Fayol describes management as functions and Mintzberg

The aim of this project is to highlight what management is all about. Management is a vague term which many theorists have different interpretation. It has become an important part of our society and also in our daily activities. Based on my research, management is the process of getting activities completed efficiently and effectively with and through people. In this essay, I will be comparing and contrasting the views of management with two profound theorists, Fayol and Mintzberg. But before I do so I would like to give you a historical background on these theorists and also the approach each theorist takes to describe on their theory. However, these two theorists are like two sides of a coin. The objective of this essay is to show the similarities and differences between Fayol’s and Mintzberg’s views of management in order to enrich the reader’s knowledge in advance.

Henri Fayol (1841 – 1925) was the first father of management and was a managing director for a French mining company. He was seen as a critical contributor to classical school of management theory. His French management theorist believed that management is an acquired skill that can be taught where human skills is apply to system, not systems apply to people. He describes management as functions based on his personal observation and experience in the work force, while Henry Mintzberg has different opinion.

Henry Mintzberg is an internationally renowned academic and author on business and management with over 140 articles and thirteen books written. He believes that management is things that manager encounter on the job. That’s how he came up with the roles of management.

Fayol has five functions of management; planning, commanding, coordinating and controlling. These functions are to predict the future, plan for the future, developing different technique structure, managing activities, send information to staff members and make sure that things go according to what plan and also get feedback in order to correct inappropriate activities.

According to Mintzberg, he say that management is more than just planning, commanding, coordinating and controlling, it is having an interpersonal relationship and communicate with employees and customers. He describes management as the roles of management. It split into three broad groups, Informational, Interpersonal and decisional roles which comprises of monitor, disseminator, spokesperson, figurehead, leader, laision, entrepreneur, resource allocation and disturbance handler.

Fayol’s approach is quite similar to Mintzberg role of management. Based upon Fayol traditional approach to management, planning is the first function of management process. Therefore manager needs to plan in order to fulfill their objectives. Mintzberg agrees with Fayol’s function that without planning a manager cannot be successful at what they do. However, planning helps organization to look to the future, predict the problem, and choose actions to avoid the difficult problem and response to them quickly.

In order to reach the aim of the organization, managers must arrange work so that organization’s goal can accomplish. Organizing is the structural part of management. Without organizing there is no need for a manager. With the traditional approach, Fayol’s functions of management are organizing while Mintzberg say that organizing play a critical part of management. Therefore without organizing then there will be no need for a manager.

Planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling are the steps that manager takes to achieve their aim of the organization. It is similar to Mintzberg management of roles, where he says that managers should be able to lead and communicate well. Fayol’s and Mintzberg’s views of management stated that manager must have good leadership skills. Without a good leadership, management will fail. Both employees and manager will be able to communicate better and job completed effectively.

All theorists based their foundation thoughts of management from the classical approach. It is the framework to what management is all about. Fayol and Mintzberg view management differently base up on their own observation. Fayol’s five functions of management uniquely describe the managers’ job not the nature of managerial work as Mintzberg has stated in his roles of management. Mintzberg (1973) says the “Managerial work is enormously complex than the traditional approach of Fayol’s functions

Mintzberg role of management is a system approach than that of the traditional approach. His research shows that management is far more than planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling; it is having an interpersonal relationship and communicate with employees and their customer, and attend meeting so that specific task can be fulfill.

According to Mintzberg role of management, a manager should not just spend time planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling, they should be able to interact with the public, attend meeting and build relationship with their employees.

Both Fayol and Mintzberg describe management in their own term. Although management is a vague term, Fayol and Mintzberg use their own observation to describe how management works. They take different approaches to highlight how manager operation in an organization.

Fayol saw the organization as closed system where he focuses on the internal factor of an organization. Mintzberg says that management is more of an open system where his concern is about the internal factors and the external influences of the organization. Thus, Fayol and Mintzberg theories of management are important in an organization based on the organization culture of the organization anyone of the theory or both can be effective.

QUESTION

The starting point of Maslow’s hierarchy theory is that most persons are motivated by the desired to satisfy specific groups of needs while McGregor formulated his Theory X and Theory Y describing the key assumptions about human nature. Compare these views.

In this essay, the aim is to compare two theorists’ view on what motivate an individual in an organization and to discover what it is that trigger and sustains of human behaviour towards their theory. Motivation is to give incentive, enthusiasm, or interest that causes a specific action or certain behaviour at work. It is present in our everyday life. For example, eating motivated by hunger, education motivated by knowledge. According to Maslow and McGregor, people are motivated if their desires are met. Each theorist has different theories that shows how human performed when they are motivated by another or by specific needs. This essay gives a historical background of Maslow and McGregor and their theory. The objective of this essay is to see how these theories motivate people in an organization.

Abraham Maslow, a humanistic psychologist, formulated a theory based on hierarchy of needs. This theory was published in 1954. He believed that human motivation and behaviour is drive by each particular needs being satisfy. He assumed that human being have inner core based on the individual’s feeling, emotions, desires, needs, and wants. He classified the Hierarchy of Needs into five categories; Physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualizing needs.

Douglas McGregor’s, an American social psychologist, came up with two theories, Theory X and Theory Y. However, he based his studies on leadership style. These theories are assumptions about the human behaviour in an organization. Thus, it is a powerful tool to understand how human are motivated.

With Hierarchy of needs, people tend to satisfy their needs systematically. They start with the basic need which is the physiological. It is the first need on the pyramid which covers a large area that must be fulfill before they can move up the hierarchy. These needs include food, sleep and water. When each needs are fulfill then you move up the hierarchy. When you fulfill your physiological needs then you are motivate to move up the pyramid, which is safety needs. This need is concern about individual’s shelter and security. Once that need is fulfill then individual will focus on the social needs. This need is where individual search for companionship, love and affection. When social needs are achieved then you will move to next need which is the esteem. You can either have a high or low self-esteem; this is where people get their feedback from others people. When you fulfill esteem needs then the move on the final need which is the self-actualization, this is where individual reaches their potential based on their personal expectation. Thus a hungry person will not be motivated by safety or affection if the physiological need is not fulfill.

McGregor Theory X and Theory Y based on assumptions about behaviour and what human motivation in an organization. In Theory X, he assumes that employees are inherently lazy and dislike work causing them to avoid work if they can will. For this employees need to be closely supervised and constantly be developed by a system control. Theory Y employees are opposite, employees are work addict, and they exercise self-motivation and have self-control. This theory is where employees are ambitious and enjoy their mental and physical work duties.

McGregor based his theories on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He says that Theory X is the lower order of Maslow Hierarchy of needs and Theory Y is the higher order. According to McGregor, management uses the hierarchy of needs to motivate employees. For example, based on hierarchy of needs people will not operate work if various needs are not met, manager will say that they are lazy and have no interest in the work but once the manager understand the employee then they will know how to dealt with that situation and an appropriate ways to motivate them.

Maslow’s theory provided an early useful framework for discussion about the variety of needs that people may experience at work, and the way in which their motivation can be met by a manager. Theory X and Theory Y have made a great impact in the managerial world than the academic world and it help to identify management style. Both Theory X and Theory Y contribute to an effective management.

QUESTION

How do job satisfaction and organizational commitment affect an individual’s behavior at work?

To what extent can these attitudes be changed by effective managers?

Job satisfaction and organizational commitment are the two of the prominent work attitudes that seen in the work environment. The aim of this essay is to state how job satisfaction and organizational commitment affect an individual’s behaviour at work. According to my research, job satisfaction is an emotional response to a job situation while organizational commitment is the strong feeling of responsibility an employee has towards the mission of the organization. This essay will further explain how effective manager can change these attitudes in the work environment.

Job satisfaction is simply how people feel about their jobs and different aspects of their job. People can either like (satisfaction) and dislike (dissatisfaction) their job. According to Frederick Herzberg, he believed that employees can like their job because various contributions it has. These contribution involves the work itself, pay, promotions, job achievement, co-worker, supervision and benefits contribute to employees satisfy with their job. He called it motivators. If employees are not satisfied with their job then the productions of the organization with not grow. Manager will see their employees as lazy and they will assume that they don’t want to work. This he called the Hygiene factors because employees are not being motivated on the job.

Organizational commitment is highly valuable thing in an organization. It affects individual’s behaviour toward their work. Studies shows that commitment in an organization has great impact on success organization. It is the result of job satisfaction. Organizational commitment is very critical in an organization because it help to strength the workforce. There are three types of commitment; affective, continuous and normative commitment. Affective commitment is where employees are emotional attached to the organization; continuance commitment is when individual commits to the organization because he or she perceives high cost of leaving of the organization and normative is when employees are obligated to the organization. Therefore, manager can create a comfortable environment in order for employees to commit to their job.

Job satisfaction and organizational commitment are like “two side of a coin”. They are critical factors in an organization. Once employees are comfortable and stable then productivity will increase. Based on the organization culture, manager needs to understand the organization before they can be effective manger. Each organization has different culture, for example a bank cannot operate the same way a cloth store do because of the different culture.

In an organization, a manager should be able to forecast and plan for an organization to move forward, however they need to communicate and have interpersonal relationship with employees so that they can handle problem that arise. According to Elton Mayo, manager needs to know under which condition individual can be effective. Every individual are different and preform differently under supervision.

According to Maslow Hierarchy of needs, employee will not be motivated on their job if the basic needs are not met. Managers believes that individual will not perform effectively because there no motivation. I am assuming an effective manager should know which theoretical approach to take base on the organization culture. If employees are not satisfy with their job and not committed to their work, then the manager must be able analyze the problem so that they can make relevant decision in a creative way.