickly to any unexpected events. (Johnson, 2015) -
Theory Y
Theory Y, developed by Douglas McGregor was said to be “a set of positive assumptions about workers that leads to the conclusion that a manager’s task is to create a work setting that encourages commitment to organizational goals.” Theory Y assumes that workers are not lazy, do not dislike work, and if they were given the opportunity they would do something good for the organization. (George & Jones, 2014) -
Theory X
Theory X, developed by Douglas McGregor was said to be “a set of negative assumptions about workers that leads to the conclusion that a manager’s task is to supervise workers closely and control their behavior.” In other words, workers have little ambition, wish to avoid responsibility, and will try to do as little as possible. Like McGregor mentioned, to ensure that employees work hard and stay focused, managers need to closely supervise their employees. (George & Jones, 2014) -
The Open-Systems Theory
The Open-Systems Theory was developed by Daniel Katz, Robert Kahn, and James Thompson during the 1960s. The three of them had views of how an organization may be affected by its external environment. They also viewed an organization as an open system, which is defined as, “a system that takes its resources from its external environment and converts them into goods and services that are then sent back to that environment for purchase by customers.” (George & Jones, 2014) -
Contingency Theory
Contingency Theory was said to be another milestone in management theory. Tom Burns, G.M. Stalker, Paul Lawrence, and Jay Lorsch developed this theory during the 1960s. The main message of this theory is that “there is no one best way to organize.” Contingency theory is defined as “the idea that the organizational structures and control system managers choose depend on (are contingent on) characteristic of the external environment in which the organization operates.” (George & Jones, 2014) -
Organizational Environment Theory
Organizational Environment Theory was an important milestone in the history of management. This theory is defined as a “set of forces and conditions that operate beyond an organization’s boundaries but affect a manager’s ability to acquire and utilize resources.” If managers were effectively using resources that was one way to determine if the organization was successful. (George & Jones, 2014)
