Who among the management theorists discussed had the best contribution to management practices Brainly?

Management theories are the recommended management strategies that enable us to better understand and approach management. Many management frameworks and guidelines were developed during the last four decades. 

Management theories are the set of general rules that guide the managers to manage an organization. Management theories (also known as "Transactional theories") focus on the role of supervision, organization, and group performance. Theories are an explanation to assist employees to effectively relate to the business goals and implement effective means to achieve the same. In this article, we will discuss the historical context of management, diverse views on management, and finally the theories of management.

Early management theories base leadership on a system of reward and punishment. Managerial theories are often used in business; when employees are successful, they are rewarded; when they fail, they are reprimanded or punished.

Types of Management Theories

Management theories can be classified into three types.

These management theories are explained below:

Classical management theory is based on the belief that workers only have physical and economic needs and prescribes specialization of labor. Classical theories recommend centralized leadership and decision-making and focus on profit maximization. Three streams of classical management theory are - Bureaucracy (Weber), Administrative Theory (Fayol), and Scientific Management (Taylor).

The behavioral management theory is focused on the human aspects of work. They are also often referred to as the human relations movement. These theories aspire to gain a better understanding of human behavior at work to improve productivity. It focuses on behavioral aspects like motivation, conflict, expectations, and group dynamics.

Modern management theory emphasizes the use of systematic mathematical techniques to analyze and understand the inter-relationship of management and workers in all aspects. Three streams of modern management theories are - Quantitative Approach, System Approach, and Contingency Approach.

General Management Theories

There are four general management theories.

1. Frederick Taylor’s Theory of Scientific Management:

Taylor’s theory of scientific management aimed at, improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. Taylor had a simple view about, what motivated people at work, - money. He felt that workers should get a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, and that pay should be linked to the amount produced. Therefore he introduced the differential piece rate system, of paying wages to the workers.

Taylor's Differential Piece Rate Plan:

• If Efficiency is greater than the defined Standard then workers should be paid 120 % of the Normal Piece Rate.
• If Efficiency is less than standard then workers should be paid 80% of the Normal Piece Rate.

Principles of Scientific Management

Four Principles of Scientific Management are:

• Time and motion study: - Study the way jobs are performed and find new ways to do them.
• Teach, train, and develop the workman with improved methods of doing work. Codify the new methods into rules.
• The interest of the employer & employees should be fully harmonized so as to secure mutually understanding relations between them.
• Establish fair levels of performance and pay a premium for higher performance.

2. Henri Fayol’s Administrative Management Theory:

Henri Fayol known as the Father of Management laid down the 14 principles of Management. These 14 principles of management are used to manage an organization and are beneficial for prediction, planning, decision-making, organization and process management, control, and coordination.

• Division of Work: Improves productivity, efficiency, accuracy, and speed
• Equity: Employees should be treated equally and respectfully
• Discipline: Makes the management job easy and make progress
• Initiative: support and encourage employees taking initiatives
• Authority and Responsibility: Efficient delivery of work with defined responsibility
• Esprit de Corps: Develop trust and mutual understanding
• Subordination of Individual Interest: Company over personal interest and respect the chain of command
• Stability: offer job security to their employees
• Remuneration: motivating factor linked to the individual’s efforts
• Unity of Direction: Unified goals and motives for all personnel working in a company
• Centralization: Balance between the hierarchy and division of power
• Scalar Chain: Hierarchy steps should be from top to the lowest
• Unity of Command: More than one boss brings a conflict of interest and confusion
• Order: the positive atmosphere in the workplace boosts productivity

3. Max Weber’s Bureaucratic Theory of Management:

Weber made a distinction between authority and power. Weber believed that power educes obedience through force or the threat of force which induces individuals to adhere to regulations. According to Max Weber, there are three types of power in an organization:-

• Traditional Power
• Charismatic Power
• Bureaucratic Power or Legal Power.

Features of Bureaucracy:

• Division of Labor.
• Formal Hierarchical Structure.
• Selection based on Technical Expertise.
• Management by Rules.
• Written Documents.
• Only Legal Power is Important.
• Formal and Impersonal relations.

4. Elton Mayo’s Behavioral Theory of Management:

Elton Mayo's experiments showed an increase in worker productivity was produced by the psychological stimulus of being singled out, involved, and made to feel important. Hawthorne Effect can be summarized as “Employees will respond positively to any novel change in a work environment like better illumination, clean work stations, relocating workstations, etc. Employees are more productive because they know they are being studied.

5 Relationship Theories or Transformational Theories of Management

Relationship theories (also known as "Transformational theories") focus upon the connections formed between leaders and followers. These leaders motivate and inspire people by helping group members see the importance and utility of the task. Transformational leaders are focused on the performance of group members, but also want each person to fulfill his/her potential. These leaders often have high ethical and moral standards.

There are different thoughts on management. According to one school of thought, history is of no relevance to the real problems faced by modern world managers in today's dynamic environment. However, both management theory and its history are indispensable tools for managing complex digitally-enabled organizations in a modern context.

Forces Influencing Management Theories

The following three forces had a major influence on the concept and evolution of management theories.

Social Forces:

Social forces are the norms and values that characterize a culture. Early social forces allowed workers to be treated poorly. However, more recent social forces have provided for more acceptable working conditions for the workforce.  Social forces have greatly influenced the management thought in the areas of motivation and leadership.

Economic Forces

Economic factors have influenced the way businesses developed and designed their organizational structures, workforce, etc. Examples of these economic forces are Ideas like a market economy, public enterprise, and private ownership of property, economic freedom, competitive markets, and globalization.

Political Forces

Political forces such as governmental regulations play a significant role in how organizations choose to manage themselves. Government actions and political realities often influence the success and failure of a business and most of the time political factors that affect a business are often completely out of the company's control. Political forces have influenced management theory in the areas of environmental analysis, planning, control, and organizational design and employee rights.

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Frederick Winslow Taylor is known as the Father of Scientific Management, which also came to be known as “Taylorism.” Taylor believed that it was the role and responsibility of manufacturing plant managers to determine the best way for the worker to do a job, and to provide the proper tools and training. He also believed in providing incentives for performance.

To determine the best way to do a job, he broke each activity down into very small motions and timed each motion with a stopwatch. He would then analyze the action to eliminate unnecessary motion, which created the most efficient method of performing an assigned task. Each worker was trained to perform the task in exactly the same way, leading to an efficient operation that resulted in consistent quality and output.

Who was Frederick Winslow Taylor?

Taylor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 20, 1856 and died there at the age of 64 on March 21, 1915. He graduated from Phillips Exeter in New Hampshire in 1872, but was forced to give up his plans to attend Harvard when he lost his eyesight.

By 1875, Taylor’s vision had recovered enough that he became an apprentice pattern maker and machinist at the Enterprise Hydraulic Works in Philadelphia. Shortly after, he moved to the Midvale Steel Plant as a machinist. He rose quickly through the ranks, becoming Chief Engineer in 1884, after earning a degree from Stevens Institute of Technology by attending classes at night.

In 1881, he introduced his theory of time and motion study to the Midvale plant. This theory formed the basis of his subsequent theory of management science. The theory held that close observation of time and motion and elimination of wasted motions would result in the most efficient method of production.

Taylor was a highly creative individual, with more than 40 patents filed under his name. However, his interest in time and motion study caused him to leave Midvale in 1890 to become general manager of The Manufacturing Investment Company. It was during his time at the Manufacturing Investment Company that he created an entirely new profession: that of consulting engineer in management.

He worked with many prominent companies of the day, including Bethlehem Steel, where perhaps his most famous experiment occurred. Taylor observed workers using various implements to move coal into the furnaces, and determined the exact size and shape of shovel, and the amount of the load per shovelful, that resulted in the greatest productivity. Bethlehem Steel equipped the workforce with these shovels and enjoyed a significant increase in productivity as a result.

Taylor retired at the age of 45 to focus on promoting the scientific management method. He received an honorary degree from the University of Pennsylvania and was elected president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in 1906.

The Foundation of Scientific Management

Throughout his professional life, Taylor’s work focused on increasing productivity and therefore, profitability, and his goal was to raise productivity without driving workers too hard. Taylor believed in finding the right job for the right worker and paying that worker well for the increased output rather than simply paying for the job.

In 1910, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis cited Taylor’s work in U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission hearings as a progressive management technique that could raise pay and reduce the physical strain on workers while simultaneously increasing profits for business owners. It was Brandeis who created the term “scientific management” to refer to Taylor’s research. Taylor summed up his own work with these words: “true scientific management requires a mental revolution on the parts of management and of workers.”

Taylor’s methods have been used in industries ranging from manufacturing to education to medicine, with excellent results. While his work has been frequently misinterpreted, the reality is that his ideas are very similar to the principles of lean manufacturing that business so reveres today.

Taylor espoused finding the best way to accomplish a task, similar to benchmarking. He advocated for eliminating waste, especially wasted motion, similar to process redesign or continuous improvement.

In fact, many knowledgeable people credit Taylor with inventing the concept of continuous improvement. W. Edwards Deming reportedly said that Taylor’s principles were the foundations of his own management theories. Even though widely misunderstood, Frederick Taylor’s contribution to modern manufacturing methods cannot be overstated. He was a true visionary and a tireless advocate for the worker as well as management.

In what ways has Taylorism shaped your business principles? Discover other Heroes of Manufacturing and learn more about the visionaries that transformed the world of manufacturing.