Task and Job: The Promise of Transactional Analysis

TO gain analytical precision and simplicity, proponents of scientific management have ignored the distinction between the concepts of task and job This effort is analogous to the attachment, despite its artificiality, to the concept of discrete exchange In economic and marketing theory the concept of relational transaction has helped to inform economic analysis with phenomenal reality Considering job in the light of relational transactions promises to improve management theory in regard to employer‐employee relations The power vectors inherent in all human relations thus become explicit variables, not exogenous or irrational factors Any loss in analytical precision is offset by a greater comprehension of the reality of employee‐manager interactions