Organisation and Management Theory

Organisation and Management theory has been broken down into many elements such as Classical school, which includes scientific management and Bureaucracy. Human Relations school which includes the Hawthorne experiments such as Elton Mayo, Maslow Herzberg, Mc Gregor. Systems theory of organisations and lastly the contingency plan that is based on ‘it depends’ and the role of theory,

Management Theory is important as it helps to view the interrelationship between the development of theory, behaviour in organisations and management practise.
An understanding of the development of management thinking helps in understanding principles underlying the process of management.

The two case studies that I will be looking at are John Lewis and House of Fraser.

The two theories that I have chosen to relate them with are Human Relations School and Contingency Theory.

Human Relation School theory, was introduced by Mayo he believed that workers are not just concerned with money but could be more motivated by having their Social needs met while at work this was something that Taylor ignored, the Human Relation School of thought was introduced to be focused on managers taking more of an interest in the workers by treating them fairly and interacting with them so they feel valued.
The company that I feel best fits in with the Human relation theory is House of Fraser this is because House of Fraser is a large British PLC organisation which is well recognised, it is very important that they make sure they keep a high level of continuous customer services, in order to acquire this it is important to keep the staff motivated so they can deliver good customers this will also mean staff will perform better and there will be more productivity which will resort in happy, satisfied customers and a good business image for the organisation over all as well as repeat business.
House of Fraser keeps its staff motivated by providing a basic pay which increase after 6months, it provides a highly pleasant working conditions for both the employees and the customers, it also provides a café and a restaurant in which you can receive up to 10% discount as you can see these are the basic Physiological needs. The company benefits such as commission if a store card is opened , pensions scheme, Voluntary benefits and discounted deals as well paying staff if they go on training and meetings away from the store your transport fare will be paid as well as 20% off on staff card, Managers and staffs from different concessions get together and organise a night out so they can all be relaxed in a friendly atmosphere to enjoy them self and build better relations outside work. As you can see the Human Relations School theory fits in well with House of Fraser as there are large benefits packs available as well as training and development to make you feel welcomed and a lot more inner opportunities to move up in the organisation.

Contingency theory is a class of behavioural that claims that there is no best way to organise a corporation to lead a company or to make decisions as it all suggests ‘ it all depends’ According to Mullins (2007) so there is not ‘one best way’ of organising and managing a company, a suitable approach needs to be found to ‘fit’ the circumstances.
Some examples of such constraints include: the size of the organisation, how the firm adapts itself to its environment, assumptions of managers about employees and the technologies being used. This also means that there is no ‘single best way’ to manage and organise.
The contingency approach, large number of variables that influence a persons motivation. These theories all have factors that relate to the work place (Mullins L. 2005).
As John lewis is a large organisation which is public lmited company and it belongs to its employees as a group, it is the largest partnership and if one off the Uk’s top ten retail business therefore it is very important that the organisation keeps its employees and consumers happy. For my research I have looked at how the contingency theory fits in with John Lewis and as you can see below is a link.

http://www.internetretailing.net/2009/10/john-lewis-assures-customers-royal-mail-strike-wont-affect-deliveries/

In the link above it shows that John Lewis have issued a statement which assures consumers that their online orders will not be affected by the Royal Mail strikes as John Lewis has drawn up robust contingency plan to mitigate the impact of ongoing regional and threatened national postal strike by Royal Mail staff as we can see that John Lewis has made it clear that this will not have any affect on there organisation in anyway. And as we can see this is the suitable approach that needs to be found to ‘fit’ the circumstances at that time.

These includes:
securing arrangements with alternative carriers and encouraging the use of Click and Collect, which is now available in all John Lewis branches and in Waitrose Tonbridge and Hexham.
“To minimise costs we have worked with our existing next day carriers to introduce new services such as 48- and 72-hour delivery,” says Victoria Clarke, operations manager, johnlewis.com.
Click and Collect — where customers can pick up products ordered online in shops — is also providing “an excellent contingency”, she says.
This week most Royal Mail services were reported to be operating normally, but there were delays in areas such as London and Bristol.
Some consumer groups are advising those customers planning to buy Christmas gifts online or by mail order to do so sooner rather than later and to check final delivery date. (This has been taken from the link above).

The pros and cons of scientific management that I have thought of are the following:

The advantages are that work is simplified and carried out in the most economical and efficient manner, so there the relationship between managers and subordinate is harmonious.
Management tell the employees what they must do and therefore conflicts are mainly avoided and if they do not like this they can leave. It develops the
It helps to increase the productivity and efficiency of work, which has a positive impact on profits and production.
This type of management is also good for employees who start getting higher salaries than before as the higher wages and different incentives plans will increase the standard of production. Which means standard of production leads higher turnover and profits.
Individuality and variety of the workers are not recognised.

Disadvantages are that scientific managers practically ignores the human element and the view on an employee is quite simplistic since Taylor limits interests and needs of employees only by financial stimuli.
Taylorism can easily be used abused to exploit human beings for example this can cause conflict with labour unions.
It is not useful to deal with groups or teams as it does not take into account the ideas and suggestions of workers.
The scientific management tends to treat people like machines and not human beings, there is a rush to finish work off which means it leaves no room for individual preferences or initiative.

Over all I have come to a conclusion that scientific management is very important for any type of business as it aims to improve new and improved methods to help organisation.
The general approach of Scientific Management includes selection of work force with appropriate abilities for specific tasks, training, planning, wage incentives for increasing output and standard method of performing each job.
I believe that money is not everything and for a good organisation to be successful managers must meet and understand employees needs in order to keep them happy so they deliver good services as they will feel valued.

Appendix

The pro and cons of scientific management
http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/scientific/ (accessed 27th April 2010)

Week 11 lecture notes

http://www.internetretailing.net/2009/10/john-lewis-assures-customers-royal-mail-strike-wont-affect-deliveries/ (accessed 27th April 2010)

http://www.houseoffraser.co.uk/on/demandware.store/Sites-hof-Site/default/Page-Show?cid=HoF_9.0II_CAREERS_AT_HOUSE_OF_FRASER (accessed 27th April 2010)