Approaches to Management

Approaches to management, as embodied in The Human Relations and Scientific Management schools of thought, were only relevant to management in the early 20th century, when they first hit the headlines, and have no relevance to management in the early 21st century.

Approaches to management, as embodied in The Human Relations and Scientific Management schools of thought, were only relevant to management in the early 20th century, when they first hit the headlines, and have no relevance to management in the early 21st century.

Introduction:

Organizational development is a complex and mostly multi step process that needs to be understood in order to get an understanding of the theories of development. It is a planned activity that aims at increasing the efficiency and validity of the organization.

Various theories of organizational development are there, which intend to bring changes in the organization using various means, with some of them dealing with the psychological side of the employees and the others dealing with the rational side of them. Human Relations and Scientific Management are the two schools of thought, which are discussed as follows:

Discussion:

The Human Relations Management Theory:

The human relations management theory traces back to the Human Relations Movement, which aimed at bringing changes in the organizational development. A number of researches were conducted during the Human Relations Movement in the field of organizational development that studied that behavior and attitude of individuals in the group situation, especially in workplace groups. The movement originated in 1930's Hawthorne Studies, which examined the impact of various factors on factory productivity. The factors studied by the researchers included employee satisfaction, motivation and social relations.

The movement mainly viewed employees from a psychological point of view, and saw them as psychological beings that had to fit in the company environment. This theory differed from others that viewed human beings as mere interchangeable parts, which have to be there for running an organization (Mathis and Jackson, 2004, Pp: 521). Thus, the discipline of Human Resource Management emerged that aimed at making full use of the human resource while considering their psychological needs and addressing them in a more humanly and irrational manner, instead of considering them as mere working machines.

The real life example of Human Resource Management can be observed in different banks operating Worldwide. Barclay's Bank is one such example, where the working environment is sober, and the workers are wearing a uniform or to following the same rules the World over. The bank environment varies from one country to another (with certain permanent factors, of course), and there are certain relaxations provided to the employees to get things done in their own way, as far as these are not deviating from the general code of conduct. This shows that the policies have taken psychological side of employees into consideration, and are organizations are providing their employees with certain liberties, so that they do not feel too restricted, and get the feeling of belongingness with the organization.

Scientific Management Theory:

Fredrick Taylor presented the Scientific Management Theory in 1880s and 1890s ...