Schermerhorn and Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
Chapter 2
Management Learning
Great Things Grow From Strong Foundations
Chapter 2 Overview
Each Chapter contains several inset features designed to assist the student reader in applying the
concepts to relevant examples. Management Live illustrates how learning styles are depicted in
the movie, Mr. Holland’s Opus. Choices turns to the issue of how employers differ on hiring and
retention strategies. Ethics Check profiles the issue of tracking technology to monitor worker
behavior. Facts to Consider introduces data on how generations differ when rating their bosses
that can used for discussion in the classroom or online for distance learning. Hot Topic explores
topic of best employers for work-life balance. Insight profiles individual learning styles. Quick
Case presents a management style under scrutiny.
Chapter two outlines the contributions of management theorists or “thought leaders” of their
time, who made great contributions to the evolution of management. Great contributions were
made to the development of classical management approaches, behavioral management
approaches and modern management thinking. Some of the theories and ideas are discussed in
Schermerhorn and Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2-2
industries. Evidence-based management, as its name suggests, is most effective when managers can
separate fads from fact and conjecture from informed insight.
Chapter 2 Takeaway Questions:
• Takeaway 2.1 – Understand lessons from classical management approaches.
• Takeaway 2.2 – Identify insights from behavioral management approaches.
• Takeaway 2.3 – Recognize foundations of modern management approaches.
Chapter 2 Lecture Outline:
Takeaway 2.1: What are the Lessons of the Classical Management Approaches?
o Taylor’s scientific management sought efficiency in job performance.
Takeaway 2.2: Identify insights from the behavioral management approaches
o Follett viewed organizations as communities of cooperative action.
Takeaway 2.3: Recognize foundations of modern management thinking
o Managers use quantitative analysis and tools to solve complex problems.
o Organizations are open systems that interact with their environments.
CHAPTER 2 Supporting Materials
Figures
• Figure 2.1: Who Are the Major Contributors to the Behavioral or Human Resource
Approaches to Management Thinking?
• Figure 2.2: How Does Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs Operate?
• Figure 2.3: How Do Organizations as Open Systems Interact with Their External
Environments?
• Figure 2.4 How Do Organizations Operate as Complex Networks of Subsystems?
Feature Boxes and More
Schermerhorn and Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
• Management Live: Learning Style and Mr. Holland’s Opus
• Choices: Employers Differ on Hiring and Retention Strategies
Applications
• TestPrep 2 Multiple-Choice Questions
• Skill Building Portfolio
o Self-Assessment 2: Managerial Assumptions. Assumptions influence behavior . . .
discover your Theory X/Y tendencies.
o Class Exercise 2: Evidence-Based Management Quiz. It’s easy to bet on hearsay .
Chapter Outline:
Takeaway Question 2.1 What are the lessons of the classical management approach?
Taylor’s scientific management sought efficiency in job performance
✓ Major branches in the classical approaches to management are illustrated
✓ 1911 book by Frederick Taylor The Principles of Scientific Management
• Identify basic steps and motions of jobs and determine the most efficient ways of
doing them
• Four principles of scientific management:
o Develop a science for each job
• See “Tips to Remember” Scientific Lessons for Today’s Managers
o
Make results-based compensation a performance incentive.
Schermerhorn and Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2-4
o
Train supervisors to support workers to best perform their jobs.
• Weber’s bureaucratic organization is supposed to be efficient and fair
✓ Late-19th century German intellectual insights have made a significant impact on
management and sociology of organizations
➢ Bureaucracy type of organization could be highly efficient and very fair
➢ Relies on logic, order, and legitimate authority
➢ Government agencies or large colleges may be examples
➢ Table 2.1 lists characteristics of an ideal bureaucracy
➢ Clear Division of Labor Jobs are well defined, and workers become highly
skilled at performing them.
➢ Clear Hierarchy of Authority and responsibility are well defined, and each
position reports to a higher-level one.
➢ Formal Rules and Procedures Written guidelines describe expected behavior
and decisions in jobs; written files are kept for the historical record.
➢ Impersonality Rules and procedures are impartially and uniformly applied;
no one gets preferential treatment.
➢ Careers Based on Merit Workers are selected and promoted on ability and
performance; managers are career employees of the organization.
DISCUSSION TOPIC
Modern management theory does not consider bureaucracy to be appropriate or inappropriate for
all situations; instead, the bureaucratic structure is recommended for simple and stable
environments, while more flexible structures are suggested for dynamic and complex
environments. Ask students to explain why a bureaucratic organization would be an
inappropriate structure for organizations operating in very dynamic and complex environments.
• Facts to Consider: Generations Differ When Rating Their Bosses
✓ Would it surprise you that Millennials (born 1982–1996) have somewhat different views
of their bosses than their Generation X and Baby Boomer co-workers? Check out these
data from a Kenexa survey that asked 11,000 respondents to rate their managers’
performance.
➢ Overall performance positive—Boomers 55%, Gen Xers 59%,
Millennials 68%
➢ People management positive—Boomers 50%, Gen Xers 53%,
• Fayol’s Administrative principles describe managerial duties and
practices
Schermerhorn and Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
✓ Henri Fayol published Administration Industrielle et Générale, outlining his views on
proper management of organizations.
✓ Fayol’s five “rules” or “duties” closely resemble the four functions used in management
today: Foresight, Organization, Command, Coordination and Control.
✓ Scalar chain principle: the chain of command and communication is clear and unbroken
from the bottom (line workers) to the top (top managers) of the organization.
✓ Unity of command principle: workers should only have one boss.
DISCUSSION TOPIC
One way to introduce this chapter is to ask students, “Why do we bother to study management
history?” Students are quick to point out that we can learn from the experiences of others, and
can capitalize on their successes and avoid their mistakes. After all, those who are “ignorant of
history are doomed to repeat it.”
2.1 Questions for discussion suggested answers
1) How did Taylor and Weber differ in the approaches they took to improving the
performance of organizations?
2) Should Weber’s concept of the bureaucratic organization be scrapped, or does it still have
potential value today?
3) What are the risks of accepting the “lessons of experience” offered by successful
executives such as Fayol?
2.1 Career Situation: What Would You Do?
It’s summer job time, and you’ve found something that just might work—handling customer
service inquiries for a local Internet provider. The regular full-time employees are paid by the
Schermerhorn and Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
DISCUSSION TOPIC
Modern management theory does not consider bureaucracy to be appropriate or inappropriate for
all situations; instead, the bureaucratic structure is recommended for simple and stable
environments, while more flexible structures are suggested for dynamic and complex
environments. Ask students to explain why a bureaucratic organization would be an
inappropriate structure for organizations operating in very dynamic and complex environments.
Takeaway Question 2.2 Identify insights from the behavioral management approaches
During the 1920s, the contributions of behavioral management approaches focused attention on
the human side of organizations as communities of cooperative action and “employee
ownership.” Self–actualizing and social, Maslow’s described a hierarchy of human needs,
relevant within the organization. McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y created managerial
assumptions about workers and their level of motivation. Agryris’s ideas simply suggested that
workers treated like adults will be happy and more productive.
• See Figure 2.1: Who Are the Major Contributors to the Behavioral or Human Resource
Approaches to Management Thinking?
• Follett viewed organizations as communities of cooperative action
✓ Mary Parker Follett believed that a groups or a sense of community were important
aspects of organizations.
• The Hawthorne studies focused attention on the human side of organizations
✓ Elton Mayo of Harvard University commenced a study in 1924 at the Western Electric
Company to determine how economic incentives and physical conditions of the
workplace affected the output of workers
DISCUSSION TOPIC
To the Hawthorne researchers’ surprise, the workers in the Bank Wiring Room established an
informal group norm regarding the quantity of output that was below the standard set by
management. Output was restricted despite a group incentive plan that rewarded each worker on
the basis of the total output of the group. Group members enforced this output restriction norm
by using disciplinary devices such as sarcasm, ridicule, ostracizing co-workers, and “binging.”
Schermerhorn and Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2-7
For fun, ask the students if they know what “binging” means; chances are they won’t. Then find
a volunteer for a demonstration. Pretend that you are going to “Bing” the student by punching
him or her in the arm but stop short before making contact. This amuses the class while
demonstrating the lengths that groups will go to in enforcing norms. Wrap up the demonstration
by noting the contribution of the Hawthorne Studies in revealing these subtle group processes.
• Maslow described a hierarchy of human needs with self-actualization at the top
✓ Human need is a physical or psychological deficiency that a person feels compelled to
satisfy
✓ Maslow described five levels of human needs that affect behavior (see Figure 2.2)
• Mc Gregor believed managerial assumptions create self-fulfilling prophesies
✓ Douglas McGregor wrote the classic book The Human Side of Enterprise
✓ Theory X – set of negative assumptions about workers; they dislike work, lack ambition,
DISCUSSION TOPIC
Once you have presented the assumptions held by Theory X and Theory Y managers, ask
students to think about supervisors they worked for and to indicate if the supervisors seemed to
make Theory X or Theory Y assumptions about their subordinates. Then ask: “How did these
supervisors treat their employees?” “Do you consider them to be good or bad managers?”
• Explore Yourself: Learning Style
✓ Each of us has a preferred learning style, a set of ways through which we like to learn by
• Argyris suggests that workers treated as adults will be more productive
✓ Chris Argyris wrote the book Personality and Organization
Schermerhorn and Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2-8
✓ Many organizations treat workers like children, which is counterproductive
✓ Networks create the opportunity through which many agenda items can be fulfilled
Most managers maintain extensive networks not only with their own organization, but also with
customers, suppliers, and community representatives
2.2 Questions for discussion suggested answers
1. How did insights from the Hawthorne studies redirect thinking
from the classical management approaches and toward something
quite different?
2. If Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is correct, how can a manager use it to become
more effective?
3. Where and how do McGregor’s notions of Theory X and Theory Y overlap with Argyris’s
ideas regarding adult personalities?
2.2 Career Situation: What Would You Do?
As a manager in a small local firm, you’ve been told that because of an uncertain economy,
workers can’t be given any pay raises this year. You have some really hardworking and high-
performing people on your team, and you were counting on giving them solid raises. What can
you do? Can insights from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs help you solve this dilemma? Is it
possible to find ways other than pay to reward team members for high performance and keep
them motivated?
Schermerhorn and Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
needs. Self-actualization includes achievement at work, challenging work, and possibly
becoming a subject-matter expert.
Takeaway Question 2.3: What Are the Foundations of Modern Management
Thinking?
• Managers use quantitative analysis and tools to solve complex problems
✓ Analytics is the analysis of data to solve problems and make sound decisions
• Organizations are open systems that interact with their environments
✓ Open systems obtain resources from the external environment; perform work activities
• Figure 2.3 How Do Organizations as Open Systems Interact with Their External
Environments?
• Contingency thinking recognizes there is no one best way to manage
• Quality management focuses attention on continuous improvement
• W. Edwards Deming assisted Japanese industry in the 1950s with quality control
techniques that included: tally defects, analyze and trace them to the source, make
• Manager’s Library: Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Schermerhorn and Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2-10
Author Malcolm Gladwell’s books (The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers) all provide
interesting reading and provocative thinking that are very applicable to the way we
manage people and resources. This Manager’s Library feature introduces concepts from
Outliers that try to explain factors that lead some to greatness such as IQ, practice,
positive attitude, assertiveness and social savvy. Gladwell concludes that success is
something that most of us can achieve under the right circumstances. Reflect and React
discussion
• Evidence-based management seeks hard facts about what really works
✓ Evidence-based management is the process of using data from a large number of
organizations to determine facts about effective management practices that can be
validated by research.
2.3 Questions for discussion suggested answers
1. Can you use the concepts of open system and subsystem to describe the operations of an
organization in your community?
Municipal governments and colleges are often organized and also function as Open Systems and
Subsystems. For example, the zoning department and tax assessment departments are separate
2. In addition to the choice of organization structures, in what other areas of management
decision making do you think contingency thinking plays a role?
An effective manager should have a contingency plan for such areas as weather-related or
crisis-related matters such as plant closings to ensure timely resumption (and security and
3. Does evidence-based management allow for managers to learn from their own experiences as
well as the experiences of others?
Managers who use their own experience need to make sure their perspective on the previous
2.3 Career Situation: What Would You Do?
You’ve just come up with a great idea for improving productivity and morale in a shop that silk–
screens T-shirts for college bookstores. Your idea is to allow 401 employees to work four 10–
hour days if they want instead of the normal five-day/40-hour week. With the added time off,
you reason, they’ll be happier and more productive while working. But your boss isn’t so sure.
“Show me some evidence,” she says. Can you design a research study that can be done in the
shop to show whether your proposal is a good one?
Teaching Notes:
In this section, ideas, exercises, and assignments are provided to assist you in integrating the
concepts in Exploring Management 6e for your students, especially the special features of the
text.
Management Live: Learning Style and Mr. Holland’s Opus
The movie, Mr. Holland’s Opus, is about a music teacher (played by Richard Dreyfus), who
learns the unique lesson of adapting the way he teaches music to the unique learning styles of his
Choices: Employers Differ on Hiring and Retention Strategies