Management (the evolution of management) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Management (the evolution of management) - Essay Example The Changes that has been made to these management practices are discussed. According to Weber, Bureaucracies are governed by a set of impersonal rules and procedures that are applied universally, without regard to the personal characteristics of particular individuals, and rationally designed to serve some broader purpose. For Weber, the use of expert specialists, impersonal norms, written document, and the discipline of a command hierarchy give bureaucratic organizations a reliability, regularity, and precision in the execution of tasks that no other form of authority equals. In a bureaucracy, each member repeatedly executes a particular function according to pre specified standards in the service of a larger collective goal. Fayol contributed to the technical understanding of organizational structure in several ways. He recommended that no subordinate receive orders from more than one superior, as this will lead to confusion, disorder, and ill will when the directives of different supervisors conflict. Fayol made the first strong arguments for the use of organization charts to clarify lines of authority and communication and to demarcate areas of responsibility. Taylor recognized an important fact about all organizations: If one works alone, the problem of work discipline is only one of self-discipline; but in a cooperative or collective work process, there is a problem of control or how to ensure that other people will do what you want them to do, sometimes known as the principal-agency problem. Taylor was determined to eliminate restriction of output and break all worker resistance to management control of work methods and pace. Taylor saw his mission as recapturing knowledge and control of the production process from the workers for management by using the scientific method. He interviewed and observed workers, conducted controlled experiments to determine the most efficient techniques and maximum output levels, and devised detailed work rules and wage incentives to enforce those methods and production targets. In order to gather the necessary information, Taylor had workers perform their jobs using different methods, and he observed and timed their every movement in detail, a procedure known as time and motion study. In this fashion, Taylor determined what he thought was the one best way a job should be performed. Until this time, engineers had standardized only physical inputs; now they would standardize the human inputs. Workers would work in rigid conformity to the prescribed method and would be expected to meet the output quotas that were determined to be feasible under this system. To use a contemporary phrase, Taylor believed that people worked "smarter not harder" when they used the best methods devised by scientific management. - (Handel, pp 14) Establishing a division of labor and hierarchy of authority Weber's Bureaucracies employ technically qualified, full-time experts assigned to unique areas of responsibility in a logical division of labor. There is a hierarchy of superiors and subordinates, and access to positions is based on