Technology's Impact on Management Styles
University of Phoenix
MGT 330
July 2005
Technology's Impact on Management Styles
"The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager" (Drucker 2005). For a company to be successful, they must have effective managers. Management must continually build upon their failures in order to find a method that works well for them and the organization. Throughout history, business leaders and academia have discovered new ways to improve on the different styles of management. There are various management styles beginning in the classical era and continuing on to the contemporary era. The classical approaches to management included styles such as Systematic Management and Human Relations, all which were practiced prior to WWII. The contemporary approaches, which began after WWII, include Organizational Behavior and the Contingency Perspective. Technology has influenced the methods in which organizations manage. As technology progresses, we continue to see approaches designed to accommodate these advances.
An engineer named Fredrick Winslow Taylor developed scientific management. (School text) Taylor introduced the idea of using scientific method to find problems with efficiency in a company or process. By using the scientific method in making management decisions Taylor believed he could make managers and workers more efficient and happier in their jobs. Taylor wanted to "pay workers according to their productivity while at the same time improving working conditions" (European business forum). Taylor theorized that making the worker's environment more pleasing would in turn make them more efficient, and productive.
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