Management Theory

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, ever since the beginning of studying management in the late 1800s, management theory has progressed through different schools. The paper describes decades of various management theories and suggests that the number of schools indicates that there is no agreement on the best strategy. The paper concludes that today managers have to deal with an entire corporate system rather than dealing with single parts; therefore, it is important to understand and strategically plan for a whole system by applying a balanced approach to management.

Table of Contents:
The Classical School
Scientific Management: 1880s
Administrative Management: 1940s
Bureaucratic Management: 1920s
The Behavioral School
Human Relations: 1930s
Behavioral Science: 1950s
The Quantitative School
Management Science and MIS: 1940s
Production and Operations Management: 1940s
Systems School: 1950s
Contingency School: 1970s

From the Paper:

"There was a group of experimenters, which included Clair Turner, Fritz J. Roethlisberger, and Elton Mayo, that began the Hawthorne Experiments in 1924, continuing them through the early 1930s. They concluded that workers' attitudes have a lot to do with their productivity. They also found that the workplace is a social place to be and that groups there were very influential on other workers' behavior. Supervision was also found to be important to job satisfaction. They concluded that workers and managers must cooperate and collaborate in order to achieve productivity."

Sample of Sources Used:

• CliffsNotes.com. Classical Schools of Management. 31 Dec 2007<http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/topicArticleId-8944,articleId-8851.html>.
• Daft, Richard L. The New Era of Management. Oklahoma City, OK: South-Western, Div. of Thomson Learning. 2005.
• Daft, Richard L. Organization Theory and Design. Oklahoma City, OK: South-Western College Pub. 2006. (620 pages)
• Fayol, Henri. General and Industrial Administration. London: Sir Issac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., 1949.
• Kotelnikov, Vadim. Ten-Business e-Coach. 1000 Ventures. Website: <http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/mgmt_strategic.html>.

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