Frank Bunker Gilbreth

FRANK BUNKER GILBRETH (1868 - 1924)
Frank Bunker Gilbreth was a proponent of Taylorism and a pioneer of time-motion studies. With his wife and collaborator, Lillian Moller Gilbreth, he sought to understand the work habits of industrial employees and to find ways to increase their output. Frank and her wife had established a successful industrial engineering consulting system which they offered as an alternative to Frederick W. Taylor's better known system of shop management. Frank had first developed his ideas about how to eliminate wasteful motions and unnecessary fatigue from jobs during his early years as a building contractor. By studying the motions of the most efficient workers, he had begun to systematize his methods for identifying the "one best way" to do any job.
Much of Gilbert’s success came from his incessant serach for efficiancy. He noticed that individuals did not always use the same motions in performing their works. By improving their efficiency, he could eliminate worker fatigue and produce more with less effort. This allowd him to bid loweroncontracts and finish projects more quickly than other builders. Among his construction improvements were new scalefolds for bricklayers, beter conveyors and more effective concrete mixers. Gilbreth was the first to use a “cost plus fixed fee” contract. Now common in the construction industry, the contract encouraged efficient and timely construction.
Resources


Graham, Laurel. “Lillian Gilbreth and the Mental Revolution at Macy's, 1925-1928”. Journal of Management History. Vol 6(7), 2000.

Karwatka, Dennis. “Frank Gilbreth and Production Efficiency”. Tech Directions. Vol 65(6), 2006.
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Lillian Moller Gilbreth

Lillian Moller Gilbreth(1878-1972)
Lillian Moller Gilbreth was a very important person in Industrial Engineering and scientific management.She was an industrial engineer and expert in motion studies, was a pioneer in recognizing the relationship between engineering and human relations.She and her wife Frank Gilbreth had exactly 12 children and both of us educate their children about the motion studies.They have a really normative life .
Gilbreth developed many of her ideas and co-authored numerous books and scientific studies with her husband, Frank .After Frank had died;she created her own nationwide program called ‘Share the Work’ which was made to help people get jobs..In 1966 she was the first woman to receive the Hoover Medal for distinguished public service by an engineer. Other wise she invented the foot-pedal trash can and the shelves inside the refrigerator doors.

Resources

www.greatwomen.org/women.php?action=viewone&id=65 - 14k

Max Weber

Maximillian Carl Emil Weber(1864-1920)

“The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the disenchantment of the world''.
Max Weber
Max Weber was a political economist and sociologist who is regarded widely as one of the most profound thinkers of modern times. Today, his contributions continue to be cited by scholars in many fields, from jurisprudence to economics, from sociology to religion, from political science to business. In the management, leadership and organizational literature, Weber has been most associated with his understanding of bureaucracy, hierarchy of authority, and types of leadership - the most attention given to charismatic leadership.
In the field of bureaucracy, Max Weber has made the single most outstanding contribution. David Beetham, professor of politics at Leeds University and presently a leading exponent of Weber's political theory, dwells on 3 different aspects of his concept of bureaucracy. First, Weber's theory holds that bureaucracy is a technically efficient instrument of administration. Indeed, Weber believes that bureaucracy is technically the most perfectly adapted for achieving the highest level of performance. Second, Weber's theory holds that bureaucracy has an inherent tendency to exceed its instrumental function and emerge as a separate force within society, capable of influencing the goals and character of that society. Third, Weber's theory holds that bureacucracy reflects the class structure of the society. That is, bureaucracy is unable to free itself from the outlook of the social classes from which it is recruited and to which it is allied. In summary, bureaucracy is not merely a technical instrument. It is also a social force with interests and values of its own. As such, it has social consequences beyond its instrumental achievements.
Weber’ criterias of bureaucracy are in the below on table;
Weiss, Richard M. “Weber on Bureaucracy: Management Consultant or Political Theorist?”. The Academy of Management Review. Vol 8(2), 1983.
Gajduschek, Gyorgy. Bureaucracy: “Is It Efficient? Is It Not? Is That The Question? Uncertainty Reduction: An Ignored Element of Bureaucratic Rationality”. Administration&Society. Vol 34(6), 2003.

Henry Fayol

Henry Fayol(1841 Istanbul-1925 Paris)

Fayol (1949) enumerated and discussed 14 "principles" of management. Specifically, these concerned:
(1) division of work;
(2) authority and responsibility;
(3) discipline;
(4) unity of command;
(5) unity of direction;
(6) subordination of individual interest to the general interest;
(7) remuneration;
(8) centralisation;
(9) span of control;
(10) order;
(11) equity;
(12) stability of tenure of personnel;
(13) initiative; and
(14) esprit de corps.
Henry Fayol believes that there are five primary functions of management: (1) planning, (2) organizing, (3) commanding, (4) coordinating, and (5) controlling (Fayol, 1949, 1987).
Some researcher believes that the Fayol model is relevant and appropriate to contemporary management.

Resources
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Fayol - 24k
Isletmelerde Yonetım ve Organızasyon(Ismail efil)
Metu.edu.tr/library databases

Abraham Maslow

Abraham Maslow(1908-1970)
He was an American Phychologist.He is noted for him his conceptualization of a hierarchy of human needs,and is considered the father of humanistic psychology.Maslow concluded
that human needs are organized in a hierarchy of needs include:
1) Basic physiological needs
2) Safety from external danger
3) Love, affection and social activity
4) Esteem and self-respect
5) Self actualization needs
When a self-actualizer doesn’t pursue his or her “calling” and/or is stifled by a highly disruptive environment the result can be stress, depression, despair, disgust, alienation, and a degree of cynicism.
His “Hierarchy of Needs Theory” remains valid today for understanding human motivation, management training, and personal development. Indeed, Maslow's ideas surrounding the Hierarchy of Needs concerning the responsibility of employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages and enables employees to fulfil their own unique potential (self-actualization) are today more relevant than ever.








Each of us is motivated by needs. Our most basic needs are inborn, having evolved over tens of thousands of years. Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs helps to explain how these needs motivate us all. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs states that we must satisfy each need in turn, starting with the first, which deals with the most obvious needs for survival itself. Only when the lower order needs of physical and emotional well-being are satisfied are we concerned with the higher order needs of influence and personal development.
Conversely, if the things that satisfy our lower order needs are swept away, we are no longer concerned about the maintenance of our higher order needs.
Maslow's original Hierarchy of Needs model was developed between 1943-1954, and first widely published in Motivation and Personality in 1954. At this time the Hierarchy of Needs model comprised five needs. This original version remains for most people the definitive Hierarchy of Needs.
Maslow saw these issues fifty years ago:” The fact that employees have a basic human need and a right to strive for self-actualisation, just as much as the corporate directors and owners do”.

Resources
Ananymous. “Maslow’s Hierarchy: A Framework For Ynderstanding Ourselves?”. Business Owner. Vol 30(2), 2006.

Dye, Kelly ve Diğerleri. “Maslow: Man Interrupted: Reading Management Theory In Context”. Management Decision. Vol 43(10), 2005.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow - 66k

Why Maslow?
I admire Maslow because, in my opinion, his theory about needs Works in real life. When we look at the pyramid about needs, we see that he ordered human necessities and unless people fill the needs on the first step, they cant get the upper steps. Also these needs shape the behaviours of people. People’s need increase by increasing their degree of development. For an instance; To eat his fill is a basic need for a pensioner in a lower degree. But to eat a balanced diet for a person in a upper degree may be a basic need too.

FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR(1856-1915)
Frederick Taylor was an American mechanical Engineer who was known as ‘father of the scientific management’.He has the period of scientific management started.

Resources
Efil, İsmail. İşletmelerde Yönetim ve Organizasyon. Alfa Yayıncılık.Bursa: 1999.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Winslow_Taylor - 53k