Business

Taylor’s four principles are as follows:

1. Working by “rule of thumb” should be replaced by the scientific method to study work and determine the most efficient way to perform specific tasks.

2. Workers should be matched to their jobs based on capability and motivation and they should also be trained to attain maximum efficiency instead of just assigning them to do any job.

3. Workers performance should be monitored regularly and this should be backed up by instructions and supervision to ensure that they are using the most efficient ways of working.

4. Work should be allocated beetween managers and workers so that the managers spend their time to plan and train while workers perform their tasks efficiently.

    Frederick Winslow Taylor was one of the theorists  who started the Scientific Management Movement. In fact, he was the one who published “The principles of Scientific Management” in 1909.

    His main philosophy was that all workers were motivated by money and hence, he had put forward the idea of “a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work”.  In other words, the more productive  the worker is the more his pay should be. This will therefore encourage the worker to work as efficiently as possible. Taylor’s theory did not stop here and he developed four principles of scientific management. These principles are also known as “ Taylorism”.

    Although Taylorism is not practiced in a true sense today scientific management provided may contributions to the enhancement of management practice. Thanks to Frederic Winslow Taylor there has been the introduction of a systematic selection and training procedures and also the encouragement of systematic organizational structure.

Management of a company may face many challenges and complex situations may arise.

some of the challenges that management may face are listed below.

The need for vision

• New technologies
• Changing economy
• Globalisation

The need for ethics and social responsibility

• Ethics deals with both conflict and opportunity in human relationships. Ethics provides the glue that holds our relationships, and the larger society together. Business ethics os a major concern today
• Performance may increase if managers are ethical and work in an ethical environment.

The need for responsiveness to cultural diversity

• Managers must be prepared to deal with diversity at the workplace. More women have incorporated in today's workforce.

The need for training

• Managers have to continually upgrade their management skills through formal education or ongoing practice to maintain high levels of productivity and to keep pace with new technology.
  

A manager's job is varied and complex. They need certain skills to perform the duties of a manager.

Research by Robert Katz found that managers need three essential skills or competencies.

Technical Skills

include knowledge of and proficiency in a certain specialized field; the job-specific knowledge required to perform a task. E.g: accounting, engineering, marketing.

Human Skills

involve the ability to work well with other people; the ability to understand, alter, lead, and control people's behaviour.

Conceptual Skills

the skills managers must have to think and to conceptualize about abstract and complex situations; the ability to analyse and diagnose a situation and find out the cause and effect.

To carry out the different functions, a manager must undertake many different roles. Ten roles have been identified by Henry Mintzberg which are common to the work of all managers and these roles are divided into three groups:

Interpersonal roles - dealing with and motivating staff at all levels of the organisation.

Informational roles - acting as a source, receiver and transmitter of information.

Decisional roles - taking decisions and allowing resources to meet the organisation's objectives.

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Managers ‘get things done’ – not by doing all jobs themselves but by working with and delegating to other people. Different managers will have different approaches to solving problems and when taking decisions, but the key functions of management remains the same for all managers.

Functions of management – What are managers responsible for

Setting objectives and planning

All good managers need to think ahead.
Managers need to define goals for the organisation and also develop strategies and plans in order to achieve the goals that have been set.

There are 3 steps to good planning:

Which goals should be pursued?

How should the goal be attained?

How should resources be allocated?

Organising resources to meet the objectives

Managers need to determine what tasks are to be done, who is going to do them, who reports to them, and where decisions are to be made. They may create the structure of working relationships between organisational members that best allows them to work together and achieve goals.
Managers may group people together into departments according to the tasks performed if needed.

Directing/leading and motivating staff

Managers need to guide and lead their employees, help them understand the role they have in order to ensure that their organisational goals are being met. They must also motivate their staff as this helps them work to the best of their abilities and to work as efficiently as possible. By doing this, it will make it more likely that organisational aims are achieved.

Controlling and measuring performance against targets

This involves monitoring actual performance of the organisation, comparing actual to standard, and taking action, if necessary. Managers will evaluate how well the organisation is doing in achieving its goals and takes corrective action to improve performance. Managers will monitor individuals, departments and the organisation to determine if desired performance has been reached.