Rivethead : Likert 's Theory Applied Essay

Frederick W. Taylor worked across the United States in the first 15 years of the 20th century looking to solve production problems (Owens & Valesky, 2011, p. 67). He was an engineer in steel manufacturing and studied developed what what is now known as the four principles of scientific management. These principles spell out what both managers and workers are to do. Two important principles include having the management set goals, plan, and supervise workers, and the workers perform the work, and that organizations should establish the standard where management “sets the objectives and the workers cooperate in achieving them” (p. 67). Taylor’s principles are still used today by some organizational leaders who fight the movement that management should work as a team with the workers (pp. 67-68). Taylor’s principles have led to things such as strict discipline, the idea that workers must focus on their task with little or no interaction with colleagues, and the idea of incentive

Consequently, he decided to take initiative and put it to an end by declaring “to stop the motor of the world.” It was as though the company were trying to embed evil practices into the worker’s monotonous workload. Galt’s pure genius helped him devise a plan to stop these wretched procedures, and what better idea for employees to

1. Discuss the contributions to the “human side of enterprise” as articulated by Elton Mayo, Chester Barnard, Abraham Maslow, and Douglas McGregor.

What specifically spell(s) out how the organization will achieve goals through the use of specific tactics?

Organizational effectiveness is the ability of a particular organization to run as a well-oiled machine that meets goals set in place for success throughout an organization. An organization must work efficiently; therefore obtainable goals must be set within achievable timeframes in order to meet all expectations of the organizations main purpose. This allows an organization to produce productive work with a desired effect throughout the organization without wasteful use of valued assets (Charrier, K. 2007).

In the case study involving Julie, the director at NCLS has management practices conducive to Likert’s System 2: Benevolent-Authoritative. This system is based on managers “occasionally using rewards but also punishment. Information flow is mostly downward. Most decisions are made at highest levels, but some decision making within a narrow set of guidelines is made at lower levels. Some teamwork is present” but the premise of the benevolent-authoritative is a master-servant relationship between management and employees, where rewards are the sole motivators and both teamwork and communication

This paper will examine organizational structures, organizational systems and how organizational culture influences both structure and systems. Throughout this paper, there will an analogy to the human body to help further the understanding of the concepts of structure and systems in an organization. This analogy is based on the academic work of Goold and Campbell (Goold & Campbell, 2002). The first part of this paper will review different organizational structures. The second part will look at various organizational systems and how they may be

2007) . Collectively, the concepts of all three system help to achieve suitable goal establishment.

Womack’s “The Machine That Changed the World,” and Milkman’s “The New Linden” jointly tell a story regarding the development, practice, and global adoption of “lean production” by auto manufacturers in the mid-20th Century. Furthermore, these writings support the notion that during this time period, the American workplace was rapidly changing, which held varying implications for the worker, management, and unions. With the rise of “lean production” came an improvement in labor-management relations with focus on the individual-- through stronger job protections, and positive interactions between employees and technology in the workspace. Despite this, these improvements came at the cost of decreased union influence, and the ability to

- exploitative authoritative: the leader has a low concern for people and uses such methods as threats and other fear-based methods to achieve conformance

Organizational theory studies the various variables that influence the behavior of an individual(s) working within an organization, but also, “prescribes how work and workers ought to be organized and attempts to explain the actual consequences of organizational behavior (including individual actions) on work being performed and on the organization itself.” (Milakovich & Gordon, 2013, p.145). Of the many approaches to organizational analysis, Classical Organizational theory has been, even to this day, extremely influential by focusing on more formal concepts such as bureaucracy, rationalization and scientific management. Although, over the decades organizational management has taken on a more human relations approach to getting more productivity out of employees, it is contributors like Max Webber, Fredrick Taylor, and Luther Gulick that laid down the basic foundation organizational theories by recognizing the need for control and procedures.

Taylorism is a management system which was popular in the late 19th century. It was designed to increase efficiency by breaking down and specialising repetitive tasks. This is exhibited as mentioned in ‘Selection and Development: A new perspective on some old problems’ that several jobs presently no longer consist of clusters of similar tasks, but are now process based collections of activities (Harrington, Hill & Linley 2005). According to Weber’s foundation of organisation theory; bureaucracy was portrayed as an “instrument or tool of unrivalled technical superiority which entailed charismatic, traditional and rational authority” (1978, cited in Clegg 1994). Thereafter, other theories derived based on the instrument being used as a form of manipulation. This is evident in Knights & Roberts’ (1982) concept of human resource management and staff misunderstanding the nature of power, treating it as if it were an individual possession, as opposed to a relationship between people (Knights & Roberts 1982). Subsequently, this led to the establishment of unions and increasing cooperative resistance in the workplace as employees seek change in the occupational structure (Courpasson & Clegg 2012). The change in this occupational structure was based around the ‘superior-inferior’ concept where managers prioritise their own success

However, most organizations are run and steered by people. It is through individuals that objectives are situated and goals are caught on. The performance of an association is thus dependent upon the total performance of its individuals. The achievement of an organization will therefore rely on its capacity to gauge definitely the performance of its individuals and utilize it precisely to enhance them as an

xii). Although rather obvious that the higher level of leaders have a commanding subculture, rank is not the only condition, the reach of this group offers a substantial aspect to its power. Leaders at the highest levels of organizations control a more considerable territory – internal and external – and a greater number of employees.

Essentially, this is what we are speaking about when we refer to organizational performance and achievement of successful outcomes. (James, 2017)