Evolutions of Management Thought

Over the past century management thought, which is the understanding and analysis of the behavior of workers and managers, its modern practice has grown out of the influence of social, economic, and political forces. It has also grown from the influence of Frederick Taylor, Henri Fayol, Max Weber, Elton Mayo, and W. Edward Deming. By the late 1800’s mass production techniques and improvement in assembly line technology enabled to turn out more products at a lower cost than ever before. But those techniques brought chaos from workers and managers, which then brought problems in the business. Obstacles that were faced were problems of collaboration between people and machines, and the general inexperience of workers running large scale factories and organizations.

Managers started searching for solutions, which then brought several theories to improve management. The first theory was the classical approach which was divided into two categories, which were scientific management theory and administrative management theory. The scientific management theory, which was founded by Frederick Winslow Taylor, is identified by four principles; develop the best way to do a job, determine the optimum work pace, train people to do the job properly, and reward successful performance by using an incentive pay system. Frederick Winslow Taylor believed in rational analysis, that there was one best way to do things and everyone should do it that way. The administrative theory, which was founded by Henri Fayol and Max Weber, developed ways to combine jobs and people into an efficient organization. Fayol was the first to identify five management functions: planning, organizing, leading, coordinating and controlling. The difference between the two theories is that the scientific management theory is concerned with the individual worker and his job, while the administrative management theory is concerned with the total organization. The third theory was the human relations theory,...