Classical Approach to Management

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION I. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal.
Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources and natural resources. In for-profit work, management has as its primary function the satisfaction of a range of stakeholders. This typically involves making a profit (for the shareholders), creating valued products at a reasonable cost (for customers) and providing rewarding employment opportunities (for employees).
In nonprofit management, add the importance of keeping the faith of donors. In most models of management/governance, shareholders vote for the board of directors, and the board then hires senior management. Some organizations have experimented with other methods (such as employee-voting models) of selecting or reviewing managers; but this occurs only very rarely. In the public sector of countries constituted as representative democracies, voters elect politicians to public office.

Such politicians hire many managers and administrators, and in some countries like the United States political appointees lose their jobs on the election of a new president/governor/mayor. Since organizations can be viewed as systems, management can also be defined as human action, including design, to facilitate the production of useful outcomes from a system. This view opens the opportunity to ‘manage’ oneself, a pre-requisite to attempting to manage others. II. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Management is often included as a factor of production along with machines, materials and money. According to the management guru Peter Drucker (1909–2005), the basic task of a management is twofold: marketing and innovation. The problem of this research is how to use the classical approach to management in this researcher’s job as a manager and determine how it affects the interlocking functions of formulating corporate policy and organizing, planning, controlling, and directing the firm’s resources to achieve the policy’s objectives.
III. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY The researcher aims to use the classical approach to management as a manager, and employ Henri Fayol’s general theory of management which consists of six primary functions of management and 14 principles of management, and Frederick Taylor’s scientific management which focuses on improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. IV. SYNOPSIS
As the manager, this researcher will lay down the framework of organization first by creating the top-level managers. They will be responsible for controlling and overseeing the entire organization. They will develop goals, strategic plans, company policies, and make decisions on the direction of the business. In addition, the top-level managers will be involved in the mobilization of outside resources and will be accountable to the shareholders and general public.
In order to establish a strong, well-founded, and steady workflow, the researcher will integrate Fayol’s Principles of Management in outlining the business policy that will include: a) the mission of the business which is the most obvious purpose: b) the vision of the business which reflects its aspirations and specifies its intended direction or future destination: c) the objective of the business which refers to the ends or activity at which a certain task is aimed; d) the business policy that will stipulate rules, regulations and objectives, and may be used in the managers’ ecision-making(it must be flexible and easily interpreted and understood by all employees; and e) the business strategy which will coordinate plans of actions that it is going to take, as well as the resources that it will use, to realize its vision and long-term objectives, and will also serve as a guideline to managers, stipulating how they ought to allocate and utilize the factors of production to the business’s advantage.
During the operational stage, the researcher will employ Taylor’s principles in maintaining economic efficiency emphasizing the prevention of interpersonal friction between workers and managers, and social tensions between the blue-collar and white-collar classes. To do this, the workforce will be given one seat to the Board of Directors so that they will be properly represented in ventilating their concerns. One good example of Taylor’s and Fayol’s approaches is the case of Bergen Community College (BCC) Bergen Community College is a diverse organization that consists of many different departments.
The manager who supervises this college is responsible for over 500 employees and a customer (student) base of over 12,000. It is important for a manger to look at the needs of the students and then try to implement the best management system that satisfies all the members of the organization. One factor to look at is the environment of BCC. The main factors that concern the general environment of BCC are the economic conditions, social conditions and the technological factors. At the present time, the economic factors are favorable to BCC.
The economy is doing well and most people are earning a higher income. This allows people to go to school and it also allows parents to send their children to school. Since the economy is doing well, there is more competition in the workplace, so one needs a higher education to move into a better position. Also, people could work less and make the same amount of money, thus freeing up time to attend classes at a school. All of these economic factors lead to an increase in enrollment. However, these are not the only theories that are found in management. Many ther theories exist, and they all focus on a different aspect of management. The Quantitative Approach uses quantitative techniques, such as statistics and computer simulations, to improve decision-making. The Organizational Approach is concerned with the behaviors of people at work. This theory has led to such things as human resources management, teamwork, motivation and leadership qualities. However, there are also some disadvantages that may occur. One disadvantage is that with less supervision, the employees may not work hard, thus decreasing performance.
Also, there may be some bitterness between co-workers, decreasing the overall performance of the group will decrease. Instead of doing what is best for the organization, the workers may do things only for their benefit or makes them look good and not care about their peers or the organization. All of these forces in BCC’s general environment are affecting BCC in a positive way. They are causing the enrollment of BCC to increase. As a result, there are many factors in its specific forces that are becoming more complex.
These factors are the suppliers, customers, competition, government agencies, and special interest. The suppliers are complex because there is a large number of customers at BCC. Thus, BCC has to ensure that they have proper furniture, classrooms, computers, and other everyday necessities. At the same time, the computer system of the various departments has to be properly maintained to make sure that the student’s records are properly kept. Also, proper maintenance of the buildings has to be maintained. This rapidly changing environment makes the job of any manager extremely difficult.
However, she needs to take advantage of the good economy to increase the enrollment at the school as well as try and receive extra funding from the government and special interest groups to expand the school and the programs offered. At the same time, the manger needs to be aware of the competition for the students from the four-year universities and the increasing number of vocational schools. Also, the manager needs to make sure that the staff is doing its most to satisfy the needs of the customers V. DEFINITION OF TERMS 1.
Scientific management – also called Taylorism, was a theory of management that analyzed and synthesized workflows. 2. Administrative management – management approach that concentrates on the total organization. The emphasis is on the development of managerial principles rather than work methods. 3. Top-Level Managers – Typically consist of board of directors, president, vice-president, CEO, etc. They are responsible for controlling and overseeing the entire organization. They develop goals, strategic plans, company policies, and make decisions on the direction of the business.
In addition, top-level managers play a significant role in the mobilization of outside resources and are accountable to the shareholders and general public. 4. Workforce – VI. LIMITATION OF THE STUDY This research primarily aims to use the classical approach to management in this researcher’s job as manager in a private business enterprise and does not include political, educational, and financial institutions. It focuses on employing Frederick Taylor’s and Henry Fayol’s management approaches to find out its effects in today’s marketing and innovations. CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY I.
RESEARCH DESIGN This research is designed in several components: Document analysis, surveys of similar business enterprises, and interviews of managements and workforce, and assessment of findings. II. SAMPLING PROCEDURES The researcher will employ the stratified sampling technique so that the identified business enterprises that will be included in the sample will be represented in the same proportion that they exist in the population to enable the researcher draw appropriate inferences. The researcher also believe that this technique could lead to a more efficient statistical estimates.
CHAPTER 3 I. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK According to Fayol’s theory, there were six primary functions of management namely; forecasting, planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and monitoring; and 14 principles of management namely; Division of work, Authority, Discipline. , Unity of command, Unity of direction. Subordination of individual interests to the general interest, Remuneration, Centralisation, Scalar chain, Order, Equity. , Stability of tenure of personnel, Initiative, and Esprit de corps. Frederick Taylor is often called the “father of scientific management. Taylor believed that organizations should study tasks and develop precise procedures. As an example, in 1898, Taylor calculated how much iron from rail cars Bethlehem Steel plant workers could be unloading if they were using the correct movements, tools, and steps. The result was an amazing 47. 5 tons per day instead of the mere 12. 5 tons each worker had been averaging. In addition, by redesigning the shovels the workers used, Taylor was able to increase the length of work time and therefore decrease the number of people shoveling from 500 to 140.
Lastly, he developed an incentive system that paid workers more money for meeting the new standard. Productivity at Bethlehem Steel shot up overnight. As a result, many theorists followed Taylor’s philosophy when developing their own principles of management. Utilizing Frederick Taylor’s and Henri Fayol’s principles of management, with little modification so as to adapt to the modern world of marketing and innovations, this researcher believes that interpersonal and social clashes will be minimized if not avoided, and a cost-effective, well-organized, competent, and efficient business enterprise would be established.
II. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK The conceptual framework of this researcher focuses on using the classical approach to management in his job as a manager that aims to establish whether it is still effective in today’s modern world of marketing and innovations. The substance of this study will primarily be dependent on the researcher’s data that will come from document analysis, surveys, interviews, and assessment of findings. III. ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK
The purpose of this research is to use the classical approach to management in this researcher’s job as manager to find out if the principle is still effective in today’s modern marketing and innovations. The type of research design used here is qualitative and institutional in nature. This entails the data analysis which will be extracted from the following: 1) document analysis; 2) surveys; 3) interviews; and 4) assessment of findings. This researcher then collates the data gathered from these areas to ascertain whether the classical approach could still play a vital role in the management of modern systems of business enterprises.