Differences between scientific and behavioural school of thought

“The conventional definition of management is getting work done through people, but real management is developing people through work.” Quoted by Agha Hassan Abedi

Management in simple words mean getting things done by others .Management is always necessary for a project to give a successful output .If everything else is present except for efficient management, nothing can be achieved. The right way of utilizing time in the most appropriate manner is very important .Pre-planning is also needed for successful management .Management can be briefed into 4 simple steps – Planning, organizing, leading and coordinating of resources.

Planning is the organizational process of creating and maintaining a plan; and the psychological process of thinking about the activities required to create a desired goal on some scale.

Organizing is the act of rearranging elements following one or more rules.

Leading means undertaking the responsibility to lead an action, if proper leadership lacks, the management is not satisfactory.

Coordinating is the act of making different people or things work together for a goal or effect.

Harold Koontz and Cyril O’Donnell, in their book, Principles of Management: An Analysis of Managerial Functions clearly described the principles to be used in performing various functions of management.

The need for Principles of Management

To Increase Efficiency

To Crystallize the Nature of Management

To Improve Research

To Attain Social Goals

Management theories can be classified into 6 groups:-

The Management process school

The Empirical school

The Human behavioral school

The Social systems school

The Decision theory school

The Mathematical school

The term Classical Management dates back to the Industrial Revolution. It was somewhat more rigid than management styles used today. This theory invites the focus to rational economic view, scientific management, administrative principles and bureaucratic organization. The Rational Economic view assumed that people are motivated by economic benefits in the first place. Frederick Winslow Taylor and others introduced the Scientific Management which emphasized a rather precise way of production. Administrative theorists personified by Henri Fayol looked at the best way to combine jobs and people into an efficient organization; bureaucratic organization theorists led by Max Weber looked at ways to eliminate managerial inconsistencies due to abuse of power which contributed to ineffectiveness. This was the era of the industrial revolution and factory system of production. Mass production would not have been possible without adherence to the principles governing organizing production based on division of labor and specialization, relationship between man and the machine, managing people and so on.

Management aims at maximum prosperity of both the employer and the employee.

The Scientific Management converges into advantages of the employer. The organized manner of implying each work can minimize the time and work of labor, there is great potential for streamlining production. The unnecessary tasks are omitted from the schedule as a result of proper direction. Time is utilized in the best way. Scientific management proves how to manage time and produce a much effective result from the same time. Prosperity for the employer will not prevail for a long time unless prosperity of the employees is accompanied with it.

While focusing on the human relations theory, the employee as well as the employer gains from this. The employee is given more freedom for work, they are provided with circumstances to co-operate and communicate with their fellow-workers. It is also believed that when occasional breaks are given in between long hours of work, a higher output is produced. A working individual experiences the pleasure of work while following this effective system of management. The human relations theory develops understanding between individuals, co-operation between minds, co-ordination between movement and relaxation in life which is said to give a more successful result. In fact, in this theory, the employee and the employer is given equal benefits.

As we all know, Frederick Winslow Taylor, The father of Scientific Management has stated some principles for scientific management to be effective. They are as follows:-

Replace rule-of -thumb work methods with methods based on a scientific study of the tasks

Scientifically select, train, and develop each employee rather than passively leaving them to train themselves.

Provide “Detailed Instruction and supervision of each worker in the performance of that worker`s discreet task “

Divide work merely equally between managers and workers, so that the managers apply scientific management principles to planning the work and the workers actually perform the tasks.

Under Taylorism implementing on the work, planning, securing of supplies, maintenance of equipment, supervising the work etc should be a managed by a specialist staff. The worker should just execute the work given in hand or become an ‘operator’. He proclaimed that, for every project, there should be a well planned dictator behind the scene. Taylor stressed that ‘all possible brainwork should be removed from the shop and centered in the planning or laying out department’. There is high level of managerial control and the reduction of skill at the bottom level. Because of this the worker felt de-humanized with the strict boundaries of scientific management. He believed that human work should be well-organized then only the expected result will be gained. In this system the allocation of work did not only specify the work to be done but also mentioned how it was to be done. This left no scope for the individual to participate in the decision making authority. Taylor had lowered the status of a worker to a ‘human machine’ to someone who only responds to monetary stimuli, with no say in planning or setting of goals. According to Taylor if everyone in the organization keeps to one’s assigned tasks, roes and methods, then conflicts in the workplace between management and workers will be eliminated. This is because science shows one best way to do things. He examined the deep sections of work and how it could be improved in amazing ways. He established that even a rather dumb worker, with a carefully designed tool, could increase the productivity significantly as long as whatever science management said should be done was done.

Elton Mayo the founder of human relations movement encourages participation of workers in decision making authority at all levels. Rather than dehumanizing the work and breaking it down into smaller units to maximize efficiency a thought is given to the job satisfaction of the worker by encouraging him to give his say in important decisions. The worker is given fair rights to express his views. According to human relations it is a pessimistic approach to eliminate official business, love, hatred and all personal, irrational and emotional elements. Their belief was such that by dehumanizing the worker an organization will never be productive. The workers should be free of thoughts and should attain involvement in their duties. This involvement will only be attained if he is mentally and physically adapted to his surroundings. Instead of alienating the workers, more concentration was put in bringing them together in contact with all aspects of the organization creating relationship within the workplace.

Job Satisfaction – Taylor believed job satisfaction only in financial terms. His Differential Piece Wage System could differentiate between efficient and inefficient workers. He wanted to reward the efficient workers monetarily. He discovered that when a worker is rewarded better due to his hard-work, he will be even more motivated if he is rewarded according to his job. Search for efficiency requires search for one best method and the chosen method must lead to the determination of a fair day’s work. Thus, rather than quarrelling over the share in the resultant surplus, the workers and managers should work in harmony for maximizing the output rather than restricting it. In this way management will share a part of surplus with workers. Hence by following a scientific approach we can say the workers are only financially motivated to perform well.

In the case of Human Relations theory, after conducting Hawthorne Experiments, it was stated that there was immense increase in job satisfaction partly due to the fact that they had a greater freedom in their working environment and also because they had control over their own pace- settling. Barnard according to the Human Relations movement believed that there is a relationship between motive and organizational efficiency. Thus organizational efficiency could best be achieved by fulfilling the motives of the individual; a prime function of any organization should be the ability to offer inducements in sufficient quantity to maintain the system. Certainly, these inducements could be material (money, working conditions) but equally are important the intangible benefits (comradeship, status). Humans have emotional needs. Hence the focus should not only be on extrinsic reward but intrinsic reward too. Extrinsic reward includes remuneration given for good work, promotions, pay increase etc. Intrinsic reward is the positive feeling from having done something well. Extrinsic reward gives satisfaction only for a short period of time, but intrinsic reward provides satisfaction which will prevail for a longer time.

Despite all the criticisms of Taylor`s work, it is considered to be an essential study in management. Recruiting the best employees, training them in the best possible way, giving them satisfactory wages according to the up-to-date values can improve the stage of work and yield. This will definitely lead to increase in the efficiency of business. We still rely on these ideas along with some of the aims of human relations theory which are flexibility, informal communication, and intrinsic motivation. Both overlook organizational excellence through increased efficiency. This can be achieved today by equally depending upon both the theories. Our vote of thanks leads to all those who introduced these theories to the world.