Management principles and theories and their application to the construction industry.

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Contents

Introduction – Page 2

Task 1 – Page 3

Task 2 - Page 16

Task 3 – Page 17

Task 4 – Page 21

Conclusion – Page 28

Bibliography – Page 30

Introduction

Many people have over the last 10 – 120 years have added their theories to The Principles pf Management, who are known as the Management Pioneers. They were the first people to study work place activities and behaviour on a major scale. Their work and experiments carried out under the auspice of Scientific Management Principles are still relevant today, along with their theories and techniques.

In this assignment I have indicated the major pioneers and have described their theories relevant to the construction trade. Notably I have included Henri Fayol and how his theory can help managers in the contemporary construction trade.

Most construction companies are represented by an organisational chart. I have also included a number of organisation structure concepts. I have used one company from each Construction and Civil engineering, describing the jobs they undertake, the size of their projects and the roles and responsibilities within their management teams

Task 1

What is it that motivates people to get up and go to work each morning? There are many people who take pride in their work and get great satisfaction from it. Others may see it as a burden and simply work to survive.

Management theorists and social psychologists have studied this question for decades, attempting to find successful approaches to management.

Douglas McGregor

In the 1960’s, social psychologist Douglas McGregor of MIT invented two contrasting theories on human motivation and management: The X Theory and The Y Theory. McGregor explained that Theory Y was the basis of good management practice, arguing that employees were simply not cogs in the company machinery as Theory X companies seemed to believe.

The theory’s look at how a manager’s perception of what motivates his or her team members affects the way he or she behaves. It states by understanding how your assumptions about employees’ motivation can influence your management style, you can adapt your approach appropriately, and so manage people more effectively.

Understanding the Theories

Management style is strongly influenced by the beliefs and assumptions of what motivates members of the team. If the belief is that team members dislike work an authoritarian style of management will be taken. If it is assumed that team members take pride in their work, a more participative style of management will be taken.

Theory X

Theory X assumes that all employees are lazy and dislike work which encourages a more authoritarian style of management. It is believed that managers must often intervene to get things done. It assumes that workers;

  • Dislike work
  • Have a tendency to avoid responsibility and must often be directed
  • Need to be controlled, forced and threatened to get them motivated
  • Have to be supervised all the time, with controls put in place
  • Need to be enticed to increase productivity otherwise they have no motivation to work and lack ambition

Companies that adopt this style of management tend to have a lot of managers and supervisors required at every step to keep control of the workers. There is hardly any delegation of authority and control remains firmly centralized.

McGregor recognised that x type workers are usually the minority and that in mass organisations e.g. Large scale production, X theory management may be unavoidable.

Theory Y

In Theory Y a more participative style of management is undertaken. It assumes that workers are self-motivated, happy to work and have lots of ambition. It assumes workers;

  • Take up responsibility and are self-motivated to reach the goals they are given
  • Will naturally seek responsibility and do not require forced direction
  • Have a philosophy that work is a part of life and tend to solve work problems more imaginatively

This type of management style tends to be more widely applicable. In these types of organisations, even lower level employees are involved in decision making and have more responsibility.

Comparing Theory X and Theory

  • Motivation – Theory X assumes that people dislike work and are unmotivated. They also have no interest in obtaining responsibility. Theory Y assumes that people are self-motivated and thrive on responsibility.
  • Management Style and Control – Theory X management is authoritarian and centralised control is retained. Theory Y management is participative. Employees are involved in decision making but management retain power to implement decisions.
  • Work Organization – Theory X employees work tends to be specialised and repetitive. Theory Y, the work tends to be organised around wider areas of skill and knowledge. Employees are also encouraged to develop expertise and make suggestions and improvements.
  • Rewards and Appraisals - Theory X organizations work on a ‘carrot and stick’ basis, and performance appraisal is part of the overall mechanisms of control and remuneration. In Theory Y organizations, appraisal is also regular and important, but is usually a separate mechanism from organisational controls. Theory Y organisations also give employees frequent opportunities for promotion.
  • Application - Although Theory X management style is widely accepted as inferior to others, it has its place in large scale production operation and unskilled production-line work. Many of the principles of Theory Y are widely adopted by types of organisation that value and encourage participation. Theory Y-style management is suited to knowledge work and professional services. Professional service organisations naturally evolve Theory Y-type practices by the nature of their work; even highly structure knowledge work, such as call centre operations, can benefits from Theory Y principles to encourage knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

Theory Z

Developed by William Ouchi, theory Z is a form of management in which workers are involved in the work process on the factory floor. Schedules, division of labour, work assignments, and other aspects of the labour process are given over to workers to do as they see best. Investment policies, wages, fringe benefits and kind of product are not given over to workers to decide; only how best to do that decided by top management. Theory Z essentially advocates a combination of all that's best about Mcgregor's XY theory and modern Japanese management, which places a large amount of freedom and trust with workers, and assumes that workers have a strong loyalty and interest in team-working and the organisation.Theory Z also places more reliance on the attitude and responsibilities of the workers, whereas Mcgregor's XY theory is mainly focused on management and motivation from the manager's and organisation's perspective

Personally I would like to work in an organisation that promotes a more Theory Y system. Given responsibility, I think people can be more motivated to help a company if they feel part of it. Motivations like a bonus/money may only last for a short period of time, where the employee will work harder for maybe a month then return to their previous speed and motive. If a an employee is given an option to increase their knowledge in a certain area, they will feel more wanted .A company may wish to send them on a course, which in turn will make the employee more capable and make them feel more responsible which in turn increases motivation and self-confidence.

Abraham Maslow

Maslow believed that there were two main sources of motivation to work;

  1. Job satisfaction
  2. Financial reward gained

Maslow used a pyramid to illustrate motivation as a series of ascending needs. Motivation is prolonged until the desired need is met. Once this need has been met and satisfied it no longer acts as a motivator. Motivation will then start again at the next step of the pyramid in the ‘pyramid of needs’. It is important to recognise that needs of an employee may vary and change according to a persons present and future circumstances

The Main Points of Maslow’s Theory

Psychological Factors – Workers need meaning and a sense of fulfilment.

Implicit Assumptions – Under the right circumstances, a worker is capable of motivating and controlling themselves, and through their own achievements in pursuing organisational goals can achieve satisfaction and fulfilment.

Implications – The management’s role is that of catalyst and facilitator concerned with providing employees with the opportunities for development, challenge and interest. Authority comes from the work itself, not formal position. Some redistribution of power among management and employees in necessary.

This leads to a psychological contract which provides a high level of intrinsic (as well as extrinsic) reward for freely contributed involvement and commitment.

This table shows how a construction company can implement Maslow’s theory within an operational framework.

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The basis of Maslow's motivation theory is that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower factors need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied. According to Maslow, there are general types of needs (physiological, survival, safety, love, and esteem) that must be satisfied before a person can act unselfishly. He called these needs ‘deficiency needs’. As long as we are motivated to satisfy these cravings, we are moving towards growth, toward self-actualization. Satisfying needs is healthy, while preventing gratification makes us sick or act evilly.

Frederick Herzberg

Herzberg carried out research on ...

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