Management for

Engineers
ENG 4016
PHILLIP MYERS
Lecture 1
Management Context
Historical Context
Classical Management Theory
Behavioral Management Theory
Management Context
◦The development of understanding how to manage begins
with the definition and description of three key terms:
◦Organization
◦Management
◦Managers
Organization
We spend most of our waking hours producing goods or activities
This emphasizes the nature of the human experience and
the role of the individual in relation to
people
events and situations.
◦ The need to produce goods such as food, transportation of housing
◦ The need to produce activities such as recreation or even conversation

Helps us to understand the important role that organization plays in our daily lives.
Organization
Consider Food-
◦ Crops are produced in fields or gardens - farms
◦ Made possible through purchase of seeds, seedlings, tools and equipment from nurseries and hardwares
◦ Much of the food produced on farms are distributed by trucking organizations to Supermarkets
◦ Trucks use the streets and highways built by Agencies of Government, the supermarket is conducted within
buildings which involved a contractor employing crews of masons, carpenters, plumbers and other skilled
workers.
Activities which tend to produce intangible goods such as conversation or recreation are also influenced by
organizations
Consider a conversation
We get together in cafes that provide food or beverages which are themselves distributed by food processors
and bottling plants to chat with friends about other friends or about ideas we have read in newspapers and
magazines or from articles on the internet issued by publishers
Consider a vacation where organizations provide food, lodging, transportation and entertainment.
Difficult to think of a good or activity that is not influenced by a type of organization
Why therefore do organizations envelope
our lives to the extent that they do?
◦ People do not have the capacity to remain independent and self sufficient for any length of time –
within minuets of our birth we cry out for help and assistance.
◦ One reason organizations have become so pronounced in our lives traces back to Adam Smith’s
observation that two working together can produce far more than two working alone.
◦ Smith referred to this as benefits derived from
◦ the Division of Labour into specialized tasks to increase productivity.
◦ In an English Pin making factory in the 18th century, Smith noted that ten men specialized in their task
could each produce about 4800 pins per day, but if they were to produce pins separately, one of the
men alone could not produce more than about 20 pins a day
◦ Organizations, by virtue of dividing labour into specialized tasks, serve as vehicles for increasing
individual productivity.
WORKING DEFINITION:
Organization
We therefore consider an organization as a collectivity of people
engaged in a systematic effort to produce a good or service.

This definition is not however complete – but before expanding on it, we need
to first consider what is NOT a organization.
What is NOT an organization
◦ Consider a chance meeting of three friends in a restaurant.
◦ If we define ‘collectivity’ as two or more - these friends would suffice.
◦ We will note that an activity is being produced in the form of a conversation
which serves as an exchange of information about each other and perhaps of
mutual friends.
◦ What is missing however is:
◦ a systematic effort to produce a good or service
A more complete understanding of
organization
◦By systematic we mean that members of the collectivity
have defined a set of interrelated roles in the
“organization” and are working together toward a
common goal (the desire to produce a given good or
service) and are doing so in a manner that enables some
predictability of each other’s activities.
A more complete understanding of
organization
◦ Consider the same group of friends
◦ They decide to meet once a week in a restaurant for lunch to
exchange information about each others careers.
◦ One is assigned the responsibility to call the other two to ensure they
are available for each week’s meeting
◦ Another is responsible to secure a table and make reservations at the
restaurant to ensure they do not have to wait to be seated
◦ The other is charged to collect the funds to cover the meal and pay
the tips.
◦ What has occurred from a chance meeting is now a systematic effort
to produce an activity and is now a simple organization.
A more complete understanding of
organization
◦ Consider then that new friends join the group.
◦ The meeting is shifted to a hall at night to accommodate the number
of people attending.
◦ They start to engage in multiple activities such as fund raising,
organizing political events, and providing social get togethers.
◦ Officers may be elected and the organization may publish a brochure
that is used to recruit more members to the organization.
◦ Ultimately the group may decide to produce a good or service,
thereby leaving other jobs to take employment in this newly created
company
◦ Many organizations have started like this.
A more complete understanding of
organization
◦ Many organizations have started like this.
◦ An organization can take on many shapes and forms. It is also
important for us not to be mentally locked into the idea that
organizations are of one type, such as large profit –oriented
firms. In fact, large profit oriented firms constitute only a small
percentage of all organizations that currently operate globally.
◦ Most are small and may or may not be profit oriented.
◦ While each are generally unique in the products produced and
persons employed or the rewards distributed to management
– they can be classified by broad ‘types’ based on contextual
characteristics that are commonly shared.
A more complete understanding of
organization
◦ We can therefore recognize that organization (the act) leads to
organizations (the entity) which are multiple, influence much
of our lives and must contain two or more individuals engaged
in a systematic effort to produce a good or activity and we can
also appreciate that organizations operate in a context
comprised of external and internal events and activities that
managers must consider when engaged in planning,
organizing and staffing, directing and controlling their
development and growth.
The organizational context - environment
INTERNAL > Information Financial Material Human
EXTERNAL Resources Resources Resources Resources

Competitors >

Technological > Organizing

Change and Staffing
Economic >
Conditions
Societal > Planning Managerial Directing
Values and Decisions
Attitudes
Political >
Processes
Physical > Controlling
Conditions
Management
The term management is used in a variety of ways.
It can refer to members of the organization who make decisions regarding how and in what way
goods or services are produced.
Or used to indicate a discipline of knowledge that has accumulated over the years through
application of scientific research and observations of managers in practice.
Management can also refer to the collective wisdom that has evolved from scientific study that
can then be applied to specific managerial situations.
For this course we will however define Management as a process of planning
organizing and staffing, directing and controlling activities in an organization in a
systematic way in order to achieve a common goal.
While uses of the term may be multiple it is useful to think of it as a process.
The Management Process
By process we mean that management consists of an ongoing and related set of
tasks.
These activities in turn are systematic in that managers are required to
introduce order to their activities and conduct their tasks in a manner that is
recognizable, and consistent with the expectations of other members in the
organization.
The practice requires that tasks and activities be derived from the desire to
achieve the goals set forth by members of the organization.
The Process = ACTIVITIES> Systematized> toward a goal.
The Management Process
While managers may focus on one activity more than another depending on
personal skills, aptitudes and organizational requirements, all activities ae
interrelated.
Planning
Organizing and staffing
Directing
Controlling
The Management Process - Planning
Planning is
The selecting and sequential ordering of tasks that are required to
achieve an organizational goal
May be short of long term plans depending on the context of the
organization and the necessity to achieve the goal in order for the
organization to be successful.
The Management Process – Organizing
and Staffing
Organizing and staffing
The assignment and coordination of tasks to be performed by members in
the organization and the assignment and distribution of resources that are
necessary to perform each task.
Activities such as recruitment, placement, training and development of
the organization members
Each member is then required to contribute output in his or her activities
which will ultimately realize the goals which lead to overall success for the
organization, as training and assignment of tasks and resources have
evolved from the Planning Activity
The Management Process - Directing
Directing is
The process of motivating, leading and influencing subordinates.
Managers are required to motivate employees to do their best in a
task assigned, to lead them toward the appropriate goal, and to
influence their approach in completing the task.
The Management Process - Controlling
Controlling
Involves the collection, evaluation and comparison of information in
order to correct for tasks that are improperly performed as well as
identifying where activities by members in the organization can be
improved.
The Management Process (recap)
Managers
Continually interrelate the four activities in order to arrive at decisions that will lead to the
attainment of organizational goals.
Make plans to implement future activities.
Organize and staff planned activities with members who will produce a good or service
Must then direct members by motivating and leading them in their assigned activities.
Finally, evaluate the tasks and how these are being performed to determine if they are attaining the
desired goal
The Management Process (recap)
THE THREE FRIENDS
The example of the three friends shows that management was applied when efforts were made to
systematize their meeting in order to achieve the common goal of enhancing their friendship.
Plans were made to meet at a specific time and a specific place
Tasks were organized by assigning individuals responsibilities to perform certain activities with
available resources
Efforts were direct to motivate attendance by offering a congenial atmosphere and an opportunity to
revive friendships
Activities were controlled by establishing criteria directed towards attendance at the weekly meetings
If we assume that this organization grew to take on different goals we find that its management
might take on a different form but the requirements to engage in management are still the same.
Managers
Individuals who are responsible for completing tasks that require the supervision of other
members or organizational resources.
Some are more equal than to others in an organization
In large organizations managers can be sorted into a hierarchy:
This can be:
First-line at the lower levels,
Then middle managers and
Top managers at the highest levels
Managers – Emphasis based on level
HOW MANAGERS DISTRIBUTE THEIR TIME
PLANNING PLANNING PLANNING
ORGANIZING & STAFFING
DIRECTING ORGANIZING & STAFFING

DIRECTING ORGANIZING & STAFFING

CONTROLLING DIRECTING
CONTROLLING CONTROLLING
FIRST-LINE MANAGEMENT MIDDLE MANAGEMENT TOP MANAGEMENT
Managers - Skills
Skills that Managers possess are the most valued resources of the organization
Poor Managerial skills can defeat the most successful activities and in most cases can lead to the
demise of the organization.
Robert L. Kats suggests that there are three important managerial skills that MUST be cultivated
in all organizations:
Technical Skills
Human Skills
Conceptual Skills

Look up Sewell Avery Case

Managers - Skills
Technical Skills
Abilities to carry out a specific task
Understanding the relatedness of activities and the best way of executing each element of the
task for the most desirable outcome
These are skills obtained through training programs which may be done while employed in the
organization or organization acquire employees who have done courses at a college.
Managers - Skills
Human Skills
Ability to work with, motivate and direct individuals or groups in the organization
whether they are subordinates, peers or superiors
Relate to the individuals expertise in interacting with others in a way that will enhance
the successful completion of the task at hand.
Effective communication skills such as writing and speaking;
Creation of a positive attitude towards others and the work setting;
Development of Cooperation among group members and motivation of subordinates
are some important human skills which need to be displayed by managers.
Managers - Skills
Conceptual Skills
Ability to understand the degree of complexity of a given situation and to reduce the complexity to a
level whereby specific courses of action can be derived.
Complexity exists due to multiple contextual dimensions that affect an organization
Most difficult to develop and the most critical in managerial applications
Conceptual skills are required to deal with such complexities as:
- changes in laws that affect hiring patterns in organizations
- changes competitors make in the marketing strategies of their products
- reorganization of a department which ultimately affects other departments in the organization
Managers – Skills
Depending on the level in the organization and the context within which the organization
operates managers will need to utilize differing degrees of skill sets with differing degrees of
emphasis.
Top managers need to demonstrate High degrees of Conceptual Skills which finds solutions to
the complexities which confront the organization internally and externally and do so with
differing emphasis based on the context of the organization.
First line Managers need to display high levels of Technical skills as they are close to the
production process.
Middle managers function best by displaying Human Skills which bridge between those above
and those below them.
Managerial Roles
Managers must wear many hats in formulating and implementing task activities related to their positions.
These are exercised to varying degrees, and are broadly:

Interpersonal Role
◦ Figure Head – when activity of a ceremonial nature is required
◦ Leader – required to coordinate and control the work of those supervised
◦ Liason – to obtain and share information or other resources which reside outside of their authority
and may be within or outside of the organization but required to achieve the overall goals of the organization (here ethical issues need to be emphasised).

Informational Role
◦ Monitor
◦ Disseminator
◦ Spokesperson

Decisional Role
This relies on the other roles and then allows for what is considered the manager’s most important set of roles:
◦ Entrepreneur
◦ Disturbance Handler
◦ Resource Allocator
◦ Negotiator
Historical Context
Management has been part of the concerns of man since the dawning of the ages

Considering how much time should be spent tending the trees in the garden versus how much time should be spent lying around with the wife eating the various fruits which
she gathered during the course of the day.

The efforts to get a ship built based on plans dreamt of when there was no concept of a sea on which it would sail.

Making adequate provisions to store food for a seven year period to be distributed for another seven year period.

How to gain control of territory that lay across a vast river and occupied by hoards of people reported to be giants, when you have been selected a new leader of a ragged
bunch that has been marching in circles through a desert led by an elderly predecessor, for nearly forty year.

These have been but a very scenarios which have been worked through by managers in the past as well as countless others down through the ages in organizations such as:

The household

The tribe

The State

The Church

The Military

Then firms in an industry

Historical Context
Perhaps the most advanced form of organization in terms of establishing principles related to the efficiency and
meeting of objectives was the military
The many principles developed by the Roman, Greek and Prussian armies have continued to be employed by
managers down through the ages and still in modern times. Some of these are:
Chain of Command - clear and unbroken lines of authority from the top to the lowest levels of the organization
Delegation of Authority – because of the length of the chain of command it was necessary to grant decision
making authority to middle and low level positions as generals would be overwhelmed with approving each
activity necessary to the efficient functioning of the military unit and is practiced in all organizations even today
Staff – recruitment and training of individuals in specific practices and techniques to serve as advisors to
individuals making critical decisions. While staff accrued power due to their expertise ultimately the responsibility
resided with the officer in charge. This is practiced in most excellent organizations today – where the in charge
functions from the perspective that ‘the buck stop here’.
Unity of Command – The principle that no individual has more than one supervisor – reduces confusion,
contradictory requests, and instability in military operations and in organizations even today
Historical Context - Agrarian to Industrial
Management as a practice of systematic approaches to organize people to achieve certain goals
and objectives has therefore evolved through time from the organization of family on moving
from being nomadic herdsmen to becoming stable farmers. Thus where government was
organized from a feudal system where the Lord of the Manor provided protection from
marauding tribes to create that stability and tenure for peasant farmers and the collection of a
share of the harvest to allow reinvestment in the provision of roads to take excess production to
neighbouring villages for trade and to secure improved tools; the provision of armies to widen
the security of the territory though to a society of laws and tax collection which allows for all the
amenities which population centres need to foster commerce.
This natural process of development was always associated with writings on how best to
organize and most were provided by the military leaders from the Prussians, Ethiopians, Greeks,
Romans, Hebrews, Turks, Mongolians and Chinese civilizations down through the years.
Historical Context – Industrial Revolution
The concerns to expand the thinking on this subject of management and so set up rules that ought to
be adopted by societies and organizations to govern production of goods and services and to achieve
specific goals became more pronounced with the improvements to the use of steam to effect work.
This was first demonstrated by Hero a Greek inventor of the first century AD and had remained
unutilized until 1606 when Jeronimo de Ayanz, a little known Spanyard applied Hero’s principles to
solve the problem of mines being flooded and where this technique gained more reknown in 1698
when Thomas Savery, an Englishman patented a design of a steam engine to also remove ground
water from flooded coal mines. His work was improved by Thomas Newcomen in 1711 which went
unchallenged for 50 years.
In 1776 and the improvement of a double action engine which created an engine that had greater
efficiencies in cooling and regulated temperatures and variable speed which also translated rotary
movement to forward movement, greater applications beyond working in mines was demonstrated
by Watt and Boulton and their collaborative work is credited with the advent of the steam engine
used in transport and industrial situations. This open a new era for the expansion of less labour
intensive production of tools and armunitions by the turn of the century and spawned increased
thinking on the ways society was organizing itself for this budgeoning of factories and mills and faster
transport of goods to further markets over land and sea; all made possible by the steam engine –
which is a primary force in shaping the Industrial Revolution and has shaped our lives since.
Historical Context – Industrial Revolution
The concerns to expand the thinking on this subject of management and so set up rules that
ought to be adopted by societies and organizations to govern production of goods and services
and to achieve specific goals became more pronounced with the improvements to the use of
steam to effect work. This was first demonstrated by Hero a Greek inventor of the first century
AD and had remained unutilized until 1606 when Jeronimo de Ayanz, a little known Spanyard
applied Hero’s principles to solve the problem of mines being flooded and where this technique
gained more reknown in 1698 when Thomas Savery, an Englishman patented a design of a steam
engine to also remove ground water from flooded coal mines. His work was improved by
Thomas Newcomen in 1711 and thereafter shown to be applicable to a vast number uses
beyond working in mines by Watt and Bouline which firm’s collaborative work is credited with
the advent of the steam engine used in locomotives and industrial situations. This open a new
era for the expansion of less labour intensive production of tools and amunitions by the mis to
late 1800’s and spawned increased thinking on the ways society was organizing itself for this
budgeoning of factories and mills.
Historical Context – Industrial Revolution
The concerns to expand the thinking on this subject of management and so set up rules that
ought to be adopted by societies and organizations to govern production of goods and services
and to achieve specific goals became more pronounced with the improvements to the use of
steam to effect work. This was first demonstrated by Hero a Greek inventor of the first century
AD and had remained unutilized until 1606 when Jeronimo de Ayanz, a little known Spanyard
applied Hero’s principles to solve the problem of mines being flooded and where this technique
gained more reknown in 1698 when Thomas Savery, an Englishman patented a design of a steam
engine to also remove ground water from flooded coal mines. His work was improved by
Thomas Newcomen in 1711 and thereafter shown to be applicable to a vast number uses
beyond working in mines by Watt and Bouline which firm’s collaborative work is credited with
the advent of the steam engine used in locomotives and industrial situations. This open a new
era for the expansion of less labour intensive production of tools and amunitions by the mis to
late 1800’s and spawned increased thinking on the ways society was organizing itself for this
budgeoning of factories and mills.
Robert Owen & Charles Babbage – Early
writers on theories of management
The thinking on the modern body of writings on the scientific approaches to management can
be traced to the early concerns expressed by Robert Owen (1771-1858) and to that by Charles
Babbage (1792-1871).
The work of both Owen and Babbage led to the emergence of the Classical School of
Management Theory in the early 1900s due to the growing recognition by industrialists in the
late 1800s that there was growing material and human inefficiencies and saturated markets in
the face of increased demands for greater profits and the emergence of keen competition.
Robert Owen & Charles Babbage – Early
writers on theories of management
ROBERT OWEN
The thinking on the modern body of writings on the scientific approaches to management can
be traced to the early concerns expressed by Robert Owen (1771-1858) and to that by Charles
Babbage (1792-1871).
Owen’s concerns for the plight of the factory workers, particularly child labourers and the hours
which they worked and his advocacy for reduced work hours to 101/2 and limits on the age of
Children being used in factories to 10 or older and no night engagements as well as a need to
expand educational opportunities for children and factory workers by on the job training led to a
school of thought, referred to as Behavioral Theory.
Robert Owen & Charles Babbage – Early
writers on theories of management
CHARLES BABBAGE
Babbage’s by his application of mathematics to the principles of Management through
microprogramming, multiprocessing and array processing which were the precursor to the
modern computers; addressed his concerns for inefficiencies in the use of materials and
facilities. His work not only influeanced the Classical School of thought on Management Theory
but also the Quantitative Management Theory which came to prominence towards the end of
the Second World War.
Classical Management Theory
An evolution of the thinking to uncover those techniques that could solve problems of
organization and efficiency in the production of goods and services.
The thinking and principles were derived from two main perspectives.
The European & American Perspective – That school of thought that led to
◦ The Administrative Theory
◦ Concerned with the total organizationand technical efficiency of the organization
◦ The ways things were structured and interrelated
The purely American perspective – a school of thought that led to
◦ Scientific Management Theory
◦ Concerned with the work and workers
◦ The ways work was executed and how workers physical attributes fit the job function
The Administrative Theory
◦ Concerned with the total organization and technical efficiency of the organization
◦ The ways things were structured and interrelated
Works of:
Henri Fayol, French man who lived from 1841 to 1925
Authored General and Industrial Management
Max Weber, German who lived from 1864 to 1920
Who thought that a Bureaucracy was the most rational form of organization sought to
understand how other organizations deviated from this.
Charles Barnard an American who lived from 1886 to 1961
Authored the Function of the Executive and saw organizations as cooperative systems
The Scientific Management Theory
◦ Concerned with the work and workers
◦ The ways work was executed and how workers physical attributes fit the job function
Works of:
Fredrick W. Taylor, American who lived from 1856 to 1915
- Advanced the notion that there was one best way to perform a task.
Sought to understand how to improve a task’s efficiency by conducting ‘Time and Motion Studies’
Matching the person to the task by considering physical traits to the dimension of the tasks to be
performed
Considered Financial Incentives and Functional Foremanship
OTHERS
Henry Gantt – use of mathematical models and streamlining the order of tasks
The Gilbreths
Behavioral Management Theory
Thinking that the human endeavour in the productive process was the main factor which results in increased efficiencies and that
emphasis on the human relations in organization was to be a primary focus in developing the literature on the science of management.
Elton Mayo an Australian who lived from 1880 to 1949
Postured that economic incentives only partially explained individual motivation and satisfaction. He pioneered work on productivity and
along with Fritz Roethlisberger , William Dickson and others formulated theories concerning the factors that increased human motivation
and satisfaction which were to become the foundations of human relations movement in management.
Their work was not appreciated nor accepted until they were brought in to salvage research being conducted at the Hawthorne Plant of
the Western Electrical Company in Cicero, Illinois.
“The studies suggested that employees have social and psychological needs—along with economic and financial needs—which must be
met in order to be motivated to complete their assigned tasks.”
Source: Boundless. “The Human Side: Hawthorne.” Boundless Management Boundless, 26 May. 2016. Retrieved 18 Jan. 2017
from https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-management-textbook/organizational-theory-3/behavioral-
perspectives-30/the-human-side-hawthorne-170-8381/

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