Question

HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT SCHOOLS OF THOUGTS

Schools of management thought have evolved over the past century to provide conceptual maps of how to deal with internal and external challenges. These conceptual maps include theories of how things work, what causes what, and how to act. The theories are not mutually exclusive and can serve as multidimensional or multilayered models to guide managerial action. Executives benefit from being familiar with, and adept at using, many of these conceptual maps.

PLEASE ANSWER THE QUESTION (and parts if applicable) in at least 250 words or more. Please do not copy and past, use your own words.

1. Explain and provide details/explanations of the following healthcare terms; Early Writings on bureaucracy and Organization by Weber, Frederick Taylor and Scientific management, Classical School of Administration by Gulick, Human Relations School, Contingency Theory of Leadership, Decision-making School.

b) what is Institutional Theory according to Selznick (1957)?

c)

Answer 1

Early Writings on bureaucracy and Organization by Weber

Key Points

• Weber listed several preconditions for the emergence of bureaucracy: the growth in size of the population being administered, the growth in complexity of the administrative tasks being carried out, and the existence of a monetary economy requiring a more efficient administrative system.
• Weber identified in bureaucracies a rational-legal authority in which legitimacy is seen as coming from a legal order and the laws enacted within it. This is contrasted with traditional forms of authority, which arose from phenomena like kinship.
• Rationalization describes a transition in society, wherein traditional motivators of behavior, like values, beliefs, and emotions, are replaced with rational calculations.
• Weber termed the increasing rationalization in Western societies an “iron cage” that traps individuals in systems based solely on efficiency, rational calculation and control.

Key Terms

• Rational-legal authority: A form of leadership in which the authority of an organization or a ruling regime is largely tied to legal rationality, legal legitimacy and bureaucracy.
• ideal type: An ideal type is not a particular person or thing that exists in the world, but an extreme form of a concept used by sociologists in theories. For example, although there is not a perfectly “modern” society, the term “modern” is used as an ideal type in certain theories to make large-scale points.
• iron cage: a theory proposed by Max Weber which argues that rationalization and rules trap humans in a figurative “cage” of thought based on rational calculations

Frederick Taylor and Scientific management

Key Points

The Principles of Taylor's Scientific Management Theory became widely practiced, and the resulting cooperation between workers and managers eventually developed into the teamwork we enjoy today. While Taylorism in a pure sense isn't practiced much today, scientific management did provide many significant contributions to the advancement of management practice. It introduced systematic selection and training procedures, it provided a way to study workplace efficiency, and it encouraged the idea of systematic organizational design.

Taylor's four principles are as follows:

1. Replace working by "rule of thumb," or simple habit and common sense, and instead use the scientific method to study work and determine the most efficient way to perform specific tasks.
2. Rather than simply assign workers to just any job, match workers to their jobs based on capability and motivation, and train them to work at maximum efficiency.
3. Monitor worker performance, and provide instructions and supervision to ensure that they're using the most efficient ways of working.
4. Allocate the work between managers and workers so that the managers spend their time planning and training, allowing the workers to perform their tasks efficiently.

Classical School of Administration by Gulick

The classical theory projects public administration as a science

Gulick went ahead to identify 10 principles on which the organizational structure can be designed. Below are the 10 principles as listed by Gulick:

• Division of labor or what we call specialization
• Departmental Organization
• Hierarchical coordination
• Deliberate coordination
• Creating coordination committees
• Decentralization
• Unity of command
• Staff and Line
• Delegation and Span of Control

Human Relations School

The human relations management theory is a researched belief that people desire to be part of a supportive team that facilitates development and growth. Therefore, if employees receive special attention and are encouraged to participate, they perceive their work has significance, and they are motivated to be more productive, resulting in high quality work. The following human relations management theory basics became evident during human relation studies:

1. Individual attention and recognition aligns with the human relations theory.

2. Many theorists supported the motivational theory.

3. Studies supported the importance of human relations in business.

Contingency Theory of Leadership

In the contingency theory of leadership, the success of the leader is a function of various contingencies in the form of subordinate, task, and/or group variables. The effectiveness of a given pattern of leader behavior is contingent upon the demands imposed by the situation.

To understand this theory we should examine the individual leader, the organizational factors (or leadership situation), and the interaction of these factors. As per this model, leader effectiveness is based on two factors, "the leadership style" and "the situational favorableness" (also known as "situational control"). In short, the contingency theory is concerned with styles and situations.

Decision-making School.

School-based decision-making is a concept based on the fundamental principle that individuals who are affected by the decision, possess expertise regarding the decision, and are responsible for implementing the decision, should be involved in making decisions.

Key Elements

School-based decision-making rests on two well-established propositions:

1. The school is the primary decision-making unit; and its corollary; decisions should be made at the lowest possible level.
2. Change requires ownership that comes from the opportunity to participate in defining change and the flexibility to adapt it to individual circumstances; the corollary is that change does not result from externally procedures.

B) Institutional Theory according to Selznick (1957)

Selnick notes that "the most important thing about organizations is that, though they are tools, each nevertheless has a life of its own"

While he acknowledges rational view that organizations are designed to attain goals, he notes that the formal structures can never conquer the non-rational dimenstions of organizational behavior. Individuals do not act purely based on their formal roles. Organizations do not act purely based on formal structures.

Selznick notes that individuals bring other commitments to the organization that can restrict rational decision-making. Organizational procedures become valued as ends in themselves. The organization strikes bargains with the environment that can restrict it's current goals or limit future possibilities .Organizational structures adapt based on individual actions and environmental pressures.

He states that the overriding need for systems "is the maintenance of the integrity and continuity of the system itself" He defines "derived imperatives":
* security of organization within it's environment
* stability of informal relations within the organization
* homogeneity of outlook toward meaning and role of the organization

He suggests focusing on the irregular actions to meet unmet needs within organizations as a more interesting area of study. He recommends studying an organization over time and focusing on the critical decisions that change its structure. He defines institutionalization as "the process by which an organization develops a distinctive character structure". Leaders are supposed to define the mission and protect it's distinctive character.

"Institutional commitments develop over time as the organization confronts external constaints and pressures from its environment as well as changes in the composition of its personnel, their interests, and their informal relations". Selznick proposes to study the natural history of organizations.

Selnick's work not only spawned the institutional school, his view that leaders need to define and defend organizational distinctive character led to focus on strategic decision-making and creating organizational cultures.