Transparency International’s Annual Corruption Perceptions Index measures perceptions of corruption by business-people, risk analysts and the general public, and ranges between 10 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt). Yuo can read more about this on their website here.

Interesting to see we live in one of the cleanest countries in the world, what a wonderful country. Click for full size.

As organisations are becoming more complex in modern organisations, it can be argued to be both, either a science or an art, depending upon how it is approached. Lets have a look below:

ART – All managers at some point deal with people and problems in the real world. They are required to quickly make decisions, thus relying on intuition, experience, instinct and personal insights.

SCIENCE – Many management problems can be approached in a rational, logical, objective, systematic way. Quantitative models can be employed to arrive at ‘correct’ decisions.

Have a look below at Management in Antiquity and how different countries used management:

• Sumerians – written rules of governance.
• Egyptians – management principles to organise large scale construction projects. EG, the pyramids.
• Babylonians – laws and policies of governance.
• Chinese – extensive organisational structure for government agencies and the arts.
• Greeks – different governing systems for city and state.
• Romans – organisational structure and hierarchical management for communication and control.
• Venetians – assembly line operation to build sailing vessels.

Do you think managers today use a blend of art and science in their role? What determines this blend?

From 1925 to 1932 a series of psychology experiments were conducted at the Hawthorne Western Electric Plant. Australian psychologist, Elton Mayo (1880-1949), who some refer to as the founder of the human relations movement,  was the Harvard professor and research team leader behind the project. His aim was to see if human’s productivity increased depending on how bright the lights were in the plant.

Illumination Experiments led Mayo and his team to conclude that human beings respond to the social, psychological experience of participation. The Illumination experiments saw changes in lighting intensity provoke increases in productivity rates among shop-floor factory workers (irrespective of whether the lights were turned up or down).

This means that when someone dimmed or increased the lights the workers noticed and thought, “wow, there watching us at the moment.” This made them increase productivity. Maybe they would of formed better results if the employees didn’t know they were testing and the light changes were very small.

So what is the Human relations movement?

• Employees are essentially social beings, not merely rational economic ones.
• As social beings, employees are members of groups and are NOT motivated strictly by monetary gain.
• Managers should always relate to individuals with full awareness of the nature of groups and their influence on individual behaviour.
• The manager is responsible for turning these informal groups into positive forces in the workplace.
• Managerial effectiveness often depends upon a relationship of mutual trust between employees and their superiors.
• Aside from the ground-breaking work by Elton Mayo at the Hawthorne plant, several other names are also closely associated with the Human Relations Movement such as Abraham Maslow and Douglas McGregor.

What do you think of Mayo’s experiment? Good? Bad? Or maybe interesting?

1 hour away till my last uni exam for the semester, I leave you with this wonderful quote. Wish me luck

“There is one and only one responsibility of business: to use its resources and energy in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game … engages in open and free competition, without deception and fraud … few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible.”

Friedman (1968)

“A skill that involves your ability to reflect upon, to question effectively, and to suspend your judgment or belief in relevant knowledge.”

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