Course II - Management

Henry Fayols work was the first attempt to create a complete theory of management. His
aim was to make a general theoretical analysis to be used by industrial organizations.
According to Fayol, all the activities of an enterprise can be divided into the following
groups:
1. technical activities (production, processing, assembling)
2. commercial activities (buying, selling, exchanges)
3. financial activities (capital development and optimum usage)
4. protection activities (of properties and persons)
5. accounting activities (management, balance, costs, statistical reporting)
6. managerial activities (planning, organizing, control, leadership).
a.3. the bureaucratic approach
Sociologist Max Weber (1924) proposes the bureaucratic approach of
management, looking upon bureaucracy as the pure form of organizing. The target of
the bureaucratic management is the equilibrium between quantity and quality through the
guaranty of the persons independance, the obtaining of a rational model that ensures the
success of a collective action, respectively. The main characteristics of the bureaucratic
approach are as follows:
-

The defining of competences through the establishing of a number of rules and

regulations;
The establishing of the coordination of activities within the vertical hierarchy by
ensuring the objective assessment of current problems, of the workers according to
their performances and not according to subjective or emotional aspects, respectively;

The well defined separation of the administrative activities, each employee being
involved in activities that comply with his or her training and accumulated
experience;

The training of the administrative personnel on the basis of laws and regulations that
imply a certain type of behaviour;

The use of the subordinates work force to the maximum;

The settling of the clerks activity according to regulations.

b. the behavioral approach

Some authors have developed that side of management that is mainly oriented
towards the behavioral approach. Their attention has been focused to experimentally
demonstrate the strong influence of the social environment over the employee with
immediate consequences over work productivity.
1

Between 1924-1927, Elton Mayo has made an experiment at Howthorne Plant,

Illinois, which produces telephones (near Chicago), through which there was followed up
the effect of the variation of light intensity over work productivity, electric lighting being
low spread in that period. The experimental sample of employees to whom light was
intensified was isolated from the witness group of employees that continued to work
under unchanged conditions. Productivity grew both within the experimental group and
the witness group. The experiment continued with the decrease of light intensity,
productivity proving to be the same within the experimental group and the witness group.
The decrease of light intensity went up to the moonlight level, and work productivity
proved to be the same within the experimental and the witness groups. The final
explanation has underlined the occurence of ambition within the witness group to
increase its productivity at the level of the experimental group. The conclusion was that
the variation of light intensity has very little influenced productivity, while interhuman
relations, communication, interpersonal influences, social cnditions, employees
satisfaction considerably influences productivity. The consequences of this experiment,
called Howthorne effect form the basis of the approach of managerial thinking through
interhuman relations.
Douglas Mc. Gregor, in his work The Human Side of Entreprise (1960), highlights
the management convictions concerning the employees behaviour through the two
theories X theory and Y theory. Table 1.2.

X theory

Y theory

People do not like to work, and thus

People work with pleasure, have
managers have the duty of organizing
initiative, managers supervising them as
and of the initiatives for what the
a whole, not in detail.
employees have to do.
People are not passive or do not put
To reach the organization objectives,
up resistance to the needs of the
managers are responsible with directing
organization due to their results and
the efforts of the employees, everything
experience,
having
an
internal
being based on the regard towards the
motivation.
employees.
People have initiative and accept that
The employees are passive and
they will be rewarded only after
generally put up resistance to the needs
reaching the objectives.
of the organization without an active
The essential task of the managers is
intervention from the part of the
only to offer the organizing and the
management. Thus, they have to be
operating procedures conditions so that
convinced, rewarded, punished,
the employees may best reach their
supervised, and directed.
objectives.
X theory supposes a highly supervised environment, where managers take all the
decisions, and employees are only performers.
Y theory supposes a general motivation of the employees that is consistent with the
idea of the mechanism of human relations.

A strong influence over the managerial theories concerning the behavioral approach
by way of employees motivation have had the three American psychologists: Abraham
Maslow, Frederick Herzberg and David McClelland.
Motivation can be defined as a number of reasons for the wish of achievement, of
perfection. There are no productive interhuman relations without a strong motivation. A
concise classification of the motivations that can influence the initiation of a business is
presented in table 2.2.

Table 2.2
The category of motivation
Professional

Psychological

Material

Moral

The set of reasons

The perspective of some attractive activities
The perspective of developing some independent
researches and of obtaining some own
discoveries
The perspective of perfecting or developing some
own methods or techniques in the management of
the activities from the respective field
The perspective of obtaining a social status and
respect
The perspective of obtaining fame
The perspective of extending relations
The status of being your own master
The possibility of satisfying the feeling of pride
The possibility of obtaining some big gains
The possibility of obtaining a high living
standard as far as the family is concerned
The safety of the job
The perspective of demonstrating the skills in a
specific field of activity
The perspective of taking part in the progress of
the society

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) establishes the concept of the hierarchy of needs.

People have a variety of needs which they want to fulfil. These needs can be arranged
according to their importance in Maslows hierarchy of needs. Starting from the base of
the pyramid, people have the following needs:
1.
physiological existentialist needs (food and water, clothes, shelter, sleep)
they can be satisfied through adequate wages

2.
3.

4.

5.

the need for safety and security (physical and emotional safety)
can be satisfied through jobs, health ensurance, pensions
social needs, (love, affection, the need to receive and offer respect, the feeling
of belonging to an organization and to a segment of society)
can be satisfied through the work environment, unofficial organizations,
social relations, family, friends
the need of esteem or prestige (the gratitude of those around us, our own
achievement self-esteem respect yourself to be respected)
can be satisfied through his or her own physical and intellectual skills,
through promotion in superior work places with higher responsibility,
through honours, prizes
the need of self-accomplishment (professional accomplishment)
can be satisfied through growing, maturing, professional development,
social development.

The satisfying of this need has various forms and nuances which differ from one
person to another.
Maslow considers that people satisfy at the beginning their physiological needs,
which are followed by the safety, social, and the top needs, respectively. They are
motivated by the needs at the base of the pyramid, as long as these needs remain to a
certain extent not satisfied. The needs of a certain level will not be completely
satisfied before those of the immediately superior level are taken into account.
Frederick Herzberg (1959) has made a distinction between the satisfiers factors:
- the work proper
- achievements
- responsibility
- acknowledgement
- promotion
- professional career
and the hygiene factors, respectively, that act only to prevent the workers lack of
satisfaction:
- the wages
- work conditions
- relations with the superiors.
Smaller wages make a person feel uncomfortable, but higher wages do not
automatically make the same person feel better.
David McClelland (1969) points out 3 different categories of motivation:
- the orientation towards success
- the orientation towards affiliation
- the orientation towards power

McClelland considers that each man holds them in different proportion, and in
various situations one of them becomes more conspicuous than the other two. By
identifying the features of each employee, there can be established the recognition
that can be granted, the job or position where he or she can best act or interact.

c. the quantitative approach

The programming of the activities of the industrial organizations in a flexible manner,
according to economic and logical time criteria, as well as the supervising of the
operations performance has required the development of the methods, techniques, and
procedures to optimize and render efficient production and operations, respectively, thus
there being developed a new branch of the scientific management called the quantitative
approach.
The characteristics of the software methods, techniques and instruments as
managerial support are as follows:
- the results of their putting into operation shall be useful in the process of decisions
taking;
- the theoretical and mathematical base shall be rigorously fundamented so that by
approaching two different techniques for the processing of the same data the
results obtained be identical;
- for the time being, the quantitative approach depends on the presence of
electronic computers.
Although the management process supposes a remarkable accumulation of
organizing and leadership knowledge, the business practice has demonstrated that a good
management is first of all an art. Thus, the management skills are more developed with
certain persons than others.
The managerial theories from the post-war period
Peter F. Druker considers that Management is a practice and not a science. It does not
mean knowledge, but performance. Drukers conclusion is that the needs of great
organizations shall be satisfied by common people capable of uncommon performances.
Practical management feeds from sciences such as: economy, psychology, mathematics,
political sciences, history, philosophy. [Dru-87].
For the uncommon performances obtaining, Druker proposes a Management based on
objectives (MpO), that directs the managers to identify and assess the alternatives
available, wherefrom there implicitly results the assessment of the managerial
performances.
In his work, Druker proposes eight zones from the sphere of the economic activities for
which there have to be established performance objectives:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

the situation of the market

innovation
productivity
the physical and financial resources
profitability
performance and the managerial development
performance and the attitude of the performer
public responsibility

As far as the interhuman relations are concerned, a good manager shall have the
ability to reach the objectives of the organization by making others to carry out the
required activities. Thus, to suggestively outline the quality of being a good manager,
there can be defined 5 features that he or she has to acquire:
Training:
- in the field of organizing and leadership;
- professional in the field of the organization activity
- economic
- juridical
- general training

Experience:

in the field of organizing and leadership

In the specific field of activity of the given organization

Psychology:

the proper perception of the psychological phenomena

experienced by the employees of the given firm
flexibility of thinking
upright character
strong will

Behaviour:

open
great communication abilities

Health:

very good