Managers and Workplace Efficiency

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer relates that while scientific management is often considered an early school of managerial thought and has largely been replaced with several new age managerial models focused more on human resources management (HRM) or more refined quality management programs, it still has some application across industries. The writer notes that management has been many things to many people but one constant remains consistent among all schools of managerial theory and that is that managers guide functions and processes within an organization. The writer maintains that managing, as a science and a business function has never strayed too far from its scientific management roots because it still is measured in relation to the accomplishment of these four primary functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. The writer concludes that the role of management within organizations has taken on vast new importance since the rise, or at least the prevalence, of globalization has become the international economic and commercial model by which all enterprises, large and small, are affected to one degree or another.

Outline:
Overview
The Four Managerial Functions
Taylor & Scientific Management
Applications in the Workplace
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Taylor was the first individual to base the functionality of management around the analytical control of the business cycle thus taking control of the business cycle rather than having the business cycle control the business. While still retaining some authoritarian decision-making qualities within the management specialty, he removed the inability of the employee to access and act on information by making data and information more freely available. With scientific management, the leader's effectiveness was based on the hard reality of production numbers and variances in the data."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Beinhocker, Eric D., and Sarah Kaplan. 2002. Tired of Strategic Planning? Many Companies Get Little Value from Their Annual Strategic-Planning Process. The McKinsey Quarterly, 49+.
• Bruce, K., & Nyland, C. 2001. Scientific Management, Institutionalism, and Business Stabilization: 1903-1923. Journal of Economic Issues, 35(4), 955+.
• Defillippi, R. 2002. Organizational models for collaboration in the new economy. Human Resource Planning, 25(4):7.
• Freeman, M. 1996. Scientific management: 100 years old; poised for the next century. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 61(2):35.
• Kim, K. and Park, J. 2003. The global integration of business functions: A study of multinational business in integrated global industries. Journal of International Business Studies, 34(4):327.

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