...organisations to be at the forefront of management thinking. If we want to maintain our standard of living our rate of change has to be comparative to the rest of the world. But our present day management thinking has evolved from a whole range of influences over an extraordinary long period of time. In his comprehensive book ‘The Evolution of Management Thought’ Daniel A Wren writes: " Within the practices of the past there are lessons of history for tomorrow in a continuous stream. We occupy but one point in this stream. The purpose .. is to present…the past as a prologue to the future." So with the aim of accelerating the development of our management practice for the future let us examine that stream of evolving management thought of the past. Our Christian past has taught that us that there was a beginning (Adam & Eve) and there will be an end (Armageddon) and in between we should hear the word of god and obey his commandments. We therefore tend to think linearly as well as in terms of authority and compliance. In contrast the religions of the East emphasise the cyclical and regenerative properties of nature. They therefore think in terms of cyclical processes and of being at one with God and authority. The Greek influence is evident in that we retain the Socratic concept of searching for the truth by the judging of a proposition by...
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...Evaluate the main traditional approaches to management (classical, humanistic, systems, contingency) and contrast them with post-modern ideas of management Introduction As any other activity managing an organization has got various approaches to rely on. To be successful managers have to possess enough knowledge on different approaches to management and discriminate them from one another, perceive advantages and disadvantages of each. In this work traditional approaches to management and post-modern ideas are present as well. Classical approach Classical concepts in management appeared in the end of 19th century. Manufacturing system at that period faced with tasks which were never taken into account before. Development of large and sophisticated organizations forced to search for new coordination and control methods. From this step evolution of modern management has started and as a result classical approach was established. This approach implied three specific areas: scientific management, bureaucracy organizations and administrative principles. Frederick Winslow Taylor suggested that low productivity which restrained economical development was caused by bad organization of labor and lack of scientifically-proved norms and standards. Moreover, decision-making must be based not on previous traditions and rules but on exact prescriptions made after thorough examining of specific situations. The main principles of scientific management, formulated by Taylor, are: *...
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