Management, leadership & organisational behaviour
Core management theory, leadership models and organisational behaviour for the FSOT Job Knowledge and Management sections—from Taylor and Maslow to Hersey-Blanchard and Kotter.
From Scientific Management to the Human Relations School
Management theory on the FSOT is tested as a named lineage, not a vague concept. Frederick Winslow Taylor's The Principles of Scientific Management (1911) launched the field by reducing work to measured tasks, time-and-motion study, and a 'one best way' that separated planning from execution. Henri Fayol, in Administration Industrielle et Générale (1916), supplied the still-quoted five functions of management—planning, organising, commanding, coordinating, controlling—and 14 principles including unity of command and scalar chain. Max Weber's theory of bureaucracy (published posthumously, 1922) defined the ideal-type organisation: hierarchy, written rules, impersonal application, merit selection, and the technical superiority of rule-bound administration. These three are the classical school, and FSOT items frequently ask you to attribute a phrase to the right author.
The Human Relations Reaction
The Hawthorne studies at Western Electric's plant (Elton Mayo and colleagues, 1924–1932) overturned the assumption that pay and physical conditions alone drive output. The finding that being observed and feeling part of a group raised productivity—the 'Hawthorne effect'—founded the human relations movement. Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs (A Theory of Human Motivation, 1943) arranged physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualisation needs in ascending order. Frederick Herzberg's two-factor theory (1959) split job factors into hygiene factors (salary, conditions, supervision) that prevent dissatisfaction and motivators (achievement, recognition, the work itself) that produce satisfaction. Douglas McGregor's The Human Side of Enterprise (1960) contrasted Theory X (workers dislike work, need control) with Theory Y (workers are self-directed and seek responsibility).
Decision-Making and Systems Thinking
Herbert Simon's Administrative Behavior (1947) introduced 'bounded rationality' and 'satisficing'—managers settle for adequate rather than optimal decisions given limited information—earning him the 1978 Nobel in Economics. Peter Drucker, who coined 'management by objectives' in The Practice of Management (1954), shifted focus to results and the knowledge worker. The contingency view, associated with Joan Woodward (1965) and Lawrence and Lorsch (1967), holds there is no universal best structure: the right design depends on technology, environment, and task. For a US foreign-affairs candidate, recall that the federal personnel system embodies Weberian merit principles codified in the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 and modernised by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which created the Senior Executive Service and the Office of Personnel Management. The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (and its 2010 Modernization Act) imported Drucker-style objective-setting into federal agencies, requiring strategic plans and measurable performance goals.