QUESTION
Critically analyze five management theories principles
words 1100
7-8 quality references with intext in Harvard style.
ANSWER
INTRODUCTION
In the present connected world the way and processes that any company or firm follows become their cornerstone towards the amount of respect and prestige that they command in society. Management theories are an integral part that helps these companies to ensure that the employees work both efficiently but are also most loyal as well promoters of the firm. Management Concept and theories are thus the lifeline and bibles for many budding managers
SUMMARY
Across the ages, various renowned academicians and managers have through their real-life experiences created theories and concepts that go a long way to understand the workings of the employees and as well the ways to increase the efficiency of the firm. Spanning across the ages this document will test 5 such management theories and analyze them critically to bring out the best in them
MANAGEMENT THEORIES
Theory Z
This theory was developed by Ouchi and mainly stems on the fact that an employee will work in much more efficient manner if the company not only takes care of making the work environment a conducive one but also goes above and beyond to make sure that the employee is well supported by the company both on and off the work life. This concept brought was followed avidly in Japan with many companies now promoting the ways only to keep the employees satisfied but also to make them happy.
Analysis
Though this theory does go a long way in finding the right environment that would propel the employee to work more, there are a few assumptions that are done in this theory that might not be true.
For a first, this theory assumes that all the employees want to work to his best capability and will work more and better only if given a little nudge which might not always be the case
Secondly, this theory hangs on a very thin precipice of finding the right balance of giving priority to the employee’s work and home life. For example, extreme cases like Japan with its 6 days and 12 hours work principle, on the other hand, France with its 5 days and 6 hours work principle both draw equal flak and are good examples of this theory gone wrong
Contingency approach
This approach brings in the thought process that every work environment is heavily dependent on the various other factors and environments that are attached to it. This concept tries to make the project or work area divided into a number of subgroups which are dependent on each other and any change on any one of this subgroups will result in the change in the working of any other group. It also tries to say that if anyone is looking to improve or change the performance of any of this groups must not only look into the single group but look into the other subgroups that are affecting it and thus look for a more comprehensive change. This concept also rejects any single type of management approach and tells that management theory might change from place to place
Analysis
Though this theory brings about the very important concept that a single theory cannot define every situation it also suffers from the assumption that a manager will know about all the subgroups and how to make them work better. This might not always be the scenario or the possibility, and thus all-inclusive change might not always be possible;
Frederick Taylor’s Theory of Scientific Management
This theory is one of the most used and accepted worldwide mainly depended on the efficiency that can be produced by a worker and what all conditions were needed in order to get the maximum output from each of them. He creates quite a few theories and models in order to support this viewpoint.
Differential Piece Rate Plan:
According to this plan, he decided that the workers are most motivated through money and thus it is only right to give money as a prime motivator by paying extra (120%) to workers who are more efficient in their work and lesser (80%) for less than efficient ones
Time and motion:
Through this method and by the shovel experiment he decided that there is a most efficient way of doing any task and a company should always strive to make that a practice
Hierarchy:
He also promoted strict hierarchy in the companies with a clear chain of command where the bottom level workers were only laborers while the management did all the thinking
Analysis
Though this theory did find a world-wide acceptance, there were multiple points that might be refuted. The theory of having a strict hierarchical structure not only makes the company very rigid but also stops any thought process to come up from the ground level workers also I believe money though a strong motivator might not be the only motivator for many. All these concepts were not pondered in this theory
Max Weber’s Bureaucracy
In this theory, Max Weber talked about how power of an individual and that is prevalent in the company generally decides on how the company should run. According to him, there were 3 types of powers that he saw working in the various company
Traditional Power – This type of power was prevalent in the organization which gave importance to the family based succession. This gave a definite group of people the right to the powerful places much like a monarchy. Now if we analyze this we can see that there are a lot of loopholes in this with the biggest one being the best person might not be the one that is ascending the position and thus reducing the quality of the company as a whole
Charismatic Power – This type of power emanated from a person who can easily sway people to his side and make them look up to him as someone to emulate or follow. This theory though would work good in most of the industries might fall flat if the person is all talk and no work. This type of power needs to be followed up by strong and leadership actions
Legal Power – This power emanated when someone holds a position through legal ascendancy. In the similar lines as traditional, this process might not be optimum in selecting the best candidate to the board
Analysis
This theory looks into a very small portion of the management approach. There are multiple other types of leadership (leadership programmes) etc. that are available today which are not covered by this theory
Elton Mayo’s Behavioural Theory
According to this theory worker of any type generally, give a much better performance as well as a response if it is shown that they are singled out. Or in other words making sure that the worker has a good environment, giving individual feedback and making sure that he stays in the job or place that he likes to work in will make the worker feel that he is being looked and taken care of individually and will thus give a heavier effort to live up to this improved attention
Analysis
The problems with this theory are that there might be many cases that the worker’s lack of productivity is not related to anything within the work environment. Also, the theory assumes that all the workers inherently want to work as efficiently as they can and only needs a little nudge to work better which might not be the case every time
Conclusion
The above-mentioned theories and concept show that there are multiple ways to tackle a situation and take your firm towards a path of success. But though the above concepts do give a strong base on which one can keep his research but the prime function lies with a manager or leader to truly understand a problem and try the concept or a combination of concepts that might bring out the best result. No concept or theories above are applicable without the human touch and thus can never be a substitute of sheer skills or research
Reference
Roberts, Chuck (2017) ‘Importance of Modern Management Theories in Managing People’. Retrieved on 15th January 2018
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https://bizfluent.com/info-8419159-importance-management-theories-managing-people.html
Olum , Y (2004) ‘Modern Management Theories and Practices’. Retrieved on 15th January 2018
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loc.llas.ac.uk/lob/1510/standalone/theories.pdf
Knight , Hal (2017) ‘Theories of Modern Management’. Retrieved on 15th January 2018
Retrieved from:
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED282284.pdf
Fernandes , Paula (2018) ‘Management Theories for Small Business’. Retrieved on 15th January 2018
Retrieved from:
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10626-management-theories-for-smbs.html
Business.com (2018) ‘Popular Management Theories Decoded’. Retrieved on 15th January 2018
Retrieved from:
https://www.business.com/articles/popular-management-theories-decoded/
Techno Func (2018) ‘Management Theories & Leadership Skills. Retrieved on 15th January 2018
Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubxb9KUOQtI
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