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Compare and Contrast the Management Theories of Frederick Taylor, Henri Fayol, Elton Mayo and Douglas Mcgregor. in What Sense(S) Are These Theories Similar and/or Compatible? in What Sense(S) Are These Theories Dissimilar and/or Compatible? How Wo...

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Since the end of the 19th century, when factory manufacturing became widespread and the size of organisations increased, people have been looking for ways to motivate employees and improve productivity. A need for management ideas arise which lead to classical contributors such as Frederick Taylor and Henri Fayol generating management theories such as Taylor’ Scientific Management and Fayol’s Administrative Management. In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s the Hawthorne studies were conducted where Elton Mayo was the predominate figure and contributed to the Behavioural viewpoint. This brought about a Human Relations Movement which included Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y approach. Similarities and differences can be found between …show more content…

In the Hawthorne studies productivity increased and Mayo credited this to teamwork by stating “What actually happened was that six individuals became a team and the team gave itself wholeheartedly and spontaneously to cooperation in the experiment. The consequence was that they felt themselves to be participating freely and without afterthought, and were happy in the knowledge that they were working without coercion from above or limitation from below.” (Mayo, 1933, p 46). These theories differ greater as Mayo theory is based on the belief that workers are motivated by social factors and these social needs need to be satisfied for workers to be productive while Taylor’s theory is based on the belief that workers are mostly motivated by monetary means. Taylor believes “what workmen want from their employees beyond anything else is high wages (Taylor, 1947, p22) and thought “men will not work at their best unless assured a good liberal increase, which much be permanent” (Taylor, 1947, p26). Taylor theory suggests that to the best way to motivate employees is to increase their wages when they have achieved the desire outcome. However while these theories are seemingly different Mayo’s approach focused on the conditions under which the work was done, but just like Taylor it disregarded the task itself and the nature of the job as a factor of motivation and job satisfaction. Hence, the two theories try to satisfy workers needs to improve their

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