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Management Theories

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After the end of the Industrial Revolution, large corporations were beginning to grow in size and power in order to satisfy what seemed the endless demands for new goods and services. As corporations and labor forces grew, there was a need to develop a more systematic study of organization and management, known as management theory, the significant being Frederick Taylor 's Principles of Scientific Management which involved the development of training workers through special incentives and compensation (Boone p.33). In general, early management scientists tended to believe that there was a single way to organize companies and manage employees. By the beginning of the 20th century, there were initial attempts for launching a systematic …show more content…

Follett realized that leadership did not consist of a manager dominating the actions of his or her employees but rather there were many requisites that were needed for successful leadership that required cooperation among a leader and his followers. Followers have the role to keep their leader in control of the situation by providing suggestions, informing the leader of any problems, and pointing out orders that need to be corrected. However, as Drucker pointed out, Follett 's ideas were beyond her time (Forbes p.170); the theories of leadership during her era said that the leaders lead because they had certain personal qualities that could not be learned while Follett pointed out that anyone could learn to be a leader (Boone p.150). Since Follett had made the assumption leadership was a learned quality when the management theories at the time had assumed otherwise; her theories about leadership would have to wait for decades before they could be fully appreciated in management science.

Case: What are the significant changes in management theories? Over the past few decades, managers have realized that the motivational capacity of most organizations has a significant impact on the productivity and on the profitability of a firm. Much of the old paradigms regarding management theories have focused extensively on a single way of developing worker productivity and motivation in the firm through the

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