CRITICAL REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

Taylor’s Scientific Management (Taylorism) is based on induction and adopts a pragmatic and empiricist method, and its “there has to be a best way to do a certain job” principle has advanced among the others. This principle has inevitably reached to the time and motion study, the equation of employees with machines and finally automation and robot science. Although Taylor made great contributions to the management as a science, he received harsh criticisms as well (Turan, 2015)

Scientific management eliminated the need for skilled labor by delegating each employee one simple task to repeat over and over. Although this method increased the productivity of factories, it stripped employees their freedom to choose their work, as well as how it should be done. (Ireh, 2016). Scientific management, although stressed people post match, more focus on jobs, rather than people, each post have standardized operation process and method, the workers have to do is training well according to the standard operation procedure to finish work, but in today's knowledge economy era, the staff engaged in mental labour, have no fixed standardization process, practice of this management mode. Therefore, we should pay more attention to the role of human beings, formulate corresponding incentives, maximize the potential of people, and enhance the competitiveness of organizations (Su, 2017)

However Taylorism could also be seen as a management theory that analyzes work flows to improve economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. This management theory was dominant in manufacturing industries in the 1880s and 1890s. (Ioana et al., 2014). One of the best examples is the adoption of this theory in Ford company in 20^th century. After the adoption, the assembly-line process enabled Ford to produce cars more quickly, and at more affordable rates and by 1924, as a result of this advanced production methods, Ford had sold 10 million Model Ts. (Saylor, 2005)

In conclusion, at a time when labor was cheap, supplies were plentiful, and manufacturing processes were relatively forgiving of quality control issues, scientific management was a tremendous improvement over the old factory systems with its tyrannical foremen and rules of thumb (Koumparoulis & Vlachopoulioti, 2012) . However, it is known that progress relates to man’s qualities and that scientific management could not be considered, as a means for human betterment, in the long run. Criticism of scientific management is justified by the opinion that it could be a dangerous hindrance to progress (Caldari, 2007).  Is scientific management a perfect system? No. However, one cannot deny its contributions to society and measurement of efficiency  (Koumparoulis & Vlachopoulioti, 2012)

Reference list

Caldari, K., 2007. Alfred Marshall’s critical analysis of scientific management. The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 14(1), pp.74-75.

Ioana, A., Marinică, A., Semenescu, A. & Preda, C.F., 2014. Elements of Administrative Management Decision. International Journal of Management Science, 1(1), p.27.

Ireh, M., 2016. Scientific Management. Winston Salem.

Koumparoulis, D.N. & Vlachopoulioti, A., 2012. The Evolution of Scientific Management. Academic Research International, 3(2), p.425.

Saylor, 2005. Scientific Management Theory and the Ford Motor Company. The Saylor Foundation, pp.3-4.

Su, Y., 2017. Taylor Scientific Management Theory Carding and Significance of Organization Management. Social Sciences, 6(4), p.106.

Turan, H., 2015. Taylor’s “Scientific Management Principles”: Contemporary Issues in Personnel Selection Period. Journal of Economics, Business and Management, 3(11), p.1102.

TALENT MANAGEMENT

Talent Pool at Microsoft Corporation

Talent management starts with the business strategy and what it signifies in terms of the talented people required by the organization. Ultimately, the aim is to develop and maintain a pool of talented people. Armstrong(2009). Microsoft corporation, in addition to the development offered to all employees, also invests in a smaller group of employees who have the potential for, and strong interest in, taking on more senior, critical roles as individual contributors or managers. At Microsoft, high - potential development goes beyond traditional management or leadership development. Instead, it focuses on accelerating the development of these individuals to advance to the next career stage.

Microsoft allows emerging and experienced leaders to learn from each other through several developmental components. Learning circle is one of such development method that the corporation use.  Building leadership networks and collaborative working relationships are two of the most significant leadership needs at Microsoft. Wallis et al., (2010). Learning circles are small peer - based learning groups designed to connect diverse groups of high - potentials, both functionally and geographically, to mutually support each other in developing themselves as leaders. Comprised of five to seven high - potentials who meet either face - to - face or virtually, learning circles integrate the learning from current role experiences with development priorities to provide a more impactful learning experience. Stiles & Trevor (2006).

In the meetings, each member addresses a current, real - world priority called a coaching goal that exists in the member’s workplace or career. Each member receives equal time in the meeting to get help from other members to address priorities and to identify relevant and realistic actions to take between meetings.

Coaching and Mentoring In addition to learning circles, Microsoft offers one - to - one partnerships through coaching and mentoring that involve a thought - provoking process that inspires the individual to maximize his or her personal and professional potential. Through individualized follow - up, coaching, and mentoring, they integrate learning from a variety of sources such as assessment feedback, current role experiences, and development priorities to provide a more impactful learning experience

In conclusion, Microsoft has a strong commitment to building leaders at all levels. The Building Leaders program is an integrated and comprehensive high - potential development program encompassing multiple learning methodologies, tailored to each leader ’ s level in the organization. Wallis et al., (2010)

Reference list

Armstrong, M., 2009. Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Managment. 11th ed. London: Kogan Page.

Stiles, P. & Trevor, J., 2006. Best practice and key themes in global human resource management: project report. pp.10-17.

Wallis, S., Underhill, B.O. & McNamara, C., 2010. Best Practices in Talent Management. Essential resources for training and HR professionals, 10, pp.178-88.

Psychological Contracts

Introduction

A psychological contract is a set of unrevealed expectations which are in the existence between the employees and the employers which underpins the employment relationship. It is a system of beliefs that encompasses the actions employees believe are expected of them and what response they expect in return from their employer, and, reciprocally, the actions employers believe are expected of them and what response they expect in return from their employees (Armstrong, 2009)

How Psychological Contracts develop

Psychological contracts are not developed by means of a single transaction; they evolve over and can be multi-faceted. There are many contract makers who exert influence over the whole duration of an employee’s involvement with an organization. (Spindler, 1994 cited by (Armstrong, 2009))

Types of Psychological Contracts

There are two kinds of contract to define the kind of employee-employer relationship. Relational type contracts concern a relationship built on the utmost trust, implicit emotional attachment, and embrace long-term employment. Relational contracts were prominent prior to recent market changes and instability in the business world. As a result of these changes there has been a dramatic increase in transactional type contracts. This type of contract concerns a more direct exchange of commitments and is more concerned with a tit for tat economical transaction. (Curwen, n.d.)

Figure 1: Figure summarizing the differences between transactional and relational (picture credit - (Curwen, n.d.))

Thing to remember if the Psychological Contract breaks:

Employment relationship between the employee and the employer may damage despite manager’s best offer: nevertheless it is managers job to take responsibility for maintaining them.

Taking precautions prior to breaking the contract is always the better than repair the damage afterwards.

When breach cannot be avoided it may be better to spent time on negotiating or negotiating the deal, rather than focusing too much on delivery (CIPD, 2017)

Conclusion

All employment and other relationships involve Psychological Contracts in different forms. Employment relationships may deteriorate even though they seem fair and to have high rewards. Breaching of contracts has a significant effect on attitude and behavior of both the employee and employer. Therefore, preventing the breach I the first place is better than trying to cure or repair breach. The Psychological contract is one of the most useful ways to understand the employment relationship. (Conway, n.d.)

Reference:

Armstrong, M., 2009. Armstrong's Handbook of Fuman Resource Management Practice. Philadelphia, USA: Typeset by Saxon Graphics Ltd. pp.277-82.

CIPD, 2017. CIPD. [Online] Available at: https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/relations/employees/psychological-factsheet [Accessed 15 November 2017].

Conway, N., n.d. What is the psychological contract and does it matter? p.15.

Curwen, R., n.d. The Psychological Contract : Are unmet expectations harming your employee relationship. pp.1-3.

Emerging Trends in Learning and Development

Mobile Training

With the rapid increase of usage of the mobile devices all over the world, and as a result of the dedicated work of the mobile learning community, during recent past we have experienced an explosion in the growth of mobile learning across all sectors of education. Mobile learning has become one of the main emerging Learning and Development topic to discuss around the world mainly because mobile learning has been a victim of its own success. Many communities have defined it based on their own particular experiences, uses and backgrounds.

Most of the organizations are focusing and working on making training accessible from virtually anywhere considering the increase of mobile society. The Mobile learning element of our Blended Learning program takes into account the mobility of learners and instructors by taking advantage of hand-held devices, such as Smart phones and tablets. Mobile learning also plays a role in social or informal learning within organizations, making it easy for people working from different locations to share knowledge.

Methods of Mobile Learning

SMS messaging. This service e is commonly used by the schools, colleges and universities to notify their students regarding daily needs in educational contexts, for urgent communications (e.g., cancellation of a lecture). Almost all students enrolled in schools, colleges and universities carry a sophisticated communications device. If the institution’s communication is sent to the students’ mobile phones by SMS messaging, the message will be received immediately by all students. An SMS messaging system can be set up by in-house development or by using an SMS service provider

Screenshots of educational content.  Mobile devices are ideal for receiving short, five to six screen presentations of educational content, such as a course summary, advice on examination preparation, and assistance with a part of a course that has caused difficulties to students in the past, tutorial advice or even multiple choice tests.

Course modules. Providing learning coursed through mobile devices have become more popular at present. A comfortable didactic environment can be created by using Microsoft Reader Works to display the content. However, the main challenge is to solve the problems of screen size for the presentation of course modules in mobile learning on the slightly smaller screens of smart phones and mobile phones.

Examples for the organizations using the Mobile Learning method are:

AMAZON Company

AT&T Company, USA 

Reference list

Maczuga. P, Plewczyński M. Sikorska K. Fernandez T. Jaruga A. Świątecka A. Zieliński K. Philip P. Mileva N. Tokmakov D. Ruiz E. & Castro M. (2013) Mobile Training Methodology for E-businesses, version 2

Putta H., (2014) Impact on recession on training. IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM)

Saccol A., Reinhard N., Schlemmer E. & Barbosa J (2010) M-LEARNING (MOBILE LEARNING) IN PRACTICE: A TRAINING EXPERIENCE WITH IT PROFESSIONALS., Vol. 7, JISTEM

Sharples M,. (2006), Big Issues in Mobile Learning., University of Nottingham, UK

Subashini R. & Sugathalakshmi T., (2015), Emerging Trends in Training and Development, Volume 5, Issue 3, International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications.