Manangement approaches - The basic four that will be explained later are scientific management approach, behavioral approach, management science approach and contingency approach.

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Table Of Contents

1. Introduction

In recent years, much attention has been paid on the management theory. For managers of any organization, they must choose the appropriate management theory to ensure the development of the organization. However, this is difficult for manager to choose and apply the approaches into the practice as every approach has its own advantages and disadvantages. Here we may focus on the four management approaches, and discuss their advantages and disadvantages respectively.

2. The four approaches

The basic four that will be explained later are scientific management approach, behavioral approach, management science approach and contingency approach.

2.1. The advantages and disadvantages of scientific management approach

Scientific management, proposed by Frederick Winslow Taylor, aims to improve the productivity of the organization, and has been widely used in many organizations. The advantages of this approach are as follows: this approach can divide the duties between the managers and the workers very clearly in comparison with the past. The approach is based on this theory that the right people will be selected to do the right thing, which largely improved the labor efficiency (Taylor, Frederick W., 1911). Moreover, the workers will be rewarded if they can propose some useful suggestions during the working process. However, there are still some disadvantages existing in this approach. When using this approach in small groups, the results will not be useful or effective. As indicated before, the workers are chosen to do the job; as a result, they have no or little chance to choose the work by themselves.

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2.2 The advantages and disadvantages of behavioral approach

This approach believes that human behavior is a key factor in management process. With the thought that the success of management depends on the good human relations, the managers emphasize the people doing the work and cares more about the employee’s needs (Luthans, Fred, 2002), which creates a harmonious working environment. On the negative side, other factors in the workplace were not taken into consideration, such as the working condition, the techniques, and methods which are also critical to the management of the organization.

 2.3 The advantages and disadvantages of ...

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