PBI1032 Academic Reading and Writing Assignment 1: Information Report

Title: Management Styles of Organization

Prepared by

HA SHIAW TONG 26369(GROUP 13) LAW FUNG YEE 26674 (GROUP 3)

Group 9

Course Instructor: Mr. Chuah Kee Man Submission Date: Week 8 (31 October - 6 November)

Management Styles of Organizations Management styles are theories or concepts that influence the working environment to get job done within an organization. Peter Drucker, a popular management theorist stated that management styles provide directions and leadership for the organizations, and utilize the recourses in the organizations to achieve their organizational goals (Daft, 2004). Different management styles might have difference in leadership of the upper management, but the purpose mostly remains the same which is to monitor and motivate their employees to perform well in order to achieve efficiency of the works. (Khilawala, 2011).There are four common management styles, which are scientific management, bureaucratic management, Hawthorn studies and total quality management.

As the first management style, scientific management was proposed by Frederick Winslow Taylor from 1856 to 1915 (Daft, 2004). This method believed in one best way for a certain task to be completed (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, & Coulter, 2008). This would mean that scientific management is focus on standardization, which is to divide employees into different groups, and each group only focus on one task. Daft (2004) stated that scientific management focus on improving efficiency and labor productivity. By contribution of standardization, the employees can reduce their redundant by concentrating on one particular task. Therefore, their productivity can be increased as they skilled with their task. The basic principles of scientific management emphasize on developing standard methods for each task, select workers with the appropriate abilities, trained workers in the standard methods, supported workers by planning their work and eliminating interruptions and increased the wages of workers which increased output for the organization. He also further elaborated that scientific management illustrated the importance of compensation of performance and the importance of personal selection and training and scientific management did not concern about higher needs of the workers and ignored their ideas and suggestions. However, scientific management is still used in many organizations today, especially in manufacturer industry which requires high productivity and work efficiency (Daft, 2004). It is also proven in the study by Robbins (2008), he 1

mentioned that when managers analyze the basic work tasks that must be performed, use time-and-motion study to eliminate wasted motions, hire the best-qualified workers for a job and design incentive systems based on output, they are using scientific management (p. 45).

The second management style is

bureaucratic management.

Bureaucratic

management is a systematic approach developed in Europe which was introduced from 1864 to 1920 by Max Weber (Hellriegel, Jackson, & Slocum, 2001). According to Daft (2004, p.46), bureaucratic management can be defined as a subfield of the classical management perspective that emphasized management on an impersonal, rational basis through such elements as clearly defined as authority and responsibility, formal recordkeeping, and separation of management and ownership. To explain in a simple way, bureaucratic management relies on a form of organization characterized by a detailed authority hierarchy structure, impersonality, clearly formal rules and regulation and division of labor and it gives a blueprint to organization how to operate it (Robbins, 2008). Based on the study by Draft (2004), he believed that the purpose of Weber introduced bureaucratic management on organization is to make an organizational more efficient and adjuster to change which is based on rational authority because organization continuity is linked to formal structure and position, and relies on rules and written records which are impersonal and applied regularly to all employees rather than to a specific person, who may go away or pass out. To Weber, the hierarchy authority, responsibility and the division of labor need to clearly defined and justified as office errand (Draft, 2004). However, Webers theory are no more famous on this 20th century as stated by Robbins (2008) even though there are certain big organization still have the characteristics of bureaucratic management. Most of the managers believe that bureaucracies are able to reduce the employees creativity and the ability of organization the speed of response on this diversity era if the bureaucracy underline on inflexible division
of labor, insist on official rules and regulations, and impersonal application of rules. However,

some bureaucratic mechanisms are essential to extremely flexible organization of talented 2

specialist, for instance, Google or Optus Communication, in order to ensure that resources are utilized efficiently and effectively (Robbins, 2008).

The third management style is Hawthorn Studies. The Hawthorne Studies is a series of studies on employees productivity which was carried out between 1924 and 1933 at the Hawthorne plant of Western Electric Company in Illinois and the conclusion of this study is when manager treat employees in affirmative attitude, the employees productivity will rise (Daft, 2004). This would means that Hawthorne studies believed in keeping employees satisfy and happy can increased the output of the organization. He also stated that rewards such as money and feelings of being important in the organization mattered a great deal in motivating the employees to improve their performance. Hellriegel (2001) found that the increases in productivity were caused by complex emotional event. Employees ideas and creativity are not being concerned in the classical management style such as scientific management and bureaucratic management but Hawthorne studies found that social intercourse is important and employees are more motivated to work if they are well treated (Khilawala, 2011). Hellriegel furthermore stated that the managers should interact with the employees to understand their needs and encourages them to participate in decision making process so that the employees wont feel that they are being alienated. Campbell Soup is one of the companies which practice this management style. This company embarks employees straightly in devoting to the success of the company to get the highest level of client satisfaction in this strongly competitive industry (Hellriegel, 2001). Campbell Soup also encourages their employees to participate in decision making process and awards them for their contribution (Hellriegel, 2001). Therefore, this company is always getting creative idea and their employees are motivated to work.

The last management style is total quality management. Total quality management is an idea of W. Edwards Deming, known as the father of the quality movement, but altered by Japanese to help reconstruct their industries into word power (Daft, 2004). 3

According to Daft (2004), total quality management is a concept that emphasizes on managing the organization to deliver quality product and services to their customers and it is very helpful for organization when it is properly implemented because total quality management can lead to better overall performance of employees, better quality product and services and the increased number of loyal customers (Harris, n.d.) . Daft (2004) further stated that there are four significant elements of total quality management, which are employee involvement, focus on the customer, benchmarking and continuous improvement. Employee involvement means that total quality management requires the participation of all employees in improving and monitoring the quality of product and services by finding out customers needs and tries to satisfy their needs and expectations. Benchmarking refers to a process whereby the organizations find out how their competitors perform, how others do something better than they and try to improve on their weakness. He also explained that continuous improvement is improvements in all areas of the organizations on an ongoing period. Lastly, he stated that total quality management is more flexible than bureaucratic management as it involves empowerment, by setting up quality circle, which is a team trained in simple problem solving, propose suggestions and improvement to form a better organization (Draft, 2004). Total quality management is not a quick fix, but many companies have achieved efficiency, quality improvement and customer satisfaction by practicing this method.

REFERENCES Daft, R. (2004). Management (7th ed). Canada: South Western. Harris, Q. (n.d.). Total quality management. Retrieved October 22, 2011 from http://managementhelp.org /quality/total-quality-management.htm. Hellriegel, D., Jackson, S., & Slocum, J. (2001). A competency-based approach. Management (9th ed). Canada: South Western. Khilawala, R. (2011). Management styles - list of different types of management styles. Retrieved from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/management-styles-list-of-differenttypes-of-management-styles.html. Robbins, S., Bergman, R., Stagg, I. & Coulter, M.(2008). Management 5. Australia: Pearson Education.

APPENDICES DIAGRAM

Management style

Scientific management introduced by Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) - focus on improving efficiency and labor productivity by training employees on standard method.

Hawthorn Studies -introduced by Hawthorne plant of Western Electric Company in Illinois (1924-1933) - believed in keeping employees satisfy and happy can increased the output of the organization.

Bureaucratic management -introduced by Max Weber (1864-1920) - relies on a form of organization characterized by: detailed authority hierarchy structure impersonality clearly formal rules regulation and division of labor

Total Quality Management -idea of W. Edwards Deming but modified by Japanese -emphasizes on managing the organization to deliver quality product and services to their customers by using four quality management techniques: employee involvement focus on the customer benchmarking continuous improvement

Online material 1. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/management-styles-list-of-different-types-of-manage ment-styles.html 2. http://managementhelp.org /quality/total-quality-management.htm.