Their Different Perspective To Management

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

Management is no doubt a way of life as resources either natural or artificial are needed to be organised and fully utilised in other to achieve a particular task or product. Everything has a beginning, just like the world had a beginning which was created by God and well managed Him. In turn, He created man as His tool to manage these resources on earth and that has brought us to where we are now. Since the beginning of civilization, a lot of perceptions, findings, school of thoughts, have evolved about management. The likes of Confucius, Plato, Plato, Ibn Khaldun, Thomas Aquinas, Machiavelli, Adam Smith, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Florence Nightingale etc viewed management as the duties and function of a manager, the principles of organisation, markets and prices, the management of people, the importance of knowledge, strategic thinking, the management of money and finance, international trade, leadership. (Witzel, 2012).

There came different school of thoughts as regards management. Each theorist had their different perspective to Management which is put into practice and were propagated to achieve the aims and objective of an organisation. The different types of model theory includes the Scientific Approach, Classical approach, Human Relation and Social Psychological School, System and Contingency approach, Modern approach, contingency approaches to management to mention but a few. These theorists explained further on how best to achieve efficient and effective management base on the structure and goals of the organisation in question.

In the 21st Century, every country constituted Professional Institutes for Management such as Chartered Management Institute (CMI), Nigeria Institute of Management (NIM), Management Institute of Canada (MIC), American Institute of Management (AIM) etc to refine the ideology of these model theories and make organisation more functional and flexible even as we advance in technology. It is important to note that Management is the highest functional discipline in any business or professionally focused organisations in the world. In the world today, certain economy and social policies will have a ripple effect on the management decisions or planning pattern. An example of such management decision that affected millions of people in the world was the massive blow of the recession in 2007 as a result of a failure of financial management in some of the biggest banks in America. (RoseIndia.net, 2012).

This study tends to critically analysis the Classical School of Management Thought amongst other Management theoriest which was developed by Henri Fayol in 1949 and view his theory to Management practice.

Management: Definition, Theory and Implementation

According to "Mary Parker Follett management is the act of doing work done by other people". (trivedi, 2012). In other words, management from this context is the acitivity of getting things done with the aid of people, money, materials and other resources in the best possible way to acheive a desire goal. In management, people are what are used to get any result though humans generally are very difficult to manage but for management of an organisation to be actualised, a person must be in position to control, staff, direct and motivate etc using peoples efforts to acheive a given task. This what makes a person a good manager as David and Steve (2011) defines the attribute of a good manager as someone who gets things done with the aid of people, money, materials and other resources in the best possible way to acheive a desire goal. Pettinger (2007) states further that good managers are commited and dedicated operators; highly trained and educated; with excellent analytical and critical faculties. The characteristics required for a good manager includes:

Ambition, energy, great commitment, self-motivation

Job, product and service knowledge

Drive and enthusaiasm

Creativity and imagination

A thirst for knowledge

A commitment to improvement

A commitment to continuous professional development

A positive and dynamic attitude, self-discipline, empathy with the staff

Ability to grow and broaden the outlook and vision of organisation concerned

Management can also be viewed as a science, profession and art. Management as a science is based on the fact the it can be studied, learnt and assimilated. This is so because it can be studied at every part in of world all focusing towards having sound knowledge of Management. Management as a profession is based on the criteria that is acceptable and recognised by any profession whereby people tend to undergo a systamatic training to become a manager in that line of profession. Lastly, management as an art shows a great scope for the use of creativity, imagination, initiatoive and invention within the overall sphere of occupation. Pettinger (2007)

The processes of Management according to Henry Fayol in 1949, a theorist of the classical approach to management includes;

Forcasting

Organizing

Commanding

Co-ordinating and

Controlling.

The aforementioned elements forms the basis of any organisational structure for management to be successful. Forcasting has to do with planning ahead with the use of past and present data due to future uncertainty to achieve a successful task; In organizing, plans are implemented by determining activities and allocating responsibilities into an approprate structure; In management, commanding will be enssential because someone has to be in position of authority for people to take orders from so that there would be uniformity in the organisation; co-ordinating will ensure that the resources of the organization are used effectively and efficiently aiming to the goals and objective of the organisation while controlling ensures the organisation functions as planned, establish standards of performance and measure organisation’s performance asgainst the standards and carry out corrective measures when neccessary (Cole and Phil, 2011).

Theory

This study is streamlined to Classical Management School of Thought which was propagated by Henri Fayol in 1949. He is recognised as the founding father of this theory because he documented this managerial proceedure that helped him to the top during his entire working life. Henri Fayol, the French Industrialist started his career as a minning engineer. He rose to the top of the company and retired at the age of seventy-seven years. The company he headed grew and prospered under his leadership and his success gave him fame and popularity. According to Urwick, Fayol’s success as a leader made him spend his entire time popularizing and publishing his theories of administration and founding the Centre of Administrative Studies. This lead to the publication of Fayol’s book on Management in 1916, Administration Industrielle et Generale which was translated by Storr and was titled General and Industrial Management (Mildred and Sonia, 2010).

Fayol’s book form the bases of management for an organisation which can be relevant to any industry and sector. Lee and Philip (2005) ; Cole and Phil (2011) reiterated Fayols belief as stated in his book, important activities an organisation should possess. He outlined these activities as;

Technical activities: Production and manafacture

Commercial activities: Purchasing and Selling

Financial activities: Securing Capital

Securities activities: Safeguarding of goods and persons

Accounting activities: Asst, Liabilities. Cost and Profits

Managerial activities: forcasting, Organising, Co-ordination, Controlling

Fayol further explained that the aforementioned activities can not be actualised without observing the some management process. He stated the process of management as Forcasting, Organising, Commanding, Controlling and Co-ordinating. These processes Fayol expects managers to apply for an organisation to florish along sides those activities.

Certain principles were applied by Fayol which made him a successful manager. These fourteen (14) principles are still adopted by todays contemporary organisations, students and scholars as it can be used to structure an organisation. He noted that these principles do not need to be strictly adhere to since organisations and business have different and perculiar goals and objectives, but it can guild an organisation pattern it’s goal and oblectives (Lee and Philip, 2005 ; Cole and Phil, 2011). These principles are stated below in fig 1.

Management Priniciples developed by Henri Fayols

DIVISION OF WORK

AUTHORITY

DISCIPLINE

UNITY OF COMMAND

UNITY OF DIRECTION

SUBORDINATION OF INDIVIDUAL INTEREST TO THE GENERAL INTEREST

REMUIRATION

CENTRALIZATION

(DECENTRALIZATION)

SCALAR CHAIN

ORDER

EQUITY

STABILITY OF TENURE OF PERSONNEL

INITIATIVE

ESPIRIT DE CORPSWork should be divided among individuals and groups to ensure that effort and attention are focused on special portions of task. FAyol presented work specialization as the best way to use the human resources of the organisation.

Authority as defined by Fayol is the right to give orders and the power to exact obedience.

A successful organisation requires the common effort of workers. Penalties should be applied judiciously and strictly yo encourage this common effort.

Workers should receive orders from only the person in charge.

The entire organization should be moving towards a common abjective in a common direction.

The interests of one person should not take priority over the interests of the organization as a whole. Thereforre, the interests of all workers should be to the progress of the company.

Many variables, such as cost of living, supply of qualified personnel, general business conditions, and success of the business, should be considered in determining a worker’s rate of pay.

Fayol defined centralization as lowering the importance of subordinate role. Decentralization os increasing the importance. The degree to which centralization or decentralization should be adopted depends on the specific organisation in which the manager is working.

The line of authority from top to the bottom. Managers in hierarchies are part of a chain like authority scales. The existence of a scalar chain and adherence to it are necessary if the organisation is to be successful.

For the sake of efficiency and co-ordination, all materials and people related to a specific kind of work should be used and put in the right place.

All employees should be treated as qually as possible.

Retaining productive employees should always be a high priority of management. Recruitment and selection costs, as well as increased product-reject rates are usually associated with hiring new workers.

Management should take steps to encourage worker initiative, which is defined as new work activity untaken through self direction.

Management should encourage harmony and general good feelings among emloyees

Fig 1: Henri Fayol’s Fourteen (14) Principles of Management as adopted from Management Inovation (2008)

According to Cole and Phil (2011) ; Michael (2000), Fayol was the first to acheive a genuine theory of management based on a number of principles he implemented were flexible and can be adapted for any organizational structure. This was further butressed by Daniel et.al. (2002) stating that Fayol been technically inclined and a successful Engineer was not what made him a successful manager but the administrative skills he exibited in working and managing others. As an Engineer, Fayol was not taught the act of administration but was a skill he trainned himself to acquired beacuse of the people and the resources he has to manage as a manager. Therefore, irrespective of one’s technical knowledge, he should potray the ability of been a good manager. Fayol futher observed that an employee have some certain form of administrative responsibilities, and as they increased in hierarchy their administrative duties increase that is, increment in the management of more people and resources. Fayol also noted that managers should have the ability to communicated with externalities to make the company functional (Daniel et.al, 2002). For example, an Electrical Engineer Consultants to function effectively should have a little knowledge of other profession like in the case of drafting and reviewing a Contract Agreement which will enable him enter a contract to provide Electrical Engineering Services. Also, in the area of Pricing in Preparation of Bills of Quantities(B.O.Q), the Electrical Engineer must have knowledge of other externalities for him to function appropriately.

From Fayol’s observation and understanding of managerial skills which he gained during the years as a manager,decided to articulate his findings which he transmitted into writting and called the book General and Industrial Management and all that was said in the book is ‘’very familiar to comtemporary knowledge management practitioners’’ (Lee and Philip, 2005). With refernces to Fayol’s book, the principles of management can be summarized, showing the way a comtemporary organization is structured. Bureaucracy which will be categorized under division of work, scalar chain, unity of command and centralization shows the structure of organisation that relies on a set of rules and procedures, seperate of functions and a hierarchical structure in implementing controls over others (Investopedia, 2012). The aspect of individual versus general interests, remuneration and equity were considered as Paternalistic Management. This type of management will be referred to as one where a leader assigns task to his employees, and makes his final decision on the employee after getting a feedback from the employee (Hubpages, 2012). This management style makes an employee motivated as he is seen to be a key member of an organisation especially when his opinion is been applied. It also aids the manager to learn better and understand his employers more base on their weakness and strenght. Also, issues regarding employees and management can be jointly resolved amicably. Aviodance in the use of ‘’excessively mechanistic approach towards employees’’ with reference to initiative and esprit de corps. Therefore employees should be given a level of liberty to be creative and show some degree of responsibility (Cole and Phil, 2011). A typical Project Management organisation with construction as their core business can be used to illustrate the theory as propagated by Henri Fayol. There are different parties to the construction of a project such as the Client, Financier, consultants (Architect, Engineers, Quantity Surveyor), Contractors (Builder, Engineers), Sub-contractors etc. They must be managed to achieve the goals of the client. The Project Manager must understand his client and transmit the need of the client to the Project Team undiluted. To provide the best service with respect to quality, time and cost, the project manager must understand all parties to the project including stakeholders, planners etc and use an admistrative style that would make the project team work effectively and efficiently. This would be acheieved where there is proper planning, organizing, commanding, co-ordination and control during the development by the Project Manager. More so, different professionals are engaged for a typical Project Management struction, therefore externalities such as Quantity Surveyors, Engineers, Architects, Lawyers, Banker, Facilities Managers, Health, Safety and Envirnmental Personnel, Insurance etc to make a complete developmental process. This aforementioned example is likened to all what Fayol propagated after his experience as a Manager. The Organisation Structure of a typical Project Team as seen below in fig 2.

Project

Cost

Fig 2: Adapted From Phil Lambourne (2012)

Architect

Engineer

M&E

Consultant

As earlier mentioned, there are different theory of Management such as Scientific Approach, Human Relation and Social Psychological School, System and Contingency approach, Modern approach etc save for the Classical theory which is the purpose for this study. The theorists to the aforementioned Management School of thought viewed Management of an organisation in another dimension, which is undoubtedly very useful in organisational practice of the 21st Century.

According to Cole and Phil (2011), the Human Relation and Social Psychological School dealt more on human motivation, group relationship and leadership style. This was simplified further by Elton Mayo (1880-1949) and Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933) who observed that the physical condition (improved or worsened) does not have any effect on the rate of productivity (output) of workers. This was termed the Hawthorne Effect while Follett advocated that individuals should make use of their inert potentials to solve organisational issues and accept personal responsibilities of their results. She also stated that issues should not be left for management to resolve but also individuals should be involved as this facilitates the ‘’growth of individuals and the organisation to which they belong" (David, 2008. p. 55).

Unlike Fayol’s Classical School of thought which was Bureaucratic and relatively mechanistic and structured in nature, Follett system of management was organic and flexible in nature. The situation were people will be given the liberty to solve organisation issue and accept responsibilities for their action may bring a negative eefect on the organisation if their results are not making any positive change or improvement to the organisation. In this senario, Fayol’s ideology to management will be favourable, where people who make up the managementof ana organisation have been saddled the responsibility to make decisions for the organisation because they have the capacity to act and subordinates take instructions from management.

In Fayol’s theory, due to the bureaucratic nature of his principles, workers in the lower hierarchy of an organisation might get diluted information or nothing from the management in the case of resolving issues (Cole and Phil, 2011). Follett views this aspect of management technique as not helping both individuals and also the organisation to grow . She opined that when people are involved with management in resolving issues of the organisation, they may make inputs that would be helpful and they see themselves as part of the organisation as they will be motivated to work for the organisation. This management style she termed as integration. This approach of Management by Follett is very important but will only be realistic for small organisations. Unlike big organisations of Five Thousand (5000) Staffs, Folletts management partten for this senario will be unrealistic but it is likely to work when Key staffs of all department in the organisation represent other staffs in resolving conflicts along side the management of the orgaisation.

According to Daniel et.al, (2002) Fayol success as a manager with his administrative skills was not because he was a successful Engineer. He reiterated that Fayol was not taught the act of administration but was a skill he trainned himself to acquired beacuse of the people and the resources he has to manage as a manager. Stuart (2003) postulated Daniel et. al, (2002) view but also stated management techniques acquired through formal education could be universally applied in any organisation structure. This he further buttressed as the existence of Chief Executive Offiers (CEO) in an organisation structure of the 20th century. CEOs in his view can practice the managerial skill acquired through education in any organisation. Fayol’s principles of management were more or less bureaucratic (mechanistic system) but management skills acquired through education in the 20th Century has made it more flexible with the introduction of technological tools in order to operate in any organisation owing to the fact that management is likened to be a Profession. Also, as regards to socio-economic performance of an organisation, there should be some degree of flexibility in the management methods of an organisation structure when there is need for improvement (Veronique and Oliver 2003). When it is certain that an organisation needs to improve financially, the structure must allow for a change and adaptation irrespective of it’s rigidity.

This further shows the significant of Fayol’s theory by Stuart (2003) to contemporary management as it was noted by Mildred and Sonia (2010) that the relevance of Fayol’s theory disminished when compared to Taylor’s theory. Fayol’s theory is still very much in use in the 20th century. For instance is the typical structure of a university where you have a bureaucratic structure with the Chancellor, Vice-chancellor, Vice-chancellor (Academics and Administration), Dean, Sub-dean, Heads of Department etc. Lee and Philip (2005) supported Fayol’s theory as very relevant in the 20th Century as " he is commonly understood by comtemporary writers, and students of management theory".