Chapter Two
Traditional and Contemporary Issues and
Challenges
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Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Justify the importance of history and theory to
management and discuss precursors to modern
management theory.
2. Summarize and evaluate the classical perspective on
management, including scientific and administrative
management, and note its relevance to contemporary
managers.
3. Summarize and evaluate the behavioral perspective on
management, including the Hawthorne studies, human
relations movement, and organizational behavior, and note
its relevance to contemporary managers.
4. Summarize and evaluate the quantitative perspective on
management, including management science and
operations management, and note its relevance to
contemporary managers.
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Learning Objectives (cont’d)
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
5. Discuss the systems and contingency approaches
to management and explain their potential for
integrating the other areas of management.
6. Identify and describe contemporary management
issues and challenges.
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The Importance of
Theory and History
• Why Theory?
– Theory: a conceptual framework for organizing
knowledge and providing a blueprint for action.
– Management theories are grounded in reality.
– Managers develop their own theories about how
they should run their organizations.
• Why History?
– Understanding historical developments in
management aids managers in the development
of management practices and in avoiding the
mistakes of others.
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Early Management Pioneers
• Robert Owen (1771–1858)
– British industrialist who recognized the importance
of human resources and implemented better
working conditions through reduced child labor,
meals, and shorter hours.
• Charles Babbage (1792–1871)
– English mathematician who focused on creating
efficiencies of production through the division of
labor, management and labor cooperation, and
application of mathematics to management
problems.
• Wrote “On the Economy of Machinery and
Manufactures.”
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The Classical
Management Perspective
• Consists of two different
viewpoints:
– Scientific Management
• Concerned with improving the
performance of individual workers (i.e.,
efficiency).
– Administrative Management
• A theory that focuses on managing the
total organization.
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Scientific Management
• Frederick W. Taylor (1856–1915)
– “Father of Scientific Management.”
– Replaced rule-of-thumb methods with
scientifically-based work methods to eliminate
“soldiering.”
– Believed in selecting, training, teaching, and
developing workers.
– Used time studies, standards planning, exception
rule, slide-rules, instruction cards, and piece-work
pay systems to control and motivate employees.
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Figure 2.2: Steps in
Scientific Management
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The Classical Management
Perspective (cont’d)
• Other Scientific Management Pioneers
– Frank and Lillian Gilbreth
• Reduced the number of movements in bricklaying,
resulting in increased output of 200%.
– Henry Gantt
• Was an early associate of Fredrick Taylor.
• Developed other techniques, including the Gantt chart, to
improve working efficiency through planning/scheduling.
– Harrington Emerson
• Advocated job specialization in both managerial and
operating jobs.
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The Classical Management
Perspective (cont’d)
• Administrative Management Theory
– Focuses on managing the total organization rather
than individuals.
• Henri Fayol
– Wrote “General and Industrial Management.”
– Helped to systematize the practice of
management.
– Was first to identify the specific management
functions of planning, organizing, leading, and
controlling.
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The Classical Management
Perspective Today
• Contributions
– Laid the foundation for later theoretical
developments.
– Identified management processes, functions, and
skills.
– Focused attention on management as a valid
subject of scientific inquiry.
• Limitations
– More appropriate approach for use in traditional,
stable, simple organizations.
– Prescribed universal procedures that are not
appropriate in some settings.
– Employees viewed as tools rather than as
resources.
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Table 2.1: The Classical
Management Perspective
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The Behavioral
Management Perspective
• Behavioral Management
– Emphasized individual attitudes and behaviors,
and group processes.
– Recognized the importance of behavioral
processes in the workplace.
• Hugo Munsterberg (1863–1916)
– A German psychologist, considered the father of
industrial psychology, wrote “ Psychology and
Industrial Efficiency,” a pioneering work in the
practice of applying psychological concepts to
industrial settings.
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The Hawthorne Studies
• Conducted by Elton Mayo and associates at
Western Electric (1927–1935)
– Illumination study of changes in workplace lighting
unexpectedly affected both the control group and
the experimental group of production employees.
• Group study—the effects of a piecework incentive plan
on production workers.
– Workers established informal levels of acceptable
individual output; over-producing workers (“rate busters”)
and under-producing workers (“chiselers”).
• Interview program
– Confirmed the importance of human behavior in the
workplace.
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The Behavioral Management
Perspective (cont’d)
• The Human Relations Movement
– Grew out of the Hawthorne studies.
– Proposed that workers respond primarily to the
social context of work, including social
conditioning, group norms, and interpersonal
dynamics.
– Assumed that the manager’s concern for workers
would lead to increased worker satisfaction and
improved worker performance.
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The Behavioral Management
Perspective (cont’d)
• Human Relations Movement
– Abraham Maslow
• Advanced a theory that employees are
motivated by a hierarchy of needs that they
seek to satisfy.
– Douglas McGregor
• Proposed Theory X and Theory Y concepts of
managerial beliefs about people and work.
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Table 2.2: Theory X
and Theory Y
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The Behavioral Management
Perspective Today
• Contributions
– Provided insights into motivation, group dynamics, and other
interpersonal processes.
– Focused managerial attention on these critical processes.
– Challenged the view that employees are tools and furthered the belief
that employees are valuable resources.
• Limitations
– Complexity of individuals makes behavior difficult to predict.
– Many concepts not put to use because managers are reluctant to
adopt them.
– Contemporary research findings are not often communicated to
practicing managers in an understandable form.
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The Quantitative Management
Perspective
• Quantitative Management
– Helped the World War II Allied forces manage
logistical problems.
– Focuses on decision making, economic
effectiveness, mathematical models, and the use
of computers to solve quantitative problems.
• Operations Management
– The practical application of management science
to efficiently manage the production and
distribution of products and services.
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The Quantitative Management
Perspective Today
• Contributions
– Developed sophisticated quantitative techniques to assist in
decision making.
– Application of models has increased our awareness and
understanding of complex processes and situations.
– Has been useful in the planning and controlling processes.
• Limitations
– Quantitative management cannot fully explain or predict the
behavior of people in organizations.
– Mathematical sophistication may come at the expense of
other managerial skills.
– Quantitative models may require unrealistic or unfounded
assumptions, limiting their general applicability.
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Table 2.4: The Quantitative
Management Perspective
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Integrating Perspectives
for Managers
• Systems Perspective
– A system is an interrelated set of elements
functioning as a whole.
• Open system
– An organization that interacts with its external
environment.
• Closed system
– An organization that does not interact with its
environment.
• Subsystems
– The importance of subsystems is due to their
interdependence on each other within the
organization.
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Figure 2.3: The Systems
Perspective of Organizations
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Systems Perspective
• Synergy
– Subsystems are more successful working together
in a cooperative and coordinated fashion than
working alone.
– The whole system (subsystems working together
as one system) is more productive and efficient
than the sum of its parts.
• Entropy
– A normal process in which an organizational
system declines due to failing to adjust to change
in its environment
– Entropy can be avoided and the organization re-
energized through organizational change and
renewal.
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The Contingency Perspective
• Universal Perspectives
– Include the classical, behavioral, and quantitative
approaches.
– Attempt to identify the “one best way” to manage
organizations.
• The Contingency Perspective
– Suggests that each organization is unique.
– The appropriate managerial behavior for managing an
organization depends (is contingent) on the current
situation in the organization.
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Contemporary Management
Issues and Challenges (cont’d)
• Contemporary Management Challenges
– An erratic economy that limits growth
– Management of an increasingly diverse workforce
– Employee privacy
– Technology that promotes telecommuting
– The role of the Internet in business strategy
– Operating and competing in diverse global markets
– Ethics in corporate governance and social responsibility
– Quality as the basis for competition
– The shift toward a service economy
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