Foundations of Organisational Behaviour - Sources of Inspiration of organisation and organisational behaviour theories

15 important questions on Foundations of Organisational Behaviour - Sources of Inspiration of organisation and organisational behaviour theories

Why do we need to know the historial evolution of OB?

Because in order to arrive at a better understanding of where the field of OB is right now, and where it's aiming, we should see where it has been.

Which are the sociologs which studied the implications of the shift from an agricultural-based economy to an industrial one and from feudalism to capitalism?

Marx, Weber, Durkheim.

What did Durkheim study?

The loss of solidarity in the new kind of society.
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What did Weber study in premiere?

He was the first sociologist to actually study the way organisations work and the behaviour of the people within these organisations.  He is especially known for his work on beaurocratic organisations.  Last but not least, he also studied the rise of rationality in the new society and the importance of legal authority and efficiency in industrial production.

When was the notion of scientifical management born?

At the end of the 19th, beginning of the 20th century; this point marks the founding of the first large corporations such as Ford, General Motors, Esso.

What is scientifical management?

Scientifical management is a scientific apporach to management in which all tasks in organisations are in-depth analysed, routinised, divided and standardized.

Who are the representatives of the rational-system view of the organisations?

Frederick Taylor, Fayol, Barnard and Simon.

Who was the founding father of scientifical management?

Frederick Fayol, the American researcher. He was born in Philadelphia, which provided the ideal location for the development of scientifical management, since at that time is was a an important industrial region.

How did Taylor make the work of labour men more efficient?

He increased the speed of working by organising the work differently.  He devided the taks into as many substasks as possible, to then eliminate the ones that were not necessary and timing the fastest performance for each task.

What did he do after eliminating subtasks and timing the fastest performance?

He proceded to decribing each task with its subtasks and an optimal time was attached to each task. Accordingly, workers were asked to do the tasks in that manner and time.

In Taylor's view, what was the motivation for which the workers did not perform to their potential?

He put the slow work on the reasoning that there was no management to control the workforce, therefore they were simply left to develop their own working methods, this encouraging the rules-of-thumb.

What did applying Taylor's theories resulted in?

-higher output, increased productivity -standardisation -control and predictability -the routinization of tasks allowed to replace the skilled with unskilled workers -thinking is for managers, workers only for work -optimisation of the tools for each worker (such as size and weight of the tools, remember example of the coal and shovels)

Which is one of the most successful examples of a factory that successfully applied Taylor's principles?

The Ford Motor Company. They doubled the wages (part of Taylor's principles) simultaneously with the implementation of assembly lines and scientific management.

How did they reach the low cost of the cars (making them available to the masses)

Higly efficient production based on interchangeable parts (same parts for all cars), continuous flow (assembly line), division of labour (each worker is specialised in one very particular task) and eliminating unnecessary efforts (applying motion studies).

Do car manufacturers still make use of the scientifical management approach suggested by Taylor?

Yes. Remember example of Opel.

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