Understanding how individuals and groups within organizations act and react with each other in everyday situations can be key to helping managers become more effective both in directing their own activities, the activities of their subordinates, and in working with others within the company. However, there is no one approach to management which is optimum for all organizations. Organizational culture, education of managers and employees and the environment of the surrounding culture are all variables which affect the type of management seen in any particular group or company. This research examines some of the management techniques which have been used in the past as well as techniques which are currently in use.
Early twentieth century industrialists took an engineering approach to management called scientific management. This approach was developed by Frederick Taylor and called for the careful analysis of tasks and time-and-motion studies in conjunction with piece-rate pay schemes in order to improve productivity. Adherents of this approach searched for the "one best way" to perform a specific task, and introduced standard parts and procedures. Taken to the extreme, the scientific management approach seeks a single best way to solve a given situation (Klein, Dansereau & Hall, 1994, p. 204).
One significant shortcoming of this approach is that much time and effort must be put toward developing work standards, closely monitoring many different aspects of the work process, and calculating appropriate rates of pay. Another problem that arises with scientific management is that there may be strong work resistance to attempts by management to measure effort and productivity (Scanlan & Keys, 1983, p. 33).
The human relations approach gained popularity at the same time that scientific management was also in wide use. To some degree, the human relations approach grew out of the emerging field of psychology, and emphasized the...