العلاقات الانسانية
Management schools
Modern managers use many of the practices, principles, and
techniques developed from earlier concepts and experiences. The
Industrial Revolution brought about the emergence of large-scale business and
its need for professional managers. Early military and church
organizations provided the leadership models.
In
1975, Raymond E. Miles wrote Theories of Management: Implications for
Organizational Behavior and Development published by McGraw Hill Text. In
it, he popularized a useful model of the evolution of management theory in the
Behavioral
or human relations management emerged in the 1920s and dealt with the
human aspects of organizations. It has been referred to as the neoclassical
school because it was initially a reaction to the shortcomings of the classical
approaches to management. The human relations movement began with the Hawthorne
Studies which were conducted from 1924 to 1933 at the Hawthorne Plant of the
Western Electric Company in
The
Harvard
Business School researchers, T.N. Whitehead, Elton Mayo, and George Homans,
were led by Fritz Roethlisberger. Elton Mayo, known as the Father of the
Hawthorne Studies, identified the Hawthorne Effect or the bias that
occurs when people know that they are being studied. The Hawthorne Studies are
significant because they demonstrated the important influence of human factors
on worker productivity.
There
were four major phases to the Hawthorne Studies: the illumination experiments,
the relay assembly group experiments, the interviewing program, and the bank
wiring group studies. The intent of these studies was to determine the effect
of working conditions on productivity. The illumination experiments tried to
determine whether better lighting would lead to increased productivity. Both
the control group and the experimental group of female employees produced more
whether the lights were turned up or down. It was discovered that this
increased productivity was a result of the attention received by the group. In
the relay assembly group experiments, six female employees worked in a special,
separate area; were given breaks and had the freedom to talk; and were
continuously observed by a researcher who served as the supervisor. The
supervisor consulted the employees prior to any change. The bank wiring group
studies were analyzed thoroughly by Homans and were included in his now classic
book, The Human Group. The bank wiring groups involved fourteen male
employees and were similar to the relay assembly group experiments, except that
there was no change of supervision. Again, in the relay and bank wiring phases,
productivity increased and was attributed to group dynamics. The conclusion was
that there was no cause-and-effect relationship between working conditions and
productivity. Worker attitude was found to be important. An extensive employee
interviewing program of 21,000 interviews was conducted to determine employee
attitudes toward the company and their jobs. As a major outcome of these
interviews, supervisors learned that an employee's complaint frequently is a
symptom of some underlying problem on the job, at home, or in the person's past.
When Chester
Barnard retired as the CEO of New Jersey Bell Telephone, he recorded his
insights about management in his book, Functions of the Executive. It
outlined the legitimacy of the supervisor's directives and the extent of the
subordinates' acceptance. He developed the concepts of strategic planning and
the acceptance theory of authority. Strategic planning is the formulation of
major plans or strategies, which guide the organization in pursuit of major
objectives. Barnard taught that the three top functions of the executive were
to (l) establish and maintain an effective communication system, (2) hire and
retain effective personnel, and (3) motivate those personnel. His Acceptance
Theory of Authority states that managers only have as much authority
as employees allow them to have. The acceptance theory of authority suggests
that authority flows downward but depends on acceptance by the subordinate. The
acceptance of authority depends on four conditions. (1.) Employees must
understand what the manager wants them to do. (2.) Employees must be able to
comply with the directive. (3.) Employees must think that the directive is in
keeping with organizational objectives. (4.) Employees must think that the
directive is not contrary to their personal goals. Barnard believed that each
person has a zone of indifference or a range within each individual
in which he or she would willingly accept orders without consciously
questioning authority. It was up to the organization to provide sufficient
inducements to broaden each employee's zone of indifference so that the
manager's orders would be obeyed.
Beginning
in the early 1950s, the human resources school represented a substantial
progression from human relations. The behavioral approach did not always
increase productivity. Thus, motivation and leadership techniques became a
topic of great interest. The human resources school understands that employees
are very creative and competent, and that much of their talent is largely
untapped by their employers. Employees want meaningful work; they want to
contribute; they want to participate in decision making and leadership
functions.
Integrating
the Management Theories
Systems
theory and a contingency view can help integrate the theories of management.
Appropriate managerial techniques can be applied as required by environmental
conditions. A broad perspective is valuable to managers when overseeing one
unit or the total integration of all subunits.
Systems Theory
During the
1940s and World War II, systems analysis emerged. This viewpoint uses systems
concepts and quantitative approaches from mathematics, statistics, engineering,
and other related fields to solve problems. Managers find optimal solutions to
management problems by using scientific analysis which is closely associated
with the systems approach to management. A system is an interrelated and
interdependent set of elements functioning as a whole. It is an open system
that interacts with its environment. It is composed of inputs from the
environment (material or human resources), transformation processes of inputs
to finished goods (technological and managerial processes), outputs of those
finished goods into the environment (products or services), and feedback (reactions
from the environment). Subsystems are systems within a broader system.
Interdependent subsystems (such as production, finance, and human resources)
work toward synergy in an attempt to accomplish an organizational goal that
could not otherwise be accomplished by a single subsystem. Systems develop
synergy. This is a condition in which the combined and coordinated actions of
the parts of a system achieve more than all the parts could have achieved
acting independently. Entropy is the process that leads to decline.
Contingency View
In the
mid-1960s, the contingency view of management or situational approach emerged.
This view emphasizes the fit between organization processes and the
characteristics of the situation. It calls for fitting the structure of the
organization to various possible or chance events. It questions the use of
universal management practices and advocates using traditional, behavioral, and
systems viewpoints independently or in combination to deal with various
circumstances. The contingency approach assumes that managerial behavior is
dependent on a wide variety of elements. Thus, it provides a framework for
integrating the knowledge of management thought.
Emerging
Management Positions
New management viewpoints are emerging. Quality management emphasizes achieving customer satisfaction by providing high quality
goods and services. Reengineering the organization redesigns
the processes that are crucial to customer satisfaction.
Chaos models the corporation as a complex adaptive system that interacts and evolves with its surroundings. Many seemingly random movements in nature exhibit structured patterns. Living systems operate at their most robust and efficient level in the narrow space between stability and disorder -- poised at "the edge of chaos." It is here that the agents within a system conduct the fullest range of productive interactions and exchange the greatest amount of useful information
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