3 - Hierarchal Management Flashcards
what are different phrases that can be used for hierarchal management?
- bureaucracy
- classical management
- scientific management (Taylor)
- machine organisation (treats people as if they are a machine, directed and controlled)
what is hierarchal management?
most recognisable form
a way of structuring an organisation using different levels of authority, higher levels of authority control the hierarchy
= rational and clearly defined arrangement of activities which are directed towards fulfilling the purposes of the organisation
what did Coarse state about hierarchy and firms?
a firm is based on a ‘master and servant’ relationship
someone has to be in charge
who are the main classical management theorists?
- fayol
- taylor
- weber
- guillick
- urwick
what are the three key ideas at the heart of hierarchal management?
- rational legal authority (weber)
- unity of command (urwick/guilick)
- neutral administration of rules and processes (weber)
who makes points about rational legal authority?
weber
what did taylor say about rational legal authority?
that the authority in an organisation should come from rationality
what does hierarchal management depend on?
the notion of rationality, theorists through they could uncover a science of management
authority should come from rationality
what are the three types of authority in (rational)?
traditional, charismatic and legal
only interested in legal
what is traditional rationality of authority?
people who have authority due to tradition such as familym if you have a family firm you may get control as next of kin (royal family)
what is charismatic authority (rational(?
when a person has respect or entilitmenet through their personality and charisma in which they hold, how attractive they are as a person, more about performance rather than skill such as Boris Johnson
what is the main type of authority rationality looks at?
legal
what is legal authority ?
rational legal authority
the power that someone gets form a particular position, trained and judged on experience, given power in condition for skill, if you perform bad the rational response would be to sack you (compared to traditional - may be your business now)
everything has to happen for a good logical reason
metriocracy
what did Guillick say you should be trained in to be a manager?
Planning oorganising Staffing Directings Co-ordinatiing Reporting Budgeting (disciplines of management/seceintific elements)
what is the second key idea for hierarchal management?
unity of command
what is unity of command?
the idea that there is one source of authority/power, single source of command, the person at the top is ultimately in charge of everything
what quote did Guilick use in regards to unity of command?
‘a workman subject to orders from eval superiors will be confused, inefficient and irresponsible, a workman subject to orders from but one superior may be methodical’
what does Urwick state about unity of command?
unity of command can limit the span of control, as you make the organisation bigger it becomes more diificult to manage people as complex relationships are built, managing larger amounts of people becomes impossible to a certain point due to span of control
how can you avoid losing span of control?
by having different layers of authority, e.g. different schools, vice chancellor
what is the third key idea in hierarchal management?
neutral administration of rules and processes
what is neutral administration of rules and processes
= System based on people following rules
who is a good example of rules idea?
Henry Ford
Model T production, the assembly line, everyone had a different job to do, rules on what times, if the rules weren’t follow the whole line would fall apart, no room for incostsicney
what do a lot of organisations have?
written rules in which employees should follow, applied consistently and impersonally (like a machine)
why might organisation that have strict impersonal rules pay higher?
due to monotonous routine which t hen gives them incentives o stay, Ford rose his pay when he introduced new assembly line
what did Weber say about bureaucracy overall?
had the ability to be the most efficient form of organisation but it is now associated with inefficiency, dysfunction and expensive
what is the problems with rationality?
- formal rationality is impossible
- not enough time and resources
- bounded rationality, restricted, maybe based on situation
- satisfying rather than maximising, does not maximise organisations just makes sure that they make satisfactory decisions
what are the problems with unity of comman ?
Simon HErbet
- unavoidable discretion, everyone still has a little bit of room to decide what they want to do, judgement
- organisational localities, may have more loyalty to people on same level as you, so the top people slowly lose control
- training, people may not be trained solely from inside organisation,, trained at different places
- efficiency criteria,
- boring
what are the problems with rules?
Bozeman white vs red tape- white tape is good rule which every organisation tries to cretics but its often white turn to red - unneccaary rules) (out of date like women)
- individual cases don’t always fit rules, treat people in a standardised way
- rules can conflict, uni teacher cardiff give work back after 20 days but also rule about work life balance
despite the weaknesses of hierarchy why is it still important?
have to be careful not to completely dismiss the hierarchal system, in that we still depend upon this as it is hard to find an organisation that does not use this form in some way, so widely used it remains a crucial importance
