Management science or quantitative approach. Quantitative approach to management

Schools of Human Relations and Behavioral Sciences

Classical school in management

Evolution of scientific management ideas

1. Evolution of scientific management ideas

Management in one form or another has always existed where people worked in groups. Mainly in three areas of human society:

1) political (the need to establish and maintain order in groups);

2) economic (the need for the production and distribution of resources);

3) defensive (protection from enemies and wild animals).

In the periodization of management we can distinguish 4 stages:

1) ancient (initial)(from 9-7 thousand BC to the 18th century) – the emergence of management thought (Hammurabi, Socrates, Plato, etc.). The rudimentary, simplest forms of ordering and organizing joint labor existed at the stage of the primitive communal system. Management was carried out jointly by all members of the clan, tribe or community. The elders and leaders of clans and tribes personified the guiding principle of all types of activities.

Key provisions of this stage:

Classification of forms of public administration and an attempt to delimit the functions of its bodies;

Accumulation of experience in public sector management;

Characteristics of management as a special field of activity.

2) industrial (1776-1885)

Key points:

The division of labor and a description of the economic benefits resulting from this to organizations and society;

Ideas and practical skills for humanizing production management;

Recognition of the need for training, improvement of working and living conditions of workers;

Development of the “analytical engine” project - the prototype of modern digital computing technology.

3) period of systematization (1885-1950)

This stage includes the creation of several management schools that laid the foundation for its development:

A) school of scientific management(F. Taylor, the Gilbrettes - Frank and Lilean, G. Ford, etc.).

Key points:

Using scientific analysis to determine the best ways to solve problems;

Selection of workers most suitable for solving problems and their training;

Awareness of the need to stimulate employees in order to create interest in high work results.

B) administrative (classical) school(A. Fayolle, M. Weber, etc.)

Key points:

Recognition of managing a universal process consisting of several interrelated functions;

Separation of administration into a separate function;

Development universal principles management for effective management of the organization.

IN) school of human relations(E. Mayo, M.P. Follett, etc.).

Key points:

The team represents a special social group;

Interpersonal relationships act as a factor in increasing the efficiency and potential of each employee;

Informal relations in production are a significant organizational force;

Staff need to be given greater opportunities to communicate at work.

G) behavioral school(use of the science of human behavior) (A. Maslow, D. McGregor).

Main conclusions:

The need to create psychological climate promoting the development of the abilities of the organization’s employees;

The correct application of behavioral science, which helps to improve the performance of both the individual employee and the organization as a whole.

4) information stage (from 1950 to the present time).

This stage is characterized by the creation of the following management approaches:

A) quantitative approach(use of economic and mathematical methods, computer technology in management, development and application of models for decision making in difficult situations and etc.)

B) systems approach considers an organization as a set of interrelated elements focused on achieving various goals in a changing external environment.

IN) process approach views management as a continuous series of interrelated management functions (planning, organization, coordination, motivation and control), united by the connecting processes of communication and decision-making. The management process is the sum total of all functions.

G) situational approach relates specific concepts and techniques to specific situations.

2. Classical school in management

The classical school of management had two directions:

- school of scientific management, the founder of which is F. Taylor,

- school of administration, which was headed by Henri Fayol.

Scientific management dealt with the problem of increasing labor productivity by individual workers. Administrative management focused on managing the entire organization as a whole.

The main provisions of Taylor's concept:

1. Dividing production operations into their component elements, studying each of them. Development of standard methods for performing each operation and replacing with them old, established methods of work.

2. Selection of workers for each operation, taking into account the required abilities; training them in new ways of working to perform operations in the best possible way.

3. Establishment of differentiated wages depending on compliance with established standards.

4. Cooperation between management and workers in implementation new organization labor.

5. Equal distribution of labor and responsibility between the administration and workers.

F. Taylor advocated separating the managerial functions of thinking and planning from the actual execution of work. He believed that a manager should think, and a worker should work. He considered the main task of enterprise management to be ensuring maximum profit for the entrepreneur in conjunction with maximum well-being for each employed worker. F. Taylor emphasized that the true interests of both are not opposite, but coincide. The well-being of one in the long term cannot exist without the well-being of the other.

Weak sides his theories:

1) F. Taylor saw in the employee only the performer of simple operations and functions, a means to achieve a goal;

2) he did not take into account the social context of work and the higher needs of workers, other than material ones;

3) did not recognize disagreements, contradictions, and conflicts between people;

4) was inclined to treat workers as uneducated people and ignored their ideas and suggestions.

So, F. Taylor was mainly concerned with the issues of production management in the workshop and the rationalization of the labor of an individual worker. Huge contribution Alexander Bogdanov, Alexey Gastev, Osip Yermansy, Platon Kerzhentsev and others contributed to the development of issues of labor and production organization in relation to Russia.

But since the 20s, the development of more general principles of organization and approaches to enterprise management as a whole began. A. Fayol is considered the founder of this trend in the classical school. His main work is “General and Industrial Management” (1916). In it A. Fayol develops general principles administration. In his opinion, administration is component management, which covers the broader activities of the enterprise and includes the following functions: production, commercial, financial, insurance, accounting and administrative. Analyzing the administrative function, A. Fayol identifies 5 of its elements: foresight, organization, management, coordination and control.

A. Fayol developed management principles that he considered universal and applicable to any administrative activity. However, in practice, the application of these principles should be flexible and depend on the situation in which management is carried out. These principles are:

1) division of labor;

2) power (the right to give orders and the power to force them to obey);

3) discipline (following certain rules, principles in the organization);

4) unity of management (unity of command);

5) unity of leadership (one boss - one program);

6) subordination of private interests to the general;

7) staff remuneration (it should stimulate work with the highest efficiency);

8) centralization;

9) hierarchy (building a chain of command from manager to subordinate);

10) order (everyone should know their place in the organization);

11) justice (equality);

12) constancy of personnel;

13) initiative (the ability to create and implement a plan. The initiative of everyone, combined with the initiative of the authorities, is a great strength for the enterprise);

14) staff unity (harmony and corporate spirit).

Further development of the classical school took place in two directions: rationalization of production and research common problems management. Here we can highlight the works of Harrington Emerson, Lindell Urwick, Max Weber.

3. Schools of Human Relations and Behavioral Sciences

The school of human relations, which is also called the neoclassical school, was founded by G. Munsterberg, M. Folette and E. Mayo. The formation of this school was due to the fact that the principles of Taylorism could not meet the needs of developing capitalism: they did not take into account the individual personality.

Proponents of the psychological approach believed that the main emphasis in management should be shifted to people and human relationships. They proceeded from that indisputable fact that human activity is not controlled economic forces, but various needs, and money is not always able to satisfy these needs.

Representatives of the school of human relations studied management processes using methods developed in sociology and psychology. In particular, they were the first to use tests and special forms of interviews when hiring.

Representatives of the human relations school argued that effective management can only be if managers sufficiently know the personal characteristics of their subordinates, their strengths and weak spots. Only in this case can the manager fully and effectively use their capabilities.

The merits of the supporters of the school of human relations are very great. Before them, psychology had practically no data on how the human psyche is connected with his work activity. It was within the framework of this school that research was carried out that significantly enriched our understanding of mental activity.

The traditions of the school of human relations were continued within the school of behavioral sciences (R. Likert, D. McGregor, K. Argiris, F. Herzberg), the ideas of which subsequently formed the basis of such a section of management as personnel management.

This concept was based on the ideas of behaviorism - a psychological direction that considered human behavior as a reaction to stimuli from the outside world. Proponents of this approach believed that production efficiency can be achieved only by influencing each individual person using various incentives.

The views of representatives of this school were based on the judgment that a prerequisite for the effectiveness of an individual worker’s work is his awareness of his own capabilities. A number of methods have been developed to help achieve this goal. For example, in order to increase the efficiency of work, it was proposed to change its content or involve an employee in the management of the enterprise. Scientists believed that with the help of such methods it was possible to achieve the unfolding of the employee’s capabilities.

However, the ideas of the school of behavioral sciences turned out to be limited. This does not mean that the developed methods are completely unsuitable. The fact is that they operate only in some cases: for example, the involvement of an employee in the management of an enterprise does not always affect the quality of his work, since everything depends primarily on psychological characteristics person.

4. Quantitative, process, systemic and situational approaches to management

In the 1950s there arose quantitative approach in management , or operations research.

He continued the direction of F. Taylor, but on the basis of new achievements in mathematics, statistics, computer technology. This direction developed decision-making models in the most complex situations, where one cannot limit oneself to direct cause-and-effect dependence. Quantitative values ​​of the studied variables were substituted into the finished model and the optimal solution to the problem was calculated.

Process approach was first proposed by adherents of the school of administrative management, who tried to describe the functions of a manager. However, these functions were considered to be independent of each other. The process approach, in contrast, views management functions as interrelated.

Management is seen as a process because working to achieve goals with the help of others is not a one-time action, but a series of continuous interrelated actions - management functions. Each management function is also a process because it also consists of a series of interrelated actions.

Systems approach views the organization as an open system consisting of several interconnected subsystems. System is a set of interdependent elements, each of which makes a certain contribution to the characteristics of the whole. Open systems (as opposed to closed ones) interact with the external environment. The organization receives resources from the external environment, processes them and produces goods and services to the external environment. Systems theory helps managers understand the interdependencies between parts of an organization and between the organization and its environment.

At the end of the 60s it began to be developed situational approach to management. It became a logical continuation of systems theory. The situational approach does not reject the given theories. It takes advantage of the direct application of science to specific situations and conditions. The central point of this approach is the situation. A situation is understood as a specific set of internal and external circumstances(factors) that influence the organization in given time. It is the situation that determines management functions, the choice of methods, styles, structures, management principles to achieve the organization’s goals in the most effective way. From the situation's point of view the best way there is no control. The situational approach attempts to determine which variables are significant and how they affect organizational performance.

That is, the situational approach attempts to link specific techniques and concepts (in particular, the systems approach) with specific situations in order to achieve the goals of the organization most effectively. He identified the major internal and external variables that influence an organization. Internal: goals, structure, tasks, technology, people. External: suppliers, consumers, competitors, trade unions, politics, economics, culture, etc.

5. " New philosophy management"

In a complex combination of different approaches and schools of management, a “new philosophy of management” was formed; it is also called the policy of post-Fordism, which characterizes modern stage development of management science. The “New Management Philosophy” has three components.

1. The concept of group collaboration, which involves improving labor interaction, focusing on working in teams, project and target groups, creating favorable climate in a team, cooperation with the administration.

2. The concept of humanization of labor associated with the adaptation of technology to the worker, improvement of working conditions, enrichment of the labor process, and strengthening of creative elements in its content.

3. Democratization of governance, which consists in the transition from rigid hierarchical structures to flat, flexible structures; in delegating down part of management powers, expanding the independence and responsibility of performers in solving problems arising in the workplace.

The democratization of management of the use of more flexible systems remuneration and participation of employees in the profits and property of the organization. These three components are necessary due to the fact that the organization operates in an uncertain environment and must develop the ability to adapt to environmental changes. It must produce a variety of goods in small batches using multipurpose equipment and skilled labor, whereas Fordism is characterized by the mass production of standardized goods based on the use of specialized (designed for a single task and tied to a single product) equipment and semi-skilled labor.

Topic 3. Organization and its living environment

The formation of a quantitative school is associated with the development of mathematics, statistics, engineering and other fields of knowledge. The scientific method in analyzing work was also used by F.U. Taylor. But before World War II, quantitative methods were underutilized.

The possibility of using the achievements of mathematics served as the basis for the creation of a school of “management science” - a “quantitative” school. This school applied exact sciences (economic and mathematical methods, operations research theory, statistics, cybernetics, etc.) to solve management problems, thereby making a significant contribution to the development of management science. Representatives of this school are: R. Ackoff, L. Bertalanffy, S. Beer, A. Goldberger, L.V. Kantorovich ( Nobel laureate), V.V. Novozhilov and others. Representatives of this school contributed to an in-depth understanding of complex management problems through the development and application of models, and used precise methods for making decisions in complex situations. The impetus for the use of these methods in management came from the introduction and development of computer technology.

The school of management science was formed in the early 50s. and is still operating successfully today. In the school of management science there are two main directions:

Considering production as " social system» using systemic, process and situational approaches.

Research into management problems based on system analysis and the use of a cybernetic approach, including the use of mathematical methods and computers.

During the period preceding the formation of the school of management science, a management theory was created that is able not only to explain practice, but also to give specific recommendations for improving actions for managers. A large number of “principles,” “commandments,” “rules,” “memos,” etc. were developed. However, managers did not always resort to using these pieces of advice, since they often turned out to be abstract and difficult to apply in practice. Certain provisions of the theory were of only scientific value. Very often, researchers cared little about this. This approach to management problems is called empirical. Its main content is the statement that the effectiveness of management depends on the ability to manage people.

Despite the diversity of views developed within the empirical school, its supporters are united by a frankly pragmatic orientation, which is based on the study of management practice in order to develop recommendations that, as a rule, have direct practical significance.

Representatives of this school usually emphasize that the achievements of mathematics, cybernetics and other sciences should not be neglected. But they attach decisive importance to direct management experience, proving that management activity itself remains largely an art, which is taught not so much by theory as by practice.

This direction claims to be the creators of American management science, scientific management. Representatives of managerialism view the problem of production management as a problem of people management, and scientific management- as a scientifically developed practical tool for improving the art of production management.

It must be said that this direction poses and develops real management problems large enterprises, and his recommendations undoubtedly contribute to increasing production efficiency.

Since management is considered as an art, much attention is paid here to managers and their functions, rules of work and behavior are described.

The empirical school substantiates the idea of ​​professionalization of management, that is, turning the manager’s function into an independent profession. While generally approving of this trend, the main ideologist of the empirical school, Peter Drucker, warns against excessive enthusiasm for this position, arguing that management will never become an exact science and that the criterion of the quality of management will always be practical success in business activities; that is, management is a practice rather than a science or profession, although it contains elements of both. Drucker focuses on the creative side of a manager's activity. He, according to Drucker, performs two specific duties. The first is to create a truly whole production unity from existing resources, that is, to create effective system management. He needs to constantly review the enterprise as a whole, without losing sight of particular issues, since these particular issues, under certain conditions, can become decisive for the activities of the entire enterprise.

Modern approaches to management, their essence

1. Quantitative approach– 1950 – present (school of management science or school of quantitative methods) – arose as a result of the development exact sciences who created an environment for using the achievements of computerization, mathematics, physics and others in management science. Since 1980 the use of control process models (a model is a schematic representation of the future real situation; by assigning various quantitative values ​​to variables, a large number of options for solving a problem can be calculated and the best one can be selected). A key characteristic of management science is the replacement of verbal reasoning with models, symbols and quantitative values. The computer allows you to design more and more complex models. (Most famous models: resource allocation, inventory management, queuing, choice of development strategy).

2. Process approach - 20th. years of the 20th. centuries to the present. The basis for this approach was laid by A. Fayol. Management is considered as a continuous process, its main basic functions are: planning, organization, motivation, control. These functions are in constant mutual communication, united by the processes of decision-making and information transfer.

3. Systematic approach - 50s. years to the present. An organization is a system, that is, a single whole, consisting of interconnected subsystems: departments, areas, management levels, social and technical components. Open system– interacts with the external environment. An organization is a system with its own input (goals and objectives); output (work results); feedback connections (between staff and managers, external suppliers and managers, buyers and internal distributors, etc.); external influences (tax legislation, economic forces, competitors, etc.).

4. Situational approach – 60s. years to the present. Choice of the most effective methods control depending on the specific situation. Since an organization is influenced by many different external and internal factors, then the most effective method of management in a particular situation will be the one that will ensure optimal results for the entire organization. The main point of the approach is the situation, i.e. specific circumstances that have a significant impact on the organization at a given time exact time. Since there are many such factors both in the organization itself and in environment, then there is no best single way to manage the organization's activities. The most effective management method is the one that best suits the current situation. Significant situation variables and their impact on organizational performance should be identified.

Questions to consolidate:
1. Explain the content of the quantitative approach?
2. What is the essence of the process approach?
3. What is the essence systematic approach?
4. What is the difference between the situational approach and the others?

6. Organization as an object of management: concept, characteristics. Formal and informal organizations

There are many firms in the business world that differ in size, variety of products, and methods of ownership. They are organizations. Organization is the basis of the managerial world and is the reason for its existence.

An organization is a group of people whose activities are consciously coordinated to achieve a common goal or goals.

The requirements that a group must meet to be considered an organization are:
1. The presence of at least two people who consider themselves to be this group;
2. These people have a common goal;
3. These people intentionally work together to achieve a goal. (Joint work).

Management is mainly associated with complex organizations - they have not one, but a set of interrelated goals (in different areas: quality of services, personnel, development of new products).

The activities of an organization go through a number of stages (life cycle concept) - from birth, prosperity, up to the cessation of existence or radical modernization.

All organizations are characterized by common features:

1. Use of resources (main: human - people, capital, information);

2. They operate in a certain external environment and are dependent on it (economic conditions, competitors’ activities, consumer demands and behavior, current laws, etc.);

3. Division of labor - all work is divided into separate specialized tasks, divisions (departments or services) are formed. The division of work into its component components is called horizontal division of labor (HLD). The classic example of GRT is the division of all activities into main types: production, marketing, finance.

Horizontally, labor is divided according to the following characteristics:
1. Functional (specialization of employees by type of activity) – engineers; functional specialists: accountants, marketers; workers; employees.
2. By product and industry (associated with specialization and restrictions in performing specific labor operations - specialization of sellers in the sale of one particular product).
3. Qualifying (when determining the types of work activities, they proceed from the complexity of the work and the qualifications necessary to perform them). Senior salesperson, salesperson, junior salesperson.

Since work in an organization is divided into parts, someone must coordinate and coordinate it. The activity of coordinating the work of other people is the essence of management. Managerial work is separated from other labor; this division is called vertical.

Large organizations have a huge amount of management work, which is also divided horizontally, with specific managers (head of the marketing, financial, etc.) departments placed at the head of individual departments and vertically.

The vertical division of managerial labor forms management levels: senior managers (make the most important decisions; develop goals and strategy), middle managers (coordinate the efforts of various divisions of the organization, develop tactics), and lower managers - carry out daily operations and actions.

3. Technical level(low-level managers - production manager, department manager).

The life cycle of an organization is a sequence of qualitatively different stages of system development.

3. maturity: the goal is systematic balanced growth, the formation of an individual image; leadership - democratic, delegation of powers; the main task is to conquer the market; the task in the field of labor organization is the division and cooperation of labor, focus on highly qualified personnel, assessment and support of individual results;
4. aging of the organization: the goal is to maintain what has been achieved; leadership - clear coordination of actions; the main task is stability, free labor organization, participation in profits;
5. revival : the goal is to revive all functions; organizational growth is achieved through staff cohesion; the main task- rejuvenation, introduction of an innovative mechanism, scientific organization of labor and bonuses based on the results of the work of a unit, department, workshop. If the approach is unsuccessful, this stage can be replaced by the stage of dying (disappearance), in which demand for products decreases, losses increase, and qualified personnel move to other companies. If management is unable or unwilling to make efforts to revive the main objective- liquidation with minimal losses.

An organization with formally established relationships is

formal (the system of relations is fixed by job descriptions, regulations, orders).

Groups of people created by the will of management to achieve the goals of the organization are called formal.

A spontaneously formed group of people who entered into regular interaction to achieve certain goals - an informal group or organization (relationships are formed on the basis of personal sympathies, commonality of views, interests, inclinations).

The management process refers to the creation and operation formal organization, but you need to know that within it there are also informal organizations that influence to a certain extent the formal policy. It is important for an organization to informal groups didn't dominate. The manager must learn to manage informal groups.

Questions to consolidate:
1. Define organization.
2. List three requirements that a group must meet to be considered an organization.
3. What general features characterize the organization?
4. By what criteria is labor divided horizontally?
5. Define life cycle.

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The quantitative approach to a photochemical reaction requires that both the amount of material converted and the amount of light absorbed be measured. Changes in the concentrations of substances can be measured in the usual ways, so in this chapter we will deal with such measurements only when it is caused by special conditions conducting a photochemical experiment.

The quantitative approach involves the translation of a qualitative measurement scale into a quantitative one, which creates favorable preconditions for the use of formal methods of analysis, forecasting and optimization in order to select the best strategies.

A quantitative approach to the study of induction effects independent of electronegativity values ​​was proposed by Bellamy and Williams and developed on the basis of their studies of the nature of field effects. The conduct of these studies was connected with the previous work of Smith, Rea, Magee and Eyring on the quantitative relationships between inductive forces and dipole moments of bonds. These authors developed a semi-classical method that allows one to calculate the total residual charges of individual atoms of small molecules under the assumption that only inductive forces act along the bonds. The values ​​obtained in this way can be expressed in terms of the dipole moments of individual bonds, and it has been shown that for a number of methyl halides, the vector addition of their bond moments yields values ​​of the dipole moments of the molecules that are in excellent agreement with experimental data. This method was developed by Bellamy and Williams to calculate the dipole moments of carbonyl bonds of compounds in which mesomeric effects are small or completely absent. They also obtained values ​​of the dipole moments of the molecules that were in good agreement with the experimental results, and continued this study to show that the values ​​of the dipole moments of the carbonyl bond thus obtained were in a simple linear relationship with the observed vibrational frequencies. The upper line refers to special occasion CF3COX compounds, in which field effects prevail over inductive effects, and will be discussed below in the corresponding section.

The quantitative approach comes down to solving a different series of extremal problems, while the qualitative approach boils down to comparing any pair of possible actions using methods of the theory of binary relations.

A quantitative approach to economics makes it possible, first of all, to determine the extent to which production is capable of satisfying current and future needs. Production capability refers to the largest volume of output that can be achieved with full use of resources.

The quantitative approach is also applicable to solving global economic problems at the macro level. In particular, the method of input balances, proposed by the American economist V. Leontiev, was successfully used in many countries, including ours, to adopt management decisions at the level National economy and developing an economic strategy for the state.

The quantitative approach in XPS is based on the fact that the intensities of lines characterizing atoms of a given element located in the same structural position (in the same groups) are, to a certain approximation, proportional to the number of these atoms. But XPS provides more information than simple stoichiometric relationships, because it also allows us to judge the valence states of atoms.

The traditional quantitative approach to inductive interaction is based on the corresponding effects of substituents (see section 1.6) [6, 10, I, 37, p. Since the qualitative interpretation of the observed effects of substituents arose significantly earlier than the formal quantitative approach, the concept of an induction effect was introduced independently of the latter. The question of the possibility of a certain physical interpretation of the induction effect was not posed as a problem at all, but only which of these interpretations should be considered correct was discussed. Neither approach has been developed to a working physical model.

The considered quantitative approaches based on the analysis of the mechanism of heterogeneous catalysis do not always provide comprehensive solution problems of predicting properties and selecting catalysts due to objective reasons related to the incompleteness of the theory of catalysis.

Although the quantitative approach to ion exchange equilibria based on the law of mass action, when equilibrium constants are expressed in terms of concentrations and not in terms of activities, is approximate, it still turns out to be very useful.

Although the quantitative approach to ion exchange equilibria based on the law of mass action, when equilibrium constants are expressed in terms of concentrations and not in terms of activities, is approximate, in many cases it turns out to be very useful. Based on the so-called ion exchange concentration constants, for example, affinity series of cations for a given resin can be constructed, which makes it possible to anticipate the possibilities of ion exchange separations.

The nature of the change in static pressures along the flow lines of the regulatory body at various stages of cavitation. / - gas cavitation. 2 - steam cavitation. 3 - locking mode.

Let's consider quantitative approaches to assessing the possibility of cavitation occurring in a specific automated control system.

Although the quantitative approach was developed to measure commercial credit servicing ability, for most companies the final credit decision is based on the analyst's judgment when evaluating available information. IN consumer credit, Where various characteristics individuals are quantifiable and the decision to grant a loan is made on the basis of data on total debt, numerical assessments are successfully used. Plastic credit cards, which many of you have, are often issued after receiving credit check information, including such characteristics as age, profession, length of service, personal property, length of residence, telephone number and annual income. The numerical rating system is also used by commercial loan companies. With the overall rise in commercial credit, many companies have found that numerical credit scores are worth considering to screen out applications accepted and rejected. The analyst can then focus his efforts on evaluating additional applications.

Quantitative approach

Mathematics, statistics, engineering and related fields of knowledge have made significant contributions to control theory. Their influence can be seen in W. Taylor's use of the scientific method in analyzing work. But before the Second World War, quantitative methods were not used enough in management.

At its core, operations research is the application of methods scientific research to the operational problems of the organization. Once the problem is stated, the operations research team develops a model of the situation. A model is a form of representing reality. Typically, a model simplifies reality or represents it in an abstract way. Models make it easier to understand the complexities of reality. Road map, for example, makes it easier to see spatial relationships on the ground. Without such a model, it would be much more difficult to get to your destination. Similarly, models developed in operations research simplify complex problems by reducing the number of variables to be considered to a manageable number.

After the model is created, the variables are given quantitative values. This allows each variable and the relationships between them to be objectively compared and described. A key characteristic of management science is the replacement of verbal reasoning and descriptive analysis with models, symbols and quantitative values. Perhaps the biggest impetus for the use of quantitative methods in management came from the development of computers. The computer has enabled operations researchers to construct mathematical models of increasing complexity that more closely approximate reality and are therefore more accurate.

The influence of management science, or the quantitative schools, has been much less than the influence of the behaviorist approach, partly because much larger number managers are confronted daily with problems of human relations, human behavior, than with the problems that are the subject of operations research.

Process approach to management

This concept, which marks a major turn in management thought, is widely used today. The process approach was first proposed by adherents of the school of administrative management, who tried to describe the functions of a manager. However, these authors tended to view these types of functions as independent of each other. The process approach, in contrast, views management functions as interrelated.

Management is seen as a process because working to achieve goals with the help of others is not a one-time action, but a series of ongoing interrelated actions. These activities, each a process in itself, are critical to the success of the organization. They are called management functions. Each management function is also a process because it also consists of a series of interrelated actions. The management process is the sum total of all functions.

Henri Fayol, who is credited with originally developing the concept, believed that there were five original functions. According to him, “Management means to predict and plan, organize, command, coordinate and control.” Other authors have developed other lists of functions. A review of modern literature reveals the following functions - planning, organizing, directing (or commanding), motivating, directing, coordinating, controlling, communicating, researching, evaluating, decision-making, recruiting, representing and negotiating or concluding deals. In fact, almost every management publication contains a list of management functions that will be at least slightly different from other similar lists.

The main functions are considered: planning, organization, motivation, control. As connectors: decision making, communications. Management (leadership) is allocated as a separate independent species activities. It involves the ability to influence individual workers or groups of workers to work towards achieving goals.