Managing People

‘The essence of organizations has shifted and will continue to shift from focusing on structure to capability. Capability represents what the organization is able to do and how it does it rather than the more visible picture of who reports to whom and which rules govern work… Organizations will operate in the future to identify and nurture a handful of critical abilities’ (Ulrich, 2000). In the 21st century, organizations consists of a high level of complexity, flexibility, and a climate of constant change evolving constantly which technical-rational approaches are unable to keep up with. The assignment given desires a clear understanding of the importance and usefulness of scientific management for current managers. In the upcoming paragraphs I shall define the key points of the technical-rational approach of organizations in comparison with the social-human approach and how do they end up mixing together. To start with, technical-rational approach is defined by its perspective towards organizations and workers within it. While in the social-human environment employees are the heart of a company, for the other approach they are mere cogs, tools to be exploited. This is due to the classical school including scientific management and bureaucracy. Contributions to organisational theory at the start of twentieth century were focused on identifying principles which, if utilized, ensure success. The aim was that these simple laws would represent the single best way for managing and organizing. Most modern companies still incorporate a few ideas from the early works on organizational theory. Classical organizational and management theorists pointed that the principles could be applied to any organization no matter the size, environment, and nature of their outputs or the technology utilized. Writers like Henry Fayol and Lyndall Urwick, Frederick Taylor, James Mooney or Mary Follet were looking for a ‘one best way’ to organise and manage known as ‘structural