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Contemporary Approaches

The four different contemporary approaches to management are:
Sociotechnical systems theory suggests that organizations are effective when their employees have the tools, and training, and knowledge to make products and services that are valued by customers.
Quantitative management emphasizes the application of quantitative analysis to management decisions and problems. A manager makes a decision by developing formal mathematical models of the problem. They use techniques as a supplement in the decision process. The limited use of quantitative management is due to managers not being trained in using these techniques.
Organizational behavior studies management activities that promote employee effectiveness through an understanding of the complex nature of the individual, group, and organizational processes. An example of this, Douglas McGregor influenced the field of management with his Theory X and Theory Y perspective. Theory X managers assume workers are lazy and irresponsible and require constant supervision and external motivation to achieve organizational goals. Theory Y managers assume employees want to work and can direct and control them- selves. Theory X is known as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Systems theory states that organizations are open systems, and dependent on inputs from the outside world, such as raw materials, and human resources. They transform these inputs into outputs that (ideally) meet the market’s needs for goods and services. The environment reacts to the outputs through a feedback loop; this feedback provides input for the next cycle of the system.
An open system is a system that has external interactions. Examples would be information, energy, or materials, into or out of a system, depending on the discipline. An open system is contrasted with the concept of an isolated system which exchanges neither

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