Generally the classical approach attempts to provide common principles, which give us a useful starting point in attempting to analyse the effectiveness of the design of the organisation structure, although psychological and social factors also need to be remembered. This approach has been criticised for being too inhumane as it is a science of things not people and can lead to low morale.
Human Relations Approach
Where the classical approach takes a mechanistic view to organisations, the Human Relations approach considers and gives attention to social factors at work i.e. the behaviour of employees within an organisation. Several scholars, including Elton Mayo and Douglas McGregor, advocated this approach.
Groups, leadership, and the informal organisation were all investigated and discussed in the famous Hawthorne Experiments at the Western Electric Company in America (1924-32). The results of these investigations laid the foundation for further research into communication, work groups, leadership and motivation.
Unions and government regulations reacted to the rather dehumanising effects of other theories at the time. More attention was given to individuals and their unique capabilities in the organisation. A major belief included that the organisation would prosper if its workers prospered as well. Human Resource departments were added to organisations. The behavioural sciences play a strong role in helping to understand the needs of workers, and how the needs of both the organisation and its workers could be better aligned.
Various new theories were spawned, many based on the behavioural sciences (some had names like theory “X”, “Y” and “Z”). Theorist Douglas McGregor is most famously known for Theory X and Y. Theory Z was by adopted by theorist Ouchi and is sometimes known as Japanese management.
Traditional Theory X: This can also be ascribed to Sigmund Freud who was no lover of people and far from being the optimist. This theory assumes people are lazy; they hate work to the extent they avoid it; have no ambition, take no initiative and avoid taking any responsibility. All they want is security, and to get them to do any work they must be rewarded, coerced, intimidated and/or punished. Can sometimes be called the “Stick and Carrot” theory.
Theory Y: This is in sharp contrast to “X” and was developed by Douglas McGregor. He believed people want to learn and that work is their natural activity to the extent that they develop self-discipline and self-development. Reward is not in cash payment but in doing challenging and difficult tasks by themselves. Managers then need to “dovetail” the human wish for self-development into the organisations need for maximum productive efficiency.
Theory Z: This was a refreshing change from theory X. Freud’s fellow psychologist, Abraham Maslow is the main founder of the humanistic school. His theory revolves around the meaning and significance of human work, as he believed all good qualities are inherent in people from birth. A mans personality is the sum total of his works and that only his works survive a man at death. This then became the essence of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory.
Contingency Theory
Contingency can be defined as a chance happening of events, this being so the contingency theory states that there is no ‘one best’ design of organisation, or style of management and leadership. The type of structure, management style and ‘success’ of the organisation is dependent upon a range of situational variables.
Fred Luthans advocated that this theory worked on the basis that certain practices work better than others for certain people and certain jobs. As an example, rigid, clearly defined jobs, authoritative leadership and tight controls lead in some cases to high productivity and satisfaction among workers. In some other cases just the opposite seems to work. It is necessary, therefore, to adapt the leadership style to that particular group of workers and the specific job in hand.
This approach is sometimes seen as an extension of the systems approach, highlights possible means of differentiating among alternative forms of organisation structures and systems of management. There is no one optimum state. The structure of an organisation and its success is dependant upon the nature of the tasks with which it is designed to deal with and the nature of environmental issues. Organisations should not seek one “right” way of doing things but consider situations and contextual factors, which should influence management decisions.
Systems Approach
The Systems approach to organisation integrates classical and human relations approaches. What is recognised is the importance of the socio-technical (human and machine interaction) system. Organisations are considered to be open systems interacting with the environment in which it operates. The system is made up of various sub-systems, e.g. task, technology, structure and people and a change in any one of those sub-systems results in overall change in the organisation. The organisation takes inputs from the environment (outputs from other systems) and through a series of activities or processes these inputs are transformed into outputs (inputs to other systems) to achieve an objective.
There were many thinkers involved in this approach including Blake & Mouton. Von Bertalanffy was regarded as the founder of this theory and Ackoff was a MIT professor who invented “OR” (operations research) which was the creation of multi-disciplinary teams of experts used in simulations of war games. Other names linked to this approach are Boulding, Starr, Forrester and Parsons.
The goals of this approach are to maintain your attention on the whole at all costs. For managers this means:
- Define the company as a system
- Establish system objectives (performance criteria)
- Identify wider systems (the environment)
- Create formal subsystems (including a humanistic, psychosocial subsystem)
- Integrate the subsystems with the whole system
Expectancy Theory
Victor Vroom’s (1964) expectancy theory is an extension of the contingency approach. Vroom studied the motivational and decision-making processes and developed what has come to be known as expectancy theory, (also known as equity theory as developed by Homans and other social psychologists).
This approach attempts to measure the degree of desire to perform behaviour rather than the need to perform behaviour. Motivation strength is calculated by multiplying the perceived value of the result of performing behaviour by the perceived probability that the result will materialise. The idea is that complex internal processes of motivation drive workers.
Management leadership styles should therefore be tailored to the particular situation and to the particular group, based on motivation, task and people. In some cases it may appear best for the boss to decide and in others the group might arrive at a consensus. An individual should also be rewarded with what he or she perceives as important rather than what the manager perceives. “Horses for courses” is a saying that could describe this idea, on the basis that certain practices work better than others do for certain people and certain jobs. It is necessary therefore to adapt the leadership style to the particular group of workers and the specific job in hand.
Table of Findings
Examples of Approaches within Organisations
Classical:
Public Sector organisations such as local authorities, whose emphasis is on purpose of work, formal structure, hierarchy of management, technical requirements and common principals.
Human Relations:
Large industry and processing plants such as Car manufacturers that motivate staff by empowerment, targets and financial payments. Attention is on social factors within the workplace, groups, leadership, the informal organisation and the behaviour of people.
Systems:
Changing industrial organisations such as Coal Mining and Oil. Where new technological, social and economical factors have large influence on the work and interrelationships of structure and behaviour. Integration of classical and human relations approaches, and covers the importance of the socio-technical system.
Contingency:
This could possibly be found in any organisation or industry. An example could be given within the Retail, Care or Hospitality industries, where management and success of the organisation is dependant upon a range of situational variables and also the organisations products and services. Contingency will not work however, within organisations who require strict formal structures, such as employment services and local authorities.
Evaluation of Research
What I did:
- Plan of action: decided what I needed to find out
- Investigated how and where could I find that information, sources and medias
- Read through and deciphered information, deciding what I wanted to use
- Connected the useful fragments of information together
How I did it and improvements for future research:
- This section went well as clear instruction from Tutor along with class handouts.
- Locating and accessing information was straightforward due to Internet and using Mullins handbook. Choosing the right Search Engine was paramount to making this part of my research effective and efficient. The Internet plays an integral part in any research as it has a wealth of information that can be accessed immediately. This really is an excellent media for sourcing information.
- Making notes was the key to assessing the information obtained. This helps you to remember and make sense of material. I have a logical approach and am an organised person however I feel the use of mindmaps would have been helpful as they would have enabled me to jot ideas down immediately and collate information as and when I came across it, cutting down on paper and time. This is a method I will use in the future.
- I found this part quite easy by this time, as I knew what I wanted to emphasise and had spent quite a lot of time reviewing my notes and the information collated.
