GM

MGTS1301 Introduction to Management: Lecture Notes

Management History

Introduction

  • Acknowledgment of Country: The University of Queensland acknowledges the Traditional Owners and their custodianship of the lands. Pays respects to their Ancestors and descendants, recognizing their contributions to Australian and global society.

Learning Objectives

  1. Identify key historical developments in management theories, including classical, human relations, and contemporary approaches.
  2. Understand the strengths and limitations of WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) management theories and their applicability in global contexts.
  3. Explain the impact of cultural values and philosophies, such as Confucianism, Kaizen, Ubuntu, and Gamilaraay traditions, on management practices.

The Industrial Revolution and the Rise of Management

  • Workers on the first moving assembly line put together magnetos and flywheels for 1913 Ford autos, Highland Park, Michigan.

Management History Timeline

  • The Management Process:
    • Planning: Setting performance objectives and deciding how to achieve them.
    • Organizing: Arranging tasks, people, and other resources to accomplish the work.
    • Leading: Inspiring people to work hard to achieve high performance.
    • Controlling: Measuring performance and taking action to ensure desired results.
  • Scientific Management:
    • Frederick W. Taylor (1868-1915): American mechanical engineer.
    • Time and Motion Studies.
    • Lilian Gilbreth (1878-1972): American psychologist, industrial engineer, consultant, and educator.
    • Frank Gilbreth (1860-1924): American engineer, consultant, and author.
  • Administrative Management:
    • Hanni Fayol (1841-1925): French engineer and CEO of a mining company.
    • Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933): American social worker, management consultant, philosopher.
  • Bureaucratic Management:
    • Max Weber (1864-1920): German sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economist.
  • Hawthorne Studies:
    • Elton Mayo (1880-1949): Australian born psychologist, industrial researcher, and organizational theorist.
    • Fritz Roethlisberger (1898-1974): American social scientist and management theorist.
  • Theory X and Theory Y:
    • Douglas McGregor (1906-1964): Social Psychologist.
  • Contingency Theory:
    • Joan Woodward (1916-1971): British industrial sociologist and organizational theorist.
    • Fred Edward Fiedler (1922-2017): Austrian-American industrial and organisational psychologist
  • Systems Theory:
    • Ludwig von Bertalanffy (Austrian biologist).
    • Kenneth Boulding (British-American economist, systems scientist, peace researcher, and interdisciplinary philosopher).
    • Talcott Parsons (American sociologist).
    • Howard T. Odum & Eugene Odum (American ecologists).
    • Fritjof Capra (Austrian-American physicist, systems theorist and ecologist).
    • Peter Senge (American systems and management scientist).
    • Richard A. Swanson (American organisational theorist).
    • Debora Hammond (American).
    • Bela H. Banathy (Hungarian American linguist).
    • Bruno Dyck (Canadian management and organisational theorist).
    • Michel Neubert (American Christian business ethicist).
  • Multi-Stream Management
  • David Graeber, Strike! Magazine, Summer 2013

Scientific Management

  1. Develop a science for each element of work (i.e., rules of ‘Time and Motion’, standardised work processes and working conditions) and give employees the right equipment to do their job well.
  2. Select, train and develop the right employees for each job (rather than letting the workers train themselves).
  3. Foster cooperation between managers and employees and give employees incentives to follow the science related to each element of their work (e.g., giving employees “incentive pay” based on their output rather than an hourly rate).
  4. Equally divide work between managers (who decide how to do the tasks) and employees (who do the task).

Global Context of Management

  • What was happening globally when the management discipline was founded? (Referencing maps of colonialism and economic history).

Assumptions of Management as a Discipline

  1. Ethnocentrism: Assumption of universality means that the diversity and value of other cultural contexts are often overlooked.
  2. Individualism: Emphasis on individual achievement and rewards means relationships and efforts to preserve group harmony are not a focus.
  3. Materialism: Narrow focus on financial outcomes and technological solutions means that holistic perspectives inclusive of the environment, culture and spirituality are often secondary.
  4. Short-Term Orientation: Focus on immediate results means that long-term perspectives and multi- generational thinking are often missing.

Management Theories from Non-Western Cultures: Why?

  • Management is not the same everywhere.
  • Most people do not live in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) countries.
  • Most of this course is about managing from an Anglo- American perspective based on theories developed across the twentieth century.
  • Its important to understand where these theories come from and have a sense of their strengths and limitations.
  • It’s easier to understand your own assumptions by looking from another point of view.
  • We need different ways of thinking to manage the challenges ahead.

Climate Change as a Management Problem

  • Two-thirds of historical human-related greenhouse emissions were produced by just 90 companies (Heede, 2014).

What have we tried so far?

  • Carbon Capture.
  • Carbon Credit: Permits that allow the owner to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.
  • Net zero target design - mostly inadequate to date.
  • Universal, individual, market-based, technological and short-term solutions: Transport, Offsets, Recycling, Waste, Electricity, Gas, Fuel.

Aboriginal Worldviews

  • There are many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations in Australia with perspectives relevant to their own places and experiences.
  • Dr Mary Graham is a Kombumerri (Gold Coast Hinterland) & Waka Waka (Burnett region) woman and an Adjunct Associate Professor at UQ
  • Graham (1999) describes some of the common threads in the worldviews of Aboriginal peoples from across Australia.
  • Aboriginal worldviews are relational.
  • People are part of nature. Plants, animals and geography are family/ancestors.
  • Relationships with land are the model for relationships between people (You should care and share with nature and therefore should care and share with people).
  • In contrast, Graham (1999) argues that Anglo/American and European worldviews assume people are separate from nature.
  • Nature can be used and exploited (therefore other people can be used and exploited).

An Alternative Approach to Addressing Climate Change

  • James Reynolds (Gangalidda & Waanyi from the Gulf of Carpentaria).
  • Founder and Managing Director of Mirabou Energy
  • The business is focused on providing renewable energy solutions for businesses and individuals in South-East Queensland, South-West Queensland, Central Queensland and Far North Queensland.
  • The purpose of their business is to help remote communities in the Gulf Savanah Region of Queensland transition from diesel to renewables.
  • This is better for people’s health, finances, for the climate and provides economic opportunities in remote Australia.
  • Mirabou Energy is partnering with Gulf Savannah Development to achieve this local solution.
  • Place-based, relational, holistic and long-term solution.

The Value of Relationships Across Cultures

  • The need to belong is fundamentally human (Baumeister & Leary, 1995).
  • Guanxi refers to the intricate web of personal and professional relationships also plays a pivotal role in Chinese management (Luo, 2007).
  • Kaizen ("continuous improvement”) in Japanese involves a collaborative approach where employees are encouraged to contribute ideas for improving efficiency and quality (Suárez‐Barraza et al, 2011).
  • Ubuntu, known as humanness, is a Southern African philosophy that is rooted in the idea of umntu ngumntu ngabanye, translated to ‘a person is a person through others’ (Mangaliso, 2001).
  • Gamilaraay Lore (‘dhiriya Gamil’) emphasises kinship and family responsibilities and outlines how everyone should relate to other people, places, ancestors and totems (Schulz, 2020).
  • Research form the USA shows that, “leaders who prioritize relationships with their employees and lead from a place of positivity and kindness simply do better… [and] their employees perform better too” (Seppälä & McNichols, 2022 p. 2).