Different type of approaches which mangers do:
Behavioral approach
As we know, managers get things done by working with people. This explains why some writers have chosen to look at management by focusing on the organization's people. The field of study that researches the actions (behavior) of people at work is called organizational behavior (0B). Much of what managers do today when managing people-motivating. leading, bundling trust, working with a team, managing conflict, and so forth-has come out of OB research. Although a number of individuals in the early twentieth century recognized the importance of people to an organization's success, four stand out as early advocates of the OB approach: Robert Owen, Hugo Munsterberg, Mary Parker Follett, and Chester Barnard. Their contributions were varied and distinct, yet all believed that people were the most important asset of the organization and should be managed accordingly. Their ideas provided the foundation for such management practices as employee selection procedures, motivation programs, and work teams. Exhibit MH-5 summarizes each individual's most important ideas.
How today's managers use the behavioral approach ?
The behavioral approach has largely shaped how today s organizations are managed. From the way that managers design jobs to the way that they work with employee teams to the way that they communicate, we see elements of the behavioral approach. Much of what the early OB advocates proposed and the conclusions from the Hawthorne studies have provided the foundation for our current theories of motivation, leadership, group behavior and development, and numerous other behavioral approaches AS We've seen, many elements of the curlier approaches to management theory continue to influenced how managers manage. Most of these earlier approaches focused on managers' concerns inside the organization. Starting in the 1960s, management researchers began to look at what was happening in the external environment outside the boundaries of the organization. Two contemporary management perspectives-systems and contingency are part of this approach. Systems theory is a basic theory in the physical sciences, but had never been applied to organized human efforts. In 1938, Chester Barnard, a telephone company executive, first wrote in his book, The Functions of an Executive, that an organization functioned as a cooperative system. However, it wasn't until the 1960s that management researchers began to look more carefully at systems theory and how it related to organizations.
A system is a set of interrelated and interdependent parts arranged in a manner that produces a unified whole. The two basic types of systems are closed and open. Closed systems are not influenced by and do not interact with their environment In contrast, open systems are influenced by and do interact with their environment.
Today, when we describe organizations as systems, we mean open systems. Exhibit MH-7 shows a diagram of an organization from an open systems perspective As you can see, an organization takes in inputs (resources) from the environment and transforms or processes these resources into outputs that are distributed into the environment. The organization is "open" to and interacts with its environment.
How does the systems approach contribute to our understanding o
management? Researchers envisioned an organization as being made up of "independent factors, including individuals, groups, attitudes, motives, formal structure, interactions, goals, status, and authority."12 What this means is that as manage coordinate work activities in the various parts of the organization, they ensure that a these parts are working together so the organization's goals can be achieve
For example,
the systems approach recognizes that, no matter the how efficient production department might be, the marketing apartment must anticipate things
in customer tastes and work with the product development department in creating products customers want or the organization's overall performance will suffer.
In addition, the systems approach implies that decisions and actions in one organizational area will affect other areas. For example, if the purchasing department doesn't acquire the right quantity and quality of inputs, the production department won't be able to do its job. Finally, the systems approach recognizes that organizations are not self contained. They rely on their environment for essential inputs and as outlets to absorb their outputs. No organization can survive for long if it ignores government regulations, supplier relations, or the varied external constituencies upon which it
depends.
How relevant is the systems approach to management?
Quite relevant. Consider, for example, a shift manager at a Starbucks restaurant who must coordinate the work of employees filling customer orders at the front counter and the drive-through windows, direct the delivery and unloading of food supplies, and address any customer concerns that come up. This manager "manages" all parts of the "system" so that the restaurant meets its daily sales goals. The early management theorists came up with management principles that they generally assumed to be universally applicable. Later research found exceptions to many of these principles For example, division of labor is valuable and widely Used, but jobs can become too specialized. Bureaucracy is desirable in many Situations, but in other circumstances, other structural designs are more effective. Management is not (and cannot be) based on simplistic principles to be applied in all situations. Different and changing situations require managers to use different approaches and techniques. The contingency approach (sometimes called the Situational approach) says that organizations are different, face different situations (contingencies), and require different ways of managing.
A good way to describe contingency is "if, then." If this Is the way my situation is, then this Is the best way for me to manage in this situation. It's intuitively logical because organizations and even units within the same organization differ-in size, goals, work activities, and the like. It would be surprising to find universally applicable management rules that-would work in all situations. But, of course, it's one thing to say that the way to manage "depends organization Size. As size increases, so do the problems of coordination. For instance, the type of organization structure appropriate for an organization of 50,000 employees is likely to be inefficient for an organization of 50 employees. Routineness of Task Technology. To achieve its purpose, an organization uses technology.
Routine technologies
Require organizational structures, leadership styles, and control systems
that differ from those required by customized or nonroutine technologies.
Environmental Uncertainty
The degree of uncertainty caused by environmental changes influences the management process. What works best in a stable and predictable environment may be totally inappropriate in a rapidly changing and unpredictable environment.
Individual Differences
Individuals differ in terms of their desire for growth, autonomy, tolerance of ambiguity, and expectations. These and other individual differences are particularly important when managers select motivation techniques, leadership styles, and job designs. on the situation" and another to say what the situation is. Management researchers continue working to identify these situational variables. Exhibit MH-8 describes four popular contingency variables:
Although the list is by no means comprehensive-more than 100 different variables have been identified-it represents those most widely used and gives you an ides of what we mean by the term contingency variable. The primary value of the contingency approach is that it stresses there are no simplistic or universal rules for managers to follow.
So what do managers face today when managing?
Although the dawn of the information age is said to have begun with Samuel Morse's telegraph in 1837, the most dramatic changes in information technology have occurred in the latter part of the twentieth century and have directly affected the manager's job. Managers now may manage employees who are working from home or working hallway around the world. An organization's computing resources used to be mainframe computers locked away in temperature-controlled rooms and only accessed by the experts, Now, practically everyone in an organization is connected-wired or wireless-with devices no larger than the palm of the hand. Just like the impact of the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s on the emergence of management, the information age has brought dramatic changes that continue to influence the way organizations are managed
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