- Contribution of Peter F. Drucker: he is a contemporary writer on management practice. He viewed management as the dynamic, life-giving element in an organisation which converts resources into results.
The main contributions of Drucker can be presented as follows:
Nature of management: Drucker is against bureaucratic management and has emphasised management with creative and innovative characteristics. He considers management more as a discipline and profession. He puts more emphasis that managers should not only have skills and techniques but should have right perspective putting the things into practice.
Management functions: According to Drucker, a manager has to perform several functions. Setting of objectives, decision making, organizing and motivating. But he attaches great importance to the objective-setting function.
Organisation structure: Drucker advocates the replacement of bureaucratic structure because of its dysfunctional effects. The organizational structure should be dynamic in nature. Thus, should have the following features:
- Enterprise should be organised for performance.
- It should contain the least possible number of managerial levels.
- It must make possible the training and testing of tomorrow’s top managers.
Organizational change: He has visualized rapid changes in the society because of rapid technological development. He feels that organizations must be able to absorb such changes. The managers should be prepared to accept the challenges of environment.
MBO: The concept of management by objectives (MBO) is regarded to be an outstanding contribution by Drucker. MBO includes method of planning, setting standards, performance appraisal, and motivation. He emphasizes that objectives are needed in every area where performance and prosperity of the business.
Federalism: it refers to centralized control in decentralized structure. He emphasis the close link between the decisions of top management and the autonomous units on the other. It means the local management should also participate in the decisions that set the units of their own authority.
2. Contribution of Max Weber: His theory of bureaucracy recognises rational-legal authority as the most important type in organisations. A bureaucratic organisation is characterised by division of work, hierarchy of authority, rules and regulations, impersonal relationship, technical competence and official records. He describes an ideal organisation as the one that would be perfectly rational and would provide maximum efficiency of operation. He viewed bureaucracy as an ideal type because it had certain advantages over other organisational forms. These advantages include efficiency, speed, rational decision making, strict discipline, reduction of material and personnel costs.
3. Marry Parker Follet: She interpreted classical management principles in terms of human factor. Follet favoured participation of the workers in the decision-making process by establishing clear cut channels of communication. She argued that authority and order in an organisation should be de-personalised. She resolved that integration not domination should be followed for removing conflicts among parties. Managers should not be autocratic. They should understand the importance of group activity and integrate the efforts of all to serve a common purpose. Her main concern was the efficient use of people. Follet pointed out that coordination was the crux of the managerial problems. She laid down the following principles to achieve effective coordination:
- Co-ordination in the early stages of planning and policy making
- Co-ordination by direct contact of responsible persons.
- Co-ordination is a continuing process.
4. Rensis Likert: He was of the opinion that the traditional job-oriented supervision was the cause of low productivity and low morale. He emphasised participative management in the field of decision making. He divided management styles into different categories:
- Exploitative autocratic: There is no participation of subordinations in decision making since the leaders have no confidence in them.
- Benevolent autocratic: There is no proper confidence in subordinates and the relationship is that a master and servant.
- Participative: The subordinates are allowed to participate in decisions involving their lives. But they still not have full confidence of their leaders.
- Democratic: participation is meaningful as the leader has complete confidence and trust in subordinates.