Management of Organisations as a Science

MAKING SENSE OF ORGANISATION
1
To what extent can the management of organisations be treated as a ‘science’?
Author’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Professor’s Name
Date

MAKING SENSE OF ORGANISATION 2
Making Sense of Organisation
The management of the organisation can be termed as a science due to the way they are arranged
to meet the efficiency of the organisation. According to the scientific management as brought out
in the Fredrick Taylor's principle explains how activities are planned, organised and brought
together to increase quality and success in the production (Sandrone, 2005, p 23). The idea of
scientific management was to help companies in mass production. From his study, he ensured
that he studied people's behavior, the way of doing work, the time is taken to complete a task and
the methodology used. Through the analysis, he came up with the division of labor where people
could do single task repetitively that increased their productivity. As a result of specialisation,
time for doing the chores was reduced, and the production rose as expected by the management.
Also, in another study, he realised that people are willing to work hard when they are promised
of a higher pay due that led increased production. Therefore, from Taylorism, it clear that
management is a science which increases the efficiency in production as it increases the volume
produced (Wilkinson et al., p.13). There has been an evolution from Taylorism to modern
scientific management where an organisation tries to improve efficiency and care for the
employees who are entrusted the production process.
Scientific Management is shaped by classical and behavioral perspective where each contributes
positively to improving the production in a firm. The traditional theories focus much on direct
input while the behavioral perspective concentrates on the indirect inputs (Morden, 2017, p. 34).
Some of the classical methods that illustrated that management is a science include scientific
management theory by Fredrick Taylor that focused on the production efficiency where he
thought the employees' input could be controlled. In his study, he developed a system in
management where several subtasks had managers and employees had to report to different

MAKING SENSE OF ORGANISATION 3
people for different tasks. Additionally, the theory brought about the idea of training and
managing employees to achieve the desired result of the firm. For instance, an increase of
training strengthens the skills in the employees where they give the best in the field thereby
contributing directly.
Additionally, to an extent, many organisations still trust Taylorism to increase the productivity of
the employees. In the scientific management theory, Taylor set aside the management to take up
the tasks of making the decision and planning the production activities where they leave for the
employees to perform the job to their best (Waring, 2016, P.56). Though some of the
organisation have developed a strategy where the employees feel that they are part of the
decision-making process, the most complicated decisions are still left for the management. The
theory itself sets standards of communication, doing activities and reduces confusion throughout
the supply chain since each group of people knows how to do since there is a uniform way of
doing things.
The communication set a standard in Taylorism error where the top-down management was
regarded the best and the most influential in achieving the desired performance. Today's
organisation tries to narrow down the gaps in communication to increase efficiency in problem-
solving. The connection and control of the management to the employees is still active in the
current administration. In the organisational contact, there are different hierarchies where
executives develop the goals and communicate them to the low-level workers through the help of
the subordinate staffs. To an extent, the top down communication may not be the only way, but it
is stronger than the down up (Shafritz, Ott and Jang, 2015, p.38). So, the standard of
communication still portrays the firms' authority as science despite the few changes that have
occurred in the system. The information theory suggests how information can be disseminated

MAKING SENSE OF ORGANISATION 4
from the source to destination without distortions. Despite following a single way of
communication, increasing efficiency in the channels of communication has led to changes in the
conversation where a better standard is realised and which that can be followed to reduce the
errors. The ways of the communication control the operations and how employees need to pass
information or use the hierarchy provided to communicate with the executives. Therefore, both
the top down and down up communication portrays the scientific management of the companies.
Management is the backbone of the organisation performance, and it should be designed expertly
to reduce the obstacle in the ability to solve problems. As supported by the bureaucracy theory
by max weber, it focuses on the theme of rationalisation, rules and expertise for an organisation
(Oberoi, 2016, p.65). The management is set aside to make decisions on the production process,
employees' welfare and customer's interactions with the organisation. Bureaucratic management
ensures that there are clear and efficient roles in the organisation. Highly bureaucratic control is
not effective in solving problems that need, and therefore the organisation should maintain the
flat management system that comprises a few levels of hierarchies. Considering the meaning of
bureaucracy, that is the organisational structure with rules, processes, a division of labor
responsibilities and interpersonal relationship between employees it shows the ability of control
of people to act uniformly. As mentioned in the scientific theory, Max Weber also emphasises on
the specialisation of tasks to increase efficiency and for economic effectiveness.
In the modern organisations, they work to eliminate the high levels of hierarchy since it does not
seem sufficient in communication. The service industry, as well as the production industry, need
an efficient channel that disseminates information on time to remain competitive. So, the
organisation has been able to decentralise some managerial roles and reduce and adopted a flat
management system for a more comfortable and quick decision making. Lowering of the