ES421- Engineering Management

Engr. Albert S. Revilla, MSERM

Instructor
Module 2: Historical development of Engineering
Management
The process of management
Management must seek to find out the objectives
of the organization, think of ways on how to
achieve them, decide ways on to be adapted and
the material resources to be used, determine the
human requirements of the total job, assign
specific tasks to specific persons, motivate them,
and provide
means to make sure that the
activities are in the right direction.
Management in ancient civilization
The beginning of the modern organization
occurred primarily during the middle of the
nineteenth century with the rise of the factory
system, principally in the textile industry, where
automation and mass production became the
cornerstone of productivity.
Management thinking, however, was slow to
evolve during the century. The need existed to
define what management was in the first
instance as well as to operationalize it in
meaningful terms for an organization.
During this period two principal management
theorists took up this challenge and emerged as
the so-called Pre-classicists of management
thought
Robert Owen (1771-1858
Robert Owen's ideas stemmed from his ownership
of a cotton mill in New Lanark, Scotland where he
developed a strong interest in the welfare of the
400 to 500 child employees. Owen spearheaded a
legislative movement to limit child employment
to those over the age of ten while reducing the
workday to 10 1/2 hours.
In 1813 Owen A New View of Society, where he
described his vision of society. He also became
active in improving living conditions of employees
through the implementation of improvements in
housing, sanitation, public works and establishing
schools for the children.
Owen strongly believes that character is a
product of circumstances and that environment
and early education is critical in forming good
character. Owen is credited with being the
forerunner of the modern human relations school
of management

Charles Babbage (1792-1871 a noted English

mathematician, His interest in management
stemmed largely from his concerns with work
specialization or the degree to which work is
divided into its parts.
This is now recognized as being the forerunner of
contemporary operations research.
Babbage's other major management contribution
came from the development of a modern profitsharing plan including an employee bonus for
useful suggestions as well as a share of the
company's profits.
While both Owen and Babbage were important
nineteenth century management innovators, their
efforts lacked the central tenets of a theory of
management.
Owen was primarily credited with making specific
suggestions regarding management techniques
in the areas of human relations while Babbage is
credited with developing the concepts of
specialization of labor and profit sharing. These
pre-classicists paved the way for the theoretical
ferment of the classical school of management.
The Classical School
The twentieth century witnessed a period of
tremendous management theory ferment and
activity. Calls were heard for the development of
a comprehensive management theory. The
classical school of management was primarily
concerned with developing such a theory to
improve
management
effectiveness
in
organizations.
However classical school theorists went a step
further. Not only did they seek to develop a
comprehensive theory of management, but they
also wanted to provide the tools a manager
required for dealing with their organizational
challenges.
Within the classical school there are the
bureaucratic
management,
administrative
management
and
scientific
management
branches.
Bureaucratic Management
Max Weber (1864-1920)

Weber's interest in organizations evolves from his

view of the institutionalization of power and
authority in the modern Western world.
He constructed a "rational-legal authority" model
of an ideal type bureaucracy.
This ideal type rested on a belief in the "legality"
of patterns of normative rules and the right of
those elevated to authority to issue commands
(legal authority).
Weber postulated the rules and regulations of a
bureaucracy serve to insulate its members
against the possibility of personal favoritism.
Weber believes all bureaucracies have certain
characteristics:
A well defined hierarchy.
All positions within a bureaucracy are
structured in a way permitting the higher
positions to supervise and control the
lower positions.
This provides a clear chain of command
facilitating control and order throughout
the organization.
Division of labor and specialization.
All responsibilities in an organization are
rationalized to the point where each
employee will have the necessary
expertise to master a particular task. This
necessitates granting each employee the
requisite authority to complete all such
tasks.
Rules and regulations.
All organizational activities should be
rationalized to the point where standard
operating procedures are developed to
provide
certainty
and
facilitate
coordination.
Impersonal relationships between managers and
employees.
Weber believes it is necessary for
managers to maintain an impersonal
relationship with the employees because
of the need to have a rational decision
making process rather than one influenced
by favoritism and personal prejudice. This
organizational atmosphere would also
facilitate rational evaluation of employee
outcomes where personal prejudice would
not be a dominant consideration.
Competence.
Competence should be the basis for all
decisions made in hiring, job assignments,
and promotions. This would eliminate
personal bias and the significance of
"knowing someone" in central personnel
decisions. This fosters ability and merit as

the
primary
characteristics
of
a
bureaucratic organization.
Records.
Weber feels it is absolutely essential for a
bureaucracy to maintain complete files
regarding all its activities. This advances
an accurate organizational "memory"
where accurate and complete documents
will
be
available
concerning
all
bureaucratic actions and determinations.
Scientific Management
Another branch of the classical school of
management is the scientific management
approach.
The scientific management approach emphasized
empirical
research
for
developing
a
comprehensive management solution.
Scientific management principles are to be
applied by managers in a very specific fashion.
A
fundamental
implication
of
scientific
management is the manager is primarily
responsible for increasing an organization's
productivity.
The major representatives of this school of
thought are Frederick Winslow Taylor and Frank
and Lillian Gilbreth
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915
Frederick Taylor is known as the "father of
scientific management." he performed exhaustive
experiments on worker productivity and tested
what he called the "task system," later
developing into the Taylor System and eventually
progressing into scientific management.
His experiments involved determining the best
way of performing each work operation, the time
it required, materials needed and the work
sequence. He sought to establish a clear division
of labor between management and employees.
Taylor's task management methodology rests on
a fundamental belief that management, the
entrepreneurs
were
not
only
superior
intellectually to the average employee, but had a
positive duty to supervise them and organize
their work activities.
Taylor positioned scientific management as the
best management approach for achieving
productivity increases. It rested on the manager's
superior ability and responsibility to apply
systematic knowledge to the organizational work
setting.

Taylor developed four principles of scientific

management:
1.
A scientific management methodology be
developed.
2. Managers should assume the responsibility for
selecting, training and developing the employee.
3. Managers should fully cooperate with
employees to insure the proper application of the
scientific management method.
4. Management should become involved with the
work of their employees as much as possible.
Scientific management consisted of a system for
supervising employees, improving work methods,
and providing incentives to employees through
the piece rate system. the best way of performing
a job as well as to provide financial incentives for
increased productivity by paying employees by
the piece through the piece rate system.
Frank (1868-1924)
Gilbreth.

and

Lillian

(1878-1972)

The Gilbreths were strong advocates of scientific

management.
Gilbreth
was
interested
in
developing the one best way of doing work. His
system later became known as "speed work"
which was achieved by eliminating unnecessary
motions.
Frank, working with his wife, Lillian, subsequently
became heavily involved in time and motion
studies isolating 17 basic work motions that they
termed therbligs . Their studies of work included
the use of a cyclograph, a form of stereoscopic
movie camera, whereby the time and motions of
a worker could be carefully studied.
Refined
Taylors
work
and
made
many
improvements to the methodologies of time and
motion studies.
Time and motion studies
Breaking up each job action into its
components.
Finding better ways to perform the action.
Reorganizing each job action to be more
efficient.
Also studied worker-related fatigue problems
caused by lighting, heating, and the design of
tools and machines.
Administrative Management
Henri Fayol (1841-1925)
Henri Fayol belongs to the administrative
management branch of the classical school. His
entire working career was spent with a mining
company, where he rose from an apprentice to
General Manager in 1888 remaining there until
his retirement in 1918.

He is credited with turning the company around

from a threatened bankruptcy into a strong
financial position by the time of his retirement at
age 77. As a result of his management
experience, Fayol strongly believed management
theories could be developed and taught to others.
Fayol
developed
fourteen
management
principles:
1. Division of Work. Division of work,
specialization, produces more and better work
with the same effort. It focuses effort while
maximizing employee efforts. It is applicable to
all work including technical applications. There
are limitations to specialization which are
determined by its application.
2. Authority and responsibility. Authority is the
right to give orders and the power to exact
obedience. Distinction must be made between a
manager's official authority deriving from office
and personal authority created through individual
personality,
intelligence
and
experience.
Authority creates responsibility.
3. Discipline. Obedience and respect between a
firm and its employees based on clear and fair
agreements is absolutely essential to the
functioning of any organization. Good discipline
requires managers to apply sanctions whenever
violations become apparent.
4. Unity of command. An employee should
receive orders from only one superior. Employees
cannot adapt to dual command.
5. Unity of direction. Organizational activities
must have one central authority and one plan of
action.
6. Subordination of Individual Interest to General
Interest. The interests of one employee or group
of employees are subordinate to the interests and
goals of the organization and cannot prevail over
it.
7. Remuneration of Personnel. Salaries are the
price of services rendered by employees. It
should be fair and provide satisfaction both to the
employee
and
employer.
The
rate
of
remuneration is dependent on the value of the
services rendered as determined by the
employment market.
8. Centralization. The optimum degree of
centralization varies according to the dynamics of
each organization. The objective of centralization
is the best utilization of personnel.
9. Scalar chain. A chain of authority exists from
the highest organizational authority to the lowest
ranks. The direct communication between
employees can be extremely expeditious and
increase the effectiveness of organizational
communication.
10. Order. Organizational order for materials and
personnel is essential. The right materials and the
right employees are necessary for each
organizational function and activity.

11. Equity. In organizations equity is a

combination of kindliness and justice. The desire
for equity and equality of treatment are
aspirations to be taken into account in dealing
with employees.
12. Stability of Tenure of Personnel. In order to
attain the maximum productivity of personnel, it
is essential to maintain a stable work force.
Management insecurity produces undesirable
consequences.
Generally
the
managerial
personnel of prosperous concerns is stable, that
of unsuccessful ones is unstable.
13. Initiative. Thinking out a plan and ensuring its
success is an extremely strong motivator. At all
levels of the organizational ladder zeal and
energy on the part of employees are augmented
by initiative.
14. Esprit de Corps. Teamwork is fundamentally
important to an organization. Creating work
teams and using extensive face-to-face verbal
communication encourages this.
The Hawthorne Experiments
The Hawthorne Experiments consist of two
studies conducted at the Hawthorne Works of the
Western Electric Company in Chicago from 1924
to 1932.
The study's particular focus is on lighting and
attempts to operationalize many of the principles
of scientific management.
The initial study in 1924 was conducted by a
group of engineers seeking to determine the
relationship of lighting levels to worker
productivity.
The results of the study findings are extremely
interesting since worker productivity increases as
the lighting levels decrease until the employees
are unable to see what they are doing after which
performance naturally declines.
Mayo introduced the concept of Social man
motivated
by
social
need,
on-the-job
relationships, and responding more to work group
pressure than to management control was
necessary to compliment the old concept of
rational man motivated by personal economic
needs. economic rewards didnt totally explain
behavior; workers respond to
groups norms,
social pressures
People are essentially social beings
Non economic rewards play a central role
Informal organization is important
High job specialization does not increase
efficiency
Communication,
participation
and
democratic leadership are important

Functional-Level Plan
Goals that the managers of each
function will pursue to help their
division attain its business-level
goals
Functional Strategy
A plan of action that managers of
individual functions can take to add
value to an organizations goods
and services
Division business unit that has its own set of
managers and departments and competes in a
distinct industry
Divisional managers Managers who control
the various divisions of an organization