Foundation Of Management Activities: Classical, Behavioral, And Contingency Management Theories

The Most Relevant Management Approach

Discuss about the Foundation of Management Activities.

The business world consists of activities in and within buying, selling of goods and services, which take place both locally and globally. The business world is affected with issues of management, since managers play a crucial role in the success o many businesses. In doing so, there are different principles that these individual uses, to run their businesses whether they are small or large scale in nature (Pricop 2012, p. 28-56). The contemporary business world employs different principles, set out in various theories of management including the classical management theory, the contingency management theory, and the behavioral theory, the X and Y management theory, he systems view theory, among others.

In the contemporary world unlike the industrial age when the classical theory of management was most common, institutions embrace a combination of different approaches. For instance, the Coca-Cola a company, an international beverage company uses a combination of all these management theories in different parts of the world, in order to ensure that profits are maintained and that their brands continue selling highly everywhere (Nikulina & Khomenko 2015, p. 441-445). Today, using a “fit it all approach” may lead to many problems to managers. Therefore, it is only important that management policies are flexible to accommodate all the advantageous aspect of individual theories, as long as productivity and efficiency are guaranteed.

Different scholars including Schermerhorn et al (2012) have discussed these theories. The major theories include the classical management theory, the behavioral management approach, the systems view theory, and the contingency management approach. The management approaches have been used for some time, since the industrial age, in different parts of the world. While some institutions favor the use of one or two of the approaches, others embrace the sure o all of them (Pricop 2012, p. 28-56). However as time goes by, it has been evident that local and international business policies have shaped these theories. For instance, labour laws; continue to bring change in management in regard to policies on employee welfare at work.

Classical Management

The classical management theory may be the most relevant area of management. According to Schermerhorn et al, the classical management theory mainly focuses on workers’ productivity, efficiency on duty and their output but not the variation of their individual behaviors at work. Other scholars have indicated that the classical management approach combines the characteristics of not only the bureaucratic and the administrative theories but also the scientific theory of management (Bao 2015, p. 433-454).  The classical management approach tries to ensure that consumer and investor benefits are maximized consistently and remain above fair levels. Schermerhorn et al (2012) indicates that Henri Fayol, Fredrick Taylor, and Max Weber were the theorists that developed this approach.

Classical Management

The theory is considered to have an advantage over other theories by Killen et al (2012, p. 525-538), since it is mainly based on the hierarchical organizational structure that defines the particular objectives and responsibilities of every manager at different organizational management levels. Secondly, the classical management approach advocates for the division of labour and thus emphasizing on specialization on particular duties for workers. According to Schermerhorn et al (2012), division of labour as supported by the classical theory is one of the crucial strategies that any management may need to use in order to boost the performance of employees within a firm and reduce the total costs of operation within the firm. On the other hand, the classical theory is believed to be the best approach in management as it enables faster and efficient decision-making process. However, critics of the classical theory as shown by Pricop (2012, p. 28-56) have indicated that the major disadvantage that the theory holds is that it lowers the motivation of employees, organizational growth and creativity among these individuals. At the same time, classical management may discourage teamwork as specialization makes people mainly concentrate on their areas of knowledge. Further, the classical approach to management tends to ignore workers’ desires.  While it focuses on the success of the set objectives within an organization, this approach does not favor the wishes of workers more so in the latest millennial workforces. Considering Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in motivational approaches for workers, it is clear that human beings move to satisfy their most basic needs before moving on to satisfy secondary needs, within the hierarchy. Schermerhorn et al (2012) seem to agree that the classical management theory may just contradict this view under the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, as it ignores the needs of workers, both basic and secondary in nature.

Behavioral Management Approaches in Management

The behavioral management theory includes approaches that concentrate on motivation of the workforce in order to realize institutional productivity, efficiency, and higher output. Schermerhorn et al (2012), argue that the behavioral management theory involves the analysis of the expectations of every employee, the dynamics that exist within the workers, conflict resolution approaches, personal interests, and teamwork needs.  It is thus clear that the behavioral management approach is absolutely contrasted to the classical management theory as the later completely ignores the needs of the worker and instead focuses on the outcomes of institutional productivity (Marshall 2008, p. 413-435). Schermerhorn et al (2012) indicate that Elton Mayo was one of the earliest behavioral theorists who examined a number of workers teams and further carried out experiments to show how the workers responded and the extent to which their productivity could be affected.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Classical Management Theory

Elton Mayo relied on the Hawthorne Effect, which is a renowned behavioral change, which occurs where an individual is aware that they are being observed. From the findings of these experiments, conclusions were drawn that workers can increases their productivity once accorded special privileges including free lunch and more independence on duty. Further, Schermerhorn et al (2012) agree with Mayo’s theory that cliques and leadership skills among the workers impact on the productivity of the workers. Nikulina & Khomenko (2015, p. 441-445) argue that despite the behavioral theory should have been the best approach more so in the Industrial Age in Europe and across the world. While the classical approach is said to assume workers to be cogs in a given machine while concentrating on maximizing the overall productivity through pure workforce efficiency behavioral management approach views the workers to be individuals that require varying motivational factors from one another.

The contingency management approach as presented by Schermerhorn et al (2012) assumes that the effectiveness of management is contingent, and/or relies on the interplay that emerges between applying behaviors of management and the particular situations. In this regard, the contingency management theory advocates for a change in management, depending on the circumstances that emerge within an institution, at any given time. As advanced by Fred Fielder a management psychologist, the contingency theory stipulates that the effectiveness of leadership in relation to the effectiveness of workers groups consist of both task motivation/relation motivation and the current circumstances(Rosenberg & Ferlie 2014, p.1-19). The contingency management approach measures task motivation and/or the relation motivation using the Least Preferred Co-Worker scale (LPC). According to Fielder, individuals who have a higher score on the LPC score tend to maintain harmony in regard to their relationships with other workers. On the other hand, those people that rate lower on the LPC scale are motivated to focus mainly on accomplishing their duties and/or specific tasks.

Schermerhorn et al (2012), indicate that both task/relations motivations remain contingent, whether the manager can manage to control and effect the situational favorability of the group of workers, or the outcome. The contingency theory indicates that a manager can assess an institutional management situational favorability using three major factors. These include the leader-member relations, the task structure, and the position power (Czekaj & Ziębicki 2013, p. 156). The leader-member relations as a factor tend to address the perception of the managers regarding their perception of their cooperative relations with the institutional subordinates. The task structure is related to as whether the tasks are highly structured and thus subject to the standard procedures and adequate assessment measures. While some tasks may be easy to be structured, standardized, and assessed, some may not (Bitektine & Miller 2014, p. 115-130). The position power as a factor in management tends to inquire whether the level of authority of the manager is based mainly on punishing and/or rewarding employee behavior. According to Schermerhorn et al(2012), the position power as a factor tries to determine as to whether the managers derives their authority from the provision of bonuses to workers for meeting the institutional goals or through termination of employees for failing to meet particular goals. The interaction among these three major factors leads to various situations in management. These situations are categorized as favorable, intermediate, and unfavorable ones. In agreement with Schermerhorn et al (2012), either a high or a low LPC-score manager can handle these situations better. Majority of management psychologists argue that the high LPC-score managers are mostly effective in terms of influencing the behaviors of different employee groups within the intermediate situations (Jeffrey 2012, p. 63-78). On the other hand, low-rate LPC managers can mostly be effective in influencing employee behavior more so during the favorable and/or unfavorable situations.

Other Areas of Management

The systems theory of management stipulates that every organization is a system and is thus part of the larger systems. In this regard, the way a subsystem can fit the requirements of the larger systems absolutely determines if such a subsystem will prosper or can be left to fail in productivity and efficiency. According to Schermerhorn et al (2012), the systems view approach in management involves looking outward and beyond the company-office building walls. Brahm & Tarziján (2013, p. 224-245) indicate that looking and considering the world to be a collection of different systems that create a whole is one of the strategies of the systems view theory. Further, the examination of the relationships between individual systems in order to determine their impact on the whole system, is imperative. Schermerhorn et al (2012) describe the systems view theory in two different ways. First, every system plays a major role within the higher-level system, where it exists. Secondly, every subsystem is divided into components and/or subsystems which mutually interact and thus contributing wholly to the objectives of the parent system.  Therefore, in line with Hill & Gareth (2012, p. 45-50), the success of an institution relies on the performance of the individual subsystems within a given institution, and the favorable conditions set up by larger systems, under which an institution exists.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this presentation is a commentary on the four areas of management as advanced by Schermerhorn et al (2012).  These include the behavioral management theory; the systems view management theory, the contingency management approach, and the classical management theory. It also includes the views of other scholars and critics to these theories.  Despite the advantages of some of these approaches over others, it is essential managers to combine them in running their institutions. This will boost efficiency, productivity, worker motivation, and general system performance in an industry.

References

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