Reference no: EM133512804

Assignment: Practice Being a Manager- Observing History Today

Overview:

The topic of management history may sound like old news, but many of the issues and problems addressed by Max Weber, Chester Barnard and other management theorists still challenge managers today. How can we structure an organization for maximum efficiency and just treatment of individuals? What are the basis for and the limits of authority in organizations? It is rather amazing that these thinkers of the late 19th and early20th centuries generated such a wealth of theory that still influences our approaches to management and leadership challenges in the 21stcentury. This assignment will give you the opportunity to draw upon some ideas that trace their roots back to the pioneers of management thinking.

Prompt:

To complete this assignment, follow these steps.

Step I: Find an observation point. Identify a place near Fort Worth, Texas where you can unobtrusively observe a group of people for 20 minutes as they go about theirwork. You might select a coffee shop, bookstore, or restaurant, for example. You may not select your own workplace or the establishment of afamily or close friend because it would be difficult to be unbiased in your observation. It is agood idea to go during a busy time, so long as it isnot so crowded that you will be unable to easily observe the workers. You should take something along with you to jot down a few notes.

Step II: Observe the employees at work. Observe the process of work and the interaction among the employees. Consider some of the issuesbelow as you are observing and taking notes. Note that the purpose of taking these notes are to help you organize your own thoughts about what you observe and to help you prepare to write your report; you will not need to submit your notes or responses to the following questions.

1. Identify the steps that employees follow in completing a work cycle (e.g., from taking an order to delivering a product). Can you seeimprovements that might be made, particularly steps that might be eliminated or streamlined?

2. Observe the interaction and mood of the workers. Are they stressed? Or are they more relaxed? Does it seem to you that these workerslike working with each other?

3. Listen for signs of conflict. If you see signs of conflict, is the conflict resolved? If so, how did the workers resolve their conflict? If not, doyou think that these workers suppress (bottle up) conflict?

Can you tell who is in charge here? If so, how do the other workers respond to this person's directions? If not, how does the work groupsort out who should be doing each task, and in what order?

Step III: After your observation session, consider what you saw and look through the chapter on management history for connections to yourobservations. For example, do you see any signs of the "Hawthorne Effect"? Would Frederick Taylor approve of the work process you observed, or might he have suggested improvements? What might Chester Barnard's theory have to say about how the workers you observed responded to instructions from their "boss"?

Step IV: Write an observation report. Specifically, your assignment submission should address the following critical elements:

1. Identify the business you observed and the date and time of your observation

2. Describe specific details of at least three practices you observed that reflect the thinking of management pioneers such as Mary Parker

Follett and others discussed in Chapter 2 (History of Management)

OR

If the employee work practices you observed did not align with any of the theories discussed in this module, then suggest at least threetheories that, if applied to the specific practices you observed, would improve business.