Management Theories & Functions: Analysis and Application Report

This report provides an analysis of management theories and functions, incorporating personal experiences and case studies. Part A discusses a human resource issue resolved using the POLC (Planning, Organizing, Leading, Controlling) framework within a resort setting, highlighting challenges related to cultural barriers and employee relations. Part B delves into two significant management theories: Scientific Management (Taylorism) and McGregor's X and Y Theory. It examines the advantages and disadvantages of each theory and explores their practical application in renowned companies. The Scientific Theory is analyzed in the context of Ford Motor Company's mass production techniques, while the X and Y Theory is examined through Starbucks' employee motivation and customer satisfaction strategies. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of adapting management approaches to specific organizational contexts and employee behaviors.

Running head: MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note:

1
MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
Executive summary
This report has discussed the personal experience where I solved a human resource issue by
following planning, organizing, leadership and controlling or POLC method in the first part. The
second part of this report analyses two some of the most important management theories which
include the scientific theory and X and Y theories of management. These two theories are then
analysed on the basis of their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, the scientific theory is
analysed after it was implied on the Ford Motor company and the X and Y theories are detailed
by following its impact on the business of Starbucks.

2
MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
Table of Contents
Part A...............................................................................................................................................3
Part B:..............................................................................................................................................5
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................5
Advantages and disadvantages:...................................................................................................5
Scientific theory:..............................................................................................................................6
Advantages and disadvantages:...................................................................................................6
X and Y theory applied on Starbucks:.............................................................................................6
Scientific theory applied on Ford:...................................................................................................7
References:......................................................................................................................................9

3
MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
Part A.
This incident is associated with the issue of human resource management in a company
where I had worked for 2 long years. It was a resort situated in the Victoria region of Australia.
This incident is associated with employee and management issues. In this resort, I used to be the
human resource manager and I was responsible to manage all the local and expatriate employees.
Before I joined, this organisation was suffering from management issues as the expatriate staff
were resigning for various reasons. This resort was a part of hospitality industry therefore it
needed different strategies to solve the human resource issues. It needed a strong and efficient
employee relation method which will not be challenged with the cultural barrier of that region.
The organisation needed to work efficiently but the movements of the local staffs were not
meeting the expectations. Most of their employees in this resort had a language issue. This is the
reason why they could not communicate properly is the guests. During the peak seasons, the
resort could not manage the dispute among the local and expatriate staffs. According to the rule
of Australian government, the company cannot reduce the number of aboriginal staffs, it has
already employed therefore it could not get rid of those local staffs also.
The higher authorities used to pay very short visit hence to find solution of this problem
was impossible. The company was gradually losing its popularity as well as competition in the
hospitality industry of Australia. As a new joiner as, human resource manager I had to solve this
issue as early as possible. In order to solve this human resource problem, I undergo four essential
steps which included planning, organising, leadership, controlling. At first, I planned to arrange a
meeting with the local employees of the resort so that I can make them understand the actual
problem they are causing. They needed professional trainer who would make them efficient in
dealing with the foreign customers. Secondly, I planned to employee these local employees in

4
MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
the less complicated as well as outdoor tasks in which they have efficiency rather than
employing them in a same task of the other non-aboriginal Australian staffs.
Organising included my arrangement of a meeting with the higher authority with the
ground staffs so that they can have a feedback session and actual problem gets cleared. I
organised a new set of fresh water sports in the resort so that guests can be attracted in one hand
and I can utilise the skills of the aboriginal staffs also on the other. In this respect I showed my
leadership capabilities and started to monitor the whole process whether they are matching with
my plan and organisation. I used to communicate directly to the local employees so that they get
motivated to work hard and align themselves with the expectation of the company. I also put
some controlling measure by monitoring the budget expenses and communication gap among the
Aborigines and the non-aborigines.

5
MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
Part B:
Introduction:
This part will be discussing two important management theories like Scientific theory and
X and Y theory. After discussing the advantages and disadvantages of these two theories, two
companies which are following these two management theories till now will be discussed.
X and Y theory:
The X and Y theory has been developed on the basis of Human behaviour. It develops
two sets of assumptions which relates the human behaviour in an organisation. According to this
theory, the theory X is about the negative assumptions and theory Y is about the positive
assumptions of the human behaviour. In every organisation there are employees who either
follow the X set of assumptions or the Y set of assumptions. Therefore, the motivators need to
follow the type of the employees and motivate them according to their expectations or behaviour.
In order to device the motivational technologies, these two alternative assumptions of human
behaviours therefore are needed to be understood well by the managers.
Advantages and disadvantages:
Among the advantage, the X and Y theory is a great guide for the management which
helps to develop motivational techniques in the organisation in one hand and align the entire
management system with the human behaviour assumptions. Howevere according to some
researchers, to Extreme sets of the human behaviour may not be perfect all the time as the human
behaviour can be variable with time (Huarng and Ribeiro-Soriano 2014).

6
MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
Scientific theory:
Scientific theory of management is a very important management theory that has been
popularised and followed by some of the very important international business organisations.
This theory is also known as Taylorism and aims to improve the economic efficiency of the
companies depending upon the labour productivity (Li et al. 2014). The base of this theory is the
method of breaking work process into the subtasks or the least possible components so that the
complete task can be done in an efficient way.
Advantages and disadvantages:
The main advantage of this theory is that it enhances production of the organisation. It
also enables the management of the organisation to control the employees more efficiently and
decrease in accuracy of a task (Gürbüz, Şahin and Köksal 2014). In addition to this, the scientific
theory of management helps the authority to understand the relation between the labour units as
well as their payment systems. The Scientific theory helps the companies to prevail a good
system of work. The one and only disadvantage of scientific theory is that it is not suitable for
the team works as it is quite bureaucratic type of approach (Jopp et al. 2014).
X and Y theory applied on Starbucks:
Starbucks has been operating in the international business for more than 50 years. It is a
popular luxury beverage company which is successful not only for its unmatchable product
quality but also for the service in their stores in any part of the world. This company understands
the fact that if the employees are kept motivated, any challenge can be faced. The management
theory of X and Y can be therefore implicated in this business structure and operation (Lawter,
Kopelman and Prottas 2015). The theory X employees aim to achieve organisational objectives
without their own creativity but on the contrary the set Y employees build a healthy work culture

7
MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
to prove and advance their creativity. This company is completely dependent upon its skilled
workforce who are responsible for providing customer satisfaction.
According to the philosophy of the company, happy employees only can make happy
customers. The managers of this company are capable enough to keep their employees
organised, motivated, informed and efficient. They pursue the type of human behaviour and
motivate each of them differently (Igbaekemen 2014). The company gets information about the
customer preferences through these motivated employees and offer new products through these
employees also. The work environment in the stores are positive and supportive of employee
motivation. Starbucks provides rewards like free products, voluntary benefits, partner discount,
comparative salary and the pension schemes. Thus, the company builds a relation of respect and
trust with its staff and value them by recognising their efficiency, hard work and talents
(Starbucks.in 2019). Moreover, the employees are provided with goals to make their work
environment more interesting and relaxing where both the customers as well as employees can
do their jobs without any challenge.
Scientific theory applied on Ford:
During the 20th century scientific theory by Taylor was greatly popularised as it led the
business practices to advanced exponentially. At that time the concept of mass production was
new therefore this theory was applied in the production units of most of the manufacturing
companies. This theory shaped processes of mass production and structural organisation which
was at that time much difficult to pursue. The scientific management theory has been originated
from the approach that the individual employees can increase their productivity if they are
assigned with the works that perfectly fit to their abilities and strengths. Automobile company

8
MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
Ford applied this particular theory in the production of the famous model T and sold over 10,000
units (Thehenryford.org 2019).
This theory was used to reduce the building time of cars where Ford had his workers
stationery in a particular place and the frames of the cars where to be moved through different
workstations. Till date, most of the car manufacturing companies follow this particular method
either for enhancing productivity in their corporations. Ford uses this method as it encourages the
fastest method for accomplishment of a task in one hand and allow the managers to consider the
ideas of employees and avoid the disunion. This theory has helped this world-famous car
manufacturing company to integrate manual as well as intellectual labour and find the workers as
multiskilled employees who are more involved with their work. However, the procedure of
production through teamwork has been introduced with time but these has supported the
scientific theory in a more advanced way. This has created most flexible workplace where the
employees are capable of incorporating new technology and avoid strict guidelines for policies
imposed over the labours. This theory has empowered the production workers and reduced the
work pressure evidently. This is the reason why the management of food encourage this theory to
be implemented in the workplace so that other companies also can use this method in their
manufacturing system.

9
MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
References:
Gürbüz, S., Şahin, F. and Köksal, O., 2014. Revisiting of Theory X and Y: A multilevel analysis
of the effects of leaders’ managerial assumptions on followers’ attitudes. Management
Decision, 52(10), pp.1888-1906.
Huarng, K.H. and Ribeiro-Soriano, D.E., 2014. Developmental management: Theories, methods,
and applications in entrepreneurship, innovation, and sensemaking. Journal of Business
Research, 67(5), pp.657-662.
Igbaekemen, G.O., 2014. Impact of leadership style on organisation performance: A strategic
literature review. Public Policy and Administrafion Research, 4(9), pp.126-135.
Jopp, D.S., Wozniak, D., Damarin, A.K., De Feo, M., Jung, S. and Jeswani, S., 2014. How could
lay perspectives on successful aging complement scientific theory? Findings from a US and a
German life-span sample. The Gerontologist, 55(1), pp.91-106.
Lawter, L., Kopelman, R.E. and Prottas, D.J., 2015. McGregor's theory X/Y and job
performance: A multilevel, multi-source analysis. Journal of Managerial Issues, 27(1-4), p.84.
Li, W.D., Fay, D., Frese, M., Harms, P.D. and Gao, X.Y., 2014. Reciprocal relationship between
proactive personality and work characteristics: A latent change score approach. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 99(5), p.948.
Starbucks.in (2019). Company Information | Starbucks Coffee Company. [online] Starbucks
Coffee Company. Available at: http://www.starbucks.in/about-us/company-information
[Accessed 29 Jan. 2019].

10
MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
Thehenryford.org 2019. Advertising the Model T - Blog - The Henry Ford. [online]
Thehenryford.org. Available at: https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/blog/advertising-the-
model-t/ [Accessed 29 Jan. 2019].