APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF MANAGEMENT

A brief discussion about different approaches of management is given below.

Empirical approach

The empirical school of management bases its methods on a close study of past managerial experiences and management cases. As such, it is also known as case approach or management experience approach.

            According to this approach, management is considered a study of manager in practice. The intention of studying experience is to draw generalizations and to develop means to teaching experiences to other practitioners and students. Attempts are made to duplicate successful experiences while avoiding unsuccessful ones.

              This approach offers the most conventional way of acquiring skills in management, that is, learning through the experience of others. This approach also helps in classroom, situations for developing diagnostic and analytical skills in management students. Following limitations of this approach are quite obvious.

 -          This empirical approach, basing its generalizations on cases and past experiences has not contributed anything fundamental to the development of management as discipline because of obvious contradictions in various management experiences.

Human behavior approach

The human behavior approach is the outcome of the thoughts developed by behavioral scientists who look at the organization as collectivity of people. Since management involves getting things done with and through people, the study on management must revolve round human behavior. This approach can be divided into groups interpersonal behavior approach and group behavior approach. This approach suggestion how the knowledge of human behavior can be used in making people more effective in the organization.

However, this approach is not free from limitations. It is true that manage can be better placed by understanding human behavior but equating management with human behavior is untenable. There is something more than mere human relations management. Human behavior approach provides only the diagnosis for human problems but problems have to be solved by taking many more factors which are not explained by this approach.

Social system approach

Closely resembling the human behavior approach and often confused intermixed with it is the social system approach. The real pioneer of social system approach is Vilfred Pareto, a sociologist. His ideas were later developed by Chest Bernard who has really developed the concept of social systems approach management. According  to this approach, the organization is essentially a culture system composed of people who work in cooperation. As such, for achieves organization goals, a co-operative system of management can be developed only understanding the behavior of people in groups.

                  The social system approach has real significance to the practicing managers in the sense that all managers operate n a social system and the organization is likely to succeed if the demands of the society in which it operates as fully recognized. The approach, however, spreads the boundary and application of management beyond the true concept of organizations.

Social Technical systems approach

This approach believes that to solve organizational problems, it is not enough to look at the cooperative social systems alone but technical systems (methods and machines) and how it affects and is affected by social systems and a technical system. The real pattern of behavior in the organization is determined by the interaction of the two.

The major contribution of this approach is that while analyzing management problem of getting things done by people, adequate consideration should be given to technology as well as informal interactions of people. Thus any change in technology must be viewed in subsequent change in social interactions at the workplace. However, this approach is more suitable for managing the problems at the shop floor leave rather thandandling the total management problems.

Decision Theory Approach

The major emphasis of this approach is that decision making is the job of every manager. The manager is a decision maker and organization is a decision-making unit. Therefore, the basic problem in managing is to make rational decision. 

              The approach contributes to the sharpening of managerial tools specially for making suitable decisions in the organization. The approach demonstrates how managers can discharge their functions effectively. Decision-making is vital in every school of management. The vital aspect cannot be denied but management is more than mere decision making.

Management science approach

Management science approach also known as mathematical or quantitative measurement approach, visualizes management as a logical entity, the action of which can be expressed in terms of mathematical symbol relationships and measurement data.

Management science approach is a fast developing one in analyzing and understanding management. This has contributed significantly in developing orderly thinking in management which has provided exactness in management discipline. Various mathematical tools like sampling, linear programming, games theory, time series analysis, emulation, waiting line theory etc, have provided more exactness in solving managerial problems. However, it is very difficult to call it a separate school of management because it does not provide the answer for the total managerial problems, Moreover, many managerial activities are not really capable of being quantified because of involvement of human being who are governed by many irrational factors also.

Systems Approach

                This approach is of comparatively recent origin, starting late 1950, it ha assumed considerable importance in analyzing the phenomena of management. It is an integrating approach which considers management in its totality based on empirical data. The basic idea of systems approach is that any object must rely on a method of analysis involving simultaneous variations of mutually dependent variables. The implication of systems approach are given below.

                 System approach of management provides and integrated approach of managing. This considers management in its totality.

                 System approach of management provides an integrated approach of managing. This considers management in its totality.

                 System approach possesses the conceptual level of managerial analysis much higher than any other approach. It provides a framework through which organization – environment interaction can be analyzed and facilitates decision-making, since the system within which managers make decisions can be provided as a more explicit framework decision-making is easier to handle.

                 It is often suggested that system approach is too abstract to be of much use to practicing managers. It merely indicate that various parts of the organization are interrelated.

                 System approach of management lacks universality and its precepts cannot be applied to all organizations.

Contingency or situational approach

                    The basic idea of contingency approach is that there cannot be a particular management action which will be suitable for all situations. Rather, and appropriate action is one which is designed on the basis of external environment and internal states and needs. Contingency approach tries to fill this gap by suggesting what should be done in response to an event in the environment.

                    Contingency approach, on the other hand suggests an active interrelationship between the variables in a situation and the managerial actions devised. The implications of the contingency approach are given below.

                     It is the sophisticated approach to understand the increasing complexity of organizations. It emphasizes the multivariate nature of organizations and attempts tounderstand how organizations operate under varying conditions. The approach is directed towards suggesting organizational designs and managerial actins most appropriate to specific situations.

                      Inspite of the various contributions, contingency approach has not been acknowledged as a unified theory of management because it suffers from some limitations.

1.                  Inadequate Literature

Contingency approach suffers from inadequacy of literature.

2.                  Complex :

            Determination of situation in which managerial action is to be taken involves          analysis of a large number of variables with multifarious dimensions.

3.                  Reactive not Proactive:

Contingency approach is basically reactive in nature. It merely suggests what managers can do in given situation.

Operational approach

               This approach attempts to draw together the pertinent knowledge of management by relating it to the functions of managers, commonly known as management process. As such this approach is also known as management process approach. This approach views the management as a social process comprising a series of actions leading to the accomplishment of certain objectives. The significance of operations approach is given below.

1.                  Operational approach offers a broad, easy to understand conceptual framework of management. The approach includes the entire scope of management and recognizes it as a separate discipline.

2.                  This approach suggests that management is a universal phenomenon irrespective of the type of organizations or levels of an organization.

3.                  Operational approach provides useful concepts for practicing managers. It helps the managers to put their knowledge to use. It offers practical suggestions by providing classification of managerial functions at first level into planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. However the operational approach has been criticized on the following grounds.

1.                  The basic tenets of operational management that is , various management functions, are not universally accepted.

2.                  Another criticism against operational approach is that various terms used in this approach are not commonly shared.

3.                  The analysis of various approaches suggests that no approach is fully free from shortcomings. However, a positive sign is emerging in the form of convergence of various approaches. The convergence is provided by operational approach as compared to any other approach.