Organizational Theory: The Practice of Management - Assignment Example

Organization Behaviour How organizational theory underpins the practice of management An organization is an assembly of individuals working together to achieve certain common objectives through the division of workforce. It is in an organization where the individual strengths can be used to achieve more in a group rather than individually. An organizational theory provides ways in which the working of an organization to create understanding and appreciation of various organizations get explained.

Management is the science of achieving organizational objectives through people. Management is all about solving the daily problems that occur when running an organization (Harold 2003, p.23). There are different organizational theories in a firm mainly; Classical theory and neoclassical theory. The classical theory focuses more on work while the neoclassical theory focuses on workers. Classical organizational theories include the Taylors scientific management approach, Weber bureaucratic theory, and the administrative theory.

Taylors scientific becomes based on the idea of the planning of office work to achieve, standardization, efficiency, specialization, and job simplification. According to Taylor's approach, mutual trust between the management and employees is essential to increase productivity. In order to improve the level of trust; the advantages of job productivity should go to the employees, anxiety and physical stress should be removed from the job area. Also, workers productivity should be enhanced through training and the traditional concept of the boss should be removed (Harold 2003, p.28). Weber bureaucratic theory got based on the following principles: Structure, this showed that, in an organization, job positions should be arranged in a hierarchal way, each worker assigned a certain amount of authority and responsibility.

Specialization; tasks become differentiated on a functional basis and divided in accordance with specialization each with a different chain of command. Predictability and stability, the business should be run according to the laid out rules and regulations. Rationality; the recruitment and workers selection should be impartial. Democracy, the employee’s responsibilities, and authority should be identified and recognized by designations and not by individuals (Harold 2003, p.33). The neoclassical theorists recognize the value of a group or individual behavior and emphasize the importance of human relations.

The Neoclassical theory emphasizes on the need for human relationships among the researchers, operators, and supervisors. It gets stated that these considerations were relevant to productivity rather than the changes in working conditions. The neoclassical theorists emphasized the following principles: The individual. They recognize the individual as a fundamental social being rather than a mechanical tool. The workgroup, the idea of the group becomes considered critical. Participative management, this allows employees to participate in the decision-making process (Harold 2003, p.51). Approaches to management used by different organizations Drucker defines his management theory as the assumptions that get to shape an organizations’ behavior and states the decisions on what and what not to do.

His theory is about identifying competitors and customers, their importance and behavior. Peter Drucker management theory is about principles that show the importance of the objectives of modern management. Drucker’s theory reflects the importance of the organization's environment and the ability of the leaders to work together with their employees to attain change and progress. His theory emphasizes more on team building exercise, flexible hours and virtual processes. It emphasizes the ability of employees to share information (Harold 2003, p.32). The leadership style adopted by organization A is autocratic leadership.

This is the leadership style where the manager exerts complete control over his/ her employees. The employees get few chances of making suggestions concerning the organization, even if the suggestions are in the organizations best interests. The contingency or situational approach was chosen by the management asserts that when a manager makes a certain decision, they should take into considerations all aspects of the situation in hand. The managers become required to act on the key aspects of the situation at hand.

The contingency approach is necessary in order to create a chain of command (Harold 2003, p.41). Organization B has adopted the Democratic leadership style. Here, the manager assists and stimulates debate concerning all elements in the system (Harold 2003, p.56). In this system, it is the group that decides the way forward in achieving the goals of the organization. The group, however, asks the leader for support. In the systems approach, the organization can be looked as having processes (i.e., planning, motivating, organizing and controlling), inputs (i.e., raw materials, technologies, and the workers), outputs (i.e., services or products), and the result (i.e., quality products for customers.) The systems approach used helps the manager look at the organization broadly.

The manager interprets and checks on the events and patterns of the workplace, by allowing the manager to recognize the various parts of the system, and, mostly the relations among the different parts (Harold 2003, p.37).