CH.

2
Managing: History and Current
Thinking
3 Basic Approaches to
Management:
 Classical Approach
 Behavioral Approach
 Management Science Approach

OTHER APPROACHES:
 The Contingency Approach
 The Systems Approach
The Classical Approach
The Classical Approach
 Pioneers of Management Study
 “recommends that managers continually strive
to increase organizational efficiency to increase
production”
 Find the ‘one best way’
 Lower-level analysis: done by studying the jobs
of workers at the lower levels of organization,
how the task situation can be structured to get
the highest production from workers.
 Comprehensive Analysis: studying the
management function as a whole.
Frederick W. Taylor
 Gave the concept of ‘Scientific
Management’ – increase worker
efficiency by scientifically
designing jobs, his basic premise
was that every job had one best
way to do it and that this way
should be discovered and put into
operation.
 Bethlehem steel Co.
 Assumption that any workers
work could be reduced to a
science
 Astounding results and increase in
efficiency and production
 Pioneered the Piece-Rate System
Gilbreths:

 ‘Motion Study’ – reducing each job to the

most basic movements possible
 Each movement/motion is studied to
determine how much time the movement
takes and how necessary it is to performing
the job
 Inefficient/unnecessary movements are
eliminated
Henry L.Gantt:
Interested in increasing worker efficiency
Current tasks and piece rates were set according
to what had been done in the past, or on
somebody’s OPINION of what workers should
do.
This led to inefficient tasks and unsatisfactory
piece rates
Gantt said this OPINION should be substituted
by EXACT SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE
Sought to improve systems/organizations
through task-scheduling innovation and the
rewarding of innovation
 Gantt Charts: Still the scheduling tool most commonly used by modern managers. This chart shows what work was
scheduled for specific time periods, how much of this work has been completed, and by whom it was done.

 Rewarding Innovation: You should be more humane, do not be a slave-driver. When you ask someone to perform
work, make it to their advantage to do so, do not ask unreasonable or impossible.
Gave the concept of a ‘Bonus’ pay in addition to piece rate, for exceeding the daily production quota.
Believed in worker compensation that corresponded to overproduction (bonus)
 Henri Fayol:
Comprehensive Analysis
Pioneer of Administrative Theory
He gave the FUNCTIONS OF
MANAGEMENT –Planning,
Organizing, Commanding,
Coordinating, and Controlling.
Gave 14 General Principles of
Management:
1. Division of Work
2. Authority (and Responsibility)
3. Discipline
4.Unity of Command
5.Unity of Direction
6. Subordination of individual interests to the general
interests
7. Remuneration
8. Centralization (/Decentralization)
9. Scaler Chain
10. Order
11. Equity
12. Stability of Tenure of Personnel
13. Initiative
14. Espirit de corps

.
Limitations of Classical
Approach:
Did not emphasize human variables, did not
take into account differences in characters,
and such things as leadership, motivation,
conflict and communication.
The Behavioral Approach

 Emphasizes increasing production through an

understanding of people.
 If managers understand their people and
adapt their organizations to them,
organizational success will usually follow.
 The Hawthorne Studies
 The Human Relations Movement
 Management Science Approach
 Suggests that managers can best improve their
organizations using the scientific method and
mathematical techniques to solve organizational
problems.
 WW II – OR groups – Operations Research groups\
 Dictates that scientists:
- Observe
- Construct
- Deduce
- Test
FOUR characteristics of situations in which management
science techniques are applied:
 The management problems studies are so
complicated that managers need help in analyzing a
large number of variables.
 A management science application generally uses
economic implications (eg.sales,profit) as guidelines
for making a particular decision
 The use of mathematical models to investigate the
business situation is typical in management science
application
 Computers are often used in this analysis and are
very valuable to management science
The Contingency Approach:

 What managers do in practice depends upon, or is

contingent upon, a given set of circumstances,
that is , dependent upon certain situations
 Emphasizes “ïf-then”relationships
 Outlines the best management methods for
different situations
 No one best way to solve all management
problems in an organization, but ONE BEST WAY
TO SOLVE A PARTICULAR PROBLEM OR
SITUATION
The System Approach:
 To fully understand the operation of an entity, the entity must be viewed as a
system
 System: A number of interdependent parts functioning as a whole for some
purpose
 Two types of systems: Closed and Open
 Concept of system as a WHOLE is very important – you must first b aware of
how each part functions and the interrelatedness of each part, before you can
make modifications to the parts which benefit the system as a whole
 Management System comprises of a number of parts including organizational
input, organizational process and organizational output. These function
interdependently to achieve a purpose – organizational objectives
 Management system is an open system – One that interacts with its
environment.