Week 11 - Organisation and Management theory

This week we discussed the theories of Organisation and management. These are used to increase productivity of companies.









Scientific Management

This theory is part of the classical school. The classical school (1880-1930) was when early management theorist were looking for one best way to organise and manage. From this organisations were viewed as machines and adopted a very militaryistic approach using some of their principles. The writters from classical school made their principles universal, applying to all types of companies. The three main theorist were Taylor, Weber and Foyal.

Taylor came up with Scientific Management.

Scientific management had six main principles.

For every job there is one best way - This meant that there was one way to do specific jobs to make them the most productive. This meant it was also easier for workers because they had very specific ways to do work.

Decision making only for managers - This was so that only the managers were able to influence important decisions, making it more reliable. It also meant that all the responsibility was on them to perform.

Focused on shop floor workers - If the focus is on the shop floor workers this will increase their job satisfaction which in turn will make them more charismatic on the customers. This will promote an image of friendliness for the company giving it an advantage over competitors.

Payment by results - Workers get pain by their productivity. This motivates them to work harder and better to attain a larger salary. Money being a very good motivater was also identified by Maslow and Aldefer in their theories as basic needs.

Standardisation, discipline and efficiency - This was to make the workers better. The discipline kept the workers working in line and avoided mistakes. The efficiency was an aim aided by payment by results and focus on shop floor workers.

Select workers based on physical strength - This is based on the fact that many of the concepts were taken from military context.



The Scienticif management approach had many advantages but also disadvantages.

Advantages

Simplicity - One best way to do a job, this makes it easier for the workers to know how things are run and how they should do their work meaning they can concentrate on doing their job one method, thus they became very good and doing their jobs in a specific way.

Right decisions - Because the responcibility of decision making was only given to the managers meant that the only qualified and responsible members of the company were in charge. This decreased the number of bad decision.

Increased work efficiency - Pay by results lead to increased motivation by the workers as this increased their pay.

Higher motivation by staff - The focus on floor workers meant they were happier in their jobs which was reflected onto the consumers giving the company a reputation for friendly staff, therefor supplying them with customers that made the company their first choice.

Discipline - Emphisis on discipline caused the workers to be more accurate and carefull about their work decreasing the amount of mistakes/problems for the company.



Disadvantages

Boredom - Due to the specific way in which workers should perform their job meant that they were working like machines with no creativity. This caused boredom and decreased job satisfaction and work efficiency.

Bad pay - Many workers did not agree with the pay by results principle as this meant that they had to work harder for their money and may have feelt treated unfairly when their collegues recieved a higher salary.

Mistakes - The large focus on discipline may have caused workers to do more mistakes as they were worried all the time about being punished. Also it may have caused many members of staff quiting as they felt they werent treated with respect.

Responsibility - Many workers will have felt like they werent given opportunities for promotions as they were not taken into consideration for decision making.

Quitting - Due to the higher responsibility for managers from decision making and the focus on floor workers by the company, many higher members of staff may have feel undervalued as they were not given as much attention even though they had higher responsibilty.



Overall I feel that the Scientific management approach is very good in the short run. It will motivate low members of staff alot to perform better but over time staff will become bored and have low job satisfaction. Also the higher members of staff will resign as they feel that they aren't being treated equally in respect to their role in the business. Therefor if this approach was used when their is a high demand for jobs or used just to start up a business it is a good idea but in the long term it could cause a decrease in workforce for the company.