Friday, 11 December 2009

Organisation and management theory

Two case studies which demonstrates the key organisation and management theory

Case study which demonstrates classical school theory
Primark is a well known store for selling clothing and home furnishing products at a low price within the UK. The reason why Primark tend to sell their products at such cheap price is because their production labour is cheap. Most of their products are made in India and China who produce all the products at very cheap prices. In India there are some companies who use child labour, and Primark used to buy products from those companies. The clothing labour production companies in India are mainly focused on the tasks rather than the working conditions which means that pay is the key motivator. The organisation and management theory used within these companies is the classical school theory. (The independent UK 2009) As the classical school theory mainly concentrates on the tasks rather than the employees, the working conditions are not seriously taken into consideration. As long as all the products are produced in time, that's enough for the company. There is a lot of poverty in India and therefore the people there don't have a choice but to work for these companies as long as they get paid and can provide for their families. India also has a lot of child labour and the reason for this is because company owners believe that children will work for less which is more beneficial for the company because they are producing more for less. Primark previously cut down on buying products from companies who use child labour as a lot of the customers are finding it cruel and therefore stop buying their products. (Time online 2009) Doing work using this theory is better for the organisation because they are getting all of the clothing made and ready to sell to stores such as Primark and therefore they will be making good profit for getting the clothes produced in time and Primark will keep on buying more stock from them as they are so cheap.

Case study which demonstrates human relations theory
Square group is a privately owned business that test drives most of the latest Apple products, such as apple mac laptops and computers, ipod touch, and iPhone etc. This business is located in three different places within the UK and one of them is in High Wycombe. (Square 2009)
As there are different store managers, they all compete against each other to get the best image from the customers and the head manager. The store manager of High Wycombe care a lot about the working conditions of employees as well as the tasks. It is important for the manager to make sure that the working environment is suitable for the employees as well as pointing out clear rules and regulations because it is the employees job to communicate with the customers and sell the products within the store. Square group follows the human relations school theory as their employees is centralised and all the tasks come after them.
Everyone at Square work together as a whole group as it is a very small store and they all tend to get on with each other as well. Members of staff at Square group socialise together as a group outside of work during special occasions such as Christmas and Easter etc. This gives them the chance to get to know each other outside work which will make it easier for each individual to work with each at work. The good thing about working using the human relation school theory method is that people at work will like to work for the company more and therefore will put better effort into their job.

Comparing both of the organisations together
Both organisations are very different as they have various job activities involved and for this reason they tend to follow different theories that suits their business the best. Primark manages to get cheap clothing products from foreign countries such as India. The theory that the Indian company use for their clothing manufacturing business is the classical school theory where money is the only motivator for the employees. This could be good for this particular company due to where it is located and all the clothes can be produced quickly and ready to be sold to other companies such as Primark. If the clothing factories in India used human relations school theory, the tasks won't be done in time and people will treat their work place as a socialising place. However if their working conditions were a bit better, the employees will put more quality and effort into the products. Where as for Square group, it is a good idea that they use the human relation school theory as their business is small and therefore also have small stores within the UK. As there are only a few people working within each store, it is important for those people to get along with each other via socialising together and helping each other out whilst working.

Pros and cons of scientific management

Frederick Winslow Taylor came up with the scientific management and he believed that tasks at work and getting all of the work done, was more important than considering the working conditions of the employees. The advantages of scientific management are that more jobs were available for people as more managers were needed for each department. Work was also done more accurately as the employees had more guidance from their managers. Productivity was more under control as that was the main thing that was taken in to account and the employees would do all their tasks properly because they would get monetary rewards. More products was produced everyday which was better for the organisation as more profit would be coming to them. Due to the scientific management theory, there is now good quality control, different department within the company, and maintenance. (Accel- team development 2009) Another advantage was that the employees didn't need to have high education in order to get a job as training would be provided for them.

The disadvantages of scientific management are that the working conditions were not looked at properly and the managers didn't care how they worked, as long as all the tasks were completed. Employees would get bored after a while because they had to do the same thing over and over again as part of their job. This theory was invented to believe that all workers could only be motivated via money which meant that the workers could get bossed around just to get their pay. Another disadvantage is that the theory was going against the employees human rights and therefore it de-motivated them to work for companies who followed the classical school theory. As employees had to repeat the same productivity, they were getting tired of their job, but at the same time had to carry on with the job due to the pay they were getting, employees were beginning to put less effort in to the products and therefore good quality soon came to an end.

Conclusion

In conclusion there are four different organisation and management theory which are the classical school, human relations, systems approaches and contingency approach theory. Classical school theory is where the scientific management comes under, and all the tasks are at the centre which means that productivity is very important. Human relations is the opposite theory of classical school theory, because employees are at the centre and than work comes after them. A lot of the organisations follow this theory due to strict laws human rights. Systems approach theory is when you bring together two things such as the production and the service to the customers. The organisation tend to connect with a wider environment and use good communication skills to sell their products through their services. Contingency approach theory depends on what the situation which means there isn't just one solution for a problem that could occur within the organisation.




References
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