CLASSICAL APPROACH TO MANAGEMENT

A lot of theories have been developed to underpin the concept of management in organisation. Among some of these schools of management thought are: 

• The classical or traditional approach
• The behavioural approach 
• The system approach
• The contingency approach.

Classical /Traditional Approach

The key assumption under this approach is that people are rational and economically oriented in their approach towards work.

The approach focuses extensively on formal organizations. It also deals with management and organizations by emphasizing more on the organization’s purpose and formal structure

Proponents of this approach also placed greater emphasis on planning of work, the technical requirements of the organization, principles of management, and rational and logical behaviour. The classical school tried to lay down universal principles for the structure and organisation of a business.

Dimensions of the Classical Approach

The classical approach is made up of:

•  Scientific Management.
•   Administrative Management
•  Bureaucratic Management

Scientific Management

It aims at improving the general manufacturing process with a view to improving productivity.

It is also concerned with formulating proper work procedures so that materials will flow uninterrupted.

It lays emphasis on scientific methods of doing things rather than the use of personal intuition, experience, practice and guess work.

Pioneers in the Field of Scientific Management

Scientific management was based on the work of Frederick Winslow Taylor [1856-1915]. He was described as the Father of Scientific Management. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and started work as an apprentice in engineering. He spent most of his time working and achieving greater efficiency at the shop-floor. His solutions to problems of efficiency were from his own practical experiences. He rose through the ranks to become a Manager in the Midvale Steel Co. He also worked with Simonds Rolling Machine Co. It was at Bethlehem that he conducted experiment on how to improve labour productivity. He consolidated his ideas into a book – The Principles of Scientific Management [1911].

Taylor contributed to the study of management in the following areas:

• The need to develop scientific methods of doing things rather than opinion and rule-of-thumb.
•  Scientific selection of workers with properly defined roles and responsibilities.
•  Scientific education, training and development of the worker
• Scientific development of intimate, friendly and co-operative spirit between management and labour.

According to Taylor, the success of the above principles required a complete mental revolution on the part of management and labour. This required substituting facts or scientific method for intuition, opinion and guesswork.

Taylor was concerned with finding the one best way to perform a task. His basic philosophy of work was based on motivation. He believed that prosperity of both the employer and the worker could only be achieved through maximizing productivity. Taylor suggested that organisations would be more efficient if their knowledge, experience and practices were analysed and the best methods established by management.

Implications of Taylor‘s work

Managers have now realised the need to assign roles and responsibilities. Managers now apply the principles of division of labour and specialization. Managers now design an organizational structure, recruit workers and fit them into the organization with well–defined roles and responsibilities.

Managers at the shop–floor of manufacturing concerns now appreciate correct sequence of manufacturing operations through appropriate plant layout- product, process, fixed position etc.

Examples of Taylor’s Scientific Studies

He analysed and timed steel worker movement on series of jobs. Using time  study as a base, he broke each job down into its components and designed the quickest and best methods of doing each component of the job[task] the conclusion was that, he was able to allot the optimum time for performing a task given the equipment and material on hand.

He also recommended appropriate compensation for more productive workers in relation to others based on a scientifically correct rate that would benefit both the worker and the organization.

The Gilbreths; husband and wife team

The Gilbreths are credited with motion study even though Taylor mentioned it in his work. Motion study is the science of reducing a job or task to its basic physical motions. It is regarded as the cornerstone of scientific management.

In consultation with their senior colleague, Taylor, the Gilbreths were able to reduce the number of movements in laying bricks from 18 movements per brick to 5 movements per brick. In this way, individual output increased from 120 to 350 bricks laid per hour.

The Gilbreths were concerned with the application of measurement to management and abiding by the results. They were also concerned with finding the one best scientific way of doing things.

As employers, they did their best to practice what they preached. They laid down systematic and scientific rules and procedures for doing work and insisted on strict adherence to them. In this way, workers had no or little discretion. In reciprocity, workers were paid fair above competitive rates.

The work of Gilbreths established the foundation for later advances in the areas of job simplification, work standards, and incentive wage plans. According to the Gilbreths, motion and fatigue are intertwined, i.e. a reduction in motion leads to a reduction in fatigue, all other things being equal.

Henry L. Gantt 1861-1991

Gantt was another disciple of Taylor after the Gilbreths in the field of scientific management. He worked with Taylor on several scientific projects at Midvale and Bethlehem. He later went out on his own as a consulting industrial engineer.

Gantt was not happy that Taylor placed too much emphasis on scientific methods of doing things to the neglect of the individual worker whose general welfare will facilitate the success of the scientific method.

He was also not in favour of the differential reward system since to him, had little motivational impact. His new idea on reward system was as follows:

Every worker who completed a day’s assigned workload was to be given a 50-cent bonus. The next reward system was a bonus for each worker who accomplished the set standard and additional bonus if all the workers collectively achieve the standard. To Gantt this reward system would spur supervisors on to train their workers to work hard and earn more.

Contributions/benefits from scientific management\

• Scientific approach to doing things leads to general improvement in working conditions.
• Scientific improvement in working methods leads to increased in productivity all other things being equal.
• It enables workers to be paid by results and to take advantage of packages.
• The scientific approach to management enable managers to adopt a more positive role in leadership styles at the shop floor level in particular.
• It was the basis and the foundation for advanced studies [motion study]
• It created orderliness through a well-designed organizational structure.
• It reduced putting square pegs in round holes since workers were carefully selected based on their abilities to do a particular work.
• It emphasized the importance of training and development of employees to enhance their productive efficiency.
• It provided supervisors with the necessary support to make them more effective 

Limitations/drawbacks of the scientific management

• Workers resented Taylor’s position expressing anxiety that working faster or harder will exhaust work and may lead to redundancy and consequently lay-offs.
• The faster work rate which implied speed up was criticized since it exerted pressure on the work force to achieve a set standard to qualify for an incentive package.
• Scientific management had little regard for human feelings and sentiments. The emphasis was too much on hard work and increased productivity.
• Greater emphasis on productivity and profitability made the manager to exploit the worker and the buyer of his products.
• The worker was made a rigid adherent to methods and procedures to the detriment of discretion and initiative.
• It narrowed motivation to bonus system of incentive to the neglect of other methods of motivation such as respect for human rights.
• The approach gave managers at the workplace the exclusive right to plan and control activities.
• The system of bargaining for conditions of work was absent since every job was scientifically measured, timed and rated.