MGM101 CH2

Question 1

Examples of early management

Answer 1

Egyptian pyramids and Great Wall of China: A manager was needed to tell people what to do, ensure there were enough stones, impose controls

City of Venice: Had a major economic trade centre in 1400s. Developed early business enterprise such as adding materials and riggings to warships at each stop. Accounting system seemed to keep track of revenue and costs. There were inventory systems too.

Question 2

What did Adam Smith claim in his book ‘The Wealth of nations’?

Answer 2

Smith concluded that division of labour increased productivity by increasing each worker’s skill and dexterity, saving time last in changing tasks, and creating labour-saving inventions and machinery.

Question 3

What are the four major approaches to management theory?

Answer 3

Classical, behavioural, quantitative, and contemporary

Question 4

What is the classical approach of management theory?

Answer 4

First studies of management that emphasized rationality and making organizations and workers as efficient as possible

Question 5

What was Frederick Winslow Taylor’s book ‘Principles of Scientific Management’ about?

Answer 5

Taylor’s book described the theory as scientific management: the use of scientific methods to define the “one best way” for a job to be done

Question 6

What was Taylor concerned about?

Answer 6

When working at Midvale and Bethlehem Steel Companies in Pennsylvania, he was appalled by workers’ inefficiencies/ Employees used vastly different techniques to do the same job. There were no work standards, employees’ abilities and aptitudes did not match their task.

Question 7

Define scientific management

Answer 7

An approach that involves using the scientific method to find the “one best way” for a job to be done

Question 8

What did Taylor set out to do?

Answer 8

He wanted to apply a scientific method to shop-floor jobs. He spent two decades pursuing the one best way” for such jobs to be done. He defined clear guidelines for improving production efficiency, the 4 principles of management.

Question 9

What is Taylor’s pig iron experiment

Answer 9

Workers loaded “pigs” of iron onto rail cars and average daily output was 11.3 tonnes. Taylor managed to increase it to 42-43 tonnes per day by putting the right person to the job, having them follow instructions exactly, and giving the worker with an economic incentive a significantly higher daily wage.

Question 10

How did Frank Gilbreth and his wife Lillian first start to study scientific management?

Answer 10

Frank was inspired by Taylor in a professional meeting and him and his wife set off to study how to eliminate inefficient hand and body motions. They also experimented with design and the use of proper tools and equipment for optimizing performance. Their household was ran using scientific principles and techniques.

Question 11

What is Frank Gilbreth best known for?

Answer 11

Frank is probably best known for his bricklaying experiments. By carefully analyzing the bricklayer’s job, he reduced the number of motions in laying exterior brick from 18 to about 5, and in laying interior brick from 18 to 2. Using Gilbreth’s techniques, a bricklayer was more productive and less fatigued at the end of the day.

Question 12

Give examples of using principles of scientific management

Answer 12

Managers analyze basic work tasks that must be performed, use time and motion study to eliminate wasted motions, hire best qualified workers for the job, design incentive systems based on output.

Question 13

What are therbligs?

Answer 13

A classification scheme for labelling basic hand motions

Question 14

What is ‘general administrative theory’?

Answer 14

An approach to management that focuses on describing what managers do and what constitutes good management practice

Question 15

Define principles of management

Answer 15

Fundamental rules of management that could be applied in all organizational situations and taught in schools

Question 16

What is a bureaucracy?

Answer 16

A form of organization characterized by division of labour, a clearly defined hierarchy, detailed rules and regulations, and impersonal relationships

Question 17

While Taylor was concerned with first-line managers and the scientific method, what was Fayol more focused on?

Answer 17

It was directed at the activities of all managers. He wrote from his personal experience as the managing director of a large French coal-mining firm. Fayol described the practice of management as something distinct from accounting, finance, production, distribution, and other typical business functions.

Question 18

What did Fayol’s personal belief of management lead him to develop?

Answer 18

14 principles of management—fundamental rules of management that could be applied to all organizational situations and taught in schools.

Question 19

Who is Max Weber?

Answer 19

a German sociologist who studied organizations. 8 Writing in the early 1900s, he developed a theory of authority structures and relations based on an ideal type of organization he called a bureaucracy

Question 20

How is bureaucracy similar to scientific management in terms of ideology?

Answer 20

Both emphasized rationality, predictability, impersonality, technical competence, and authoritarianism.

Question 21

What are Fayol’s Fourteen Principles of Management?

Answer 21

1. Division of work. Specialization increases output by making employees more efficient.
2. Authority. Managers must be able to give orders, and authority gives them this right.
3. Discipline. Employees must obey and respect the rules that govern the organization.
4. Unity of command. Every employee should receive orders from only one superior.
5. Unity of direction. The organization should have a single plan of action to guide managers and
   workers.
6. Subordination of individual interests to the general interest. The interests of any one employee
   or group of employees should not take precedence over the interests of the organization as a whole.
7. Remuneration. Workers must be paid a fair wage for their services.
8. Centralization. This term refers to the degree to which subordinates are involved in decision making.
9. Scalar chain. The line of authority from top management to the lowest ranks is the scalar chain.
10. Order. People and materials should be in the right place at the right time.
11. Equity. Managers should be kind and fair to their subordinates.
12. Stability of tenure of personnel. Management should provide orderly personnel planning and en-sure that replacements are available to fill vacancies.
13. Initiative. Employees allowed to originate and carry out plans will exert high levels of effort.
14. Esprit de corps. Promoting team spirit will build harmony and unity within the organization

Question 22

What is organizational behaviour (OB)

Answer 22

The study of the actions of people at work

Question 23

Who are the early advocates of OB approach?

Answer 23

Robert Owen, Hugo Münsterberg, Mary Parker Follett, and Chester Barnard

Question 24

What is the Hawthorne Studies?

Answer 24

These studies, which started in 1924, were initially designed by Western Electric industrial engineers as a scientific management experiment. They wanted to test the effects of various light levels on productivity.

it is the modification of employee behavior based on the perception that they are being observed by management

Question 25

What is quantitative approach?

Answer 25

The use of quantitative techniques to improve decision making and is also know as quantitative science. (to make an optimal decision by using mathematical optimization models, information models, statistical models and computer simulations in a situation when the probability of all outcomes is uncertain)

Question 26

What did quantitative approach evolve from?

Answer 26

It evolved from mathematical and statistical solutions developed for military problems during World War II. After the war was over, many of the techniques used for military problems were applied to businesses.

Question 27

What is total quality management

Answer 27

A philosophy of management that is driven by continuous improvement and responsiveness to customer needs and expectations. The term customer includes anyone who interacts with the organization’s product or services, internally or externally. It encompasses employees and suppliers, as well as the people who purchase the organization’s goods or services.

Question 28

Give some examples of quantitative techniques

Answer 28

Ex. Manhattan supermarkets’ use of “queue management” to shorten lines
Ex. when managers make budgeting, queuing, scheduling, quality control, and similar decisions

Question 29

What are systems

Answer 29

A set of interrelated and interdependent parts arranged in a manner that produces a unified whole
Ex. A needs to be done well so B can do its thing, then C, etc.

Question 30

What is a closed system

Answer 30

Systems that are not influenced by and do not interact with their environment

Question 31

What is an open system

Answer 31

Systems that interact with their environment

Question 32

What did Chester Barnard, a telephone company executive, write in his book, ‘The Functions of an Executive’?

Answer 32

that an organization functioned as a cooperative system

Question 33

Researchers envisioned an organization as made up of…

Answer 33

“interdependent factors, including individuals, groups, attitudes, motives, formal structure, interactions, goals, status, and authority.”

Question 34

The systems approach recognizes that…

Answer 34

1. no matter how efficient the production department, the marketing department must anticipate changes in customer tastes and work with the product development department in creating products customers want or the organization’s overall performance will suffer.
2. organizations are not self-contained. They rely on their environment for essential inputs and as outlets to absorb their out-puts. No organization can survive for long if it ignores government regulations, sup-plier relations, or the varied external constituencies on which it depends.

Question 35

What is the contingency approach (situational approach)?

Answer 35

A management approach that recognizes organizations as different, which means they face different situations (contingencies) and require different ways of managing

Question 36

what do managers face today when managing?

Answer 36

Managers now have to manage employees working from home or from the other side of the world. Now that practically everyone in an organization is connected, wired or wireless, it has brought dramatic changes to how managers manage.