Posts Tagged General Principles
December 24, 2008 at 9:07 am · Filed under Businesss Management, Finance, Formal Organization, Insurance, Management, Online Shopping, Organization Structure, Organizational aspects, Organizational Design, Organizations, Product Management, Software, Types of Organizations ·Tagged Businesss Management, Finance, Formal Organization, General Principles, Management, Organization Structure, Organizational aspects, Organizational Design, Organizations, Product Management
Today we continue our talk on Product Versus Functional. Walker and Lorsch studies two plants which were closely matched in several ways. They were making the same product; their markets, technology, and even raw materials were identical. The parent companies were also similar; both were large national corporations that developed, manufactured, and marketed many consumer products. In each case divisional and corporate headquarters were located more than 100 miles from the facilities studied. The plants were separated from other structures at the same site, where other company products were made.
Both plants had very similar management styles. They stressed their desire to roster employee’s initiative and autonomy and placed great reliance on selection of well-qualified department heads. They also identified explicitly the same two objectives. The first was to formulate, package, and ship the products in minimum time at specified levels of quality and at minimum costs-that is, within existing capabilities. The second was to improve the capabilities of the plant.
In each plant there were identical functional specialists involved with the manufacturing units and packing unit, as well as quality control, planning and scheduling, warehousing, industrial engineering, and plant engineering.
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December 15, 2008 at 12:24 pm · Filed under Administrative theory, Businesss Management, Christmas Shopping, classical school, Finance, Formal Organization, General Principles, General Systems Theory, Management, Modern Theory, Modern View Point, Neoclassical viewpoint, Online Shopping, Organization Structure, Organizational aspects, Organizational Design, Organizations, scientific management, Software, Types of Organizations ·Tagged Businesss Management, Finance, Formal Organization, General Principles, General Systems Theory, Management, Modern Theory, Modern View Point, Organization Structure, Organizational aspects, Organizational Design, Organizations, scientific management, Software
The classical bureaucratic model of organization though pervasive, has been considered inappropriate to the changing requirements of modern times. A bureaucratic organization was considered to be too inflexible and hierarchical to adapt to the changes occurring in organizations and technology.
Parkinson’s laws and Peter Principle highlight the negative aspects of bureaucratic organizations. Whatever be the criticism against bureaucracies, it is realized that to some extent they have become essential. Therefore, writers and organizations began to explore ways to modify the bureaucratic organization structures. In essence these new structures reflect modifications to the classical principles of delegation of authority and standard of control.
Delegation extends the scope of the principle to the point of an abiding organization-wide philosophy of management. A tall organization structure means a series of narrow spans of control, and a flat one incorporates wide spans and limited layers of control at horizontal levels. Both the structures have their advantages and disadvantages. They should be viewed on relevant concepts and not as ideal absolutes.
A tall structure calls for control and close supervision over the subordinates. But close supervision may not necessarily produce better control. Similarly in a flat organization with wide spans, it may not be possible to keep close control over subordinates but it provides for decentralization, individual initiative and self-control. Tall structures are less favorably viewed it is held that self-control is better than imposed control. The choice in this regard however rests ultimately on management assumptions about individuals and groups in organizations.
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December 12, 2008 at 9:53 am · Filed under Administrative theory, Businesss Management, Finance, Formal Organization, General Principles, General Systems Theory, Management, Modern Theory, Modern View Point, Organization Structure, Organizational aspects, Organizational Design, Organizations, scientific management, Software ·Tagged Administrative theory, Businesss Management, Centralization and Decentralization, Finance, Formal Organization, General Principles, Management, Organization Structure, Organizational aspects, Organizational Design, Organizations, Software
Centralization is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding decision-making, become concentrated within a particular location and/or group. In political science, this refers to the concentration of a government’s power – both geographically and politically, into a centralized government.
Decentralization is the process of dispersing decision-making governance closer to the people or citizen. It includes the dispersal of administration or governance in sectors or areas like engineering, management science, political science, political economy, sociology and economics. Decentralization is also possible in the dispersal of population and employment. Law, science and technological advancements lead to highly decentralized human endeavors.
Alfred P. Slogan played and instrumental role in developing a model of central control of decentralized operations for General motors based on the following twin premises:
- The responsibility attached to the chief executive of each operation shall in no way be limited. Each such organization headed by its chief executive shall be complete in every necessary function and enabled to exercise its full initiative and logical development (Decentralization of operations)
- Certain central organization functions are absolutely essential to the logical development and proper coordination of the Corporation’s activities: Centralized staff services to advise the line on specialized phases of the work, and central measurement of results to check the exercise of delegated responsibility.
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November 17, 2008 at 5:04 am · Filed under Businesss Management, General Principles, Management, Philosophy, scientific management ·Tagged General Principles, Management, Philosophy, scientific management
We continue our discussion on Scientific Management today. For Taylor, scientific management fundamentally consists of certain broad principles, a certain philosophy, which can be applied in many ways, and a description of what any one man or men may believe to be the best mechanism for applying these general principles should in no way be confused with the principles themselves.
Taylor described the following four principles of scientific management:
1. Develop a science for each element of a man’s work, which replaces the old rule-of-thumb method.
2. Scientifically select and then train, teach, and develop the workman, whereas in the past he chose his own work and trained himself as best he could.
3. Management should heartily cooperate with the workers so as to ensure all the work being done in accordance with the principles of the science which has been developed.
4. There is an almost equal division of the work and the responsibility between the management and the workmen. The management should take over all work for which they are better fitted than the workmen, while on the past all of the work and the greater part of the responsibility were thrown on the workers.
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Organisational Design, Development and Change 