Organisation and Management Theory

Classical school theory

The classical school theory states that employees in an organisation only need economical and physical needs and that the need of job satisfaction and socialising is non existent or isn't of concern to the management. This has resulted in employees becoming specialised in their sector of the work hence giving a higher productivity levels and better results. (businessdictionary (2010) Classical school of management)



One case study that reflect this theory could be the Nike one. Nike, a company that makes all sorts of sportswear world wide, closed its factories in the US and moved production to Asia in 1984. It used Asian labours paying them wages that were below minimum wages. These workers were working in very poor conditions were they were allowed to drink only twice and go to the toilet only once, per eight hour (1 shift). The wage is so low that workers would skip one meal a day. Amongst those workers were children and women. Here you can see that the management managing these factories believe that money will only motivate workers and that their needs are not essential. Poor families and people have no other choice then to work like that to get money and support their families. This is a clear classical school example with child slavery and abuses. (ihscslnews (2010) Nike's use of child labour)

Human relation theory:
Unlike the classical school theory, this one is the complete opposite. This theory states that employees are even more motivated when their social needs are met. These included employer-employee relationship, rewarding employees for good work, being more flexible with them and more friendly. This theory has been proven to be very successful as when management use this approach employees feel more useful with more responsibilities, they feel part of the work place and this will motivate them to return the favour by doing good work.
(encyclopedia (2010) Human relations theory)

One case study reflecting the use of this theory is the M&S employee benefit package. M&S feel that their employees do a great job for them and therefore they are looking after their employees by giving them a range of benefits such as competitive rates of pay, performance related rewards, employee discounts, pensions, bonuses and more. These will motivate workers better as they feel part of the company, and are happy with their working environment. As a result of this, there is a better production and performance. (corporate.marksandspencer (2010) Rewards & Benefits).

Scientific management Pros and cons:
Advantages:

1. This type of management would reduce production costs on a large production scale, as employees will be monitored and therefore quality products are more likely to be the output, wit minimal wastage.

2. Conflicts and disagreements are largely reduced, as employees do what management tell them to do and if they don't like it they can leave.

3. It is easier when recruiting as different employees have different tasks and therefore when some one gets employed, they will only be doing one task repeatedly and therefore during the recruitment time it is easier for managers to select the one, reflecting on the task that needs to be completed.

4. This type of management has all the tasks and everything pre-planned and as a result delays are less likely to happen and the waste of time is significantly reduced.

5. This effectiveness will obviously bring higher profits which could be used to invest in the business or lifestyle of the owner.

(dailyojo (2010) What are the advantages of scientific management in business)

Disadvantages:

1. Fail to recognise ideas of employees, this would really demotivate employees as they will feel like robots or slaves working for a company.

2. Fail to acknowledge employees variance, employees are not always doing the same thing, as doing some thing over and over again gets boring and on the long run very frustrating. By failing the acknowledge that employees need to vary their tasks, level of staff leaving the company will definitely increase.

3. Fails to appreciate the social context of work and higher needs of workers, by doing so, employees will feel like dogs or slaves who are not even rewarded or even given any attention for the good productivity. moral will go down resulting in demotivation leading to a decrease in production.

4. Human rights breach, now days by treating employees like that it would be a human right breach and therefore companies could get sued. However it is still in use but in a more sophisticated way, blending in with the law.

(transtutor (2009) Criticism to Scientific Management)

Conclusion:
Eventhought the classical school theory is good due to the point that time wastage, conflicts are minimised and productions increased, on the long run, the level of staff leaving the company will be high as well as production decreasing due to demotivation from employees; whereas the human relation theory waste time on looking after employees but the result of that are even greater than of classical school theory, as employee will be happier and more motivated resulting in high level of production and performance. In conclusion if i was a manager i would rather go for the human relation theory.

References:

(businessdictionary (2010Classical school of management [online] available at: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/classical-school-of-management.html [accessed: 01/02/2010])

(ihscslnews (2010Nike's use of child labour [online] available at: http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=32 [accessed: 01/02/2010])

(encyclopedia (2010Human relations theory [online] available at: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O18-humanrelationstheory.html [accessed: 04/02/2010])

(corporate.marksandspencer (2010Rewards & Benefits) [online] available at: http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/mscareers/rewards_benefits [accessed: 04/02/2010])

(dailyojo (2010) What are the advantages of scientific management in business [online] available at: http://dailyojo.com/articles/what-are-the-advantages-of-scientific-management-in-business.html [accessed: 04/02/2010])

(transtutors (2010) Criticism to Scientific Management [online] available at : http://www.transtutors.com/homework-help/Industrial+Management/Principles+of+Management/criticism-to-scientific-management.aspx [accessed: 04/02/2010])