Management Approaches and Organizational Perspective

Introduction:

Management, in all business areas and human organizational activities, is the process of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives. There are four major schools management thoughts, i.e., the four main management approaches, namely, classical management approach, behavior management approach, quantitative management approach and modern management approach. These four management approaches might be used in different organizational perspectives, such as, mechanistic organization, organic organization, cultural perspective and political perspective. The content below will analysis the management approaches and the organizational perspectives in details.

Body:

Mechanistic organization characterized by centralization of authority, formalization of procedures and practices and specialization of functions (Campling et al. 2008). From those characteristics about the mechanistic organization, the mechanistic organization would choose the classical management approach to control its’ organization. Classical management approach is a way which developing universal principles for use in various management situations.

Classical approaches to management include scientific management, administrative principles and bureaucratic organization (Campling et al. 2008). In details, the scientific management (Frederick Taylor) develops rules of motion, standardized work processes and proper working conditions for every job (Campling et al. 2008). This exactly matches the features of the mechanistic organization: formal, centralized authority, clear, specific task and rules. Frederick Taylor mentioned in the scientific management that carefully select workers with the right abilities for the job, and in the mechanistic organization, it also focuses on the specialized staff skills (Campling et al. 2008). So the scientific management is the approach the mechanistic organization use.

Another aspect of classical approach is Bureaucratic organization. “Bureaucracy (Max Weber) is an idea, intentionally rational and very efficient form of organization and based on principles of logic, order and legitimate authority (Campling et al. 2008).” And two key features of bureaucracy are hierarchy and specialized division of labor. This is the method that the mechanistic organization need to specified its’ staff (Campling et al. 2008). Adam Smith used example of pin manufactures to argue that the factory division of labor increased efficient greatly (Campling et al. 2008). Which proves that the mechanistic organization use the bureaucracy of classical management to reach the task efficiency.

In the view of administrative approach, which introduced by Henri Fayol, the key principles of management are scalar chain, unity of command and unity of direction, in the unity of command, it emphasis more about leading, selecting and evaluating workers