Chapter 2 Flashcards
Why use theories?
They provide conceptual frameworks for organizing knowledge and blueprints for action
Why study history?
Helps aid managers in the development of management practices and in avoiding the past mistakes of others
How are management theories grounded?
They are grounded in reality
What theories do managers develop?
Managers develop their own theories about how they should run their organizations
What are the viewpoints for Classical Management Perspective?
Scientific Management, and Administrative Management
What is Scientific Management?
Concerned with improving the performance of individual workers, grew out of the industrial revolution’s labor shortage at the beginning of the 20th century
What is Administrative Management?
A theory that focuses on managing the total organization rather than individuals
What are some things about Frederick Taylor?
Replaced rule-of-thumb methods with scientifically-based work methods to eliminate “soldering”,
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
What are the 3 perspectives?
Classical, behavioral, and quantitative
Who believed that there is a right way to do things, and then to get trained doing it?
Frederick Taylor
What did Frank and Lillian Gilbreth do?
Reduced the number of movements in bricklaying, resulting in increased output of 200%
What did Henry Gantt do?
Developed the Gantt chart to improve working efficiency through planning and scheduling
What did Harrington Emerson do?
Advocated job specialization in both managerial and operating jobs
Name scientific management pioneers
Frederick Taylor, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, Henry Gantt, Harrington Emerson
What did Henri Fayol do?
Helped to systematize the practice of management,
Was first to identify the specific management fuctions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling
What are contributions from classical management today?
Laid foundation for later theoretical developments,
Identified management processes, functions, and skills,
Focused attention on management as a valid subject of scientific inquiry
What are limitations from classical management today?
More appropriate approach for use in traditional, stable, simple organizations,
Prescribed universal procedures that are not appropriate in some settings,
Emphasizes as tools rather than resources
Name administrative management pioneers
Henri Foyol
What is Behavioral Management Perspective?
Emphasized individual attitudes and behaviors, and group processes,
Recognized the importance of behavioral processes in the workplace
What Hugo Munsterberg considered?
He is considered the father of industrial psychology
behavioral management perspective
What are the Hawthorne Studies?
Conducted by Elton Mayo and associates at Western Electric, intended as a group study of the effects of a piecework incentive plan on production workers, workplace lighting changes unexpectedly affected both control and experimental groups
(Looked at workers)
What is another name for the Hawthorne Studies?
The illuminations study
What did the Hawthorne Studies interview program confirm?
The importance of human behavior in the workplace
What is the Human Relations Movement?
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
What did Abraham Maslow do?
Advanced a theory that employees are motivated by a hierarchy of needs that they seek to satisfy
(looks at the factors that influence your motivation)
What did Douglas McGregor do?
Proposed Theory X and Theory Y concepts of managerial beliefs about people and work
What is Theory X and Theory Y?
Theory X assumes people try to avoid work, don’t like work, Theory Y is about sharing power
What does the emergence of organizational behavior focus on?
Focuses on behavioral perspectives of management
What are important organizational behavior topics?
Job satisfaction and stress, Motivation and leadership, Group dynamics and organizational politics, Interpersonal conflict, The design of organizations
The organizational behavior draws from what?
Psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, and medicine
What are contributions to behavioral management today?
Provided insights into motivation, group dynamics, and other interpersonal processes,
Challenged the view that employees are tools and furthered belief that employees are valuable resources,
Focused managerial attention on these critical processes
What are limitation to behavioral management today?
Complexity of individuals makes difficult to predict,
Concepts are not used because managers are reluctant to adopt them,
Research findings are not often communicated to practicing managers in an understandable form
What is Quantitative Management Perspective?
Things that we can count
What is the use of quantitative management?
Focuses on decision making, economic effectiveness, mathematical models, and the use of computers to solve quantitative problems, Helped WWII allied forces manage logistical problems
For quantitative management, what is management science?
Focuses on the development of representative mathematical models to assist with decisions
For quantitative management, what is operations management?
The practical application of management science to efficiently manage the production and distribution of products and services
What are contributions for quantitative management today?
Sophisticated quantitative techniques can assist managers in decision making,
Application of its models has increased awareness and understanding of complex processes and situations,
It is useful in planning and controlling processes
What are limitations for quantitative management today?
Mathematical sophistication may come at the expense of other managerial skills,
Its models may require unrealistic or unfounded assumptions, limiting their general applicability
(It cannot fully explain or predict the behavior of people in organizations)
What is open system?
An organization that interacts with its external environment, has to pay attention to the outside, what is going on with the competition, government, etc.
(Open=Outside)
What is closed system?
An organization that doesn’t interact with its environment, they don’t care about what’s going on, they aren’t around too long
What are subsystems?
The importance of subsystems is due to their interdependence on each other within the organization
What is the concept of synergy?
Subsystems are more successful working together in a cooperative and coordinated fashion than working alone,
The whole system is more productive and efficient that the sum of its parts (whole system- subsystems working together as one system),
(You are worth more as a team rather than an individual)
What is the concept of entropy?
A normal process in which an organizational system declines due to its failing to adjust to change in its environment,
Entropy can be avoided and the organization re-energized through organizational change and renewal,
Normal stage of decline, if no entropy is experienced it can lead to bankruptcy
What is Universal Perspective?
Attempted to identify the “one best way” to manage organizations, includes, the classical, behavioral, and quantitative approaches
What is Contingency Perspective?
Suggests that each organization is unique,
Appropriate managerial behavior for managing an organization depends (is contingent) on the current situation in the organization
What is an Integrative Framework?
Is a complementary way of thinking about theories of management, involves recognition of current system and subsystem interdependencies, environmental influences, and the situation nature of management
What are some contemporary issues and challenges?
A sluggish and worrisome 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, increased productivity, and lower costs, the shift toward a service economy
What is human relations movement?
Argued that workers respond primarily to the social context of the workplace
