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management
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Questions on Organizational Behavior Prepared by Dr. Stephen Hartman, School of Management, New York Institute of Technology. 2. What are some of the new challenges confronting managers in today's business environment? The global, one-world economy is changing the nature of competition. The second generation of the Information Age, marked by advances in decision support and telecommunications technology, is changing the nature of work in all organizations. The "quality Service Revolution" is changing the focus of competition among world competitors as product and service quality become increasingly important to consumers, both internally and externally. 3. What are the three dimensions of management and how are they important. The three dimension of management are technical, conceptual, and human. It is absolutely essential for managers to develop meaningful solutions to today's complex management problems by using innovative technological solutions that provide answers to problems people and organizations are having. Furthermore, it is critical to management's success that they be able to meaningfully understand human resource needs and be able to successfully deploy these 5. Discuss Henri Fayol's contributions to organizational theory. Henri Fayol has been called the father of management. Henri Fayol was a successful French industrialist. He also created the first school of management. He was responsible for developing the major classical management concepts of planning, organizing, developing, staffing, coordinating, and budgeting (PODSCORB). He also was the first to develop the importance of lateral communications with his gang plank theory of communications in organization. Henri Fayol belongs to the administrative management branch of the classical school. His entire working career was spent with a mining company, Commentary-Fourchambault Company, where he rose from an apprentice to General Manager in 1888 remaining there until his retirement in 1918. He is credited with turning the company around from a threatened bankruptcy into a strong financial position by the time of his retirement at age 77. As a result of his management experience, Fayol strongly believed management theories could be developed and taught to others. His first writing on administration, Administration Industrielle et Generale, was published in 1916 in the Bulletin of the Society of Mineral Industries and later appeared as a book. The book became prominent in the United States after a second English translation appeared in 1949 under the title General and Industrial Management. Henri Fayol's Fourteen Management Principles a. Division of Work. Division of work, specialization, produces more and better work with the same effort. It focuses effort while maximizing employee efforts. It is applicable to all work including technical applications. There are limitations to specialization which are determined by its application. b. Authority and responsibility. Authority is the right to give orders and the power to exact obedience. Distinction must be made between a manager's official authority deriving from office and personal authority created through individual personality, intelligence and experience. Authority creates responsibility. c. Discipline. Obedience and respect between a firm and its employees based on clear and fair agreements is absolutely essential to the functioning of any organization. Good discipline requires managers to apply sanctions whenever violations become apparent. d. Unity of command. An employee should receive orders from only one superior. Employees cannot adapt to dual command. e. Unity of direction. Organizational activities must have one central authority and one plan of action. f. Subordination of Individual Interest to General Interest. The interests of one employee or group of employees are subordinate to the interests and goals of the organization and cannot prevail over it. g. Remuneration of Personnel. Salaries are the price of services rendered by employees. It should be fair and provide satisfaction both to the employee and employer. The rate of remuneration is dependent on the value of the services rendered as determined by the employment market. h. Centralization. The optimum degree of centralization varies according to the dynamics of each organization. The objective of centralization is the best utilization of personnel. i. Scalar chain. A chain of authority exists from the highest organizational authority to the lowest ranks. While needless departure from the chain of command should be discouraged, using the "gang plank" principle of direct communication between employees can be extremely expeditious and increase the effectiveness of organizational communication. j. Order. Organizational order for materials and personnel is essential. The right materials and the right employees are necessary for each organizational function and activity. l. Equity. In organizations equity is a combination of kindliness and justice. The desire for equity and equality of treatment are aspirations to be taken into account in dealing with employees. m. Stability of Tenure of Personnel. In order to attain the maximum productivity of personnel, it is essential to maintain a stable work force. Management insecurity produces undesirable consequences. Generally the managerial personnel of prosperous concerns is stable, that of unsuccessful ones is unstable. n. Initiative. Thinking out a plan and ensuring its success is an extremely strong motivator. At all levels of the organizational ladder zeal and energy on t he part of employees are augmented by initiative. o Esprit de Corps. Teamwork is fundamentally important to an organization. This is encouraged by creating work teams and using extensive face-to-face verbal communication. While subsequent organizational research has created controversy over many of Fayol's principles, they are still widely used in management theory. 6. Discuss Max Weber's contributions to organizational theory. Max Weber can be classified in the bureaucratic management branch of the classical school. Weber, the son of a prominent Bismarckian era German politician, was raised in Berlin and studied law at the University of Berlin. After assuming an appointment teaching law at the University of Berlin, Weber assumed teaching appointments in economics at the Universities of Freiburg, Heidelberg, Vienna, ending with his death after a bout with pneumonia. Weber's interest in organizations evolves from his view of the institutionalization of power and authority in the modern Western world. He constructed a "rational-legal authority" model of an ideal type bureaucracy. This ideal type rested on a belief in the "legality" of patterns of normative rules and the right of those elevated to authority to issue commands (legal authority). Weber postulated the rules and regulations of a bureaucracy serve to insulate its members against the possibility of personal favoritism. Weber Believes All Bureaucracies Have Certain Characteristics: a. A well defined hierarchy. All positions within a bureaucracy are structured in a way permitting the higher positions to supervise and control the lower positions. This provides a clear chain of command facilitating control and order throughout the organization. b. Division of labor and specialization. All responsibilities in an organization are rationalized to the point where each employee will have the necessary expertise to master a particular task. This necessitates granting each employee the requisite authority to complete all such tasks. c. Rules and regulations. All organizational activities should be rationalized to the point where standard operating procedures are developed to provide certainty and facilitate coordination. d. Impersonal relationships between managers and employees. Weber believes it is necessary for managers to maintain an impersonal relationship with the employees because of the need to have a rational decision making process rather than one influenced by favoritism and personal prejudice. This organizational atmosphere would also facilitate rational evaluation of employee outcomes where personal prejudice would not be a dominant consideration. e. Competence. Competence should be the basis for all decisions made in hiring, job assignments, and promotions. This would eliminate personal bias and the significance of "knowing someone" in central personnel decisions. This fosters ability and merit as the primary characteristics of a bureaucratic organization. f. Records. Weber feels it is absolutely essential for a bureaucracy to maintain complete files regarding all its activities. This advances an accurate organizational "memory" where accurate and complete documents will be available concerning all bureaucratic actions and determinations. Weber's bureaucratic principles have been widely adopted throughout the world. Yet, there are many critics. 7. Discuss Frederick W. Taylor's contributions to organizational theory. Taylor has been termed the father of scientific management. As the name implies, it was a scientific approach to managerial decision making. The name was intended to contrast his approach with the unscientific approaches that characterized traditional management practices at the time. Taylor's major techniques included time and motion studies whereby the work task was divided into its constituent elements or motions and eliminating wasted motions so that the work would be done in the "one best way" as well as timing the remaining motions in order to arrive at an expected rate of production. Taylor also pushed strongly for standardization in the design and use of tools. Tools and procedures were standardized in accordance with what designs were most effective in a given context. Taylor also advocated a worker be assigned a given quantity of work each day based on the results of time study. This was forerunner of modern day goal-setting. Taylor claimed the primary motivation of an employee was to earn money. Therefore, the way to get an employee to work harder was to pay by the piece. This system, known as the piece rate system, was intended to provide individual employee productivity incentives. 8. What was the Hawthorne study and why was it important? The Hawthorne Experiments consist of two studies conducted at the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company in Chicago from 1924 to 1932. The study's particular focus is on lighting and attempts to operationalize many of the principles of scientific management. The initial study in 1924 was conducted by a group of engineers seeking to determine the relationship of lighting levels to worker productivity. The study was done in connection with the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. The results of the study's findings are extremely interesting since worker productivity increases as the lighting levels decrease until the employees are unable to see what they are doing after which performance naturally declines.
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