Contents
Contemporary Theories in Management
Rationale
Contemporary theories of management tend to account for and help interpret the rapidly changing nature of today's organizational environments. As before in management history, these theories are prevalent in other sciences as well.
Contingency Theory
Basically, contingency theory asserts that when managers make a decision, they must take into account all aspects of the current situation and act on those aspects that are key to the situation at hand. It's the approach that "it depends." For example, the continuing effort to identify the best leadership or management style might now conclude that the best style depends on the situation. If one is leading troops in the Persian Gulf, an autocratic style is probably best (of course, many might argue here, too). If one is leading a hospital or university, a more participative and facilitative leadership style is probably best.
Also see:
Systems Theory
Systems theory has had a significant effect on management science and understanding organizations. First, let's look at "what is a system?" A system is a collection of part unified to accomplish an overall goal. If one part of the system is removed, the nature of the system is changed as well. For example, a pile of sand is not a system. If one removes a sand particle, you've still got a pile of sand. However, a functioning car is a system. Remove the carburetor and you've no longer got a working car. A system can be looked at as having inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes. Systems share feedback among each of these four aspects of the systems.
Let's look at an organization. Inputs would include resources such as raw materials, money, technologies and people. These inputs go through a process where they're planned, organized, motivated and controlled, ultimately to meet the organization's goals. Outputs would be products or services to a market. Outcomes would be, e.g., enhanced quality of life or productivity for customers/clients, productivity. Feedback would be information from human resources carrying out the process, customers/clients using the products, etc. Feedback also comes from the larger environment of the organization, e.g., influences from government, society, economics, and technologies. This overall system framework applies to any system, including subsystems (departments, programs, etc.) in the overall organization.
Systems theory may seem quite basic. Yet, decades of management training and practices in the workplace have not followed this theory. Only recently, with tremendous changes facing organizations and how they operate, have educators and managers come to face this new way of looking at things. This interpretation has brought about a significant change (or paradigm shift) in the way management studies and approaches organizations.
The effect of systems theory in management is that writers, educators, consultants, etc. are helping managers to look at the organization from a broader perspective. Systems theory has brought a new perspective for managers to interpret patterns and events in the workplace. They recognize the various parts of the organization, and, in particular, the interrelations of the parts, e.g., the coordination of central administration with its programs, engineering with manufacturing, supervisors with workers, etc. This is a major development. In the past, managers typically took one part and focused on that. Then they moved all attention to another part. The problem was that an organization could, e.g., have a wonderful central administration and wonderful set of teachers, but the departments didn't synchronize at all.
Chaos Theory
As chaotic and random as world events seem today, they seem as chaotic in organizations, too. Yet for decades, managers have acted on the basis that organizational events can always be controlled. A new theory (or some say "science"), chaos theory, recognizes that events indeed are rarely controlled. Many chaos theorists (as do systems theorists) refer to biological systems when explaining their theory. They suggest that systems naturally go to more complexity, and as they do so, these systems become more volatile (or susceptible to cataclysmic events) and must expend more energy to maintain that complexity. As they expend more energy, they seek more structure to maintain stability. This trend continues until the system splits, combines with another complex system or falls apart entirely. Sound familiar? This trend is what many see as the trend in life, in organizations and the world in general.
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Teaching and Learning Resources
Introduction to Management
Management in all business areas and organizational activities are the acts of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural resources.
Because organizations can be viewed as systems, management can also be defined as human action, including design, to facilitate the production of useful outcomes from a system. This view opens the opportunity to 'manage' oneself, a pre-requisite to attempting to manage others
Management can also refer to the person or people who perform the act(s) of management.
- History
- Historical development
- Management topics
- Areas and categories and implementations of management
- Management Courses at MIT Sloan, OpenCourseWare
- Management Studies A free tutorial for Management Students
- Research on Organizations: Bibliography Database and Maps
- ATMAE The Association for Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering
- Introduction to Management and Effective Leadership Skills
- Introduction to Management
The Environment of Management
Tutorials
- The Environment and Corporate Culture
- Managing in a Global Environment
- Ethics and Social Responsibility
- Managing Small Business Start Ups
Readings
Organizational culture is an idea in the field of Organizational studies and management which describes the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values (personal and cultural values) of an organization. It has been defined as "the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization."[1]
This definition continues to explain organizational values, also known as "beliefs and ideas about what kinds of goals members of an organization should pursue and ideas about the appropriate kinds or standards of behavior organizational members should use to achieve these goals. From organizational values develop organizational norms, guidelines, or expectations that prescribe appropriate kinds of behavior by employees in particular situations and control the behavior of organizational members towards one another."[1] Organizational culture is not the same as corporate culture. It is wider and deeper concepts, something that an organization 'is' rather than what it 'has'. Corporate culture is the total sum of the values, customs, traditions, and meanings that make a company unique. Corporate culture is often called "the character of an organization", since it embodies the vision of the company’s founders. The values of a corporate culture influence the ethical standards within a corporation, as well as managerial behavior.[2] |
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Senior management may try to determine a corporate culture. They may wish to impose corporate values and standards of behavior that specifically reflect the objectives of the organization. In addition, there will also be an extant internal culture within the workforce. Work-groups within the organization have their own behavioral quirks and interactions which, to an extent, affect the whole system. Roger Harrison's four-culture typology, and adapted by Charles Handy, suggests that unlike organizational culture, corporate culture can be 'imported'. For example, computer technicians will have expertise, language and behaviors gained independently of the organization, but their presence can influence the culture of the organization as a whole.
Organizational Culture and Institutional Transformation - From the Education Resources Information Center Clearinghouse on Higher Education Washington, DC.
What is Organisational Culture and how can you change it? - From iProCon HCM Insight London, UK.
http://www.companyculture.com An practical informational website for managers, with articles on the theory and principles for understanding company culture and how to change it.
Tool for measuring organisation culture by Geert Hofstede and Bob Waisfisz
Planning
Tutorials
- Managerial Planning and Goal Setting
- Strategy Formulation and Implementation
- Managerial Decision Making
Readings
Planning in organizations and public policy is both the organizational process of creating and maintaining a plan; and the psychological process of thinking about the activities required to create a desired goal on some scale. As such, it is a fundamental property of intelligent behavior. This thought process is essential to the creation and refinement of a plan, or integration of it with other plans, that is, it combines forecasting of developments with the preparation of scenarios of how to react to them. An important, albeit often ignored aspect of planning, is the relationship it holds with forecasting. Forecasting can be described as predicting what the future will look like, whereas planning predicts what the future should look like.[1]
The term is also used to describe the formal procedures used in such an endeavor, such as the creation of documents, diagrams, or meetings to discuss the important issues to be addressed, the objectives to be met, and the strategy to be followed. Beyond this, planning has a different meaning depending on the political or economic context in which it is used.
Two attitudes to planning need to be held in tension: on the one hand we need to be prepared for what may lie ahead, which may mean contingencies and flexible processes. On the other hand, our future is shaped by consequences of our own planning and actions.
- Automated planning and scheduling
- Balanced scorecard
- Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR) (Supply chain management)
- Futures Studies
- District Planning in Kerala
- Peoples Planning in Kerala
- Plan
- Planning fallacy
- Project management
- Time management
- Wicked problems
- References
External links
Organizing
Tutorials
- Designing Adaptive Organizations
- Managing Change and Innovation
- Human Resource Management
- Meeting the Challenge of Diversity
Readings
Organizing (also spelled organising) is the act of rearranging elements following one or more rules.
Anything is commonly considered organized when it looks like everything has a correct order or placement. But it's only ultimately organized if any element has no difference on time taken to find it. In that sense, organizing can also be defined as to place different objects in logical arrangement for better searching.
Organizations are groups of people frequently trying to organize some specific subject, such as political issues. So, even while organizing can be viewed as a simple definition, it can get as complex as organizing the world's information.
Leading
Tutorials
Readings
Leadership is stated as the "process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task."[1] Definitions more inclusive of followers have also emerged. Alan Keith stated that, "Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen."[2] Tom DeMarco says that leadership needs to be distinguished from posturing.[3]
Leadership remains one of the most relevant aspects of the organizational context. However, defining leadership has been challenging and definitions can vary depending on the situation. According to Ann Marie E. McSwain, Assistant Professor at Lincoln University, "leadership is about capacity: the capacity of leaders to listen and observe, to use their expertise as a starting point to encourage dialogue between all levels of decision-making, to establish processes and transparency in decision-making, to articulate their own value and visions clearly but not impose them. Leadership is about setting and not just reacting to agendas, identifying problems, and initiating change that makes for substantial improvement rather than managing change."
The following sections discuss several important aspects of leadership including a description of what leadership is and a description of several popular theories and styles of leadership. This article also discusses topics such as the role of emotions and vision, as well as leadership effectiveness and performance, leadership in different contexts, how it may differ from related concepts (i.e., management), and some critiques of leadership as generally conceived.
Controlling
Tutorials
Readings
Software for Institute Management ( S.I.M.) is based on pyramidal Organizational Structure followed Worldwide. It is designed to effectively inter link and consolidate the complete System Hierarchy from Operational to Strategic level. This not only reduces complexity but also helps in better decision making.
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Operations management is an area of business concerned with the production of goods and services, and involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient in terms of using as little resource as needed, and effective in terms of meeting customer requirements. It is concerned with managing the process that converts inputs (in the forms of materials, labour and energy) into outputs (in the form of goods and services).
Operations traditionally refers to the production of goods and services separately, although the distinction between these two main types of operations is increasingly difficult to make as manufacturers tend to merge product and service offerings. More generally, Operations Management aims to increase the content of value-added activities in any given process. Fundamentally, these value-adding creative activities should be aligned with market opportunity (see Marketing) for optimal enterprise performance.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, Operations Management [is the field concerned with managing and directing] the physical and/or technical functions of a firm or organization, particularly those relating to development, production, and manufacturing. [Operations Management programs typically include] instruction in principles of general management, manufacturing and production systems, plant management, equipment maintenance management, production control, industrial labor relations and skilled trades supervision, strategic manufacturing policy, systems analysis, productivity analysis and cost control, and materials planning.[1][2]
- APICS The Association for Operations Management
- Business process mapping
- Industrial engineering
- Lean manufacturing
- Operations research
- Six Sigma
- References
Recommended Texts
About International Mangement
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International
Management Theories and Practices Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop. |
About Basics of Management
So often, when we become "educated," we leave behind the basic books, as if they're too elementary and simplistic. However, basic books in topics such as management, continue to provide basics needed to keep perspective and one's feet on the ground. Almost any introductory management book would serve well in this regard.
"Management (third edition)" by Richard L. Daft, Dryden Press, 1993. (Comprehensive and straightforward book on the basics, infused with practical cases and examples, and timely graphics to summarize salient points.)
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Management (with
InfoTrac)
Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop.
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About the New Paradigm
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The New Paradigm in Business: Emerging Strategic for Leadership and Organizational Change Edited by Michael Ray and Alan Rinzler, 1993, New Consciousness Reader. This book provides a comprehensive and well-organized collection of papers and chapters from authors about the subject of the title. The materials are highly accessible (not imbued with scholarly jargon) and well-written. Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop. |
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Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop. |
About Systems Theory
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The
Fifth Discipline Fieldbook Strategies and Tools for Building A Learning Organization by Peter Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard Ross, Bryan Smith Check
the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop. |
"The Fifth Discipline", by Peter Senge, Doubleday Currency, 1990. (Probably still the most penetrating and realistic overview of understanding organizations from a system view AND diagnosing and resolving common organizational problems AND what major activities to ensure the health of your organization. A brilliant and wise book.)
Resources
Sources of Management Theories
- Basic Management Skills
- Brief Overview of Theories in Management
- Modern Management Theories and Practices
- Knowing What a Manager Does
