Slide 2.

Approaches to Organisation and Management

Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.2

Organisations
Providing utilities: meet the needs of people; Rules and Regulations: formal or informal; Division of Labour: work roles, Job description, specialisation; Chain of Authority: hierarchy; Information Systems:
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Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.3

Test your knowledge

Discuss the importance of information to an organisation

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Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.4

Management theory
Every managerial act rests on assumptions, generalizations and hypotheses that is to say, on theory. Our assumptions are frequently implicit, sometimes quite unconscious, often conflicting: nevertheless, they determine our predictions that if we do a, b will occur. Theory and practice are inseparable.
McGregor

Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.5

Main approaches to organisation, structure and management

Figure 2.1

Main approaches to organisation, structure and management

Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.6

The classical approach

The organisation is considered in terms of:
Purpose Formal structure Planning of work Technical requirements Principles of management Rational and logical behaviour

In order to find:
The most effective structure
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.7

Principles of the classical approach

The principle of co-ordination
The need for unity of action, authority and discipline

The scalar principle

The need for hierarchy, grading of duties and delegation

The functional principle

Specialisation and the distinction between different types of duty
Mooney and Reiley

Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.8

Sub-groups of classical approach

Common principles can be applied to all organisations, taking into account: The particular situational variables of each organisation The social and psychological factors relating to members of the organisation

Scientific Management
F.W.Taylor

Bureaucracy
Max Weber

Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.9

Scientific management
F.W. Taylor, 18561917 Belief in the possibility of a best way to undertake a job Analysis of work into discrete tasks Identification of the one best way Use of the rational-economic concept of motivation

Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.10

Principles to guide management

The development of a true science for each persons work Scientific selection, training and development of workers Co-operation with workers to ensure work is carried out in the prescribed way The division of work and responsibility between managers and workers
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.11

Critique of Taylorism
Hostility and suspicion among workers and from unions
The rationalisation of work results in the de-skilling of workers Creates excessive levels of managerial control Tends to create rigid organisational structures

Views workers as individual units of production rather than social beings

Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.12

Taylors legacy
Work study systems Payment by results Management by exception Production control
e.g. the assembly line and Fordism

Systematic and procedural training

Taylor shaped the first coherent school of thought with application to the industrialised world.
Stern
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.13

Bureaucracy
Max Weber, 18641920 Concept arose from his sociological studies of power and authority Belief in the superiority of an organisational structure which can survive changes in individual personnel That it is a means of introducing order and rationality into social life Emphasis on both expertise (the rule of experts) and discipline (the rule of officials)
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.14

Main characteristics of bureaucracies

Organisational tasks are allocated as duties between organisational positions Clear-cut division of labour and high degree of task specialisation Uniformity of decisions is achieved through rules and regulations Impersonal behaviour by officials when dealing with each other and with clients Employment is based on technical qualifications
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.15

Four main features of bureaucracy

Specialisation Hierarchy of authority System of rules Impersonal behaviour

Stewart.

Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.16

Critique of bureaucratic organisations

They over-emphasise rules, procedures, record-keeping and paperwork, which become an end in themselves. They tend to emphasise status and ritual behaviour. Individual initiative can be stifled by rules. They cannot adapt quickly to changed circumstances. Their rigidity can restrict the psychological growth of their members.
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.17

The human relations approach

Elton Mayo, 18801949 The Hawthorne experiments at the Western Electric Company Attention given to social factors at work rather than purely rational organisation Studies focus on individual psychological and social needs Recognised the informal organisation and group norms as an important influence on worker behaviour
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.18

Critique of the Hawthorne experiments

A flawed experiment?
Failure to take environmental factors into account Adoption of a unitary frame of reference to worker/employer relationship Over simplification of complex behaviours Ignores external social factors on worker behaviour, e.g. the sex power differential
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.19

The legacy of the Hawthorne experiments

They emphasised the importance of the wider social needs of individuals and gave recognition to the work organisation as a social organisation and the importance of group values and norms.

The Classical School was about organisations without people whereas the human relations school is about people without organisations.
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.20

Neo-Human relations
Date from the 1950s and 1960s

Psychological in background
Concerned with human personality and motivation
Maslow: the hierarchy of needs
Herzberg: twofactor motivation theory McGregor: theory X and theory Y managers

Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.21

The contingency approach

Rejects the idea of one best form or structure or optimum state for an organisation Focus placed on more general principles of organisational analysis and design Successful design is dependent (ie. contingent) upon:
The nature of tasks The nature of the environment
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.22

Joan Woodward
Unit or Small Batch production
One-off productions Required a flexible structure

Large Batch and Mass production

Mass production Rigid structures

Process production
Completely automated Flexibility within structures
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.23

Burns and Stalker

Proposed two ideal types of management (extremes) to perform in different environments;
Mechanistic
Formal and rigid structures High degree of specialisation

Organic
Fluid and flexible to adapt
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.24

Social action
Sociologically based Views the organisation from the standpoint of individual members (the actors). Individual goals and interpretations of the work situation are important in explaining behaviour. Conflict is seen as an organisational norm. Rejects the unitary and adopts a more pluralist approach to understanding organisational life.

Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.25

The systems approach

A reconciliation of classical and human relations approaches? Considers:
The total work organisation The relationship between structure and behaviour The range of variables within an organisation

The organisation as an open system The Tavistock Institute Studies of the 1940s mining industry Socio-technical system or technological determinism?
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.26

Systems View of an Org

Adapted from Worthington I and Britton C The Business Environment (6th edition Prentice Hall)
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.27

Systems Approach
Subsystems Boundaries Objectives and goals Organisation as a system: Katz and Kahn
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.28

The firm in its environment

Text and slides developed from Worthington I and Britton C The Business Environment (6th edition Prentice Hall)

Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.29

Two levels of environment

Text and slides developed from Worthington I and Britton C The Business Environment (6th edition Prentice Hall)
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.30

The importance of cultural contexts

Traditionally, the greatest aspiration of researchers is to discover objective, universalistic principles of behaviour. The tacit assumption behind this is that these principles may be discovered without reference to cultural contexts.
Cheng, Sculli and Chan

Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.31

Towards a scientific value approach?

It is obvious from even a cursory glance at the history of management science that science and technology are considered to be key instruments in solving workplace problems and in controlling workplaces While Taylorist scientific management may have its academic critics, management science is thriving. It is itself a large business, providing employment for management consultants whose sole concern is solving workplace problems of other corporations.
Bradley et al.
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.32

Balance between philosophy and science

Ideas drive management as surely as the immediate problems which land on managers desks or which arrive via their email. Decisions have to be based on ideas, as well as instinct. Without ideas managers flit desperately from crisis to crisis. They cannot know where they are going, why they are doing something or what they will achieve, without the fuel of ideas.
Crainer
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.33

Benefits to the manager

Helps to explain the complexities of modern organisations Provides comparisons Prepares managers for the future Encourages managers to abandon complacency Can shed new light on old problems

Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007

Slide 2.34

Exercise
Use a scientific management approach to the achievement of two of these tasks:
Booking an airline ticket Cooking spaghetti bolognese Bathing a small child Rearranging 100 CDs in some form of order, 10 to each shelf Washing up after a small dinner party Renewing your passport
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, Laurie J. Mullins 2007