Question

For this discussion, I'd like you to think about either your current or a recent work situation, and then see if you can identify some of the schools of thought that may have influenced how your organization operates. Try to assess:

Does management aim for efficient operation through specialization and top-down instructions? (similar to Fayol or others in the scientific management school?) Or does management seek to emphasize common mission and employee satisfaction? (similar to Barnard or others in the human relations school of thought?) What about the use of teams and ad hoc groups used to deal with special situations? If you use teams in your work, can you identify what management theory is encouraging managers to make more use of teams instead of assigning work through a strict functional division?

Answer 1

Our organization is quite small. We are 35 people team and work on creating solutions for big data analytics software for large corporations. Given the size of the team, our organization structure is quite flat and the employees are encouraged to take initiatives and find solutions or bring in clients. As a result, I can say that our organization focuses on building a common mission and employee satisfaction. Other support for this argument would be our company culture. We have open door policy, flat hierarchy along with flexible work hours, opportunity for telecommute and other perks. This is why we can say that the approach is similar to Barnard and relations school of thought.

The use of teams are pretty common. However, building of teams and ad-hoc groups are not necessarily instructed by the seniors. We often form team for a particular project or solution by ourselves and depending on our availability we join different teams. So the team are action and thought oriented. As a result, I feel our management (and also the team members) focus on Blebin’s team role theory.