Relating the Assumptions, Values, Beliefs and Modern-day Practices with the Different Related Theories - Term Paper Example

Personal Management Framework Paper Table of Contents Overview 3 Present Management Assumptions, Values and Practices 4 Theories and Approaches on Productivity of Workers 7 How to Increase the Productivity of Workers? 8 Role of the Organization, Manager and Worker 9 References 11 Bibliography 13 Overview From the early centuries it has been believed by economists and sociologists that there are basically two categories of workers, namely general manual workers and knowledge workers. Since then the difference and the inter-dependence of both the categories are studied thoroughly in order to bring new ideas to the concept regarding the productivity of the workers and relative measures, in order to improve the productivity. While, for the present managerial structure of any organization, manual workers may be referred to the laborers or the manufacturers who use their physical attributes to do their work and knowledge workers are referred to the group of workers who complete their task using their intelligence rather than their body, e.g. technologists or software developers. This concept was previously introduced by Karl Marx and after that many authors, publishers and theorists tried to conclude to the concept, but their drawback was that none of them had practical experience about the scenario. Shortly, a name was introduced in the concept having both theoretical and practical knowledge of the working environment. Fredrick Winslow Taylor was the first person to relate the pre-assumed concept of productivity of workers with the reality which in turn helped the concept to focus on increasing the productivity of workers and develop the economy (Drucker, 1999, p. 79). The concept since then, passing through different phases came to be known as Taylor’s Scientific Management Theory. As well as many other researchers and theorists namely, Gilbreth, Maslow and others made their own conclusions and theories. All these approaches are from then practiced in the practical work field with an aim to enhance the productivity of workers. This paper shall aim at relating the assumptions, values, beliefs and modern day practices with the different related theories and try to conclude a relative measure for the betterment of the productivity of both knowledge and manual workers. Present Management Assumptions, Values and Practices With due course of time the organizational structure today; have become more challenging, huge and complex. This change has resulted to the inappropriate evaluation of the worker productivity in many cases. To analyze and improve worker productivity no particular theory can prove itself perfect in today’s situation. Notably, most of the management theories were introduced during the period of Industrial Revolution when the environment was not at all stable as well as the theme of management was getting expanded to the sphere of science rather than art. But still those theories have a huge and strong influence on the managerial techniques used by the organizations today. In the present competitive market an organization has to follow a number of objectives in order to attain the desired goal. It is a well known fact that any organizations achievement is based on its workers and their productivity in spite of the machines being present as a major component and therefore it becomes very important to study the productivity of workers and improve it. Previously, organizations based on manufacturing were basically not that rational about their workers because the environment and the need of the workers were not as specific as today. At that time people had a need of only basics rather than luxury, security, or any other psychological or financial wants. But today the situation has changed. Although the main objective is to increase the productivity of a worker, an organization today has to undergo a number of stages, starting from the analysis of the need of workers to the external political environment. In this case, a basic but a strong characteristic of workers highlighted by Taylor in his approach was that many of the workers are not in fact aware of what their exact job is, which he quotes in his question ‘What is the task?’. This confusion among most of the workers still persists in the modern era. For instance, if a clerk is asked today that what exactly his job is he might get severely confused whether his job is to maintain records or to do the initial paper works for the organization. Again if a technician is asked the same question he may answer; going to the sights and maintaining records of the progress or to solve the problems arising in the technical aspect of the project. According to Taylor’s belief, until and unless a person is undoubtedly aware of his responsibilities on the job he cannot perform well from his part which may lead him to a non-productive worker. Certainly, if a clerk goes on maintaining records or gets more into that part of work he shall be left over with a lot of pending work or tremendous pressure which will result in high amount of error. Same can be referred for the technicians and other workers who are not clear about their task (Drucker, 1999, p. 84). Therefore, at the initial stage a worker has to be made very clear about his responsibilities with the intention that he can prove to be more productive for the organization. Simultaneously the worker should be motivated with different opportunities in order that the quality or the quantity of the task does not get negatively affected as the productivity should not get reduced in turn. Specifically, a worker has to be informed about the job responsibility, and they have to be motivated, rewarded and penalized if needed, without compromising on the quality or quantity factor. Especially in the case of market related knowledge workers, the job is to assign new customers as well as render a good customer service. And the question that really matters at this juncture is not the number of customers approached, but rather on how many customers are inclined. Therefore it becomes very important from the part of the organization to control the man-power, keeping in mind the satisfaction of their productive workers and quality control. Thus, the present management practices are based on the assumption that productive workers can make an organization successful and by providing job satisfaction the productivity of a worker can be increased. While the values are related to the quality of the product, and not solely to the quantity of the product, what matters at the end of the day is the number of successful deals and not the number of customers approached. Theories and Approaches on Productivity of Workers Better known as the Taylor’s Scientific Theory, this approach was the first practiced theory on the manual workers. Though, this theory provides many techniques to increase the productivity of workers, such as motivation factor which is strongly into the economy today, it also posses some drawbacks. The most criticized part of Taylor’s approach was that, it treats workers as machines and assumes that they are only satisfied by a good pay (Accel-Team, 2010). Next to Taylor’s study, two of his associates Frank and Lillian Gilbreth came up with a new factor which was the “motion study”, which implied that no two workers follow identical speed and path to complete their task. Notably, the use of camera in corporate world is partially based on this idea, which in turn helps the administration have a thorough study of the workers. Some other contributors to the context were Henry Gantt, Charles Bedaux and others, before the Second World War. After the period of the Second World War, the growth in the study as well in the implementation has grown rapidly. This was the period when theoretical assumptions were kept aside and there were development of new and much more practical conclusions depending upon the statistical data and numerical. Professor P.M.S. Blackett first introduced the thought of ‘Operational Research’, with G. B. Dantzig as a next to bring linear programming in the science of management to manipulate the productivity level of workers in a given organizational environment (Accel-Team, 2010). Later, considering the motivational factors and the general needs of a worker, theorists like Maslow, McGregor, and Ouchi came up with new innovative theories as Need Hierarchy, Theory X and Theory Y and Theory Z respectively. All these theories tend to analyze the fact that what can motivate a worker the most and suggests relevant measures to the situation (Shead, 2009). All the above mentioned theories work on a basic principle to increase the productivity of workers with the increase in the quality and quantity of the work delivered. Relatively, it should be mentioned that on the process of increasing the productivity level of the workers many theorists has delivered their ideas every year, such as fulfilling the needs of the workers in order to provide them job satisfaction, incentives, or even penalize them when required. How to Increase the Productivity of Workers? This was the basic question that came into the mind of different theorists and organizational heads after analyzing the Productivity of workers. Even Taylor could not stop thinking the relative answer of this question for which he gave a brief description about the responsibilities of an organization with a belief that the productivity of a worker can only increase if he is specific about his job. But a more interesting and adaptable solution to the question was provided by Leonard Mertens who depicted that management framework today can be made better by adapting two techniques with an aim to analyze and improve the productivity of workers. These were the Static approach and the Dynamic approach. In the static approach, he mentioned that at present the managers’ aim at providing the manual workers training at their initial stage to perform their work at a specified way, in other words they are taught to do their work following a basic style. This in terms of theory may seem, to be easy and adaptable, but in reality the process has been much more complex. Even one of the most important theorists in management development, Schumpeter has also admitted to this fact. In his approach to static view, Merten states that any worker has an initial competency which can be measured and only varies with the variation occurred in the organizational environment. Then the productivity would be increased by deepening and broadening their competency from the initial level to the level organization desires, i.e. from level X1 to X2. The next approach, which is the dynamic approach, states the relationship between training and productivity. Thus, the productivity of a worker can be enhanced with developing their competency level as suggested in the static approach (Mertens, 2004). Role of the Organization, Manager and Worker At present in connection to increase the productivity of workers, an organization irrespective of the fact that it is small, big, or huge has to provide training to their workers and develop their potential competencies to a level that would in return affect the objectives of an organization. As such, the organization needs to compel a role from identifying the needs of training to implementing the training procedure. To be concise, the role of an organization is to identify the need of training, selecting participants or workers, defining the expectations of the organization from the training process, monitor trainee’s progress, and implementing the training program to the field. But the process gets affected by a number of external and internal problems of the organization, e.g. the political and economical environment and the internal technological problems (Vemić, 2007). In such case, the role of a leader or trainer becomes very vital to have a positive response from the other end. The manager here plays the role as a trainer and simultaneously, as an intermediary between the top heads and trainee workers. His role can also be defined to be of counselor, with the intention that he can continuously follow the development of the trainees. For any faults or ineffectiveness of the program it is the manager who takes the initiative to improve it. Thus, the manager also becomes a developer. Precisely, it is the manager who plays the role of implementer and thus becomes really important in developing the productivity of workers (Management-Hub, 2010). The initial role for a worker is to understand his work or task and perform thereon. As well as, their role is to create good interpersonal relationships which shall in turn help the leader to perform his task and achieve the organizational goal. The worker, in any case is the most important and effective factor of the whole process of training and developing the productivity. It is to be concluded, that only the will and competency or potential of a worker can prove effective to the organizations achievement. References Accel-Team, (2010). Historical Perspective on Productivity Improvement. Scientific Management and Frederick Winslow Taylor. Retrieved Online on November 1, 2010 from http://www.accel-team.com/scientific/scientific_02.html Accel-Team, (2010). Historical Perspective on Productivity Improvement. Scientific Management - Frank and Lillian Gilbreth. Retrieved Online on November 1, 2010 from http://www.accel-team.com/scientific/scientific_03.html Accel-Team, (2010). Historical Perspective On Productivity Improvement. Developments from the Second World War on. Retrieved Online on November 1, 2010 from http://www.accel-team.com/scientific/scientific_04.html Drucker, P. F., (1999). Knowledge-Worker Productivity: The Biggest Challenge. California Management Review Pg – 79-94. Management-Hub, (2010). Roles & Responsibilities of a Manager in an Organization. HR Manager Role. Retrieved Online on November 1, 2010 from http://www.management-hub.com/hr-manager-roles.html Mertens, L., (2004). Training, Productivity, and Labour Competencies in Organisations. Concepts, Methodologies and Experiences. Retrieved Online on November 1, 2010 from http://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/ampro/cinterfor/publ/mert_pro/pdf/total.pdf Open Group, (2002). Identity Management Business Scenario. Identity Management. Retrieved Online on November 1, 2010 from http://www.opengroup.org/downloads/bus-scenario-IM.pdf Shead, M., (2009). Personal Productivity from Management Theory. Productivity501. Retrieved Online on November 1, 2010 from http://www.productivity501.com/personal-productivity-from-management-theory/26/ Vemić, J., (2007). Employee Training and Development and the Learning Organization. Facta Universitatis. Retrieved Online on November 1, 2010 from http://facta.junis.ni.ac.rs/eao/eao200702/eao200702-13.pdf Bibliography Chaplin, D., (2002). Maximising Development Productivity. What Is Productivity? Retrieved Online on November 1, 2010 from http://www.byte-vision.com/ProductivityArticle.aspx Gregory, S. P., (No Date). Training and Development Leads to Higher Productivity and Retention. Business Know How. Retrieved Online on November 1, 2010 from http://www.businessknowhow.com/manage/higherprod.htm Slay, B. & Hughes, J., (2006). Growth, Productivity and Development. Development & Transition. Retrieved Online on November 1, 2010 from http://www.developmentandtransition.net/index.cfm?module=ActiveWeb&page=WebPage&DocumentID=589 Read More