Discuss at Least Three Traditional Management Theories or Practices That Are Challenged by Baker’s Views in Scoring a Whole in one. for Each Item You Select Discuss What Baker Proposes as an Alternative

1. Discuss at least three traditional management theories or practices that are challenged by Baker’s views in Scoring a Whole in One. For each item you select discuss what Baker proposes as an alternative.

Dr Baker challenged many traditional management practices in Scoring a Whole in One. The first traditional management practice that he challenged was the widely held assumption that the performance of the whole is simply the sum of the performance of each of the parts of the whole. This means that if each department within an organization works on improving their individual performance the end result in theory should increase the performance of the entire organization. This does not always work out in practice because it does not take into consideration the interactions between different departments within the organization that influence actual performance. He proposes that the performance of the enterprise could be improved dramatically if it learned to operate as one whole system, rather then localized parts. It’s not about how the individual parts performed in the system but about the relationships of the parts to each other and their purpose within the whole. In essence he is saying that the whole system is greater then the sum of the parts of the system.

Another traditional management theory that Baker challenged was about performance evaluation methods, and the assumption that performance is produced and controllable where it appears. The traditional approach of management by objectives, planning and budgeting makes it very difficult to predict global results because it ignores the effects of interactions between local parts of the system. As individuals periodically review performance and try to compensate for negative variances of the system they often overcompensate for these negative variances, which lead to the increasing variability of the system. Dr. Baker proposes that each department work together and communicate with each other in order to optimize the overall benefit of the organization. Although each department might not reach their individual objectives of the traditional measurement system, the whole organization will be better off in the end. Some departments will do better, some will do worse but the overall system will yield better results. In essence here he is saying that managing by objectives for an individual part of the system does not always create the best results for the organization as a whole.

Another traditional management approach Baker challenged was about how our models of accounting and performance management seems to apply more to the world of machines that to a world inhabited by conscious thinking, reflecting, interacting human beings. Baker suggested that when enterprises are conceptualized and managed as social systems, and individuals have the kids of freedom of conscious and purposeful choice that they are able to responsibly exercise in the larger democratic

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