Chapter 1

Question 1

Frederick Taylor

Answer 1

Systematic analysis of “every little act” in tasks performed by workers

Role of management “information on work processes, analyze it, derive rules and guidelines, efficient way to perform tasks - (Now we would add evaluate it)

Time motion studies - Find the “one best way.” It’s a fallacy

Workers increase well-being through productivity. (better wages)

Pay is the primary reward for work

Highly impersonal

Question 2

Max Weber

Answer 2

Bureaucracy as an Ideal Construct

“founder of organization sociology” (analysis of complex organizations) -

Advanced organizations are grounded in rational-legal form of authority and are superior. (not based on birthright or aristocracy)

No charismatic leaders

Defined the basic characteristics of a good bureaucracy

Legalistic specification of authorities and obligations of office (rules,supervision, [administration], rules, management

Precision; speed; clarity; consistency; reduction of costs - This is how we evaluate what we do.

Bureaucracies can develop problems of accountability.

Stated bureaucracy had 5 characteristics

1. Fixed, official jurisdictional areas are established by means of rule.
2. There is a hierarchy of authority
3. Admin positions usually require expert training and full working capacity
4. Management of subunits follows relatively stable and exhaustive rules, and knowledge of these rules is the special expertise of the official
5. Management position serves as a full-time vocation, or career

Question 3

The Systems Metaphor

Answer 3

1. Recent perspectives emphasis the variety of organizational forms that can be effective under the different conditions that organizations face. Reject the “one best way” concept
2. This draws on general systems theory – analyzing these systems in nature can provide insights about diverse entities.
3. A system is an ongoing process that transforms inputs into outputs.
4. Closed vs open (aka adaptive) systems
   
   1. Closed system – internal processes remain the same regardless of environmental changes
   2. Open system – transform their behaviors to adapt to the environment

Question 4

The Administrative Management School: Principles of Administration

Answer 4

1. Proponents of this school of thought advanced principles that focused on providing effective organization. Influenced by Luther Gulick and James Mooney.
   
   1. Gulick discussed the division of work and the coordination (points listed below) of work.
      
      1. Span of control (6-10)
      2. Each subordinate should have one supervisor
      3. Tasks must be grouped into units on the basis of their homogeneity.
      4. **Gulick coined POSDCORB – Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, and Budgeting**
      5. Mooney stated that an organization must be like a scale, a graded series of steps, in levels of authority and responsibilities.
         
         1. This chain relied on delegation
         2. Emphasis the role of leadership
         3. Functional definition, under which each person is assigned a specific task. Group similar functions, separate dissimilar functions.
   2. Both of these examples emphasize formal structure and hierarchical authority
   3. The influence of the administrative management school on these reform efforts can be considered the most significant direct influence on practical events in government that organizational theorists ever had.
   4. Administrative management theorists’ work was related to a broad progressive reform movement. Including establishing the role of the city manager.
   5. Argued that democratic involvement required more participation and cooperation and led to better planning and implementation of plans.
   6. Administrative management focused on organizational structure and paid little attention to tasks and to incentives and motivation.

Question 5

The Hawthorne Studies:

Answer 5

Elaborating the Nature of People in the Workplace in the 1920’s

Studied the impact of lighting levels, working conditions (rest periods and work hours)

Provided a more subtle view of the psychology of the workplace

Discovered that the following had a significant influence on workers

1. Work group experiences
2. Sense of the importance of the work
3. Concern on the part of the supervisors
4. Also identified a distinction between formal and informal organizations
5. The emphasis on social influences, informal processes, and motivating power of attention was a counterpoint against the principles of administrative management and scientific management.

Question 6

Chester Barnard

Answer 6

1. Rather than emphasizing the formal authority of executive leaders, Barnard focused on how leaders induce cooperative activities. Used term “economies of incentives”. Included more than money in incentives… also power, prestige, fulfillment, etc.
2. Barnard treated the role of executive as central, but he placed less emphasis on formal authority and formal organizational structures
3. Executives must use communication and persuasion to influence workers’ valuations of incentives

Question 7

Herbert Simon

Answer 7

1. Simon argued that limits on rationality must be more carefully analyzed through a more empirical approach, with decision making as the primary focus
2. Emphasized analysis of actual behavior rather than prescribing principles
3. Emphasized uncertainty that administrative decision makers face
4. Coined the term “Satisfice” – choosing the best of a limited set of alternatives so as to optimize the decision within the constraints of limited info and time.

Question 8

Kurt Lewin

Social Psychology, Group Dynamics, and Human Relationships

Answer 8

1. Kurt Lewin developed field theory and topological psychology which sought to explain human actions as functions of both the characteristics of the individual and forces impinging on the individual at a given time.
2. Studied power, communication, influence, and “cohesion” within groups
3. Argued that groups and individuals maintain a “quasi-stationary equilibrium”. This equilibrium results from a balance between forces pressing for change, and against change.
4. 3 phase process for altering the total field
   
   1. “Unfreezing” phase, or weakening the forces against change & strengthening the forces for change
   2. “Changing” phase moves the group to a new equilibrium
   3. “Refreezing” phase firmly sets the new equilibrium through such processes as expressions of group consensus
5. Participative Decision Making (PDM)
6. After his death the group dynamics group split into two movements
   
   1. One emphasized rigorous experimental research on group concepts
   2. One group continued to emphasize industrial applications and training in group processes
      
      1. This lead to the development of the field of organizational development
      2. Also led to use of T-groups, sensitivity sessions, and encounter-group techniques

Question 9

Abraham Maslow

The Human Relations School

Answer 9

1. theory of human needs. The hierarchy of prepotency.
   
   1. Physiological
   2. Safety
   3. Love
   4. Self-Esteem
   5. Self-Actualizations

Question 10

Theory X” and “Theory Y

Answer 10

Douglas McGregor drew upon Lewin and Maslow’s work with “Theory X” and “Theory Y”

1. Theory X
   
   1. McGregor argued that Theory X dominated American industry
   2. Held that employees were lazy, passive, and resistant to change and responsibility
   3. Management must direct, control, and motivate employees
   4. McGregor felt this was at the heart of classic approached to management, such as scientific management
   5. Good For predictable day-to-day operations (city gov’t)
2. Theory Y
   
   1. Drew on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
   2. Held that employees are capable of self-motivation and self-direction
   3. Management approaches such as decentralization of authority, management by objectives, and job enlargement.
   4. Rejected the classical approach to organization.

Question 11

Contingency Theory

Answer 11

1. “Contingency theory” was the dominant approach in organizational analysis in the 60s and 70s.
2. Trist and Bamforth
   
   1. Depicted the organization as a system with interdependent social and technical subsystems. ‘
   2. Technical changes in the work process changed social relationships within the work group
3. Emery & Trist
   
   1. Noted the increasing flux and uncertainty in the world
   2. The emphasis moved toward analysis of organizations as open systems faceing the need to adapt to environmental variations.
4. Daniel Katz & Robert Kahn
   
   1. Applied the systems language of inputs, throughputs, outputs, and feedback to organizations.
   2. Differentiated various major subsystems including maintenance subsystems, adaptive subsystems, and managerial subsystems.
5. Joan Woodward
   
   1. Found British Firms fell into 3 categories on the basis of the production process or “technology”
      
      1. Small batch or unit production systems (ships or planes)
      2. Large batch or mass-production systems (mass manufacturing)
      3. Continuous production systems (petroleum)
   2. Concluded that successful firms within each category showed similar management structure profiles, but those profiles differed between the three categories