Mt140 to Management

MT140: Introduction to Management

Unit 2 Assignment:

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Kaplan University

Contemporary approaches to management did not start to surface until around 1950’s. World War II had a huge impact on how the management styles were viewed. Many countries were feeling the pressure left behind to perform better than ever to make up for losses. The current management styles were not going to work and this prompted scientist and psychologist to team up and truly analyze management/leadership techniques.

The Sociotechnical Systems theory focuses on ensuring employees have all training, specific skill sets and deep process understanding necessary to complete a job efficiently and with quality. This meant empowering the employee to make real time evaluations about processes and alter procedures to create a quality product during production rather than fixing issues after the fact. This led to huge gains in profit margins by fixing issues instead of a product recall.

The Quantitative Management theory focuses heavily on performing analysis and measuring efficiencies. This meant that managers were starting to base their decisions on statistical data rather than personal intuition and experience. This style played a huge role in forming the logistical business present today, helped develop inventory control systems, and encouraged the development of forecasting for budgets, trends, etc.

Organizational Behavior marked the beginnings of humanizing the worker. To state it nicely, employers viewed the labor force as a means to accomplish a sales goal prior to this management style. Organizational Behavior theory focused on the employees’ mental state to increase productivity and profits. Organizational behaviorist realized there was a direct correlation between the workers’ confidence in their skillsets and overall wellbeing and the increase in workflow, productivity, and quality workmanship.

The Systems Theory conceded an entirely different...