Foundation Management Essay: Analyzing 'One Best Way to Manage' Debate

This essay delves into the core concepts of foundation management, focusing on the central debate of whether there is a single 'best way' to manage an organization. The essay begins by exploring theories supporting the idea of a singular approach, such as Weber's bureaucratic theory, administrative management theory, scientific management theory, and legitimacy theory. It then presents arguments against this notion, emphasizing the need for diverse management strategies in today's globalized and culturally diverse workplaces. The essay highlights the importance of contingency theory, employee motivation, and organizational effectiveness. It concludes by advocating for a flexible and adaptive approach to management, recognizing the limitations of historical practices and the importance of addressing the evolving needs of both organizations and their employees. The essay emphasizes the need to adopt a corrective way of managing, rather than adhering to rigid, outdated methods.

Running head: Foundation Management 1
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Introduction
The management of an organisation is not a sole or an individual work rather it is more of a
group work with numerous practices and policies that helps in effective organisational
management. In the historically developed business organizations, there was no specific focus
upon the management aspect and all the organisations were managed on a common basis. But
due to increased technological advancements, modernization and expansion of economies, there
is also a diverse need of the employees and the organisations. And to manage these
diversification of needs, there has been performed a wide research to evolve several innovative
practices and approaches for sound organisational management (Mazur, 2010). It has been
researched and evaluated by hundreds of researchers that “There is only one best way to
manage”. The extensive literature possesses both supportive as well as argumentative discussion
on the aspect of managing things in a single way. The various frameworks, theories and models
have been framed for discussing the aspect in an in-depth manner. The following essay will
highlight both the arguments as well as supportive discussions in respect with the statement
through a thorough discussion and critical analysis.
“There is only one best way to manage”
As per the notion developed by Weber in his theory of bureaucracy, the statement is very much
true that there is only a single way of managing the organisations. According to this theory, to
manage an organisation, the managers are required to have a bureaucratic rule in the
organisations (Scott and Davis, 2015). The bureaucratic rule can be explained as a set
organisational structure which comprises of aspects such as increased number of policies and
rules, set procedures, division of labor, specific responsibilities, clear hierarchies and
standardized requirements. Organisations following bureaucratic approach are required to have a
parallel approach for organisational management and workforce management. According to
Weber, it is necessary to follow bureaucratic approach in large scale business association for
organizational management to have effectiveness (Cummings and Bridgman, 2011).
Another theory that supports the statement is the administrative management theory developed
by authors named Luther Gulick, Henry Fayol and James Mooney (Wren, Bedeian and Breeze,
2002). The authors states that for designing, structuring and managing an organisation, there is a

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set and already established approach. The theorists explained atht there is one formal way or
structure of administering the organisations. There is formal delegation of the responsibilities
and the authorities and the responsibilities of all the employees and organisational members are
already determined. This theory was also implied in past when the organisations do not emphasis
on the diverse needs of management (Sapru, 2013).
Scientific management theory is one more theory that supports the aspect that organisational
management is possible by a single way only. It is well recognized theory which is also called as
Taylorism due to its foundation by worldwide renowned management consultant Frederick
Taylor (Waring, 2016). As per the views of Taylor, all the organizations have certain similar
aspects that comprises of elements such as efficiency, increased level of production and the
highly standardized products. Earlier the organisations tend to have standardized products and to
achieve a permanent level of productivity, the organisations tend to take use of a single approach
of management (Smith and Lewis, 2011).
The next key theory that supports the statement is the legitimacy theory. According to the theory
of legitimacy, there are few regulation and laws that govern all the organisational practices.
There also exists some socially established norms, culture and values and the organisational
practices must be parallel to them. And because of this, it is analyzed and stated by the theorists
that the organisations must be managed in one way only (Clegg, Kornberger and Pitsis, 2015).
The researchers supporting the statement have analyzed that if there will be taken use of different
approaches or ways for managing the organisation then there will be gathered differentiated
results in terms of efficiency, quality and standards. Hence, they support that there should only
be one way to manage things.
In oppose to the above discussed supporting discussions to the statement, there are few of the
approaches and the theories that significantly believes that there is a vast need of diversification
and multiple ways to manage an organisation in the most effective manner. In current scenario,
the organisational have diverse workforces that are culturally diverse and to manage them
effectively, it is necessary to take use of diverse set of management approaches. The human
resource are the most valuable organisational assets and it is important to manage them in a more
improved and satisfactory way. With the increased level of globalization, the large scales as well
as several other multinational organizations have farmed their individual practices and ways of

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managing the organisation and the workforce (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). This has also
resulted in immense success of the organisation both in terms of employee engagement and
organizational effectiveness. In the culturally diverse organisations, there is a need to have
diverse set of strategies for the faster accomplishment of the set targets and goals.
According to the contingency theory, it is demonstrated that the organizations cannot be
managed by a single way as there are diverse set of situations that take place in an organisation.
The managers are required to take decisions on the basis of both the external as well as the
internal environment (Greenwood and Miller, 2010). Depends upon the various circumstances
and the unexpected situations, the organisational managers are required to have a contingency
approach towards the management. The organisations are different in nature and so their
business environment. Thus, it is essential that for managing the situations, diverse set of
strategies and approaches are required in an organisation and taking use of a single way is not
feasible for managing all types of organizations and all sorts of situations. The diversity in an
organisation can be analyzed in number of aspects such as global or domestic operations, types
of operations and functions, operational scale and number of employees (Mikes and Kaplan,
2013). All such elements play a significant role in shaping the organisational management
approach and the organisational structure. Thus, all the organizations cannot possess a similar
organisational structure and thus to manage each organisation in the most efficient manner there
is a need to have a diverse set of management approaches and practices rather than believing on
a single way of management.
One of the key factor that compel the organizations to take use of different ways of management
is the organisational employees as because of the impacts of expansion of businesses and
globalization there has been observed increase level of cultural diversity in the employees. Due
to presence of various diverse cultural groups, the organisations have to make extra efforts for
achieve effective organisational management (Mazur, 2010). The kind of employees an
organisation holds, the strategies and the management approaches are framed in that manner so
that increased level of productivity could be attained. Managing diverse set of employees by a
single way will lead to dissatisfaction of the employees’ needs which will impact the
organisational productivity and efficiency in a negative aspect. Thus, in the organisations, where
there are increased numbers of culturally diverse employees, it is necessary to have sound and

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effective ways of managing the organisations as per the needs and requirements (Podsiadlowski,
et al., 2013).
In such a dynamic business world, the demand for flexible approaches and models are rising with
a rapid rate. In the past few decades, when organisational management was not a much widened
approach, the managers used to have a rigid way of managing all eth activities in regards with
business operations, management or workforce. But this has resulted in a sterner environment for
the employees to work in and thus, the motivation level of the employees started decreasing. In
the more flexible management approach, the organisational employees feel satisfied as well as
work freely and achieve increased level of motivation to work in an efficient manner with high
level of engagement. By taking use of innovative and diverse organisational management
practices, there can be gained more efficient performance as well as faster resolution of the
issues and challenges (Luthans, Luthans and Luthans, 2015).
Conclusion
In a globalised and dynamic world, the needs of the organizations and the employees are also
changing. Because of carrying on with the historical practices and management approaches, there
are several organisations that are slowing their success and growth. In the past, organisations
used to work on the aspect of managing things with a single way which is considered as the most
appropriate way of management. But now the organisations have changed and are working on
the concept of managing with a correct way. From the overall analysis, it can be stated that from
the vast literature, there has been identified number of approaches and theories that supports the
aspect of one best way to manage. But those models were sound to be more relevant from
historical perspectives only as with increased level of modernization of the businesses, there is
an extensive need to adopt a contingency approach in organisational management. It is essential
because with innovative and diverse way of managing things there will be increased level of
employee motivations, improved productivity, decreased employee turnover and extended
business reach. Hence, the organisation must work upon a corrective way rather than carrying on
with the old and paradox ways of management.

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Clegg, S.R., Kornberger, M. and Pitsis, T., 2015. Managing and organizations: An introduction
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organizational theory. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 24(4), pp.78-88.
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Waring, S.P., 2016. Taylorism transformed: Scientific management theory since 1945. UNC
Press Books.

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Wren, D.A., Bedeian, A.G. and Breeze, J.D., 2002. The foundations of Henri Fayol’s
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