Quotation

Q. The process of change may create crises in the system. Comment.
Q. Taylor's scientific management ignored social and psychological factors. Comment.
Recently added answers
Organisational change is a necessary activity which enables the organisation to improve and catch up with the changes in ecology by updating its processes, tools, techniques. However, this process of change should be regulated, controlled and appropriately timed so as to avoid any probable crises in the system as a whole.

Every system has an inbuilt mechanism of homeostasis or dynamic equilibrium which enables it to adapt to any changes imposed. However, every system has its limits and beyond that, it recoils. Hence the organisational change for improvement should be guided by a careful fabrication of the step-by-step approach to instill any new change.

For any new change, firstly the organisation should be opened, prepared for the change through announcements. Later, the change should be imposed in steps with proper communication (bidirectional), coordination. Subsequently, proper timeframe should be given for the assimilation of the change and once done, the organisation should be closed again. Similar type of approach has also been proposed by Likert when he cautions about possible system crises during abrupt transition from System 1 to System 4. The proposal of FDI in multibrand retail in India is also delayed so as to firstly prepare domestic players for the forthcoming change and thereby transit hassle free.

NPM owes its origin to the public choice approach which provided the theoretical foundation to this reformist concept. Public choice approach staunchly opposed the bureaucracy and stated that the main reason for de-legitimization of state was an inefficient bureaucratic system.

NPM criticized bureaucracy as it lacked any incentive for competition since the state administration often functioned under monopoly. Moreover, despite the presence of hierarchical checks (qua member) and the controlling bodies, bureaucracy kept functioning as budget maximizers. B'y overall was corrupt also knew ways to skip the controlling bodies. Hence b'y was completely institutionalized and needed to be reformed through debureucratisation, downsizing, decentralization, new managerialsm, privatisation.

To overcome these shortcomings, NPM came in the form of liberalization across the international arena. It was supplemented by ideological framework through PCA and other supportive texts. It promoted competition, disinvestment, liberalization, community ownership, catalytic government. All these form part of the economic theories widely practiced in the pvt sector which had shown great progress during the past few decades. The focus was on creation of an entrepreneurial government as the welfarist nation had lost its legitimacy. This movement was witnessed globally and even highly closed economies like Cuba are now opening up after having seen the success of this concept.

Taylor's scientific management aimed to provide greater efficiency to organisations which were facing problems due to increased workforce, work enlargement and greater organisational complexities.

However, while propounding these solutions, Taylor overlooked upon the social and psychological aspects of the organisation. His concepts of time-motion study, piece rate system considered man as a mechanistic object, driven by single motivation (economic) and works with full obedience. His approach took away the creativity, innovation from the worker level as they were deprived of any autonomy. Moreover, the social aspects were also overlooked and it became clear when he rejected group based incentives and promoted individual based.

Though, a glimpse of psychological pattern is visible when Taylor suggests mental revolution asking the manager and workers to coordinate and collectively enhance their profits. Social grouping is also considered when Taylor lists the problem of systemic soldiering and prescribes that trade unions be abolished. However, the main tilt of his theory was on profit increasing and to objectively define his methodologies, he had to overlook the subjective social and psychological factors.