Schermerhorn & Bachrach / Management, 14th Instructor’s Guide

Chapter 2
MANAGEMENT LEARNING PAST TO PRESENT

CLASSICAL MANAGEMENT APPROACHES

Learning Objective: Describe the principal insights of classical management thinking.

FIGURE 2.1 of the text depicts the major branches of the classical approach to management,
which include scientific management, administrative principles, and bureaucratic organization.

Classical approaches share a common assumption: People at work act in a rational manner that is
primarily driven by economic concerns. Workers are expected to rationally consider opportunities
made available to them and to do whatever is necessary to achieve the greatest personal and
monetary gain.

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

Frederick Taylor is known as the “father” of scientific management, which emphasizes careful
selection and training of workers and supervisory support. He advocated the following four
principles of scientific management
1. Develop for every job a “science” that includes rules of motion, standardized work
implements, and proper working conditions.
2. Carefully select workers with the right abilities for the job.
3. Carefully train workers to do the job and give them the proper incentives to cooperate with
the job “science.”
4. Support workers by carefully planning their work and by smoothing the way as they go about
their jobs.

Although Taylor called his approach “scientific” management, contemporary scholars question
his reporting and the scientific rigor underlying his studies.
Practical insights from scientific management:

1. Make results-based compensation a performance incentive.

2. Carefully design jobs with efficient work methods.
3. Carefully select workers with the abilities to do these jobs.
4. Train workers to perform jobs to the best of their abilities.
5. Train supervisors to support workers so they can perform jobs to the best of their abilities.

Frank and Lillian Gilbreth pioneered motion study –– the science of reducing a job or task to its
basic physical motions. Wasted motions are eliminated to improve performance. As the text
indicates, Worthington Industries in Ohio currently uses one of the techniques of motion study –

Copyright © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2-1

Schermerhorn & Bachrach / Management, 14th Instructor’s Guide

time clocks. Each workstation has a clock that shows the goal time for the task, and the actual
time it takes, which allows a worker to improve productivity.

ADMINISTRATIVE PRINCIPLES

Henri Fayol was a French executive who advanced the following five “rules” of management:

1. Foresight –– to complete a plan of action for the future.

2. Organization –– to provide and mobilize resources to implement the plan.
3. Command –– to lead, select, and evaluate workers to get the best work toward the plan.
4. Coordination –– to fit diverse efforts together and ensure information is shared and
problems solved.
5. Control –– to make sure things happen according to plan and to take necessary corrective
action.

Note the similarity of these “rules” to the contemporary management functions of planning,
organizing, leading, and controlling.

Fayol believed that management could be taught, and formulated principles to guide management
practice.

Fayol introduced the following key principles of management:

1. Scalar chain principle –– there should be a clear and unbroken line of communication
from the top to the bottom of the organization.
2. Unity of command principle –– each person should receive orders from only one boss.
3. Unity of direction principle –– one person should be in charge of all activities that have
the same performance objective.

BUREAUCRATIC ORGANIZATION

Max Weber, a German intellectual, introduced bureaucracy as an organizational structure that

promotes efficiency and fairness.

Weber viewed a bureaucracy as an ideal, intentionally rational, and very efficient form of
organization founded on principles of logic, order, and legitimate authority.

Characteristics of bureaucratic organizations include the following

• Clear division of labor: Jobs are well defined, and workers become highly skilled at
performing them.
• Clear hierarchy of authority: Authority and responsibility are well defined for each position,
and each position reports to a higher-level one.
• Formal rules and procedures: Written guidelines direct behavior and decisions in jobs, and
written files are kept for historical record.

Copyright © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2-2

Schermerhorn & Bachrach / Management, 14th Instructor’s Guide

• Impersonality: Rules and procedures are impartially and uniformly applied, with no one
receiving preferential treatment.
• Careers based on merit: Workers are selected and promoted on ability and performance, and
managers are career employees of the organization.

Possible disadvantages of bureaucracy:

• Excessive paperwork or “red tape.”
• Slowness in handling problems.
• Rigidity in the face of shifting customer or client needs.
• Resistance to change.
• Employee apathy.

BEHAVIORAL MANAGEMENT APPROACHES

Learning Objective:
Identify key insights of the behavioral management approaches.

Behavioral approaches to management maintain that people are social and self-actualizing. People at
work are assumed to seek satisfying social relationships, respond to group pressures, and search for
personal fulfillment.

Figure 2.2 of the text depicts the foundations of the human resource approaches to management. These
are the Hawthorne studies, Maslow’s theory of human needs, McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y,
Follett’s organizations as communities and Argyris’ theory of adult personality. The historical
foundations set by these approaches are found in the field of organizational behavior, which is devoted
to the study of individuals and groups in organizations.

THE HAWTHORNE STUDIES

These studies started off as scientific management experiments designed to determine how
economic incentives and the physical conditions of the workplace affected the output of workers.
Despite repeated efforts, however, no consistent relationship was found. The researchers
concluded that psychological factors had influenced the results.

Social Setting and Human Relations

Elton Mayo and his associates manipulated physical work conditions to assess their
impact on output. Experiments were designed to minimize the “psychological factors”
associated with previous experiments in the Hawthorne studies. Once again, output
increased regardless of the changes made.

Copyright © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2-3

Schermerhorn & Bachrach / Management, 14th Instructor’s Guide

Mayo and his colleagues concluded that increases arose from a group atmosphere that
fostered pleasant social relations, and from the participative supervision found in the
experimental groups.

Lessons of the Hawthorne Studies

People’s feelings, attitudes, and relationships with co-workers influence their

performance.

The Hawthorne effect was identified as a tendency of people who are singled out for
special attention to perform as anticipated merely because of expectations created by the
situation.

The Hawthorne studies contributed to development of the human relations movement

during the 1950s and 1960s, which asserted that managers who use good human relations
in the workplace would achieve productivity. In turn, the human relations movement
became the precursor of contemporary organizational behavior, the study of individuals
and groups in organizations.
MASLOW’S THEORY OF HUMAN NEEDS

FIGURE 2.3 of the text illustrates Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

A need is a physiological or psychological deficiency that a person feels compelled to satisfy.

Maslow’s hierarchy identifies five levels of human needs: physiological, safety, social, esteem,
and self-actualization.

The deficit principle states that people act to satisfy “deprived” needs –– that is, needs for which
a satisfaction deficit exists; conversely, a satisfied need is not a motivator of behavior.

The progression principle states that the five needs exist in a hierarchy of prepotency, and that a
need at any level only becomes activated once the preceding lower-level need is satisfied.

The deficit and progression principles cease to operate at the self-actualization level.

MCGREGOR’S THEORY X AND THEORY Y

The Hawthorne studies and Maslow’s theory of human needs heavily influenced Douglas
McGregor, the developer of Theory X and Theory Y. He argued that managers should devote
more attention to people’s social and self-actualizing needs at work.

McGregor asserted that managers must shift their perspective from Theory X assumptions to
Theory Y assumptions.

Copyright © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2-4

Schermerhorn & Bachrach / Management, 14th Instructor’s Guide

Theory X – managers assume that subordinates:

1. Dislike work.
2. Lack ambition
3. Are irresponsible
4. Resist change.
5. Prefer to be led rather than to lead.

Theory Y – managers assume that subordinates are:

1. Willing to work.
2. Capable of self-control.
3. Willing to accept responsibility.
4. Imaginative and creative.
5. Capable of self-direction.

McGregor believed that managers who hold either set of assumptions can create self-fulfilling
prophecies — that is, through their behavior they create situations where subordinates act to
confirm their expectations.

Theory X managers create situations where workers become dependent and reluctant.

Theory Y managers create situations where workers respond with initiative and high
performance.
Theory Y assumptions are central to contemporary ideas about employee participation,
involvement, empowerment, and self-management.

Copyright © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2-5

Schermerhorn & Bachrach / Management, 14th Instructor’s Guide

MODERN MANAGEMENT FOUNDATIONS

Learning Objective: Explain the core foundations of modern management theory and practice.

QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS AND TOOLS

Today, managers use data to solve problems and make informed decisions using systematic
analysis. This technique is known as data analytics.

Quantitative tools include:

• Mathematical forecasting which helps make future projections that are useful in the planning
process.
• Inventory analysis helps control inventories by mathematically establishing how much to
order and when.
• Queuing theory which helps allocate service personnel or workstations to minimize customer
waiting time and service cost.
• Linear programming which is used to calculate how best to allocate scarce resources among
competing uses.
• Network models break large tasks into smaller components to allow for better analysis,
planning, and control of complex projects.

Copyright © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2-6

Schermerhorn & Bachrach / Management, 14th Instructor’s Guide

ORGANIZATIONS AS SYSTEMS

A system is a collection of interrelated parts that function together to achieve a common purpose.

A subsystem is a smaller component of a larger system.

An open system interacts with its environment in a continual process of transforming inputs from
suppliers into outputs for customers.

FIGURE 2.4 on page 38 of the text shows organizations as complex networks of interacting
subsystems.

CONTINGENCY THINKING

Contingency thinking tries to match managerial responses with the problems and opportunities
specific to different situations, particularly those posed by individual and environmental
differences.

Contingency approaches to management assert that there is no one best way to manage. Instead,
managers should understand situational differences and respond to them in appropriate ways.

QUALITY MANAGEMENT

W. Edwards Deming is the cornerstone of the quality movement in management. His approach to
quality emphasizes constant innovation, use of statistical methods, and commitment to training in
the fundamentals of quality assurance.

Total quality management is a process of making a commitment to quality part of all

operations.

Continuous improvement is a process of always looking for new ways to improve.

ISO certification is the organized body that provides a global stamp of approval for quality
management.

Copyright © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2-7

Schermerhorn & Bachrach / Management, 14th Instructor’s Guide

EVIDENCE-BASED MANAGEMENT

Many of today’s scholars are critical of the scientific rigor used in establishing the historical
foundations of management. Many past research studies are based on weak or questionable
evidence, leading to questionable results.

Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton make the case for evidence-based management, which
involves making decisions based on hard facts about what really works. Accordingly, managers
should make decisions based on:

• Practitioner expertise and judgment

• Evidence from local context
• Critical evaluation of the best available research evidence
• Perspectives of those people who might be affected by the decision

Managers can have more confidence in accepting and applying research that satisfies the
following criteria:

• A research question or problem is clearly identified.

• One or more hypotheses is stated to describe possible explanations.
• The research design provides for a good test of the hypothesis.
• Data are rigorously gathered, analyzed, and interpreted.
• Hypotheses are accepted or rejected and conclusions made based on the evidence.

Copyright © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2-8