Principles of Management

A principle of management is a broad and general guideline for decision making and behaviour. In this chapter you will study the nature of management principles: they have universal applicability, are general guidelines formed by practice and experimentation, are flexible, mainly behavioural, based on cause and effect relationships and contingent on the situation. You will also learn their significance in providing managers with useful insights, optimum utilisation of resources, scientific decisions, meeting changing requirements, fulfilling social responsibility, management training and research. The chapter then examines F.W. Taylor's scientific management, with its four principles (science, not rule of thumb; harmony, not discord; cooperation, not individualism; and development of each person to his greatest efficiency) and techniques such as functional foremanship, standardisation and simplification of work, method study, motion study, time study, fatigue study and the differential piece wage system. Finally, you will study Henri Fayol's fourteen principles of management, from division of work and unity of command to esprit de corps, and compare the contributions of Taylor and Fayol.

Detailed Worksheet: Principles of Management Section A - Definitions (10 marks) 1. What are principles of management? Why are they called flexible and contingent? (2 marks) 2. Explain the principle of "science, not rule of thumb." (2 marks) 3. Distinguish between unity of command and unity of direction. (2 marks) 4. What is a gang plank? When is it used? (2 marks) 5. Explain the principles of order and esprit de corps. (2 marks) Section B - Calculations and Applications (15 marks) 6. Under Taylor's differential piece wage system, the standard output is 10 units a day. Workers producing the standard or more are paid Rs 50 per unit, and those producing less are paid Rs 40 per unit. Worker A produces 11 units and Worker B produces 9 units. Calculate the wages of each and the difference. Explain how this motivates workers. (3 marks) 7. A time study shows that a standard task takes 12 minutes. A worker works 8 hours a day with a total rest allowance of 48 minutes based on fatigue study. Calculate the standard output per day. Name the techniques of scientific management involved. (3 marks) 8. A shoe company produced 60 models of shoes, of which 20 models contributed only 5% of sales. It decided to drop these 20 models. Calculate the percentage reduction in varieties. Name the technique and state two benefits of it. (3 marks) 9. Identify the principle of Fayol violated in each case: (i) a worker receives orders from two supervisors (ii) a manager favours his relatives in promotion (iii) employees are transferred every few months (iv) workers are not allowed to suggest improvements (v) two managers of the same division follow different plans for the same objective (vi) wages are below the market rate. (3 marks) 10. In functional foremanship, list the four specialists under the planning in-charge and the four under the production in-charge, with one function of each. Calculate the total number of foremen supervising a worker. (3 marks) Section C - Diagrams (10 marks) 11. Draw a chart of functional foremanship showing the factory manager, planning in-charge and production in-charge, with the eight specialist foremen under them. (4 marks) 12. Draw a diagram of Fayol's scalar chain from A to G and from A to Q in two lines, showing the gang plank between F and P. (3 marks) 13. Draw a chart showing the techniques of scientific management: functional foremanship, standardisation and simplification, method study, motion study, time study, fatigue study and differential piece wage system. (3 marks) Section D - Analysis and Higher-order Thinking (15 marks) 14. Compare the contributions of Taylor and Fayol on six bases: perspective, unit of concern, focus, applicability, basis of formation and focus on personality or human element. (5 marks) 15. A factory found that workers took different amounts of time for the same job and used different tools. Explain how motion study, time study and standardisation would help, and analyse the possible reaction of workers and the role of the principle of harmony, not discord. (5 marks) 16. "Principles of management are not as rigid as the principles of pure science." Analyse this statement with reference to the nature of management principles, giving two examples where a principle may need to be modified. (5 marks) Instructions: Time allowed 2 hours. Attempt all sections. Quote relevant lines from cases while identifying concepts, and show calculations clearly.