Organizational Management (Research Paper Sample)

Organizational Management Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Course Instructor’s Name Due Date Organizational Management Organizational management involves coordination and facilitation of the setting up of resources including processes, people, machinery and materials to accomplish established goals. Organizations are perceived to be open complex systems that involve the interaction between external and internal environments. An important determinant for success within such environments is a functional management system. Corporate management has been the center of focus for scholars and researchers for centuries. The emergence of factory equipment and farm tools, and the desire for company owners and managers to maximize the output of their workforce resulted in the development of various management theories. The theories have however undergone numerous improvements as new scholars seek for ways to make the workplace conducive for employees and improve their efficiency in their respective roles. Consequently, the current research paper examines the theories of scientific management, lean manufacturing and 7-s approach, the contingency approach and the industrial sector analysis and the competitive advantage approaches. It describes their underpinning assumptions, the contexts within which the approaches were created, their effectiveness for today’s organizational context and their intended and unintended outcomes within organizations. The Scientific Management Approach (Including the Time and Motion Studies) Fredrick Winslow Taylor is known for his outstanding contribution to the field of organizational management. His theory of scientific management analyses and evaluates workflows o improve worker efficiency and influence labor productivity. His idea was to apply a rational perspective to the previous inefficient work organization. He also believed the workers during his period practiced what he called “soldering.” He therefore proposed a model that would address the common work challenges, increase workmanship efficiency, increase the rate of work and raise productivity. When creating his model, Taylor had a number of assumptions which guided his thinking. One of the assumptions was his belief in the existence of a money economy and a capitalist society where companies operate in a free market and focus on improving efficiency and maximizing profits (Taylor, 2004). Taylor also believed in the Protestant work ethic. He assumed that people behave rationally and work hard to increase their income while putting the organization’s goals and objectives before their own interests. Lastly, Taylor assumed that a larger size was necessary to achieve the benefits of division of labor and task specialization. His organizational framework was based upon the principles of task specialization, clear delineation of responsibility and authority, incentive schemes for employees, separation of operations from planning and management by exception. Taylor developed the model of scientific management in the 1880s and 1890s. He began by experimenting with different shovel designs and materials including ore, core and rice. Through his experimentations, he developed shovel designs that would enable an employee to shovel for the whole day. By doing so, he was able to decrease the number of people shoveling from 500 to 140. At his time of experimentation, he was a Mechanical engineer who had worked in various companies and on different tasks. Upon being promoted to a management position, he delved into management consultancy to device better ways to maximize workforce efficiency. In his position as a manager, he played the role of overseeing workers in performing different functions. Upon watching his subordinates work, he got interested in the process through which they achieved their goals and completed their tasks. While observing them, he noticed how the workers slowed down their pace to a speed they found comfortable to themselves. His first response was to push workers to increase their pace and maximize their output. However, he noted that pushing and threatening workers would not maximize output. He therefore engaged in a series of studies including the time and motion studies to develop ways that could increase worker efficiency. By applying engineering principles, he sought to reduce waste during production and increase efficiency. He therefore identified three causes of reduced productivity at the workplace including a fallacious connection between increased output and unemployment, defective management system and the rule of thumb that was effort and time wasting. He therefore proposed four principles to solve management problems. The principles include the application of science, scientific training and selection, worker training and job specialization and collaboration among employees and managers. The scientific management model, although created during the nineteenth century, is still effective in today’s organizational context. The model is applicable in organizations as it helps increase productivity among workers. The model focus on the individual tasks and functions of employees and the process through which they carry out the tasks. It therefore makes employees to increase their efficiency. The model also increases production capacity within companies. Taylor emphasized on the time and motion with which the workers achieved organizational goals. He therefore used the time and motion studies to analyse worker operations, and develop the most effective and efficient methods to perform job operations. Consequently, the method can help examine worker operations and improve on overall productivity. Basically, the intended outcome of the scientific management model was to improve economic efficiency in the areas of labor productivity within organizations. However, the model unintentionally resulted in poor worker treatment which caused the rise in unions, strikes and unrest. The Contingency Theory Approach to Management (Management Integration and Differentiation) The contingency theory bases its tenets on a number of assumptions. The theory assumes that there is no one form of organization that matches all enterprises. It believes that different organizational processes, approaches and structures and needed for the success of entities within their specific environments and industries. The assumption is based on the study of Lawrence & Lorsch (1967) which aimed to determine the differentiation and integration between organizations and reveal how each operates within different environments. The comparative study comprised of six organizations that operated in the same industry. Their subsystems including the production, sales and research were however different in each entity this bring the concept of differentiation. The differentiation was therefore based on their goal orientation, member’s time orientations and interpersonal orientations. The study established a relationship between the extent to which the organizations’ states of integration and differentiation met the environmental requirements and achieved their internal goals. While all the entities had the same integrative devices, the performance of each entity relied upon other factors including their modes of conflict resolution and forms of management applied. The study therefore proves the assumption that each organization exists as a contingency. The second assumption of the approach is that even within the same organization, the management must develop varying approaches to address different situations. Further, the approach believes that various variables such as attitudes, technology, goals and values influence the overall structure and processes within organizations. Lastly, it assumes that organizations are flexible and highly adaptable to change yet change management is one of their biggest challenges. The Contingency Theory of Leadership was developed and coined in the 1960s and 1970s. The management approach was coined by Fiedler who was motivated by the existence of leadership effects that were not applicable in certain situations and environments and the presence of situations that could not be addressed by existing leadership theories. The approach is based on the idea that the right form of leadership relies upon the environmental situation during the time of application (Suharyanto & Lestari, 2020). Development of the contingency theory was as a result of the attempt to explain the effectiveness of leadership practices in relation to different situational factors. Prior to the theory, a number of leadership theories had been developed in the 1900s. Fiedler therefore sought to clarify that the task-oriented and relationship-oriented leaders were only viable depending on the circumstance they were in. The Contingency approach to management is relevant to the present organizational context. The business world today is filled with multiples factors that influence the operation of organizations. The most recent one is the emergence of Covid-19 which affected how companies carry out business. As the entities try to re-establish themselves, managers can apply the approach to handle the situation. The leader in such cases adopts a leadership style that is relevant during a crisis or emergency to make decisions or find solutions (Abba Yahaya & Suleiman, 2018). The approach assumes that entities in each situation, country, and region applies varying leadership styles even if they operate within the same industry or are integrated in terms of structure and goals. The application of the Contingency approach to management aims to achieve certain outcomes within organizations. The approach intends to allow managers to have a realistic view of organizations and the entire management concept. It also aims to discard the universal application of management principles. It also advocates for innovation and...