Explain how the managerial ideas of Taylor and Fayol differ from Mayo.The Classical Management approach attempted to apply logic and scientific methods to management of complex organisations, such as factories. It assumed that there was "one best way" to manage an enterprise. Classical Management comprises three different approaches:· Scientific Management, which represents Frederick W Taylor's work, developed scientific principles of management, focusing on the individual, rather than the team and aimed to improve efficiency through production-line time studies, breaking each job down into its components and designing the quickest and best methods of performing each component. ...view middle of the document...
The Human Relations approach, focusing on work relationships as the key to improving workplace productivity, was inspired by the Hawthorne studies performed by Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger. They studied the effects of physical working conditions on employee productivity and fatigue. These studies suggested that leaders are able to positively influence employee motivation and productivity by showing concern for employee relationships. Mayo discovered that a work group would establish its own informal group performance norm, which represented what it considered to be a fair level of performance. The work group would convince ratebusters to slow down and slackers to work faster. Mayo's conclusion that "work is a group activity" had a profound influence on modern individual management. Two key aspects of the human relations approach are employee motivation and leadership style. Pay can motivate only lower level needs and once those are satisfied, non-monetary factors such as praise, recognition, and job characteristics motivate human behaviour.Fayol's Management approach emphasised maximum efficiency and productivity through standard operating procedures; viewed money as the one true motivator for workers; stressed the need for managerial control; and viewed organisations as machines. Taylor's Scientific approach over-simplified the issues, emphasised the individual rather than the team and was hostile to trade unions and labour organisations. Whereas Fayol and Taylor both emphasised the production process and adjusted humans to this process, Mayo's Human Relations approach emphasised the coordination of human and social elements in an organisation through consultation, participation, communication and leadership. However, the equation merely replaced "rational economic man" with "emotional social man" and this approach merely shifted the blame for poor performance from structural to personal attitudes and emotions. Both approaches held that there was "one best way" to manage all organisations.Assess the relevance of Classical Management theorists to the management of contemporary organisations.The modern assembly line pours out finished products faster than Taylor co...
