Discuss Scientific Management, Max Weber and Concept of Bureaucracy, the Hawthorne Experiments and Contemporary Management Thought, Giving Advantages and Disadvantages of Each One of Them.
2.3 DISADVANTAGES OF MAX WEBER AND THE CONCEPT OF BUREAUCRACY
Despite the clear advantages of bureaucracy, one would wonder if they are really efficient. Nearly all governmental organizations adopt this form of organization to some extent and weber claimed they were capable of achieving the highest efficiency. Below are draw backs of bureaucracy concepts: (a) Impersonality can ensure a common level of treatment but may also lead to stereotyping behavior and lack of responsiveness to individual incidents. Relationships are inhibited, meaning that social and ego needs are unsatisfied. (b) Human beings and individual circumstances vary pretty much infinitely and trying to apply rigid rules can mean inefficiency, even injustice, in non-standard case (c) Bureaucratic rules and procedures can cause a lack of flexibility or adaption to changing circumstances. (d) Red tape and regulation may limit the psychological growth of the individual-“alienation” among younger workers is quite likely, particularly where the work is machine- paced, repetitive and does not call for individual decision making and judgement. (e) Handling problems in a standard fashion, or alternatively passing responsibility to someone else instead of their own initiative did not satisfy most workers’ needs. (f) There can be a lack of attention to the informal organization and the development of groups and their goals. These provide the cohesion and communication that allow a rule bound organization to function.
3.0 THE HAWTHORNE EXPERIMENTS
The Hawthorne experiments were studies that were undertook by Elton Mayo at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company between 1927 and 1932 in Illinois, a suburb of Chicago in Cicero, to study human relations approach. This human relations approach studies viewed the importance of management looking into the plight of workers. The aim of these studies was to establish the impact of different conditions of work on employee productivity
Despite the clear advantages of bureaucracy, one would wonder if they are really efficient. Nearly all governmental organizations adopt this form of organization to some extent and weber claimed they were capable of achieving the highest efficiency. Below are draw backs of bureaucracy concepts: (a) Impersonality can ensure a common level of treatment but may also lead to stereotyping behavior and lack of responsiveness to individual incidents. Relationships are inhibited, meaning that social and ego needs are unsatisfied. (b) Human beings and individual circumstances vary pretty much infinitely and trying to apply rigid rules can mean inefficiency, even injustice, in non-standard case (c) Bureaucratic rules and procedures can cause a lack of flexibility or adaption to changing circumstances. (d) Red tape and regulation may limit the psychological growth of the individual-“alienation” among younger workers is quite likely, particularly where the work is machine- paced, repetitive and does not call for individual decision making and judgement. (e) Handling problems in a standard fashion, or alternatively passing responsibility to someone else instead of their own initiative did not satisfy most workers’ needs. (f) There can be a lack of attention to the informal organization and the development of groups and their goals. These provide the cohesion and communication that allow a rule bound organization to function.
3.0 THE HAWTHORNE EXPERIMENTS
The Hawthorne experiments were studies that were undertook by Elton Mayo at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company between 1927 and 1932 in Illinois, a suburb of Chicago in Cicero, to study human relations approach. This human relations approach studies viewed the importance of management looking into the plight of workers. The aim of these studies was to establish the impact of different conditions of work on employee productivity
Bibliography: Thompson, V.A.”Bureaucracy and Innovation.,”Administrative science Quartery (10:1), 1965/06//1965,pp1-20 http://www.managetrainlearn.com/page/Elton-mayo Bartlett, C. A. & S. Ghoshal (May-June 1995), "Changing The Role of Top Management: Beyond Systems To People", Harvard Business Review, pp. 132-142. Kanter, R. M. (1992), The Challenge of Organizational Change: How Companies Experience It and Leaders Guide It. Free Press, New York, NY.