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Frederick Taylor and Scientific Management (late 1800s-early 190s)
Taylor was the father of Scientific Management (SM). SM was a theory of organizations in the U.S. where the management would study work processes and from there they could create rules to ensure that the tasks were performed as efficiently as possible. This theory is considered part of the classical school of though. SM is considered a key advanacement because it is one of the first big pushes for managerial analysis and looks at time/motion studies to make the workplace more efficient -
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Administrative Management School
This school was present in the first half of the 1900's and tried to develop principles that would assist managers in their functions in administration. Some of these functions included supervising, organizing and delegating. -
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Max Weber and Bureaucracy
Max Weber, also part of the classical school of thought, is known as the "founder of organizational sociology". He was a German sociologist that believed that a bureaucratic organization would be cheaper, more precise and more consistent if there were qualified workers and clear rules regarding duties. This way of thinking became prominent in the early 1900's. It is considered key because thinking of organizations in a bureaucratic sense gave the most "influential early analysis of the topic". -
Hawthorne Studies
The Hawthorne Studies were performed in the mid 1920's and are considered a key advancement in the field. These studies, done near Chicago, IL, included experiments that sought to show the influence of psychological factors on people's behavior in the workplace. These factors showed stronger effects than even a worker's pay. The studies also brought a major shift in research to now focusing on social influence as motivators for workers. -
"The Scalar Principle" -James Mooney
Mooney's idea of organizations was set into three principles. First, he stated that there should be strong leadership at the top of the organization to coordinate the tasks of people below. Next, he emphasized delegation and having workers in high levels assign responsibilities to those lower in the hierarchy. Lastly, he stated that each worker should have a specilalized task. Mooney, along with Gulick, was part of the Administrative Management School. -
Kurt Lewin
Lewin, a refugee from Nazism, arrived in the U.S. in the 1930s. His theory was that actions are not only the functions of the characteristics of an individual but also the conditions that are put on that person. This is a key way of thinking because it differed from how theorists previously thought of why people act the way they do. He also studied group behaviors and how that influenced individual behaviors. -
Human Relations Movement
This movement, started in the 1930s by the Hawthorne experiments, was a key shift in thinking towards showing the significance of social factors in the workplace. This movement included Lewis' work. This movement also included Maslow's hierarchy of needs as well as Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Y about how to view human behavior in the workplace. This school of thought also gained a lot of criticism for lack of empirical evidence and focusing too closely on the human aspect of work. -
"Notes on the Theory of Organization"- Luther Gulick
In this work, Gulick focused on two functions of management: division of labor and coordination of work. In division of labor, Gulick claimes that there should be specialization of work in order to ensure that the work is done most efficienty. Then Gulick talks about coordination of labor and how work should be done through a unifying goal or idea. Gulick, along with Mooney, was a part of the Administrative Management School. -
"The Functions of the Executive" -Chester Barnard
Barnard represents a clear shift in thought from classical theorists. He did not emphasize formal authority but rather talked about how leaders could motivate and give incentives to workers through persuasion and communication. He thought that an organization was made up of incentives, both monetary, social, and others such as power and prestige. -
Herbert Simon
1946- Herbert Simon appeared in the field by publishing "The Proverbs of Administration". The work, published in the U.S., criticized the Administrative Management School as being too vague and conflicting. Simon stated that there should be a more analytic way of thinking about organiztions with a focus on decision making. He then published Administrative Behavior (1948) where he introduced the term "satisfice" which is when administrators choose the best option within the constraints given. -
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Open Systems Approach and Contingency Theory (1960s and 70s)
This theory became dominant when it was discovered that different organizations could be effective contingent on certain factors of their environment. This theory encompasses the study on changes in work processes done by Trist and Bamforth (1951) and the effect of external environments in "The Casual Texture of Organizational Environments" by Emery and Trist (1965). It also included a study done by Lawrence & Lorsch (1967) about uncertainty in the workplace. -
The Social Psychology of Organizations- Daniel Katz and Robert Kahn
This publication appeared in the 1960s in the U.S. by Katz and Kahn. This was a key publication because they showed that organizations could use a systems language of inputs, outputs and feedback. A system's theory was then broadly used for organizing information. This idea also confirmed that organizations would adapt to different contingencies in the workplace. -
Aston Studies- Pugh, Hickson, and Hinings
These studies took place in England and was conducted by a team of researchers (listed above) and attempted to group organizations into types based on characteristics such as age, the amount of technology, size of the organization and external control. They discussed how having different characteristics could effect organizations differently (contingency theory).
