Construction Management and Organisational Behaviour (eBook)

Maureen Rhoden (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2017
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-1-118-67457-4 (ISBN)

Infos

This book offers a comprehensive and up-to-date account of management ideas and practices, focusing on the human relations side of construction management. Easily accessible and suitable for use within the classroom or in distance learning situations, it discusses a range of themes and trends covering evidence based management practices in the construction industry. A variety of learning elements will be included, such as case studies, projects, and review questions, fully supported by interactive web based material including multiple choice questions, exercises, annotated links to other relevant web sites and an online glossary to explain key terms. Each chapter will also contain annotated further reading, chapter summaries and outline summaries of relevant legislation within the construction industry.

About the Author

Maureen Rhoden is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Built Environment at the University of Greenwich, London. She specialises in the study and teaching of soft skills in construction management in addition to supervising dissertations of undergraduate and postgraduate students researching in soft skills and construction management related Issues.

Brian Cato is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Built Environment at the University of Greenwich, London. He is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor and Project Manager with 30 years? experience in the construction industry, 25 of them in private practice and latterly 5 years in education.

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This book offers a comprehensive and up-to-date account of management ideas and practices, focusing on the human relations side of construction management. Easily accessible and suitable for use within the classroom or in distance learning situations, it discusses a range of themes and trends covering evidence based management practices in the construction industry. Each chapter contains annotated further reading, chapter summaries and outline summaries of relevant legislation within the construction industry.

Textauszug

2
History of Management

Introduction

After the Industrial Revolution in Europe and the USA there grew a need for managers of the new organisations to find better ways to meet customer needs. This was a period of constant change with small workshops that had been run by skilled workers being replaced by large factories with large numbers of unskilled or semiskilled workers. The owners and managers of the new factories were unprepared for the management of their employees and the new way of working as many had come from a technical background. They therefore began to look for more effective means of managing their organisations’ resources together with the need to improve the efficiency of their employee–task mix.

The different types of management theories that exist include (Easterby‐Smith et al., 2015):

• normative – attempts to identify what or how managers should conduct their work such as classical (dominant in the1910s–1950s), human relations (dominant in the 1940s–1970s), competencies (dominant in the 1980s) and process theories (dominant in the 2000s)
• descriptive – attempts to explain what managers really do in practice such as work activity theory (dominant in the 1970s)
• analytical – where a particular theoretical stand is taken which focuses on some aspects of the work while ignoring others such as decision theory (dominant in the 1950s–1970s) and process theory (dominant in the 2000s)

This chapter will consider the varied management theories that exist and their impact on organisations.

Scientific management

Frederick Taylor defined the techniques of scientific management as (George and Jones, 2012, p. 58):

….the systematic study of relationships between people and tasks for the purpose of redesigning the work process to increase efficiency.

It was considered that the amount of time and effort that employees used to complete a finished good or service could be reduced through the use of specialisation and division of labour which would result in a more effective production process.

Taylor identified four key principles to increase efficiency in the production process:

1. Study the way employees perform their tasks, gather all the informal job knowledge that employees possess and experiment with ways of improving how tasks are performed.
2. Codify the new methods of performing tasks into written rules and standard operating procedures.
3. Carefully select employees so that they possess skills and abilities that match the needs of the task and train them to perform the task according to the established rules and procedures.
4. Establish a fair or acceptable level of performance for a task and then develop a pay system that provides a reward for performance above the acceptable level.

By using the scientific management approach employers were able to make significant savings while increasing levels of output. An example of this is provided by Wren (2009) based on the Ford Motor Company where the scientific management system was introduced and resulted in the output of cars increasing from 100 cars per month to 45 cars per day. However, while this new system of management became popular many employers preferred to be selective in how they interpreted scientific management in practice. For example, some employees found that as their output increased as a result of the improved ways of working they were expected to do more for the same level of pay. In addition, many employees found the division of labour into specialised areas of work resulted in monotonous and repetitive work. Employees soon discovered that any improvement in their levels of work could result in the need for less staff and so the threat of becoming unemployed increased (Fryer, 2004).

Classical theory

Henry Fayol, who had previously been employed as a managing director of a large mining company in France, was keen to establish how organisational effectiveness could be achieved (Fayol, 1949). Using his past experiences Fayol found that management was different from day to day organisational tasks and provided a list of five basic functions that an effective manager should follow:

• Plan and forecast – design strategies to enable the organisation to meet its future objectives
• Organise – to address Fayol’s 14 principles of management (see Table 2.1)
• Coordinate – resources, activities and productions are coordinated to achieve desired outcomes
• Command – to provide guidance to employees
• Control – ensure that actions are not in conflict with the organisation’s plan, that instructions are followed and that the 14 principles of management are adhered to

Fayol used these five functions to identify 14 principles of management effectiveness which still heavily influence the way in which many organisations manage today (see Table 2.1).

Table 2.1 Fayol’s principles of management.

Source: Adapted from Fayol (1949).

Basis of many organisational structures

Basis of management functions

Division of work Authority and responsibility Unity of command Unity of direction Centralisation Scalar chain Order

Discipline Subordination of individual interest to general interest Remuneration of personnel Equity Stability Initiative Esprit de corps

These principles have been criticised as some are not seen to fit with modern approaches to management. The unity of command where a member of staff is managed by one manager for example does not allow for the many matrix or project based organisations that now exist. In addition, the principles do not fit with modern developments in management such as flatter hierarchies, team working, professional organisations and flexible working.

Urwick (in the 1940s) used a combination of scientific management and classical theory to identify a list of general principles for effective management (see Table 2.2).

Table 2.2 Urwick’s principles of management.

The principles

Explanations

Objective

The organisation’s purpose

Specialisation

A team or activity

Coordination

Ensure everyone is working to achieve the same objectives

Authority

A clear line of authority

Responsibility

Managers are held accountable for the activities of their staff

Definition

Jobs, and working relationships should be well‐defined

Correspondence

All staff at all levels within the organisation should network with each other

Span of control

A manager should supervise no more than five to six members of staff

Balance

Various units within an organisation should be kept in balance

Continuity

Systems should be in place to support continuous reorganisation

Human relations theory

The classical view of management was criticised by human relations theorists who proposed that the actual behaviour of managers was different to what they were thought to be doing. It was felt that the human element of the organisation was missing from the scientific management approach. While Taylor had not considered the importance of staff involvement in the organisation of the daily tasks, Mary Parker Follett (1918) on the other hand believed that it was important that staff were involved in job analysis and the work development process as they knew their own jobs best.

Follett focused on the importance of the managers’ relations with their staff and considered that a more all‐inclusive approach should be used in management. She was a management consultant who viewed management as an art not a science and is quoted as saying that ‘management is the art of getting things done through other people’ (Follett, 1918). She therefore considered that the easiest way for managers to achieve this would be to encourage cooperation from their staff and to involve employees in the decision making process. It was believed that managers should be coaches and facilitators to their staff and not monitors and supervisors.

Reflection

Within the construction sector do you think that managers are mainly viewed as coaches and facilitators or monitors and supervisors? Give your reasons why with examples.

The importance of self‐managed teams and the empowering of employees was considered by Follett and she concluded that managers in different departments should communicate freely with each other in order to improve the decision making process. She referred to ‘cross‐functioning’ members of departments working in cross‐departmental teams to complete projects. Follett proposed that knowledge and expertise should be the drivers for determining the best leaders in the organisation and those leaders should not be based...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 2.5.2017
• Co-Autor: Brian Cato
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Technik ► Bauwesen
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Planung / Organisation
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Unternehmensführung / Management
• Schlagworte: Baubetrieb • Bauingenieur- u. Bauwesen • Civil Engineering & Construction • Conflict and Negotiation • construction innovation • Construction Management • Construction Project Management • Construction Teams • Contingency management • Entrepreneurship • Evidence based management practices • Features of good groups • Functions of communication • Functions of Management • History of management • Human Relations • Human Resource Management • Leadership • Leadership Style • <p>Communication skills • Management ideas • management practices • Managing change in construction • Motivation • nature of management • Organisational Culture • Organisational Development • Organisational Strategy • Problem Solving • Quality management • Roles within teams • Soft Skills • Soft skills in construction • Systems management • theory of motivation • Time Management • Types of communication</p>
• ISBN-10: 1-118-67457-X / 111867457X
• ISBN-13: 978-1-118-67457-4 / 9781118674574