OM Ch2 8th Ed

Slide 2.
Chapter Two
Approaches to Organisation
and Management
Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Edition, © Laurie J. Mullins 2007
Slide 2.2
Management theory
‘Every managerial act rests on assumptions,

generalizations and hypotheses – that is to
say, on theory. Our assumptions are frequently
implicit, sometimes quite unconscious, often
conflicting: nevertheless, they determine our
predictions that if we do “a”, “b” will occur.
Theory and practice are inseparable.’
McGregor
Slide 2.3
Main approaches to organisation,

structure and management
Figure 2.1 Main approaches to organisation, structure and management
Slide 2.4
The classical approach
The organisation is considered in terms of:

– Purpose
– Formal structure
– Planning of work
– Technical requirements
– Principles of management
– Rational and logical behaviour
In order to find:
– The most effective structure
Slide 2.5
Principles of the classical approach
• The principle of co-ordination

– The need for unity of action, authority and discipline
• The scalar principle
– The need for hierarchy, grading of duties and
delegation
• The functional principle
– Specialisation and the distinction between different
types of duty
Mooney and Reiley
Slide 2.6
Sub-groups of classical approach
Common principles can be applied to all organisations,

taking into account:
• The particular situational variables of each organisation
• The social and psychological factors relating to members
of the organisation
Scientific Bureaucracy
Management
Max Weber
F.W.Taylor
Slide 2.7
Scientific management
F.W. Taylor, 1856–1917

• Belief in the possibility of a ‘best way’ to
undertake a job
• Analysis of work into discrete tasks
• Identification of the ‘one best way’
• Use of the ‘rational-economic’ concept of
motivation
Slide 2.8
Principles to guide management
• The development of a true science

for each person’s work
• Scientific selection, training and
development of workers
• Co-operation with workers to ensure
work is carried out in the prescribed way
• The division of work and responsibility
between managers and workers
Slide 2.9
Critique of Taylorism
• Hostility and suspicion among workers and from

unions
• The ‘rationalisation’ of work results in the
de-skilling of workers
• Creates excessive levels of managerial control
• Tends to create rigid organisational structures
• Views workers as individual ‘units of production’
rather than social beings
Slide 2.10
Taylor’s legacy
• Work study systems

• Payment by results
• Management by exception
• Production control
– e.g. the assembly line and Fordism
• Systematic and procedural training
‘Taylor… shaped the first coherent school of

thought with application to the industrialised
world.’
Stern
Slide 2.11
Bureaucracy
Max Weber, 1864–1920

• Concept arose from his sociological studies of
power and authority
• Belief in the superiority of an organisational
structure which can survive changes in individual
personnel
• That it is a means of introducing order and
rationality into social life
• Emphasis on both expertise (the rule of experts)
and discipline (the rule of officials)
Slide 2.12
Main characteristics of bureaucracies
• Organisational tasks are allocated as duties

between organisational positions
• Clear-cut division of labour and high degree of
task specialisation
• Uniformity of decisions is achieved through rules
and regulations
• Impersonal behaviour by officials when dealing
with each other and with clients
• Employment is based on technical qualifications
Slide 2.13
Four main features of bureaucracy
• Specialisation
• Hierarchy of authority
• System of rules
• Impersonal behaviour
Stewart.
Slide 2.14
Critique of bureaucratic organisations
• They over-emphasise rules, procedures,

record-keeping and paperwork, which become an
end in themselves.
• They tend to emphasise status and ritual
behaviour.
• Individual initiative can be stifled by rules.
• They cannot adapt quickly to changed
circumstances.
• Their rigidity can restrict the psychological
growth of their members.
Slide 2.15
The human relations approach
Elton Mayo, 1880–1949

• The Hawthorne experiments at the Western
Electric Company
• Attention given to social factors at work rather
than purely rational organisation
• Studies focus on individual psychological and
social needs
• Recognised the informal organisation and group
norms as an important influence on worker
behaviour
Slide 2.16
Critique of the Hawthorne

experiments
A flawed experiment?
– Failure to take environmental factors into
account
– Adoption of a unitary frame of reference to
worker/employer relationship
– Over simplification of complex behaviours
– Ignores external social factors on worker
behaviour, e.g. the ‘sex power’ differential
Slide 2.17
The legacy of the Hawthorne

experiments
They emphasised the importance of the
wider social needs of individuals and gave
recognition to the work organisation as a
social organisation and the importance of
group values and norms.
The Classical School was about ‘organisations

without people’ whereas the human relations
school is about ‘people without organisations’.
Slide 2.18
Neo-Human relations
• Date from the 1950s and 1960s

• Psychological in background
• Concerned with human personality and
motivation
– Maslow: the hierarchy of needs
– Herzberg: two–factor motivation theory
– McGregor: theory X and theory Y managers
Slide 2.19
The systems approach
• A reconciliation of classical and human relations

approaches?
• Considers:
– The total work organisation
– The relationship between structure and behaviour
– The range of variables within an organisation
• The organisation as an ‘open system’

• The Tavistock Institute Studies of the 1940s mining
industry
• Socio-technical system or technological determinism?
Slide 2.20
The contingency approach
• Rejects the idea of ‘one best form or

structure’ or ‘optimum state’ for an
organisation
• Focus placed on more general principles
of organisational analysis and design
• Successful design is dependent
(ie. contingent) upon:
– The nature of tasks
– The nature of the environment
Slide 2.21
Social action
Sociologically based
• Views the organisation from the standpoint of
individual members (the ‘actors’).
• Individual goals and interpretations of the work
situation are important in explaining behaviour.
• Conflict is seen as an organisational norm.
• Rejects the ‘unitary’ and adopts a more ‘pluralist’
approach to understanding organisational life.
Slide 2.22
Unitary or pluralistic view
‘With the unitary approach, the organisation is

viewed as a team with a common source of
loyalty, one focus of effort and one accepted
leader. The pluralist approach views the
organisation as made up of competing
sub-groups with their own loyalties, goals
and leaders. These competing sub-groups
are almost certain to come into conflict.’
Mullins p 58
Slide 2.23
Development of approaches
to organisation and management
An outline of developments of approaches to organisation and

Figure 2.3
management
Slide 2.24
Postmodernism
‘A way of looking at the world that rejects

attempts to build systematic
(or “foundationalist”) explanations of history
and society, and which, instead, concentrates
on the ways in which human beings ‘invent’
their worlds, especially through the use of
language or “discourse”.’
Watson
Slide 2.25
Relevance to management and

organisational behaviour
• Helpful to students in the arrangement and study of their
material
• Provides a setting in which to view the field of
management
• Traces major lines of argument developed by different
writers and managers
• Offers a framework for comparisons between
management principles and practices
• Helps organisational analysis and problem identification
• Enables managers to select ideas from a range of
approaches which best suit their situation
Slide 2.26
Caveats to be noted
• Various approaches represent a

progression of ideas, not competing ideas.
• Categorisations tend to be arbitrary.
• There may be general acceptance of the
need for a theoretical framework, but none
exists on its shape.
• The distinction between ‘schools’ of
thought is rarely clear or accurate.
Slide 2.27
The importance of cultural contexts
‘Traditionally, the greatest aspiration of

researchers is to discover objective,
universalistic principles of behaviour.
The tacit assumption behind this is that
these principles may be discovered
without reference to cultural contexts.’
Cheng, Sculli and Chan
Slide 2.28
Towards a scientific value approach?
‘It is obvious from even a cursory glance at the

history of management science that science and
technology are considered to be key instruments
in solving workplace problems and in controlling
workplaces… While Taylorist scientific
management may have its academic critics,
management science is thriving. It is itself a large
business, providing employment for management
consultants whose sole concern is solving
workplace problems of other corporations.’
Bradley et al.
Slide 2.29
Balance between philosophy

and science
‘Ideas drive management as surely as the
immediate problems which land on managers’
desks or which arrive via their email. Decisions
have to be based on ideas, as well as instinct.
Without ideas managers flit desperately from crisis
to crisis. They cannot know where they are going,
why they are doing something or what they will
achieve, without the fuel of ideas.’
Crainer
Slide 2.30
Benefits to the manager
• Helps to explain the complexities

of modern organisations
• Provides comparisons
• Prepares managers for the future
• Encourages managers to abandon
complacency
• Can shed new light on old problems
Slide 2.31
Exercise
Use a scientific management approach to

the achievement of two of these tasks:
– Booking an airline ticket
– Cooking spaghetti bolognese
– Bathing a small child
– Rearranging 100 CDs in some form of order,
10 to each shelf
– Washing up after a small dinner party
– Renewing your passport

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Slide 2.

‘Every managerial act rests on assumptions,

Main approaches to organisation,

Figure 2.1 Main approaches to organisation, structure and management

The classical approach

The organisation is considered in terms of:

Principles of the classical approach

• The principle of co-ordination

Mooney and Reiley

Sub-groups of classical approach

Common principles can be applied to all organisations,

F.W. Taylor, 1856–1917

Principles to guide management

• The development of a true science

• Hostility and suspicion among workers and from

• Work study systems

‘Taylor… shaped the first coherent school of

Max Weber, 1864–1920

Main characteristics of bureaucracies

• Organisational tasks are allocated as duties

Four main features of bureaucracy

Critique of bureaucratic organisations

• They over-emphasise rules, procedures,

The human relations approach

Elton Mayo, 1880–1949

Critique of the Hawthorne

The legacy of the Hawthorne

The Classical School was about ‘organisations

• Date from the 1950s and 1960s

The systems approach

• A reconciliation of classical and human relations

• The organisation as an ‘open system’

• Socio-technical system or technological determinism?

The contingency approach

• Rejects the idea of ‘one best form or

Unitary or pluralistic view

‘With the unitary approach, the organisation is

An outline of developments of approaches to organisation and

‘A way of looking at the world that rejects

Relevance to management and

• Various approaches represent a

The importance of cultural contexts

‘Traditionally, the greatest aspiration of

Cheng, Sculli and Chan

Towards a scientific value approach?

‘It is obvious from even a cursory glance at the

Balance between philosophy

Benefits to the manager

• Helps to explain the complexities

Use a scientific management approach to

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