B.Com. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 2 Principles and Practice of Management 2011 Jun Question Paper with Solutions

For full marks, cover: what is meant by the evolution of management thought and why it is studied; the pre-classical period (ancient administration, Owen, Babbage); the classical school in three branches (Taylor's scientific management with its techniques, Fayol's administrative management with his elements and principles, Weber's bureaucracy with its features), with criticisms; the neo-classical school (Hawthorne studies, Mayo, human relations) with criticisms; the behavioural science approach (Maslow, McGregor, Herzberg, Likert); the quantitative school; the systems approach; the contingency approach; Drucker and management by objectives; a table of the schools; and a conclusion.

1. Robert Owen, who ran the New Lanark mills in Scotland in the early 1800s, improved housing, schooling and working conditions for his workers. He argued that care for workers paid in better work. He is sometimes called a forerunner of personnel management.
2. Charles Babbage, in On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (1832), analysed factory operations and the advantages of the division of labour.

These were scattered ideas, not yet a system.

2. The classical school

The classical school, developed from the late nineteenth century to about the 1930s, sought the most efficient way to run an organisation. It had three branches.

a) Scientific management: F. W. Taylor

Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856 to 1915), an American engineer, attacked the "rule of thumb" methods he found in factories. He set out his ideas in Shop Management (1903) and The Principles of Scientific Management (1911). He argued that each job has one best way, which can be found by study. His main techniques were:

1. time study and motion study, to set a fair day's work and remove wasted movements;
2. standardisation of tools, materials and conditions;

3. set out fourteen principles, among them division of work, unity of command, unity of direction, scalar chain, equity and esprit de corps;
4. held that management is universal and can be taught.

c) Bureaucracy: Max Weber

Max Weber, the German sociologist, described the bureaucratic organisation as the most rational form for large organisations. Its features are:

1. a clear hierarchy of offices;
2. division of labour and specialisation;
3. a system of written rules and procedures;
4. impersonal treatment of people and cases;
5. selection and promotion on merit and qualifications;
6. a career for officials, kept separate from ownership.

Weber linked bureaucracy with rational-legal authority, as against traditional and charismatic authority.

Criticisms of the classical school. It treated the organisation as a machine and the worker as moved mainly by money. It neglected feelings, social needs and informal groups. Its principles were drawn from experience rather than tested research. Bureaucracy in practice often became rigid and slow.

4. The behavioural science approach

Later writers used psychology and sociology more rigorously to study motivation, leadership and groups.

1. Abraham Maslow (1943) arranged human needs in a hierarchy, from physiological to self-actualisation.
2. Frederick Herzberg (1959) separated hygiene factors, which prevent dissatisfaction, from motivators, which create satisfaction.
3. Douglas McGregor (1960) contrasted two sets of assumptions. Theory X assumes people dislike work and must be controlled. Theory Y assumes people can enjoy work and direct themselves.
4. Rensis Likert (1961, 1967) described four systems of management, from exploitative authoritative to participative group, and favoured the last.

7. The contingency approach

The contingency approach holds that there is no one best way to organise or manage. The right method depends on the situation. Joan Woodward (1965) found that the most successful structure varied with the firm's production technology. Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch (1967) showed that firms in changing environments need different structures from those in stable ones. The approach reconciles the earlier schools by asking which of their ideas fits which situation.

8. Drucker and management by objectives

Peter Drucker, in The Practice of Management (1954), introduced management by objectives. Under it, superiors and subordinates agree on goals, and performance is judged against them. He stressed results, the customer and the knowledge worker, and treated management as a discipline in its own right.

Summary table

Conclusion. Management thought has evolved from scattered early ideas to a rich set of schools. The classical writers sought efficiency through the scientific study of work, sound principles and rational structures. The human relations and behavioural schools brought in the human and social side of work. The quantitative school added mathematical tools, and the systems approach a view of the whole organisation. The contingency approach added the insight that the best method depends on the situation. No single school has the whole truth. Modern management draws on all of them and chooses what fits the problem at hand.