The Politics of Management Thought: a Case Study of Harvard

Summary of ‘The Politics of Management Thought: A Case Study of the Harvard Business School and the Human Relations School’ HBR and HRS achieved an early success under leadership of Mayo and Donham, where HRS positioned HBS as solution to pressing social, economic and political issues. Historical context in article is about contemporary events to business leaders reacted. Alongside postwar, physical and philosophical reconstruction and labor concessions came. After few days armistice was signed, presidents announced end of labor concessions.Dewey et al advocated application of civic democracy principles to workplace, called idealists, where idealists advocate role of labor and realist advocate greater control by administrators. These debates played role in construction of HBS and HRS. Wallace Donham, was appointed as dean of HBS in 1919. At that time HBS was suffering from severe financial problems and was under attack from academicians and businessmen. The scholars crit icized academic men valuing their work just to earn money to counter this problem he hired faculty from well-known disciplines such as history and philosophy.Businessmen criticized business schools, giving nothing but useless knowledge. Donham successfully brought HBS out of financial crises building relationships with CEO’s of big corporations. In 1926, Donham purposed hiring of Elton Mayo, who enjoyed a strong support in corporate circle. Beardsley Ruml, Director of LSRM felt that Mayo’s can fill the space left in the area of industrial psychiatry. Thus addressing psychopathic factor involved in industrial discontent at that time and bringing stability in industrial relation to overcome dissatisfaction and strikes.Donham being very eagerly expectant of HRS wanted to project its role as a â€Å"Savior. Whereas, Mayo focused the Executives, concerned about the workers irrational and agitation-prone mind. In Hawthorne studies Mayo was criticized for having a mindset af flicted with class conflict, industrial unrest, threats to social, political and economic orders. Mayo was of the view that the human factor in industries remains highly neglected. Mayo explained contemporary events with the help of psychology.In one of his articles mayo criticized classical economics, he was of the view that economics ignore human factor. In his second article he identified uncontrolled mind as the most dangerous thing, leading to crime war and social revolution. His third article was about mind of agitator, in his view agitator is the person who blame society for the troubles he face, and as a result his mind becomes obsessed with rage. In the fourth article Mayo elaborated on the dangers of democracy that it leads to social disintegration.In the final article Mayo linked democracy with psychopathological tendencies. Mayo cited industry as having a social function and identified labor unrest a result of individual’s fundamental disorientation to life and di sintegration of personality leading to disordering of values and maladaptaion to the industrial environment. Mayo argued that labor is incapable of understanding his own problems and these cannot be solved through his participation in management, opposing the stance of industrial democrats.Mayo through his research demonstrated that fatigue causes reveries producing psychological agitation leading to social unrest. This conclusion led him using psychological theories to work place. Through Hawthorne studies Mayo persuaded that clinical interview was a treatment allowing interviewee to exactly know his real problem. Mayo was influenced by psychology to view workplace problems as symptoms of underlying unconscious disorientation. On this premise he developed agenda of research for industry and convinced leaders that it will solve their worries about labor strife.We find this article very interesting, as we got to know, how Mayo and Donham fulfilled their own needs ( i. e. Mayo was dro pped out of the Medical school and was virtually broke, he struggled to gain foothold in academic community whereas Donham struggled to build HBS’s financial security, as well as academic and corporate prestige, and he countered the criticism of academics and corporate) by proposing solutions for contemporary social political and economic issues.

Policy advice Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Policy advice - Research Paper Example East Asia countries and other western countries had established a course towards progressive development, amongst them Japan, Italy, West Germany and France (Zakaria 49). It should be noted that after the fall of the Bretton Woods system in 1970s, occasioned by the growing international trade, the stock market crash of 1973-1974 and monetary economics, countries that emerged later focused on strong economic policies. The rise of BRICs especially China was therefore a progressive and steady economic growth having learnt from the various depressions. It appears that such economies thrived on protective policies. The US may consider analyzing such foreign policies to unravel their contributions to economic growth and see whether they may be applicable for the US case (Masters 1). Emerging economies such as China, Russia, and India have established competitive economic policies. India has a steadily rising economy, which is poised to be very competitive in the next decade. China’s economic rise in the global market has boomed in what appears to be a plan that was awaiting implementation. China is has practically overtaken the US and other western countries on the African continent and other areas. It has steadily rising middle class. The US should not sit back and watch or accept that global economics have changed, but conduct an assessment aimed at reclaiming her position on global economic front. It may take time to recover but it will certainly reverse the US economic trend (Zakaria 98). In the meantime, the US should formulate policies aimed at short-term recovery of micro-economy of the small states as leader negotiates a fair global competition for goods and patent rights of all countries. Should countries realize real global integration, it would still be wise to formulate acceptable rules of economic engagement for equitable benefit to enable all countries realize benefits of economic integration. The US may consider treating developing countries as

VTI CASE STUDY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

VTI CASE STUDY - Essay Example It is in light of this that planning remains an important aspect of all organizational structuring and management. In the absence of planning, organizations loss focus and fail to have a yardstick for measuring and identifying the height of growth they want to reach (Fernandez & Rainey, 2006). Through planning also, it is always possible for the organization to identify aspects and areas for change. Currently, VTI has come to a crossroad where the need for thorough organizational planning that will bring about rapid change is more than a necessity. From the situational analysis of the company, it is time for the company to respond to its external factors of competitiveness, which is focused on the use of electronic commerce (e-commerce). The need for change Change has its own merits and demerits, depending on how it is implemented and the factors that bring it about (Hadaway, Marler & Chaves, 2003). Generally though, many are those who are not comfortable with organizational changes. These people, commonly referred to as administrative conservatives hold the opinion that undertaking organizational changes affect the organizational climate negatively because it forces stakeholders to adjust when they are not really ready to adjust (Hannan & Freeman, 2004). A very typical example of this situation could be said to be taking place among the old senior management team of VTI Ltd who are refusing any form of change from the traditional street sales that the company is involved in. currently, change is eminent for VTI Ltd and cannot be delayed any further. This is because the market in which the company is operating has become so influenced with competition and user definition, whereby it is no longer what the company wants to offer to the consumer that matters but what the consumer wants to have (Alversson & Willmott, 2002). The need for change is therefore in the need for the company to keep track with the changes that is happening outside its domain of control. Ca uses of change The fact that the company is currently experiencing all time low in sales and has not made any profits in the past 2 years is due to a number of factors, some of which are internal, and others, external. Internally, it can be noted that there is a total absence and lack of unified code of conducting business at VTI. Clearly, the old senior management team is in a world of their own whiles the relatively younger staff is in a world of their own. In such a situation, Neale, Tenbrunsel, Galvin & Bazerman (2006) note that organizational conflict becomes common, especially role conflict. Presently, there seem to be a major lack of understanding as to the focus that the company should have in the implementation of basic organizational objectives. This has created an apathy whereby each member of within the organization is defending what he or she feels is right for the organization rather than what the organization wishes to have for itself. In relations to the adage that i n unity is strength, it is important that the company has a common focus of the path it is going to trend to bring about the implementation of its goals and objectives. There are also major external causes of the poor performance that the company is currently experiencing. Firstly there is an absence of competitive advantage by the company to meet the competition it is faced with from its key competitors squarely. Currently, the global record sales market has become so competitive that there are new companies and outlines springing up with time. This has created brought about the need for

Week14 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Week14 - Essay Example ernational Criminal Court (ICC), Human Right Watch, The White House, among other powerful human rights organizations as well as high profile celebrities such as Winfrey Oprah, Bill Gates and Justin Bieber coming on board (Goodman and Preston par 6). While everyone seems to be in agreement that Kony’s story is both horrific and tragic, a critical evaluation of the film’s oversimplified narrative coupled with the misinterpretation of facts reveals a false sense of what it takes to make a difference in a certainly complex situation. A conditional effectiveness of a social media campaign rests upon one fundamental principle: building a real-life/off-line political community capable and committed to a common cause. Contrary to the notion created on this particular case of the Invisible Children’s KONY2012 campaign, and elsewhere as was the case with the Arab spring, the reality is that Invisible Children worked for nearly a decade to build a willingly enthusiastic network of like-minded folks capable of driving across the United States to showcase its latest films to real people in schools and churches. Similarly, effectiveness and the subsequent success of human rights and democracy campaigners in the Arab worl d (Tunisia, Egypt and Libya among others) had long learned and been hardened by decades of training in human rights and civil disobedience experiences. The protests witnessed at the Tahrir Square in Cairo, for instance, gained root not due to the Tweeter or Facebook influence, but were driven by real grievances by real people with scars of years of outright humiliation (Kersten par 4-7). The Facebook Sharing and Tweeter re-tweeting of the KONY2012 was only a symbolic action done exclusively by non-activists with a minimal effect nearing zero. Simply put, war crimes cannot be fought at the comfort of somebody’s bedroom either sleeping or sited with IPads or IPhones as proof of his/her commitment to the liberal democratic values while real issues remain

Understanding people in organisations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Understanding people in organisations - Essay Example All these aspects are significant to ensure overall employee well-being (Lowe, 2012). Sears et al (2006) defined healthy workplace as an environment that enables an organisation to achieve its mission along with satisfying the needs of its employees. On the contrary, unhealthy workplace has unsupportive culture where employees do not enjoy the sense of participation, equity, success, empowerment, meaning, respect, safety, and autonomy (Sears et al., 2006). Unhealthy workplaces, according to the authors, represent dysfunctional organisations having communication gaps, unresolved conflicts, high turnover, and low employee morale. Appendix-I presents the characteristics of a healthy workplace as given by Sears et al (2006, p. 319). Emphasising on the importance of healthy and vibrant workplaces, Sears et al (2006) stated that such workplaces foster employee participation leading to mutual success. On the other hand, unhealthy workplaces are unsuccessful as they do not inspire employee dedication leading to job burnout, stress, absenteeism, and turnover; these outcomes of unhealthy workplaces are drastic and bring severe consequences and costs for the employers (Sears et al., 2006). Shukla (2008) defined organisational culture as the personality of an organisation that sets the unwritten norms and outlines the values shared among everyone within the organisation. Shukla (2008) explained that culture is not what the organisation has but what the organisation is. Organisational culture decides how people interact with each other, how they contribute, what are the shared norms and values, a formal and informal philosophy and the rules of the game. Organisational culture has a vital role in deciding if the workplace is healthy or unhealthy. The importance of organisational culture in deciding health of the workplace is evident from the fact that it is considered one of the major

REFUTE letter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

REFUTE letter - Essay Example take a position on the debate: is Bill Cosby’s criticism justified or, as William Ryan might ask, is he blaming the victim?† My response to this question was to formulate the essay as a rhetorical argument, and took the stance that all writing is persuasive writing. As a result, the responses to the arguments in the reading set were structured using the same logic Cosby, West, Dyson, and Ryan used; this means that rhetorical flourishes were used instead of the strict argumentative form that would be found in legal writing. You will notice that Cosby, West, Dyson, and even Ryan are guilty of using rhetoric to establish their arguments. Indeed, Dyson even refers to Cosby’s argument as, â€Å"classist, elitist, and rooted in generational warfare.† Furthermore, by referring to William Ryan’s ‘blaming the victim’ in the essay prompt, I took the statement ‘blaming the victim’ to be indicative of not only Ryan’s argument, bu t of the entire reading set that opposed Cosby. When considering the Cosby argument, one grader noted that the essay did not fully grasp Cosby’s arguments. I must respectfully disagree and point the grader’s attention to the Boondocks comic in which the boy’s father chastises him for needing to pull up his pants and refers to the boy as ‘dirty laundry’. This comic is a satire on those that would take Cosby’s argument literally. In the essay, I set out to defend Cosby’s argument on the grounds that, â€Å"Cosby is not a social scientist and his message is not meant to be judged by these standards; rather, he is a respected and influential leader whose statements need to be understood for their rhetorical efficacy. In attacking Cosby, Dyson is willfully committing a socially irresponsible form of ignorance. While this example may seem a fairly basic formulation of a complex social problem†¦Cosby’s comments aren’t meant to be interpreted as the literal proscriptive formulation of a policy maker, but as a rhetorically

Kants Moral Obligation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Kants Moral Obligation - Essay Example Timmons state in this regard, that the logic would play an important role in determining whether the perceived act will bring any good thing without ‘qualification’ (206). A good thing without qualification would only have two extremities including the good and the bad and nothing in between. Therefore, individuals use their reasoning capacity to identify the acts with good consequences. While individuals accomplish their desires out of good will, it is equally important to note that goodwill is the only virtue that has the aspect of universal absolute good (Timmons 207). This means that every good thing including wealth, honor, and riches may turn to be bad things in the end if individuals harbor ill wills for accomplishing their missions. However, people can perpetuate the good things if they have good intentions and wills making their deeds good in universal terms. In this sense, rationality comes into play in the sense that people who have good intentions motivated b y their positive reasoning will always accomplish good things in the society (Stern 45). While happiness may derive from a particular action does not accentuate the moral obligation of that action, as the idea of happiness is too empirical and indefinite to serve as a concept for moral obligation (Timmons 208). It is indefinite because people differ in tastes, preference, and enjoyments, while it is empirical in the sense that people actually understand that my experience, they can make decisions that bring them happiness. In a revisit of the concept of goodwill, people act because they strongly believe that they have a moral duty or they are morally obliged to perform certain tasks. The consequences in this case according to Stern, do not play an important role in deciding to engage in such deeds (Stern 62). Individual inclination principles, on the other hand, influence our actions in that reason recognizes our principles that in turn determine our motive in the quest of accomplishing our moral duty.