Foundational Management Approaches: Systematic, Scientific, and Administrative Theories

The Five Classical Approaches to Management Theory

1. Systematic Management

Systematic Management focused on building specific procedures and processes to ensure coordinated efforts. Key aspects included:

1. Defining duties and responsibilities.
2. Standardizing the techniques of doing things.
3. Carefully gathering, handling, and analyzing information.
4. Implementing production controls to aid internal coordination and communication.

Critique: This approach was limited because it focused only on the internal environment and processes, with no regard for the human element (people) or the external environment.

2. Scientific Management (Frederick Taylor)

Frederick Taylor, often called the father of Scientific Management, used the scientific method to analyze work and determine the single most efficient way to perform a task. His four core principles are:

1. Principle 1: Find the best way to do the job (developing a "science" for every job element).
2. Principle 2: Selectively pick the person and teach them to do it (scientific selection and training).
3. Principle 3: Ensure jobs match plans and principles (cooperating with workers to ensure methods are followed).
4. Principle 4: Divide labor and responsibility between workers and managers.

Related Developments in Scientific Management

• Instruction Cards: Detailed instructions provided to workers.
• Piece-Rate System: Improved by Henry Gantt, who introduced incentives for managers based on worker productivity. Gantt also created the Gantt Chart.
• Lillian Gilbreth: Known as the Mother of Modern Management, her work focused on motivating people, reducing fatigue and stress, and improving worker satisfaction through motion studies.

3. Bureaucratic Management

This approach emphasizes a formal, impersonal structure characterized by rules and hierarchy. Key elements of this structure include:

1. Element 1: Clear division of labor.
2. Element 2: A defined hierarchy of command.
3. Element 3: Hiring based strictly on technical qualifications.
4. Element 4: Managers run the business, separate from the owners (impersonality).
5. Element 5: Standardized rules and values within the business.

Critique: Bureaucracy can be problematic if run incorrectly. It is often very slow to change and difficult to dismantle once established.

4. Administrative Management (Henri Fayol)

Henri Fayol focused on the role of top management and defined the universal functions necessary for effective administration.

• Fayol named five primary functions of management: plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control.
• He also proposed 14 Principles of Management, though modern application often finds this list overly broad.

Critique: This approach is sometimes considered too broad to be applicable to all organizational areas without modification.

5. The Human Relations Movement

The Human Relations Movement considered the psychological and social factors (the human factor) influencing productivity. It asserted that managers should be deeply concerned with employee well-being and satisfaction.

Key Concepts in Human Relations

• Hawthorne Effect: Accidentally discovered during the Hawthorne studies, this phenomenon states that behavior changes when individuals know they are being observed.
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Suggests that lower-level needs must be met before higher-level needs can motivate an individual.

Critique: The core assumption that "a happy worker equals a productive worker" was later found to be too simplistic and did not account for all variables affecting performance.