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Journal Article

The Relevance of Scientific Management and Equity Theory in Everyday Managerial Communication Situations

TL;DR: In this article, the authors take a look at why and how managers should communicate with their employees the value of scientific management and why it is still relevant today, and show managers how they should use communication to address employees' feelings of unfairness.
Abstract: In this article, we take a look at why and how managers should communicate with their employees the value of scientific management and why it is still relevant today. Moreover, we will show managers how they should use communication to address employees’ feelings of unfairness. Finally, we will present a hypothetical case example that will help make clear the main points of how managers should use communication to teach their present-day employees the value of Frederick Winslow Taylor’s principles of scientific management and how to use concepts from Equity Theory to confront employees’ feelings of inequity in a modern business environment. The case will be followed with questions concerning the applicability of these two theories when managers are training subordinates, who are not college graduates, to do their work.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The result shows how the TT influences managerial decision-making processes under an opportunity-based paradigm, however, SME managers face lack of capability to deal with high TT.
Abstract: Purpose – There is an emerging recognition in the strategy field that differences in organization forms represent firms’ capability to gain benefit from investing in technology. This study has intention to add to this stream of research by proposing the technological turbulence (TT) as a primary contingency factor focussing on strategic orientation (SO) as main determinant of firm performance (FP). The purpose of this paper is to provide considerable suggestion on how to match SO with various level of TT. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses quantitative approach with structural equation model to understand the moderating effect of information TT on the relationship between SO and FP. The 390 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia contributes to the research as randomly selected respondents. Findings – The result shows how the TT influences managerial decision-making processes under an opportunity-based paradigm. However, SME managers face lack of capability to deal with high TT. Resear...

57 citations


Cites background from "The Relevance of Scientific Managem..."

  • ...There are two main concepts, which are expected to bring superior performance, namely resources and capability (Bell & Martin, 2012)....

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  • ...The classical management approach concerns to threaten workers as machine (Bell & Martin, 2012)....

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Dissertation
01 Jan 2017
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the relationship between leadership styles and academic and administrative staffs' job satisfaction in public and private universities of Saudi Arabia, and found that transformational leadership did not predict job satisfaction and productive organisational energy to a significant level, while transactional leadership did.
Abstract: Leadership as a research concept has been for many years – and still remains – an area of significance. The topic of leadership has been researched and debated a great deal; however, the leadership style adopted by higher education institutions within a particular context and culture has been considered very little. The primary aim of the Doctorate research study carried out herein is to examine and evaluate the relationship between leadership styles, i.e. transformational and transactional, productive organisational energy and academic and administrative staffs’ job satisfaction in public and private universities of Saudi Arabia. In fact, during the latest few decades, the leadership body of literature has expanded beyond the focus on traits and behaviours and also provided the theoretical basis for understanding the nature of each variable, which is highlighted in the research study. The present study was based completely on the quantitative research method approach. Data for the research were collected from the academics and administrative staff of two higher educational institutions in Saudi Arabia through the use of a survey questionnaire which was sent to more than 1,400 potential respondents. A theoretical framework was also assessed in an empirical study in Saudi Arabia, to examine the impact of leadership style on job satisfaction and the mediating role played by productive organisational energy – as observed in the relationship between leadership style and job satisfaction. The study is significant for practical purposes, as it can benefit organisations in identifying their need for a specific leadership style, in order to boost their employees’ productive energy and satisfaction. The relationship between leadership style, productive organisational energy and job satisfaction was tested theoretically and empirically. The research determined that in the public King Abdulaziz University, transformational leadership predicted neither job satisfaction nor productive organisational energy to a significant level, though transactional leadership did so. Conversely, for the private Dar Alhekma University, transformational leadership did predict job satisfaction and productive organisational energy to a significant level, but transactional leadership did not manage to do so. Finally, a review of some of the limitations of the research study and several areas of future research are provided on the basis of the empirical and theoretical findings.

54 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate three kinds of embarrassments to communication: easily gotten over difficulties, difficult to get over and barriers almost insurmountable, and subjective and objective factors are related to environment in which communication performs (context, situation, setting), the channels of communication, media and noise).
Abstract: The study is circumscribed Management Science. It aims to investigate for the first time embarrassments of managerial communication. After an overview of evolution of the managerial communication is revealed that the problem of embarrassments of managerial communication was not ever studied. Using meta-analytic and observational procedures and methods are highlighted that the main generators of embarrassments are communicators, as basic elements of communication, those who initiate, perform, maintain and/or interrupt communication. There are recorded three kinds of embarrassments to communication: easily gotten over difficulties, difficult gotten over and barriers almost insurmountable. It is observed that intervene of some endogenous factors of the communication process and/or exogenous factors in the communication process. The first category factors are subjective and are manifested in misunderstandings, lack of consensus, differences of opinion, disagreements and conflicts; they are partly due to the asymmetric nature of the communication situation manager vs. subordinate. The second category factors are objective (physical) and are related to environment in which communication performs (context, situation, setting), the channels of communication, media and noise.

36 citations


Cites background from "The Relevance of Scientific Managem..."

  • ...) (Morrison and Milliken, 2000; Bell and Martin, 2012);...

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  • ...…language; lack of attention or skill in directing dialogue to achieve an objective, listening capacity deficit etc.) (Morrison and Milliken, 2000; Bell and Martin, 2012); low listening capacities or incorrect listening (lack of respect beside interlocutor showed through impatience, hurry,…...

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors study the effect of environmental turbulence on firm performance, entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial management, and social capital, and find that under low environmental turbulence, social capital has a positive impact on the firm performance.
Abstract: This study aims to determine the moderating effect of environmental turbulence on the relationship among firm performance, entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial management, and social capital. Along with survey on Indonesia SMEs, the finding shows that social capital plays pivotal role on firm performance. This study also provides evident that that environmental turbulence dampens the positive impact of social capital on firm performance. Under low environmental turbulence, social capital has positive impact on firm performance. However, social capital brings negative impact on firm performance during high environmental turbulence. This provides more fundamental issues on intersection between resource based view (RBV) and contingency theory (CT).

30 citations


Cites background from "The Relevance of Scientific Managem..."

  • ...Hence, contingency theory considers that firm’s capability to respond business environment determines firm performance (Bell & Martin, 2012)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper , a mixed-methods sequential exploratory design was used to investigate the economic-financial impacts of remote working on labourers, finding that the majority of workers experience a negative economic impact due to the additional costs incurred for digital technology and platforms and for utilities as well as the nonpayment of overtime and meal vouchers, which are higher than the savings in commuting costs and out-of-pocket expenses.
Abstract: Digital and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and, consequently, remote working have increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, workers' economic-financial perception of remote working conditions, such as digital technology and its implementation, has scarcely been researched. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the economic-financial impacts of remote working on labourers. Using a mixed-methods sequential exploratory design, a sample of 976 workers is investigated. This study highlights that the majority of workers experience a negative economic-financial impact due to the additional costs incurred for digital technology and platforms and for utilities as well as the non-payment of overtime and meal vouchers, which are higher than the savings in commuting costs and out-of-pocket expenses. Furthermore, this research emphasizes that psychological-behavioural variables, specifically job satisfaction and technostress, are essential in the choice to continue working remotely after the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, our results have important theoretical implications related to the existing literature both on the managerial issues connected to digital transformation, with interdisciplinary elements linked to psychological aspects, and on corporate finance topics associated to the economic-financial impacts of remote working.

29 citations

References
More filters
Book
15 Jan 1964
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors integrate the work of hundreds of researchers in individual workplace behavior to explain choice of work, job satisfaction, and job performance, including motivation, goal incentive, and attitude.
Abstract: Why do people choose the careers they do? What factors cause people to be satisfied with their work? No single work did more to make concepts like motive, goal incentive, and attitude part of the workplace vocabulary. This landmark work, originally published in 1964, integrates the work of hundreds of researchers in individual workplace behavior to explain choice of work, job satisfaction, and job performance. Includes an extensive new introduction that highlights and updates his model for current organization behavior educators and students, as well as professionals who must extract the highest levels of productivity from today's downsized workforces.

11,986 citations

Book ChapterDOI
J. Stacy Adams1
TL;DR: The concept of relative deprivation and relative gratification as discussed by the authors are two major concepts relating to the perception of justice and injustice in social exchanges, and both of them can be used to describe the conditions that lead men to feel that their relations with others are just.
Abstract: Publisher Summary The process of exchange is almost continual in human interactions, and appears to have characteristics peculiar to itself, and to generate affect, motivation, and behavior that cannot be predicted unless exchange processes are understood. This chapter describes two major concepts relating to the perception of justice and injustice; the concept of relative deprivation and the complementary concept of relative gratification. All dissatisfaction and low morale are related to a person's suffering injustice in social exchanges. However, a significant portion of cases can be usefully explained by invoking injustice as an explanatory concept. In the theory of inequity, both the antecedents and consequences of perceived injustice have been stated in terms that permit quite specific predictions to be made about the behavior of persons entering social exchanges. Relative deprivation and distributive justice, as theoretical concepts, specify some of the conditions that arouse perceptions of injustice and complementarily, the conditions that lead men to feel that their relations with others are just. The need for much additional research notwithstanding, the theoretical analyses that have been made of injustice in social exchanges should result not only in a better general understanding of the phenomenon, but should lead to a degree of social control not previously possible. The experience of injustice need not be an accepted fact of life.

9,692 citations


"The Relevance of Scientific Managem..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Equity Theory (Adams 1963, 1965) “draws on exchange, dissonance, and social comparison theories in making predictions about how individuals manage their relationships with others” (Huseman, Hatfield, & Miles, 1987, p. 222)....

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  • ...Adams’s Equity Theory can be used by managers to communicate with their subordinates to understand that equity and fairness exists among employees....

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  • ...Equity Theory is important and is communication oriented....

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  • ...John Stacey Adams’s Equity Theory has been a part of classical management literature since 1963....

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  • ...Finally, we will present a hypothetical case example that will help make clear the main points of how managers should use communication to teach their present-day employees the value of Frederick Winslow Taylor’s principles of scientific management and how to use concepts from Equity Theory to confront employees’ feelings of inequity in a modern business environment....

    [...]

Book
01 Jan 1911
TL;DR: The Taylor System as discussed by the authors was developed as a system for increasing productivity in industry, and its principles have been applied to all kinds of large-scale enterprises, including operations with departments and agencies of the federal government.
Abstract: This brief essay by the founder of scientific management has served for nearly a century as a primer for administrators and for students of managerial techniques. Although scientific management was developed primarily as a system for increasing productivity in industry, its principles have been applied to all kinds of large-scale enterprises, including operations with departments and agencies of the federal government. It is in this volume that Frederick Winslow Taylor gave the theory of scientific management its clearest airing. Born in 1856, Taylor began work at age eighteen as an apprentice to a pattern-maker and as a machinist. A few years later he joined the Midvale Steel Company as a laborer, and in eight years rose to chief engineer. During this time he developed and tested what he called the "task system," which became known as the Taylor System and eventually as scientific management. He made careful experiments to determine the best way of performing each operation and the amount of time it required, analyzing the materials, tools, and work sequence, and establishing a clear division of labor between management and workers. His experiments laid the groundwork for the principles that are expounded in this essay, which was first published in 1911.

5,361 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Sir Walter Bodmer shares his perspective regarding the principles of successful scientific management from his experience in leading the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) as well as his being in the forefront of science.
Abstract: coupled with general fiscal difficulties are hindering realization of knowledge and benefit to society. The solution requires more than the corporate mold of The increasing politicization of the support of science has awakened many a scientist to the risks and realities of survival as an investigator and to the threats to the future of science. Effective management and wise leadership of the scientific enterprise are necessary solutions to the dilemma. Sir Walter Bodmer shares his perspective regarding the principles of successful scientific management from his experience in leading the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) as well as his being in the forefront of science. Yes! Management is necessary. But to be effective it must not displace leadership or the recognition and pursuit of excellence. It must be nonintrusive. Naive management imperatives in management. It must encompass a variety of actions based in the fundamental principle that management supports the optimal conduct of science. Dr. Bodmer guides us through these principles with clarity, experience, and vision. The principles of excellence, balance, and strategic insight have each been key ingredients in the success of the ICRF and are applicable at large.

4,074 citations


"The Relevance of Scientific Managem..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Taylor (1998) maintained that the “principle objective of management” is to secure prosperity for both the employer and the employee....

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  • ...'" In fact, Taylor (1998) was absolutely convinced that the common management practice of the day, what he called “initiative and incentives,” was wrong because “practically the whole problem is ‘up to the workman,’ while under scientific management fully one-half of the problem is ‘up to the…...

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  • ...…men…He was a little Pennsylvania Dutchman…We found that upon wages of $1.15 a day he had succeeded in buying a small plot of ground, and that he was engaged in putting up the walls of a little house for himself in the morning before starting to work and at night after leaving (Taylor, 1998, p. 19)....

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Book
01 Jan 1932

2,494 citations