BA Public Services Management & Strategy Pollard (1978) Developments in Management Thought. London: Heinemann Mike Durke.

BA Public ServicesManagement & Strategy

Pollard (1978)

Developments in Management Thought. London: Heinemann

Mike Durke

FW Taylor

• Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915)

• The father of scientific management

• Eyesight prevented study so he worked as machinist and pattern maker

• FWT said scientific management was born in 1882 – worked on it for 30 yrs

• ‘Soldiering’ – natural instinct to take it easy – workers self interest

FW Taylor

• Workers saw managers as enemies = power struggle

• How to get more output from the workers?

• Scientific Management = ‘the management of initiative and incentive’

• Piece-rates and bonuses

• FWT sought to replace ‘opinions’ with ‘facts in the workplace

FW Taylor

1. Always secure full support of top managers2. Mental revolution of managers and workers3. Friendly co-operation not hostility4. Correct feeds and speeds for cutting metal5. One best way for each single job6. Incentive – extra work = extra pay7. First-class staff8. 8 functional foremen not one foreman9. Correct method for new systems and the right

installers

FW Taylor

• The mental revolution was the real basis of scientific management. Workers were to:

1. Stop fighting over wages and the profits2. Accept a scientifically established increase (by

facts) of 30-100% of wages through effort3. Forget soldiering and help management

establish the facts about production4. Accept management’s role in determining the

what, when, where, how and time constraints5. Agree to be trained and follow management’s

new methods

FW Taylor

• Management was to:1. Develop a science for each operation2. Determine time and method for each job3. Match workers to suitable jobs – train to be as

good as he could be4. Organise efficiently to remove all responsibility

from the worker apart from performance of the job

5. Agree to be governed by the science and surrender arbitrary power over the workers.

Frank B and Lilian M Gilbreth

• FB started as an apprentice bricklayer then foreman, manager, owner then consultant

• Accepted and developed FW Taylor’s ideas

• LM was a psychologist who helped FB and developed her own ideas

Frank B and Lilian M Gilbreth

• Science of motion study• ‘Systems Management’ – prescribed way

of doing things down to the last detail: FB referred to the, “one best way.”

• FB set down his ‘Field System’ for his managers – rules and procedures applicable to all sites

• Main problem was to ensure performance and control at a distance

Frank B and Lilian M Gilbreth

• Motion study articles in American journal Industrial Engineering in 1911

1. Reduce present practice to writing

2. Enumerate motions used

3. Enumerate variables which affect each motion

4. Reduce best practice to writing

5. Enumerate motions used

6. Enumerate variables which affect each motion

HL Gantt

• HL worked with FWT at the Bethlehem Steel Works – a helper in the development of scientific management

• FWT’s work had been used by some bad managers to oppress - unrealistic expectations on workers

• HL set a day rate for a job plus a bonus of 20-50% if done in the time set

HL Gantt

• If worker couldn’t do any part of the job in time supervisor was informed.

• Supervisor would demonstrate that it could be done if not the engineer who set the time would be called.

• If he couldn’t do it then a new more realistic time would be set.

• Biggest achievement – Gantt Chart

JD Mooney

• ‘Principles of Organisation’ with AC Reilly 1939 – mainly related to changes in US system of government

• 2 main objectives: principles which relate to all organisations; and illustrations relating to Catholic church, army, government and business

• Very difficult to read

JD Mooney

• What does ‘organisation’ mean?

• Precise and definitive approach which claims ‘org’ is a necessary and universal

• Cavemen and co-operation

• Aims and objectives are only the ‘physics’ of an organisation

• Organisation means order and orderly procedure

JD Mooney

• Definition: “organisation is the form of every human association for the attainment of a common purpose.” (Pollard, p41)

PF Drucker

• Very popular influence on management thought

• 1950s – new ideas with practical focus as opposed to theoretical

• 1955 – major work, ‘The Practice of Management’ written for managers and those aspiring to management.

PF Drucker

• Focus on different sections in ‘The Practice of Management’

- The Nature of Management:

“The manager is the dynamic, life giving element in every business.”

- Managing a Business: serving society – purpose of management is to

“Create a customer.”

PF Drucker

- Managing a business: need for innovation and change, the creation of new needs and the setting of objectives

- Managing Manager: a fundamental element. Need to direct everyone’s efforts towards the business objectives

- Structure of Management: links betewwn structure and practice

PF Drucker

• The Management of Worker and Work: workers at all levels are human beings with human needs

• What it Means to be a Manager: making the whole greater than the sum of its parts

• On leadership he says:

“Leadership cannot be created or promoted. It cannot be taught or learned.”

PF Drucker

• 1964 ‘Managing for Results’

• Focus on top-level overall management of a business

1. Analysis and understanding of results

2. Opportunities and decisions

3. Purposeful Performance

Henri Fayol

• Managed a coal mine at 25; 31 general manager of a few mines; 47 Managing Director of mining group for 30 yrs.

• 1916 ‘General and Industrial Management’ (translation in 1929 & 1949)

• Definition of management:

“To forecast and plan, to organise, to command, to co-ordinate and to control.”

Oliver Sheldon

• Worked for Rowntrees in York. 1920s.• Asked practical questions in the light of

increased public awareness of industry, workers’ need to develop themselves, overgrowth of many kinds of associations (inc unions) and science (sm re: FWT)

• Management/worker partnership:“Welfare is essentially a corporate enterprise.”

B Seebohm Rowntree

• Most influential on British management in 1920s and 30s. Quaker, b 1871.

• Succeeded his dad as Chair of board in 1923 and retired at 70 in 1941.

• A humanitarian, he wanted workers to co-operate with management: keep workers on-side and don’t overthrow capitalism!

• Minimum wage: enough to raise a family of 3 children in reasonable comfort

Mary Parker Follett

• 1920s and 30s work rediscovered and amplified in 50s and 60s.

“One cannot separate work from human beings, their hopes, fears and aspirations, nor can one look on work and business as a series of isolated cause and effects but only as a continuous process of interrelationships between people.”Pollard (1978; p161)

Chris Argyris

• 1950s ‘Personality and the Organisation’ - theory of behaviour in industry

• Managers need self-awareness.

• Its not possible to understand others unless we understand ourselves and vice versa.

Renis Likert

• 1947 - 1960s, Institute for Social Research, Michigan – study of management in practice

“Supervision is, therefore, always a relative process. To be effective and to communicate as intended, a leader must always adapt his behaviour to take into account the expectations, values, and inter-personal skills of those with whom he is interacting.” Jenkins (1947) ‘A review of leadership studies with particular reference to military problems’,