UGC NET Study Notes on Schools of Management Thought Part 2 || Commerce || Management

1. Human Behaviour School

• This school believes that, since management involves getting things done through others, study on management should concentrate on interpersonal relationships.
• This school focuses on the human aspects of management since people are working together, an understanding of their relationships is necessary.
• Apart from economic needs, employees have other social and psychological needs such as appreciation, recognition etc.
• Better productivity and higher motivation can be achieved only through good human relations.
• The school also gave major importance to group dynamics.
• Main contributors of this school are, Elton Mayo, Mary Parker Follett, Roethlisberger, Keith Davis etc.

1. Social System School

• Chester Bernard is the founding father of this school.
• Social System School has close connection to Human Behaviour School.
• This school is primarily concerned with the behaviour of people in group. Therefore management is a system of cultural interrelationships.
• This approach is based mostly on sociology as well as social psychology rather than individual psychology.
• It recognises bothy formal and informal organisations and also the interdependency of relations, social interaction and joint goals set by the system.
• Other main contributors are Max Weber, Moreno, Rensis Likert etc.

1. Quantitative School

• This school gained its importance post World War II, when the British formed Operations Research team groups of mathematicians, physicists and other scientists who were brought together to solve problems.
• This approach is also called “Management Science Approach”, ‘Operations Research” and “Mathematical Approach”.
• Here management is considered as a logical process, which can be explained using mathematical formulas, symbols and relationships.
• This school uses basic mathematical models such as PERT, CPM, simulation, gaming theory etc. to solve problems.
• Main contributors of this school are Harold Koontz, Charles Hitch, Russell Ackoff, Herbert Simon, James March etc.

1. Decision Theory School

• This school regards management as simply a process of decision making.
• Decision making is the most important function of management.
• The management information system, the process and structure of decision making form the subject matter of this school of thought.
• It doesn’t focus on people nor the environmental variables. It only focus on taking the right decisions at the right time. The decisions should be communicated to the right people and implemented in the right manner.
• Main contributors are Chester Bernard, Herbert Simon, James March, Richard Cyert.etc.

1. Systems School

• Systems School was developed in the late 1960s.
• This school views management as a purposeful, unified system composed of interrelated parts.
• The world is considered as a system in which various national economies are sub systems. Each national economies are composed of various industries and each industries are composed of various firms. Each firm is composed of components such as Marketing, Production, Finance etc.
• Systems approach follows law of synergy which means whole is greater than sum of its parts. Part of a system becomes more productive when they interact with each other.
• The major contributors are Kenneth Boulding, Rosenzweig, C W Churchman etc.

1. Contingency Theory School

• This school was developed by J W Lorsch and P R Lawrence in 1970.
• The contingency school emphasises management is highly practical oriented and action packed discipline. It regards management as an art, rather than as a science.
• Depending on different environments or contingencies, different techniques are to be adopted by the management.
• Contingency approach is based on ‘If’ and ‘Then’. “If’ represents environmental variables which are interdependent while ‘Then’ represents management variables which are dependent on the environment.
• Contingency approach provides a realistic view of management that nothing is fixed and the manager should adapt himself according to the prevailing circumstances.

Conclusion

Considering all the above aspects, it is evident that none of the approaches or thoughts take represents management in its totality. All the above concepts of the management are from the viewpoint of the author or the contributors. As a result, there is no uniform theory of management, and it evolves as time passes.

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