Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SCHOOL OF
THOUGHT
Introduction
Human Relations Approach
Behavioral Science Approach
Advantages, Disadvantages,
Criticism
INTRODUCTION
The free will theory of classical school did not
survive for long.
The Traditional classical theory and its principles are
attacked on the ground that they are contradictory,
pay little attention to motivation, and make hasty
pronouncements on what should be done without
examining time assumptions underlying such
pronouncements. As such, these principles do not
represent the heart of knowledge of management
but a small part of the total body of administrative
management.
Abraham
Maslow,a
practicing
psychologist,
developed one of the most widely recognizedneed
theories,a theory of motivation based upon a
consideration of human needs.
His theory of human needs had three assumptions:
Human needs are never completely satisfied.
Human behavior is purposeful and is motivated by the
need for satisfaction.
Needs can be classified according to a hierarchical
structure of importance, from the lowest to highest.
Chris Argyris,
A contemporary advocate of the behavioural school of management thought,
Argyris has argued in his book Personality and Organization that people
normally progress from a stage of immaturity and dependence to maturity
and independence and that many modern organization keep their employees
in a dependent state, thus preventing the individual from achieving his or her
fullest potential . Furthermore he felt that various concepts and principles of
modern management such as specialization inhibit the natural development
of a healthy personality.
Chester Barnard
The contribution of Barnard is his concept of authority. He stressed
the need for workers to understand what they must do, for workers to
be convinced that what they must do are consistent to the
organizations goals and objectives, for them to think that an
organizations order or directive is consistent to their own personal
goals and objectives, and for them not to doubt that the order or
directive can be complied with using the available resources.
Rensis Likert,
was an American educator and organizational psychologist best
known for his research on management styles. He is also famous for
developing the Likert scale, a psychometric scale commonly
involved in research using questionnaires and the linking pin
model. Likert was known for his support of interdisciplinary
collaborations and emphasis on using social science research to
effect positive change.
Likert scale - is a psychometric scale commonly involved in
research that employs questionnaires. It is the most widely used
approach to scaling responses in survey research.
Linking pin model - It presents an organization as a number of
overlapping work units in which a member of a unit is the leader of
another unit. In this scheme, the supervisor/manager has the dual
task of maintaining unity and creating a sense of belonging within
the group he or she supervises and of representing that group in
meetings with superior and parallel management staff. These
individuals are the linking pins within the organization and so they
become the focus of leadership development activities.
Advantages
By paying attention to the various needs of its
employees, organizations could improve
productivity and reduce employee-related issues
that negatively impacted the organization.
Organizations that focused on the employee rather
than the process saw jumps in productivity (which
reduced costs), fewer absentee hours and lost-time
incidents, and fewer employee-supervisor conflicts.
Disadvantages
As with any new approach, the people focus of the
Neoclassical School produced some immediate benefits
but, as the approach was used more frequently in
various situations, problems began to surface.
Changing the focus from the product to the individual
impacted production because decisions between
product and employee were resolved in favor of the
employee. It also required supervisors and managers
to be completely retrained, which added to the cost of
the product. Friction between employees and
supervisors increased because personnel issues were
often automatically resolved in favor of the employees.
CRITICISM
Various Keynesian school of thought have attempted
to meet the neoclassical criticisms, but the debate is
still unresolved: neither side has yet convinced the
other. They believe that the major neoclassical
hypothesis in three crucial areas, on which their
conclusions heavily depend, are open to challenge:
The nature of the equilibrium relevant to the
discussion of the matters at issue.
The nature of the unemployment observable in the
real world
The
implications of
the present inflationary
environment.