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这是一篇法国assignment指导范例 引言 现如今，管理的角色比以往更在突出。任何一项工程，一个目标的圆满达成或者一个组织有效的运行都有赖于良好的管理。根据霍恩的观点，研究管理最有力的方法是研究从过去到现在管理的演变。研究过去，我们可以掌握过去所采取的管理方法所具有的缺陷和优势，这对我们是非常宝贵的。因为我们可以得出哪些方法可以进一步发展来应用于当代管理。记住这个，我们将拿一个20世纪前完成的重大历史管理项目与一个现代的项目来比较，对比两者的管理技巧。 文章主体部分——Body of Assignments 19世纪最具挑战性的管理项目中的一个是苏伊士运河。苏伊士运河是用来连接地中海的塞得港和红海的苏伊士港口，提供一个更快的贸易路线。它是连接东西方国家最短也是最便宜的路线，同时是用来贸易而开凿的第一条人工运河。这项工程始于1799年，是由查尔斯拉贝勒主持动工的。但不久由于误认为两个海平面是不相同的而停工了。1833年时，这项工程重启又受到了一场瘟疫的妨碍，不过1834年证明出早先的研究是错误的，这两个海的海平面是一致的。苏伊士运河的第一部分开始于1859年4月25日，竣工于1862年。最终，克服了重重政治问题，整个苏伊士运河完工，并于1869年9月17日开放通行。 The role of management in today’s world is more pronounced than ever. A successful completion of any project, goals or an efficient running of an organisation depends on a sound management. According to Wren (1994) the most competent method to study management is to study the evolvement of management from the past to the present. A study of the past gives us invaluable knowledge of the flaws and benefits of management adopted at that time which can be used to develop the management in present. Keeping this belief in mind, we will take one major historical management project completed before 20th century and a modern project to compare the management techniques of both. One of the most challenging management projects of the 19th century is the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal was built between Port Said in Mediterranean Sea and Suez at Red sea to facilitate faster route of trade. It is the shortest and cheapest link between the eastern and western countries and also the first artificial canal used for trade . The project was started in 1799 by Charles Le Pere but was suspended soon because of the miscalculation of levels of two seas being unequal. In 1833, the start of the canal was hampered due to a plague infection but it was proven that the earlier studies were incorrect and the level of the two seas was same in the year 1847. The first part of the canal was started on April 25th1859 and completed in 1862. Finally after tackling much of the political issues the canal was completed and opened on November 17th 1869. A project of this stature which included moving ‘2163 million cubic of earth and which could accommodate ships with 150,000 tons capacity’ required complementary technology, finance and labour. The canal used water locks which compensate for the difference in water level in sea at different time. It had docks to manage the traffic, proper signalling system and sidings to ensure safer commute. The pump used was also superior to what was used in the past and it could deal with heavier materials and had a higher speed . At the peak of the project there were 80,000 labourers employed which were later replaced by more sophisticated drilling equipments . Forced labour was adopted by Egypt as it had shortage of labourers and they were mostly peasants. The workforce also included skilled and unskilled workers from all around Europe except Britain who were paid 4 to 6 Francs a day . The estimated cost of the canal was $100 million however it overshot the budget by twice. Also, almost three times of that was spent on repairs and improvement later. A miscalculation of this stature caused the company to face financial problems and at that time the Viceroy of Egypt, Pasha Said bought 44% of the construction company shares to keep it viable and in operation . Ferdinand de Lesseps, a diplomat and an engineer from France showed great interest in this project and spend ten years supervising the project (Bodden, 2007). Woodward (1997) suggested that the form of management undertaken in Suez Canal was Project Management which is considered as competent management from planning to conclusion of a project. This form is recognisable in this project as the labour, finance, technology and other factors were managed and efficiently used to complete the canal which was headed by Lesseps. Management of any project is dependent on the Social, Political and Economical aspect of the project (Wren, 1994). It is inferred that the economical facet of this project is one where a single planning committee makes all the decision about the resources and enforce it. Technology was advanced, forced labour was used and the remuneration was set by the company. Fitzgerald (1867) concluded that workers formed their own community based on their religious belief and it highlights the diversity in the workforce and the complication in management because of it. The Suez Canal was always a subject of high level politics between the European countries and it had a huge impact on its management as well. The project was given to ‘La Campagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez’ but the British and Turks were apprehensive about this project as they saw the strategic importance of this canal since it provided a shorter route to enter Asia. The canal was even suspended for a short time. British bought the Pasha Said share of the project in 1875; meanwhile other European nations were also attracted by this opportunity which created a chaos to the management of this project. This improves the discussion that the canal was greatly hindered by politics and management was influenced by it along with the social and economic facets discussed. The above discussion indicate that even a proficient project such as Suez Canal has scope for improvement by employing management theories which aid to improve the management. Wren supports this belief that management can be improved by employing alternatives and finding the solution to the problems which hamper the growth or success of a project. One of the major concerns which required tremendous improvement in Suez Canal was the working conditions of the labourers. Labourers are the backbone of any project and a competent workforce should be the prime importance of any management. Robert Owen was probably the first Human Resource specialist and advocated that organisations should invest in people as it is the most important resource which gives the maximum return (Wren, 1994). He conveyed that a worker will give higher output if they are treated well and emphasized on the need of social reforms. He comes across as a socialist in his idea based on the theories he proposed. Charles Babbage identified the importance of division of labour and if the workforce is divided and trained to do a specialised work, it will increase the efficiency of the workers and the organisation as well (Singh, 2009). The workforce used was mainly peasants and had no expertise or experience in the work undertaken by them which immensely affected their capabilities to finish a task. Mc Callum also agreed with the concept of division of labour and added a system to check the performance of the employees and promote them according to their output (Wren, 1994). This indicates the development of completion between workers and motivated them to perform well using money as a factor. Taylor (1923) introduced scientific management concept which reduced the effort of worker by tackling a task in scientific approach. He stressed that if the task is made simple for the employees they will be more enthusiastic and comfortable in doing it. The cost of this project overshot the predicted budget which had an enormous effect on its management as Britain had to buy those shares because of which politics played a huge role and ultimately delayed the project. Henry Poor emphasized the advantage of cost accounting as a method to control the finances. He did not employ accounting formulas instead used the data and showed alternate methods to use the finances which suit the organisation better . Also, Andrew Carnegie (2007) in his autobiography writes that he used cost accounting to reduce the expenses of a project. It is demonstrated by the above theories that cost accounting and a regular check on finances are useful in keeping the cost of a project to minimum and also predict any unforeseen expense in the future. A successful completion of a project cannot be achieved without a capable manager. Lesseps who was the in charge of the project was an engineer by profession and had no knowledge of management. Andrew Ure and Charles Duplin both emphasised the need of management teaching and that management could be taught as opposed to the belief that it comes from experience only. Henry Fayol added to this concept and developed the 14 principles of management (Wren, 1994). It substantiate that the manager of a project should be equipped with the management knowledge to carry out his role efficiently. The growth of Suez Canal was hampered by the politics between the European countries as explained earlier. Henry Poor points out that government should be a regulating party but not a dominating force which affects the functioning of an organisation (Wren, 1994). Any management decisions should not be influenced by politics. Now, we shift our focus to a modern project and highlight the difference and similarities between its management and Suez Canal’s. One of the most stunning projects of the 20th century is a massive abridgment of stone, sand and concrete – The Sydney Harbour Bridge at Sydney, Australia. This beautiful marvel of concrete was built to reduce the travel distance between the two harbours of Sydney and facilitate faster movement of commodities and goods as well as ensure the development of the whole state as one. The government felt the need of a link between the two mainland’s and passed the Sydney Harbour Bridge Act inviting builders from all round the globe to submit tenders project in 1922 which would incorporate all the requirements. The contract was given to Dorman Long & Company, a British company on 24th march 1924 and it was completed on 23 march 1932 (Prunster, 1982). The successful design was two hinged, steel arched bridge and the length of the bridge proposed was 1149 meters. The Government appointed engineer of the project was Dr. John Bradfield and Sir Ralph Freeman was the engineer appointed from Dorman Long & company (Nicholson, 2000). The construction started by building half arch from either side of the harbour as cantilever which was anchored by steel ropes and the construction moved forward until both the sides met and formed a complete arch . Most of the raw materials and labour used were Australian. The workforce included the natives and immigrants mainly from Great Britain making a total workforce of around 2500-4000. Labour consisted of skilled workers such as engineers, architects, builders, carpenters, painter’s etc. 16 labourers lost their life during the construction of the bridge and the workers were deprived of many basic requirements as suggested by Curtis . Finance played a big role in its construction as the labour and raw materials costs increased heavily after the First World War and it resulted in immense increase from the predicted cost: almost double . It is reported that a huge amount of capital was taken from Britain to keep the construction going . The management form employed here resemble closely with the ideologies of Governance framework. Governance means to govern an organisation, corporate or a project. Along with the government bodies involved there was a position of manager created for the project (Colebatch & Dawkins, 2005). The economic aspect of this project is based on ideologies of market method where the cost depends upon the demand and supply of the resources (Wren, 1994). We saw the cost of raw materials and labour increase due to the First World War and Great Depression and vary according to the market characteristics during this project. The workforce used here were natives and immigrants from Great Britain, which meant diversity in the ethics of workforce. Also, there was conflict between the two engineers as to who designed the bridge and their method of working which added to the interpersonal conflict . The bridge came into limelight for the first time in 1882 when the government felt its need and proposed its construction. However, after the loss in elections the construction of bridge took a back seat and it went to the planning stage once again. Labour and Nationalist parties were in its favour as they saw it a mode for city development. Progressive party condemned it as it was a huge financial undertaking which they thought was unwise at that time (Spearritt, 1982). From this we infer that politics played a significant role in this project as well. This discussion concretes the belief that management of any project is influenced by its economic, social and political facets as pointed out by Wren (1994) also. The research on Sydney Harbour Bridge suggests that the management technique undertaken is better than what was used in the Suez Canal. However, there is still room for improvements by applying appropriate management theories. Like our historical project the first and foremost genre which needs improvement is the labour. Although, it is reported that the workers found better wages as compared to Great Britain because of the Great Depression there (Sydney Harbour Bridge, 2010) the working conditions were very ghastly (Curtis, 1981) and labour safety was trivial. This brings us to the theory proposed by Robert Owen who believed in supporting an equal social behaviour towards employees and keeping them contented in their role (Wren, 1994). Division of labour was already accepted in this project and specialist workers were employed to do a specific job. However, Mc Callum theory of promoting employees according to their performance (Wren, 1994) and Taylor’s theory of scientific management (Taylor, 1923) can be applied in this project to increase the completion and induce motivation between the employees and at the same time making the task easier for them. We saw, the cost of this project also overshoot the predicted amount by a huge factor. The increase in cost in this instant was mainly because of unseen future developments like the World War rather than poor estimation and accounting as was the case in Suez Canal. Both Henry Poor (Chandler, 1956) and Andrew Carnegie (2007) recommended the use of cost accounting and the advantages of it to keep the expenditure in control. Although a position of manager was created for the project but had no decision making powers as such and relied on other authorities to act (Colebatch & Dawkins, 2005). Henry Fayol (Wren, 1994) developed the 14 principles of an efficient manager and one of the basic qualities of a manager pointed out by him was the ability to control and command a project. A significant improvement in management is recognised between the two projects. Probably, the most basic function of a management is to complete a given task within the specified time which was achieved in Sydney Harbour Bridge and its construction never stopped even with the hostile environment surrounding it in terms of World War and Great Depression. Suez Canal on the other hand, was delayed and suspended many times due to political factors and absence of an authoritative management. The workforce in Sydney Harbour Bridge was specialised, better salaried and were better looked after than that used in Suez Canal where forced labour was adopted and wages were meagre. In perspective, the purpose of the two projects discussed is almost the same in terms of linking two parts of landmasses. Politics played a huge role in management of both the projects; Suez Canal was influenced by external politics and Sydney Harbour Bridge by internal. Dr. John Bradfield (Nicholson, 2000) and Ferdinand de Lesseps were perhaps the proprietors of the projects and acted as sole authorities managing the projects from scratch to finish. Advanced technology was used in both the projects and major part of workforce was outsourced. Both projects had to suffer because of financial miscalculation and capital was arranged from foreign corporations mainly Great Britain. Management is described as ‘acquisition, allocation and utilisation of human efforts and physical resources to accomplish a goal’ (Wren, 1994, p.3). The above discussion reveals that the acquisition of resources such as labour, finance and technology were done in a similar fashion in both the projects. The allocation of resources differs to some extent in the way labour was divided and technology was employed from the start in Sydney Harbour Bridge. Recent research has shown the innovation in management and its advantage to the organisation (Pech, 2001). Both projects adopted a traditional approach to management at that time and relied on it to fulfil their goals. The absence of innovation caused them to face management problems which were dominant at that time. It is then safe to say that the management adopted was similar in both the projects in a broader picture, but the modern project had a slightly advanced management than the historical. 总结——Conclusion The objective of this paper was to study a historical and a modern project and trace the evolution of management from past to present. After learning about the management of Suez Canal and The Sydney Harbour Bridge an analogy between the two is drawn and major management aspects are discussed. It is observed that the management of the projects are similar and there is vast scope of improvement in both of them. The underlining concept of this discussion is that by employing sound management any project can be completed more effectively. |
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