WITH RELEVANT EXAMPLES TRACE THE MANAGEMENT ROAD AND ILLUSTRATE HOW EACH THEORY CAN BE USED/BEEN USED IN MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS
There is different definitions of management by different scholars, some of them include;
Management is an imposition of order on chaos (Boettinger,1975).
According to, Mary parker follet, management is working with and through other people to achieve organization goals (Pasquali, & Gambineri, 2018). Lastly James stoner, management is the process of planning, organizing, leading, staffing, coordinating, controlling and directing the efforts of organizational members and using all organizational resources to achieve organizational goals (Wankel,& Stoner,2009).
There are many theories of management which are essential in understanding the influence of management in an organization.
Basic management techniques have been traced to the city of Ur (Iraq) in 3000 BC where Sumerian priests were the first to keep written records as a means of recording business transactions, similar records have been found for ancient China, and Socrates defined management as a skill separate from technical knowledge and experience.
Henry Fayol, scientific management theory
The following are some of the principles of Henry Fayol
Principle 1: Division of Work Henry Fayol’s first principle for management states that staff perform better at work when they are assigned jobs according to their specialties.
Principle 2; this principle of authority, suggests the need for managers to have authority in order to command subordinates to perform jobs while being accountable for their actions.
Principle 3: Discipline this principle advocates for clearly-defined rules and regulations aimed at achieving good employee discipline and obedience.
Principle 4: Unity of Command This principle states that employees should receive orders from and report directly to one boss only. This means that workers are required to be accountable to one immediate boss or superior only.
Principle 5: Unity of Command This principle proposes that there should be only one plan, one objective, and one head for each of the plans.
Principle 6: Subordination of Individual Interests to Organization’s Interests The interests of the organization supersede every other interest of staff, individuals, or groups. Imperatively, employees must sacrifice all their personal interests for the good of the organization.
Principle 7: Remuneration Payment of staff salaries should be as deserved. The salary should be reasonable to both staff and management and neither party should be short-changed.
Principle 8: Centralisation This principle suggests that decision-making should be centralised.
Principle 9: Scalar Chain This principle is a product of the formal system of organization. It is also known as the hierarchy principle.
Principle 10: Order this is another formal organizational control system which has been interpreted in different ways.
Principle 11: Equity Another word for equity is fairness. Henri Fayol suggested that managers should be fair to their staff.
Principle 12: Stability of Personnel Tenure In this principle, Fayol expresses the need to recruit the right staff and train them on the job with a hope to retain them for long.
Principle 13: Initiative a good manager must be one who can be creative to initiate new ideas and also be able to implement them. Fayol was direct to managers at this point.
Weaknesses of Henri Fayol’s management theory
Henry Fayol’s theory is too rigid and it will only shows its effectiveness in formal organization structure.
Fayol’s theory is too management oriented and often neglect the wellbeing of the workers. Workers often are treated as a mechanical tools which their only concern is how to follow orders.
The human behavior is most uncertain and it is not possible to predict how man will react into a particular policy decision. It is not possible to formulate definite principle. Uniform principles, rules and policies cannot be laid down for all type of organization.
Strengths of Henri fayol’s theory of management
It is the most comprehensive administrative management theory Henri Fayol’s theory is extremely comprehensive as a way to deal with management techniques.
Max weber theory of bureaucracy
Bureaucratic Theory means the process of managing an organizational structure through a defined administrative process and systematic process according to Max Weber.
Max Weber proposes the concept of Bureaucracy in a context in which he considers rationalization of society as inevitable (Pollitt, 2008), causing a growing impersonality in the social relationship, disenchantment of the world (Zuberbier et al., 2018). In short, bureaucracy is the phenomenon of affirmation of the rationalization of the world (Oberfield, 2014). Rationalization boosted the project of modernity by enabling the application of the general principles of reason to the conduct of human problems, fostering the ability to respond to unstable environments and to manage the inherent complexity.
Principles of max weber theory of management
Hierarchy; Hierarchy is a type of system that shows arrangements or departments from above and below.
Job Specialization; Job specialization is defined as a process and knowledge employees gain through education, training and experience to enable them to become professionals at on particular job.
Division of Labor; Division of labor is important and essential for economic progress. Promotes efficiency and effectiveness in an organization and reduces the total cost of products due to its element of specialization.
Procedures; Procedures are important to any organization and its processes. They can be in form of policies and together provide direction for daily operations.
Recruitment on merit; the recruitment on merit process being consistently applied in an organization increases professionalism.
Fairness; Bureaucracy brings about exemplary impartial and just treatment among employees. Through bureaucracy, people’s behavior and conduct is regulated without favoritism.
Strengths of max webers theory
Running of Administration duties: The key responsibility of Bureaucracy is to run the day-to-day administration in accordance with the policies, laws, rules, regulations, and decisions of the government.
Division of labor: Division of labor makes work easier and leads to specialization. One cannot discuss the advantages and disadvantages of bureaucracy without discussing the need for division of labor.
Efficiency: Work is efficiently performed under the supervision of immediate managers in the hierarchy and competency increases.
Accountability and answerability: Common citizens can hold government officials and bureaucrats accountable for the actions they perform in the course of dispensing their duties.
Decision-making: Hierarchy provides for a top-down management structure. Decisions generally come from managers to supervisors and so on down the ranks of the organization.
Rules and regulations: Clearly stated rules and regulations, in most cases, allow for greater adoption within the bureaucratic structure.
Efficiency in administration: Efficiency provides for a more rationally arranged structural hierarchy, making administration easier.
Role in Legislative Work: Civil servants play an important but indirect role in law-making. For example, civil servants draft bills that ministers submit to the legislature for law-making. With the help of civil servants, ministers provide all the information asked for by the legislature.
Role in Public Relations: The era of the modern welfare state and democratic politics has made it essential for the government to keep close relations with the people of the state.
Collection of Government Taxes: Civil servants play a vitally important role in financial administration. Specifically, they advise the political executive in respect of all financial planning, tax structure, tax administration, and the like.
Weakness of Bureaucracy of bureaucracy by Max Weber
Poor efficiency of services and goods: A bureaucracy creates numerous rules and laws that must be followed to the benefit of all.
Expenditures determine projects: A budget cycle for a bureaucratic structure is an annual event. As a result, money is available for the current cycle only.
Huge difference in employee salaries: Workers, from the top of the chain of command to the bottom, are considered equal members of the team, but they do not get paid the same wages and salaries.
Red tape: Bureaucracy, by its very character, follows a certain set of rules and regulations. As a result, this imparts a lack of flexibility and can often lead to inefficiencies.
Bureaucratic delays in delivery of services: The complicated set of rules in a bureaucratic system often causes long delays. People become focused on adhering to rules instead of increasing their production.
Nepotism: Nepotism in bureaucracy is often a problem. The managers sitting on top may favor their own people and help them rise quicker than more deserving individuals.
Bureaucratic corruption: Corruption in the higher rungs of bureaucracy can be very disastrous to the economy. What’s more, is that it comes in many different forms and is present in every country.
Fredrick Taylor theory of management
Taylor believed that the worker should be focused on labor, due to insufficient capacity and/or education, while managers should be focused on and held accountable for optimizing performance.
Principles of Fredrick Taylor’s’ theory
- Develop a science for each element of work
- Scientifically Select, Train, Teach, and Develop the worker
- Cooperate with the Worker
- Divide the Work and Responsibility
Other management contemporary theories include;
Contingency theory; A contingency theory is an organizational theory that claims that there is no best way to organize a corporation, to lead a company, or to make decisions. Instead, the optimal course of action is contingent (dependent) upon the internal and external situation. Contingent leaders are flexible in choosing and adapting to succinct strategies to suit change in situation at a particular period in time in the running of the organization
Chaos theory; Chaos theory focuses on the unpredictability in occurrences and behaviors. It regards organizations/businesses as complex, dynamic, non-linear, co-creative and far-from-equilibrium systems. Their future performance cannot be predicted by past and present events and actions. In a state of chaos, organizations behave in ways which are simultaneously both unpredictable (chaotic) and patterned (orderly).
Systems theory; The Systems Approach to management theory, commonly viewed as the foundation of organizational development, views the organization as an open system made up of interrelated and inter-dependent parts that interact as sub-systems.
Thus the organization comprises a unified singular system made up of these subsystems. For example, a firm is a system that may be composed of sub-systems such as production, marketing, finance, accounting and so on. As such, the various sub-systems should be studied in their inter- relationships rather, than in isolation from each other.
REFERENCES
Sethi, N. K. (1962). Mary Parker Follett: pioneer in management theory. Academy of Management Journal, 5(3), 214-221.
Wankel, C., & Stoner, J. A. (Eds.). (2009). Management education for global sustainability. IAP.
Pasquali, R., & Gambineri, A. (2018). New perspectives on the definition and management of polycystic ovary syndrome. Journal of Endocrinological Investigation, 41(10), 1123-1135.
Zuberbier, T., Aberer, W., Asero, R., Abdul Latiff, A. H., Baker, D., Ballmer‐Weber, B., … & Maurer, M. (2018). The EAACI/GA²LEN/EDF/WAO guideline for the definition, classification, diagnosis and management of urticaria. Allergy, 73(7), 1393-1414.
Oberfield, Z. W. (2014). Becoming bureaucrats: Socialization at the front lines of government service. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Boettinger, H. M. (1975). Is management really an art. Harvard Business Review, 53(1), 54-64.
