Re: Require help!

[FVoehl@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/18/0 4:18:17 AM, s_spyrou@yahoo.com wrote:

<<"I am a manager working for an organisation who has
just been taken over by a new parent company.  The new
Manufacturing Director is an enthusiast for something
called "THE SYSTEMS APPROACH" to management.  I am
asked to explain it and how it can be used in your own
manufacturing environment as well as the benefits and
problems with the application of the systems approach,
and examples of the systems approach to management in
real life experiences.">>

The Systems Approach to Management began with the Systems Approach to Human 
Resource Management (HRM) and has been around since the turn of the century 
in one form or another.   The approach includes Industrial Engineering, Labor 
Relations, and Personnel Management, as well as Total Quality.

Starting with Frederick Taylor's concept of the one best way of performing a 
task, this approach has often been the basis of labor/management conflicts.  
Evans and Lindsay write in their seminal work *The Management and Control of 
Quality* that in switching from an adversarial to a TQM/Deming-based 
approach, it is obvious that conflict will arise around these philosophies, 
roles, and methods that have long been held by advocates of these approaches. 
 Classic Industrial Relations is undergoing a transformation from a control 
orientation to a socio-technical systems orientation.  Instead of viewing 
front-line workers as being extensions of machines, IEs are beginning to 
recognize them as capable partners or assistants in the process of developing 
integrated systems.  The 1990s found them becoming partners with line 
employees in problem-solving and decision-making, as well as having a better 
understanding of human motivation and leadership activities and principles.

In 1991, Bounds and Pace developed a model to show how individual activities 
of selection, performance, development, and reward can be tied to the 
identical system activities for a viable HRM process.  While Dr. Deming's 
System of Profound Knowledge and his Enterprise-as-a-System flowchart are 
also good examples, the notion of the Systems approach to Management is much 
broader than one might think.  

Much can be and has been written on this subject.  Contact me on the 
back-channel if you want additional information.  And be sure to ask the 
professor to clarify what he means by the Systems Approach to Management..

Frank Voehl (FVoehl@aol.com)
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