Managing Youth and Community Work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Managing Youth and Community Work - Essay Example Youth clubs have a long and storied history in the United Kingdom. Though serving a modified client base, in many ways Sweatman's assessment of the need for Youth Clubs is reflected in the activities modern day Youth Services provide (i.e. companionship, useful instruction, strong guiding influence). Youth services rely on public funds to run their programmes, though they are rarely run like most public agencies. There is a strong reliance on volunteers and part-time employees, emphasizing partnerships in the community. As such, managing youth and community workers can be challenging. Understanding management needs in this field necessitates an understanding of the differing management theories from which the youth service and individual youth and community managers will draw. Some consider Machiavelli's The Prince to be the seminal work in management philosophy. However, most students in the field regard Frederick Taylor's The Principles of Scientific Management as the definitive work quantifying and describing management theory. ... y the turn of the century it was evident that informal leadership structures of the past needed to be formalized to organise and direct the ever-increasing employee base while enhancing productivity. Taylor is credited with coining the term "scientific management" as well as the first theorist of the Classical School of Management Theory. As noted by Freeman (1996), key components of scientific management include: Developing a science for each person's work Scientifically selecting, training, teaching, and developing each worker The belief that "management should do the thinking while workers should perform the tasks." (Herndon, 1997) Prosperity for the employer and employee Freeman further noted that Taylor's "Task Idea" is one of the most prominent elements of this era. The "Task Idea" focuses on planning, planning the task of each worker including planning instructions to complete the task, planning the time to complete the task, planned so that each worker performs a task most suited to their strengths. Although initially scientific management seemed to enhance efficiency and productivity, its routine nature led to worker boredom and the management-labor rift grew precipitously. Another prominent theory of the Classical School is Max Weber's Bureaucratic Management theory. Indeed, Weber is credited with coining the term "bureaucracy" to describe a given organisational structure. As reprinted in Miller (1963), Weber believed the "fundamental categories of rational legal authority" to include: 1. A continuous organization of official functions bound by rules 2. A specified sphere of competence 3. The organization of offices follows the principle of hierarchy; that is, each lower office is under the control and supervision of a higher one. 4. The rules which