Organizational Behavior- Scientific Management Dr. Len Elovitz Chapter 1 & 3 in Owens & Valesky

Organizational Behavior-Scientific Management

Dr. Len Elovitz

Chapter 1 & 3 in Owens & Valesky

What is the prime function of administration?

Organizational Behavior Organizational Behavior (OB) is the study of human behavior

in the context of an organization. OB is both a field of scientific inquiry and a field of applied

practice. Origins of scientific inquiry come from social science

disciplines: Cultural anthropology, sociology, social psychology, political science,

and economics.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

Kurt Lewin—father of social psychology-1930’s

Margaret Mead—cultural anthropologist-1940’s

Pioneers in the discovery of the group decision making process—a central concept of OB.


Why Study Organizational Behavior and its History?

Leadership and administration means working with and through other people to achieve organizational goals.

A major cause of failure by principals is not having a theory of practice.

Only by knowing the contributions of those who came before us, can we prepare ourselves for making strategic and tactical decisions to undergrid our leadership.


Public Administration as a Beginning

Woodrow Wilson wrote a now-famous essay The Study of Administration in 1887.

He argued for the study of administration as a subject fit for serious treatment by universities.


Industrial Revolution – 1790’s-1860’s

Colonial Economy Prior to 1790 Started with mechanization of the textiles

industry Iron production

Steam power

2nd Industrial Revolution – 1860’s Began with Bessemer Steel

Use of electricity & internal combustion engine

Information Age

Also commonly known as the Computer Age or Digital Age

characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to information that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously.

“The Information Age formed by capitalizing on the computer microminiaturization advances, with a transition spanning from the advent of the personal computer in the late 1970s to the internet's reaching a critical mass in the early 1990s, and the adoption of such technology by the public in the two decades after 1990. Bringing about a fast evolution of technology in daily life, as well as of educational life style, the Information Age has allowed rapid global communications and networking to shape modern society.”

Wikipedia

Industrial Age Learning Assumptions

• Children are in deficit mode and schools will fix them

• Learning takes place in the head, not the body as a whole

• Everybody learns, or should learn, in the same way

• Learning takes place in the classroom, not the world

• There are smart kids and dumb kids

Industrial Age School Assumptions

• Schools are run by specialists who maintain control

• Knowledge is inherently fragmented• Learning is primarily individualistic and

competitive• Experts can save us• Don’t open the door to the community• Any change can be handled quickly,

efficiently, and linearly.

Industrial Age School

Mid 18th century Designed like a factory Assembly line

– Segregated by age - grades

– Everyone moves together

– Each stage has a supervisor - teacher

– Uniform speed controlled by bells

– How is this type of an organization managed?

Information Age School Assumptions

Learning centered rather than teacher centered learning

Encourage variety, not homogeneity Understand world of interdependence and

change rather than fact and right answers Schools need to constantly explore theory-in-use Reintegrating education within walls of social

relationships that link community

Industrial Revolution Goal

– greater profitability

Objective – Lower the unit costs of production

Solution – Assembly line - Henry Ford

Ford Assembly Line

BMW Assembly Line

Another Brick in The Wall

http://youtu.be/S4KrIMZpwCY

http://youtu.be/KEQdn57Kz1Q

http://youtu.be/YR5ApYxkU-U

Impact of the Industrial Revolution

Frederick W. Taylor—father of Scientific Management was influenced by Wilson’s essay.

Engineer – Midvale & Bethlehem Steel

Pig-Iron


Taylor’s goal- increase worker productivity. There is one best way of doing things That method could be discovered through

scientific study & analysis Time-and-motion studies Efficiency experts

Principles of Scientific ManagementFrederick Taylor - 1900-15

1. Eliminate the guesswork of rule-of-thumb approaches to deciding how each worker is to do a job by adopting scientific measurements to break the job down into a series of small, related tasks

2. Use more scientific, systematic methods for selecting workers and training them for specific jobs instead of allowing workers to choose their own tasks and train themselves as best they could

Principles of Scientific Management

3. Establish the concept that there is a clear division of responsibility between management and workers, with management doing goal setting, planning, and supervising, and workers executing required tasks.

4. Establish the discipline whereby management sets the objectives and the workers cooperate in achieving them.

-Frederick Taylor

TAYLOR’S PRINCIPLES

TOP-DOWN AUTHORITARIAN TIME-MOTION STUDIES RIGID DISCIPLINE ON THE JOB LITTLE INTERACTION BETWEEN WORKERS INCENTIVE PAY SYSTEMS EFFICIENCY EXPERTS

Application to Education

How do Taylor’s principles apply?

Is that good or bad?

Impact of the Industrial Revolution (continued)

Frank B. Gilbreth, one of Taylor’s close colleagues, studied time and motion in performing routine tasks.

led to a best-selling book and motion picture Cheaper by the Dozen.

Scientific Management led to: Time and motion studies Rigid discipline on the job. Concentration on tasks with minimal interpersonal contact. Strict application of incentive pay.


Application to Education

Starting in the early 1900s administrators began applying Taylor’s principles to schools

Developed learning outcomes and take periodic measurement to see if they are reached

Documentation of teaching activities to minimize time waste

Platoon schools (1908 Gary, Indiana) run on rigid schedules controlled by bells

Departmentaliztion

Educational Administrators – 1900-1930 Saw themselves as managers not educators Leadership departments at colleges did

research on things such as best way to maintain floors, etc.

Adopted the attitudes of business and industrial managers

Principals set the rules teachers followed them

Administrative Management Theory

Henri Fayol, a French industrialist, published General Industrial Management in 1916.

Unlike Taylor, who tended to view workers as extensions of factory machinery, Fayol focused his attention on the manager rather than on the worker.

He clearly separated the processes of administration from other operations in the organization, such as production.

He emphasized the common elements of the process of administration in different organizations.

Believed a trained administrative group was essential to improving the operations of an organization


Henri Fayol’s Contributions Fayol defined administration in terms of five

functions: Planning Organizing Commanding (interpreted as Leading) Coordinating Controlling (interpreted as evaluating)


Do Fayol’s functions of an administrator apply in education?

Luther Gulick 1930s

Helped FDR reorganize the executive branch

Built onto Fayol The functions of a

chief executive

– POSDCoRB

• Planning

• Organizing

• Staffing

• Directing

• Coordinating

• Reporting

• Budgeting

Division of labor

The more a task is broken down into its components, the more specialized and effective workers can become

Tasks were grouped into jobs and jobs into departments

Leads to standardization

Span of Control

The number of workers directly supervised 5 to 10 considered optimum

Homogeneity

Departments are formed in one or more of the following different ways:– Major Purpose– Major Process– Clientele Served– Location

Is bureaucracy a dirty word?

In the early 1900s, people began to increasingly be the focus in large organizations

Mixing people of diverse backgrounds, values, beliefs and talents led to social, economic and political tensions

Conflict between people and organizations led to labor unrest – unions, communism

Weber

Believed that hope lied in the establishment of well run bureaucracies

Wrote 1910 – 20, but not translated until 1940’s

Not recognized until after WWII

Warned against the dangers

Max Weber

Hope lied in the establishment of well run bureaucracies that would be:

• Fairer

• More Impartial

• More Practicable

• More rational

• More Efficient

• More Impersonal

Weber’s Principles of Administration A division of labor based on functional specialization A well-defined hierarchy of authority A system of rules covering the rights and duties of

employees A system of procedures for dealing with work situations Impersonality of interpersonal relations Selection and promotion based only on technical

competence

Criticism of Weber

Not attentive to dysfunctional features of his model

Neglects the informal organization Does not recognize potential internal

contradictions among the elements of his model

It is gender biased

Bureaucracy in Schools – Division of Labor

– Level

• Elementary

• Middle

• Secondary

–

– Subject

– English

• Math

• Science

– Biology

– Chemistry

Efficiency increases due to specialization – teachers becomeExperts at performing assigned tasks.

Consequences of Specialization

Boredom – 5 1-act plays in one day Narrow thinking – it’s not my job Low involvement in solving school

problems Departmental competition Resistance to transfers

Impersonality

Assures equality of treatment by administrators and teachers.

Decisions based on facts not feelings. Consequences

– Sterile atmosphere– Low morale– Poor teaching model not dealing with students

as human beings

Hierarchy of Authority

Consequences

Enhances coordination but frequently at the expense of communication– Distortion –

• “don’t give me no bad news”

• Telephone game

– Blockage – failure to pass along information

Rules & Regulations

Statutes – Title18A Code – Title 6 Board Policy Regulations School procedures

Consequences

Provide continuity, coordination, stability and uniformity, but can lead to rigidity and goal displacement– Administrators and teachers become so rules

oriented that they forget that rules and regulations are a means to reach the goals not the goals themselves

– Interferes with ability to change

Career Orientation

“… a system of promotion according to seniority, achievement, or both. Promotion is dependent on the judgment of superiors.”

Salary guides Merit Pay Tenure Up and out of the classroom

The informal organization

A system of interpersonal relations that forms spontaneously within all formal organizations

Formation of subgroups and cliques Where is the power?

Internal conflicts

Is authority based on technical competence and knowledge or legal powers and discipline?

We’ll discuss in more detail later in the course Professional organizations such as schools

where subordinates may have a greater knowledge and expertise than superordinates

Feminist critique

Although Weber would argue that his bureaucracy by its nature is gender neutral, emphasis on full-time commitment and extensive training hinders women who routinely face the conflict of job and family demands.

Emphasis on authority, rules, regulations and rationality creates paternalistic domination

The Rise of Classical Organizational Theory

Raymond Callahan in Education and the Cult of Efficiency, described how superintendents rushed to apply scientific management principles.

Ellwood Cubberley, a leading scholar in education, wrote a landmark textbook in 1916.

Schools were “factories in which the raw materials are to be shaped and fashioned into products to meet the various demands of life.”


The Rise of Classical Organizational Theory (continued) Fred Ayer ( U of Texas)—studied superintendents’ work in 1926-27.

Board Meetings Wrote reports Supervised Teachers Went to the post office Ran the Mimeo Inspected Toilets Inspected Janitors’ work

University programs in preparing administrators focused on management tasks. – areas of research included efficient techniques for cleaning floors

Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick (1937) synthesized classical organizational principles. Noted for their contribution of:

Formal Organizational Charts--elements of organization could be grouped by function.


Organizational Concepts of Classical Theory

Scalar Principle (“line and staff”). Unity of Command. Exception Principle. - Policy & Regulation Span of Control.


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The Ideas of Mary Parker Follett Influenced by the Stock Market crash of 1939 and her views

of the corporate world, led to modifying classical management theory.

Productvity is improved by considering the individual

Her four principles of administration: coordination by direct contact of the responsible people concerned. coordination in the early stages. coordination as the reciprocal relating of all the factors in the situation

(“law of the situation”). coordination as a continuing process.


Management Summary

Documents

Organizational Behavior- Scientific Management Dr. Len Elovitz Chapter 1 & 3 in Owens & Valesky