Organisation and Management Theory

Case Studies:

P&O Ferries appear to follow the human relations school which is centred around people. Joe Keight, the call centre manager for P&O Ferries claims that he felt it was important for the brand to be known for customer service and brilliant call centre experiences, both for consumers and also within the wider company. This shows that he is interested in ensuring customer as well as employee satisfaction. Employee satisfaction is also gained by Herzberg’s theories of job enrichment, job enlargement and job rotation (which comes under the human relations school. “It’s motivated our staff, gained real commitment to the call centre from the board, and shown us how to talk to our customers better” says Keight. “The feedback from the trainers and the staff has been amazing” claims Keight, showing again that employees are enjoying their work. The human relations school sees organisations as social systems. Keight says that P&O Ferries pride themselves on treating customers as people rather than just calls. The Human relations school focuses on the need to pay attention to the needs and interests of workers.

P&O Ferries also relates to the contingency approach which is concerned with the importance of structure as a significant influence on organisational performance. The Top 50 presented the ideal opportunity to prove the worth and value of the contact centre which and Joe Keight joined the company because he wanted to improve its image. The contingency approach considers the success of the company as important and this obviously relates to its image. As well as the external environment and size being issues with P&O Ferries technology is also vital, as improving phone calls to customers is all part of their programme. “We’ve had so many calls from people around the business - it’s really boosted the profile of the contact centre internally” says Joe Keight. By improving technology and the way they answer phone calls, P&O Ferries has helped to improve their image. P&O Ferries are Europe’s biggest ferry company, however “they do not have the best reputation” admits Keight. Within the travel industry however they are behind leading airline companies.

http://www.top50callcentres.co.uk/pando
Specsavers are another company that use the human relations approach. Head of call centre services at Specsavers, Jonathan George states “We linked the success of the Top 50 to department incentives, with the individual who achieved the best scores during the calling period getting the chance to attend the gala celebration”. Using incentives like this is a fantastic way of motivating employees to work harder (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs). George insists that the Top 50 did a tremendous job of reminding staff of the importance of giving great customer service: “The fact that the hard work they have put into improving quality has been recognised externally has been a huge boost for staff and really pushes them to perform even better”. To further motivate staff, Specsavers have introduced a new reward scheme, rewarding a king and queen of service each month. This is to ensure the quality of service is kept high as employees are tested on the way they engage and talk to customers. All of this involves the organisation as being a very social system (human relations approach).

Like P&O Ferries, Specsavers also use the contingency approach. With the size part of the contingency approach George claims that he wants to help Specsavers become the best call centre. “The fact that we weren’t number one has got us thinking what we can do better and how we can boost our performance”. He admits that being in the top 50, has helped improve the company’s image. “The Top 50 has led others in the business to better regard the value of the call centre to the organisation, and I find it much easier to get support for contact centre projects as a result of participation and success. What’s more, the team uses the Top 50 as a way of attracting staff who want to work for one of the best contact centres in the UK”. With the external environment side of the contingency approach, George says that on a personal level it has helped him improve relations with other call centres. “It’s also helped me build better relationships with other centres and share best practice. I’ve been sharing performance levels with fellow managers and discussing with them what we should be doing differently”. This is further evidence of Specsavers using the contingency approach within its organisation. On the technology side of the contingency approach, Specsavers are always trying to improve, with things like new glasses and better eye tests. “Consistency is incredibly important to us. It really is about quality”. All of these aspects, are part of the contingency approach, and shows that Specsavers focus heavily on this approach as well as the human relations school.
http://www.top50callcentres.co.uk/specsavers

After analysing both P&O Ferries and Specsavers, it appears that both businesses use the human relations school, and the contingency approach within their organisations. However where Specsavers seem more task and job centred, P&O Ferries appear to be more people centred. Both companies show signs of all four approaches (The Classical school, (The Human Relations school, the Contingency Approach and the Systems Approach) however it is the contingency approach and the human relations school which really stand out in both of these businesses. Specsavers uses extremely good benefits and incentives to motivate their employees, like king and queen servicer of the month. P&O Ferries on the other hand try to treat employees and customers alike, all with the same politeness and respect. Specsavers aim to become the number 1 call centre in the UK. P&O Ferries aim to improve their customer service so much so that their reputation precedes them and their company becomes synonymous with excellent customer service.

Scientific Management is an analytical approach to managing activities by optimizing efficiency and productivity through measurement and control. Scientific Management is sometimes called “Taylorism” as it is based on the work by Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) who even wrote a book in 1911 called “The Principles of Scientific Management”. His Scientific Management principles basically break down every job or task into smaller, more manageable and easier segments.

Taylor’s 4 principles of Scientific Management are:

1. Replace rule-of-thumb work methods with methods based on a scientific study of the tasks.
2. Scientifically select, train and develop each worker, rather than leaving them to train themselves.
3. Co-operate with the workers to ensure that the scientifically developed methods are being followed.
4. Divide work almost equally between managers and workers, so that managers apply the scientific management principles to planning the work, and the workers actually complete the tasks.

http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/scientific/

Scientific management improves productivity. Scientific management is essential for any type of business these days. It aims at introducing new and improved methods of production and removal of wastage and inefficiency in undertaking the production activities. As the work is simplified, it significantly reduces the number of disagreements. Close understanding, mutual trust and confidence between the employees and the managers are also given importance in this type of management. This type of management is also beneficial for the workers as they start getting higher salaries than before. Higher salaries will increase employee motivation, and therefore productivity and increased profits. Under scientific management, the work is carried out systematically in accordance with pre-determined plans. Wastage of time is reduced to a minimum and the quality of work is enhanced. Even the recruitment is conducted along scientific lines, ensuring that the correct type of person is chosen for a specific role. Proper working hours followed by rest pauses, adequate lightning, freshening, ensuring proper safety, provision of many other facilities etc. are made certain.

As well as scientific management being very helpful for businesses these days, there are also many disadvantages. Workers are motivated mainly by money. Piece rates (payment by each piece produced) was introduced, and this meant that younger workers were paid more than older ones as they were able to produce more. Although productivity was increased, quality decreased. The workers felt alienated, and they became an add-on to machines. The theory was built around the assumption that man is naturally lazy and motivated by money. The core job dimensions of skill variety, task identity, task significance and feedback were all missing from the picture of scientific management.

The repetitiveness of work was also increased, therefore increasing boredom, which would in turn decrease employee motivation. It is believed that through the use of scientific management Taylor increased productivity on the shop floor by 200 percent. Taylor’s ideas and thoughts were adopted throughout the world including in France, Russia and Japan. In today’s world scientific management has been merged with other ideas and is used by managers in the form of time and motion studies to eradicate wasted motions, incentive schemes based on performance and hiring the best qualified workers for each job.
http://www.learnmanagement2.com/scientificmanagement.htm