Topic > Management Techniques - 1684

A review of current management techniques and their adaptations reveals that little is known about management variance within small and large organizations (Moates & Kulonda, 2000). In order to critically evaluate whether "managerial jobs are the same in large and small organizations", a comparison of Fayol's fourteen management principles (Cole, 1984, p. 13-14) is made between supervisors and middle management of small organizations. and large organizations, respectively classified as having fewer than 50 employees or more. As will be shown, managerial jobs differ with the size of an organization and while acting in a similar capacity, the roles are contrasting in their adherence to management principles. Fayol's fourteen principles have been accepted as the foundation of this assessment because of their past and current ability to be used as a pro forma for the evolution of modern management styles, including but not limited to systems and contingency theories that they evolved around and include segments of the work of classical management theorists. And it is in fact the “first complete and comprehensive management theory that could be applied to all endeavors” (George, 1972, p. 114). The division of labor among employers, and undeniably among managers themselves, varies on a sliding scale with employee size. an organization. For example, a company with a hierarchical organizational structure is likely to have implemented a diverse and well-defined work program, thus decreasing the scope of attention or any excessive strain on any individual or work group (Cole, 1984, p. 13-14 ), and also limiting the need for input from management, since the orientations have evidently been identified previously. Managers in smaller organizations tend to use their power of authority in a general sense, to delegate tasks to individual workers as they arise. Delegation, which occurs in an ad hoc manner, places unnecessary constraints on managers, their authority and time. Authority within a large, multi-level management structure will be tested on a much more regular basis and to a greater extent than that with a flattened management structure. Even though smaller companies may have very diverse daily tasks for managers and supervisors, everyone knows their place and respects it in the big picture. However, faced with a cumbersome configuration with up to 30 levels of management and bureaucracy, "power struggles" often occur which cause a decline in productivity, clarity and motivation, not only at the personal level of the manager, but also of his collaborators . subordinates (Parker & Ritson, 2005).