Dear Dean, xxxxx,
I am writing this letter to communicate my passion and knowledge for this course. This letter will comprise of what is important to me from what I have learnt in this course and what is important for the profession of management, it will also include how what I have learnt contributes to society.
First of all I am going to briefly explain why studying management and organizations matters to me (Organizations is the ‘study of institutions and corporations where people work with all forms of collective activity such as politics family as well as work’)(Grey 2005)).it matters to me because as a student studying business management at the University of Manchester the study of organizations consists of having to think about politics , ethics, philosophy and much more’(Grey, 2005). Very fascinating is the idea that a variety of aspects come into thought when studying organizations, studying organizations matters to me because of not only the working together of people but also the ‘joking, arguing, criticizing, fighting, deciding, lusting, despairing, creating, resisting, fearing, hoping or in short organizing (Grey, 2005) Through studying organizations I have come to understand the importance of many principals and theories which must be considered within organizations.
Whilst fulfilling my time at the University of Manchester and attending this course one of the 3 main theories important within the study or management and organizations and very much interesting to me that I picked up on is Max Weber’s (1976) Bureaucratic Management which is a ‘form of organizational design’(Grey 2005) Max Weber’s work was prescriptive e.g. giving exact rules or procedures on how something should be done….
Weber’s theory had 6 main characteristics:
Division of labour, which meant that focus was mainly on the practice of specialisation, weber believed that dividing jobs into smaller sets of tasks led to an increase in efficiency as workers only perform tasks their most qualified for.
Managerial Hierarchy Presence, weber believed that all organizations should designate positions in the organization and how they relate to each other in other words there should be somewhat a chain of command, this shows the positions from high to low level organizations and this therefore results in better understanding of their roles and the roles of those around them.
Formal Selection, this is when employees are selected based on technical qualifications, those with high qualifications and merits would benefit the organization with best workers and rewards for these best workers was acknowledgement.
1. Career Orientation, employees should be career professionals rather than politicians so that for sure operations ran smoothly even during times of elections.
2. Establishment of formal rules, weber believed that there should be rules that apply to all employees at all levels and that these rules had to be written down to ensure that they cannot be misinterpreted.
3. Impersonality, this is that rules should apply uniformly across the organization with no special treatment for anyone or other subjective criteria.
These 6 essential characteristics make up webers view of ideal bureaucracy, he considered it the most efficient method of organization. Weber concluded that with all this said there are several disadvantages also, despite this his work is considered an essential component in modern societies today.
It is evident that bureaucratic principles operate effectively in organizations such as a state department of motor vehicles. Out of many primary tasks one of them for the DMV is organizing hundreds of thousands of vehicles registration applications each year. this is a long and stressful task, but it is lowered down a set of procedures led by specific rules. An example is that the cost of registering a truck or car is not and cannot be negotiated for each of the vehicles, nor is the economic and social status of the vehicle’s owner taken into consideration. Instead, a fee already set is assessed on the basis of clear criteria such as the purchase or weight price of a truck or car. (3)
Another theory that I have learnt about during the time I have spent in this course so far is the theory of Scientific management by Fredrick Winslow Taylor (1911)
Taylor argued that the wasted human effort that was going unnoticed, prevented the country from reaching its optimal level of productivity. The principals of scientific management mentioned by Taylor were that every act can be lowered to a science, he claimed that today’s workers where not operating close to the maximum efficiency. A reason that was concluded for the significant waste in human effort was that men were the only gender present in Fredrick’s studies and also, they had certain ‘social incentives’ to not increase productivity, the workers would engage in an act known as ‘soldiering’ which meant that they would work deliberately slow to avoid being abuse by other works who didn’t want management to know that increasing productivity was possible.
As well as social incentives workers also had economic incentives which stopped them from increasing productivity as workers were paid the same wages regardless of how much they produce. To make conditions for workers to work maximum efficiency the primary objective of management is to secure maximum ‘prosperity’ for both the employers and the employees these subjects should have mutually beneficial relationship in order to obtain any long-term success.
Fredrick mentioned that management should observe workers to see preferred method of performance then when all data has been collected then rules are to be set to help workers accomplish tasks in the most efficient ways possible.
Principals of Scientific management therefore where to:
Taylor believed that both parties could achieve desired outcomes which are, low cost for management and higher wages for workers, if they worked in a mutual and beneficial way.
An example of a company which used Fredrick’s scientific management is Toyota, this company applied scientific management through managers taking control of processes and workers through clearly applied guidelines and standards in order to make sure that the products that sold are always new in order to always have products that meet demand. Also, through strong direction and leadership, Toyota was able to reduce lead-time as well as minimise cost while enhancing product at the same time.
The third and final theory that I am going to address is that by Henry Mintzberg. Mintzbergs theory focuses on the work of the manager, he looked into managerial roles and behaviours of CEOs, he discovered that managers serve three main roles in an organization of which these are Interpersonal roles, roles that allow manager to interact with her or his employees for purpose of achieving organization goals, Informal roles generate and share knowledge to successfully achieve organizational goals and Decisional. A manager is someone that takes charge of an organization or a subgroup, henry said this presence of formal authority is important as it results in the possession of status.
Last but not least I will briefly talk about how human relations theory is an important idea in management as a profession, this theory focuses on how managers give to the needs of employees. When referring to human relations a theory by Maslow known as the hierarchy of needs is required to be able to know what is meant by human relations the lower-order needs are seen as physiological needs, the top level of the pyramid is seen as growth needs. Lower level needs m
ust be met before higher order needs can have an influence on behaviour. The levels are:
To summarise, everything I have taken aboard and learnt over this course for the first three months has been helpful in understanding more on how to prepare myself for the world of management and organizations taking into consideration Weber, Taylor and Mintzbergs theories as well as a bit of Maslow and others. Organizations benefits the economy as well societies as it continuously develops new processes, goods and services also benefits include spreading and building up of international standards e.g. for environmental practices. As interesting as this course has been for me I believe there is much more I still have to learn but as someone who is pursuing the career of a manager possessing knowledge and understanding of an organization will help me to be an effective manager.
Yours Sincerely 10180705
References:
(grey, 2005) ‘A very short, fairly interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Studying Organizations.’ By Christopher Grey, Published 12 July 2005
Volti, R.V, 2011. Bureaucratic organization. An introduction to the sociology of work and occupation, 978-1412992855, 79.
Learning theories. 2014. mallows hierarchy of needs. [ Online] Available at: https://www.learning-theories.com/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.html. [Accessed 12 December