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Classic Approach to Administrative Management
The classic approaches to organization involve scientific managemant, administrative management, and bureaucratic management. It emphasizes that there is "one best way" to do a job, emphasizing efficiency above all else. These approaches to organizational structure are referred to as closed systems. -
Frederick Taylor & Scientific Management
Frederick Taylor, in his book Principles of Scientific Management published in 1911, applied scientific management practices to organizations, embodied in theories such as the systematic division of labor and responsibility to design the most efficient, repetitive, machinelike procedures. This is one of the classical approaches, fitting in the ideal that there is "one best way." -
Max Weber: Bureaucracy is Ideal Organizational Form
Max Weber, the founder of organizational sociology, believed that bureaucracy was the ideal construct for organizations. The bureaucratic structure allowed maximum efficiency through hierarchy, centralization, closed systems, division of labor, and strict rules and authority. Operations were completed with precision, speed, clarity, and consistency, thus lowering operating costs. Although it was the most efficient form developed thus far, it oppressed individual freedoms. -
Hawthorne Studies
The Hawthorne Studies, through rigorous experiments, illustrated the immense influence of social and psychological effects on workers, such as the change in productivity when lights were dimmed. Thus, the informal management structure was identified, and the social/psychological experiements proved a MAJOR counterpoint against the principles of administrative management and scientific management. -
Mary Parker Follett: "the giving of orders"
Follett pushed for the development of administrative principles, but she valued a participatory and egalitarian management, which foreshadowed later management practices. She also foreshadowed the modern development of feminist organization theory. -
James Mooney: "The Scalar Principle"
"The Scalar Principle" argued for a scaled system of graded steps portraying one's authority level and corresponding responsibilities. His theory operated under the principle of delegation, formal structure, highly specialized tasks, clear lines of accountability, with a narrow span of control and unity of command. This was an example of a closed system and operated under the idea of "one proper form." -
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Era of Orthodox Principles of Administrative Management
The administrative management school of thought employed a broad range of organizational theories aimed at guiding managers in POSDCORB, and believed that there was one proper means to do something. Their chief goal was effectiveness, and thinkers such as Gulick and Mooney dominated this field. -
Luther Gulick: "Notes on the Theory of Organization"
Gulick argued for specialization and the division of work and the resulting need for coordination and one master. He employed the principle of span of control, unity of command, homogeneity, and for the separation of politics and administration. He addressed organizational patterns (top-down and bottom-up), and the organization under the executive, as well as his/her functions (POSDCORB). -
Kurt Lewin: field theory & topological psychology influences PUAD
Lewin, through developing field theory and topological psychology, concluded that one must change one's influencing forces in order to change them, drawing on his theory "quasi-stationary equilibrium." A three step process ensues, involving unfreezing, changing, and refreezing, setting group forces at a new equilibrium. This was of practical importance to organizational group processe such as race relations and group leadership. He was the first to apply experimental methods to human behavior. -
Chester Barnard: The Functions of the Executive
Chester, influenced by the Hawthorne Studies, shifted the focus to organizational processes, decision-making, people, environments, leadership, goals, and values. He emphasized how leaders induce and coordinate the cooperative activities fundamental to an organization.He offered a rich typology of incentives alternative to payment, and he distinguised between formal and informal structures, focusing on the importance of organizational culture. This is a huge divergence from classical theorists. -
Herbert Simon: "The Proverbs of Administration"
Simon attacked the classical principles of administration (Gulick) by calling them nothing more than 'proverbs,' holding that they are empirically unsubstantiated, vague, and overall contradictory. Instead, he proposes that scientific research must be performed to determine which principles, in specific situations, are most likely to yield a specific outcome. Ultimately, he argues that decision-making is the primary focus of organizational analysis. -
Herbert Simon: Administrative Behavior
Simon continued his thoughts in his book Administrative Behavior, where he urged others to empirically study actual behavior, as opposed to studying formal principles. He elaborated Barnard's incentive ideas, extending them to external constituents as well. Thus rose the term "economic man," where a decision-maker is burdened with making the best decision possible given constraints of time, information, and cognitive capacity. There is no longer the classical "one right way." -
Lester Coch and John J. P. French
Coch and French elaborated on Lewin's experimental social psychology and group processes by comparing different groups of factory workers by changing their procedures. They proved that workers who participated in the decision-making process were more effective, yielding a rise in the technique participative decision-making (PDM). -
Trist and Bamforth: sociotechnical systems
In Britain, Trist and Bamforth published a coal-mining process analysis that focused on the interrelationships between technical and social factors. He argued that in response to changing factors, systems move to new points of equilibrium. As a result, group and individual characteristics, task requirements, and the associated interrelations must be accommodated in designing organizations. Organizations are systems. -
Abraham Maslow: hierarchy of needs
In his book Motivation and Personality, Maslow developed a theory of human needs called the 'hierarchy of needs,' where humans ultimately seek self-actualization. This was of interest to human resources and organizational theory in that there is a distinction between higher-order and lower-order needs, making it one of the most significant and influential theories ever developed by a social scientist. -
Chris Argyris: pro-Theory Y
Argyris, belonging to the Theory Y school of thought, believed that the needs of human personalities conflicted with the needs of the organization. If management applied classical principles to an organization, healthy individuals would experience frustration, failure and conflict. Healthy workers strive for independence, activeness, and the use of their abilities - all of which clash with the classical principles of administrative theory. -
Herbert Simon and James March: Organizations
Simon and March published the book Organizations, which focused on the balance between inducements and worker contributions, portraying numerous variables influencing employee decisions. Simon's contributions to the field in terms of decision-making processes yielded him a Nobel Prize. -
Douglas McGregor: The Human Side of the Enterprise
McGregor, influenced by both Lewin and Maslow, developed Theory X and Theory Y. Theory X described the scientific management and classical approaches to organizational structure, and Theory Y described Maslow's human relations approach to organizational structure, holding that employees were fully capable of self-control and emphasized decentralization. -
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Schism in Organizational Theory
After Lewin's death, organizational theory diverged into two movements: one group emphasized systematic, empirical research on group processes, while the other group focused primarily on experiences, leading to the field of organizational development and the use of T-groups, sensitivity sessions, and encounter-group techniques during this period. -
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Aston Studies: empirical taxonomy
In the 1960's and 1970's, a team of English researchers conducted the Aston Studies, which aimed to empirically measure organizations. As a result, empirical taxonomy and the grouping of organizations into types based on measured characteristics emerged. These variables included age, size, technology, and external auspices and control. -
Burns and Stalker: The Management of Innovation
Writing in Great Britain, Burns and Stalker agreed that organizations must adapt their structure to certain contingencies. After analyzing electronic firms, he categorized them into two main categories: organic and mechanistic organizations. Mechanistic organizations yield classical approachs while organic organizations are living, flexible organizations. -
Richard Cyert and James March: A Behavioral Theory of the Firm
March and Cyert extended the idea that the decision-making process influenced organizational management, which was a contradictory idea at the time, as it challenged fundamental economic theory. -
Emery and Trist: The Causal Texture of Organizational Environments
Emery and Trist focused on the external environments that influence organizations, advocating for the approach that organizations are open systems, subject to environmental influence and the consequent need for an adaptive structure. Political, social, economic, and technological factors create turbulence, and the authors argue that an organization must be flexible enough in its structure to accommodate this change.This is an extension of systems theory. -
Joan Woodward: Adapting Structure to Technology
In England, Woodward studied industrial firms, finding that all firms fell within three categories, based on the level of technology employed. Significantly, in each category, the most successful firms utilized similar management structures, yielding that firms wthin a specific category would be most effective under a specific production process and associated technology level. Ultimately, firms should adapt structure to technology. -
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Contingency Theory Dominates Organizational Analysis
Contingency theory argues that different forms of organizations will be effective under certain contingencies, including tasks, technology, organizational size, the environment, and other factors. This is still a guiding framework used today. In this era of thinking, organizations are referred to as open systems. -
Katz and Kahn: The Social Psychology of Organizations
Katz and Kahn introduced systems language to organization theory, including the words input, throughput, output, and feedback. This broad framework in systems thinking is considered a macroparadigm in the field, not a clearly articulated theory. Nonetheless, it is considered a classic. -
James Thompson: Organizations in Action
Thompson further extended contingency theory, saying that organizations use hierarchy, structure, and units to buffer the 'technical core' of an organization from its external environment. Organizations should adopt more flexible structures, because clear chains of command and vertical communication can cause long processing delays and slow adaptation. -
Lawrence and Lorsch: Differentiated Internal Structures
Lawrence and Lorsch studied U.S. firms in three separate industries, and found that a firm's internal structure must match the complexity of the environment in which it operates. For example, a firm in a stable environment will be successful with a less differentiated, less integrated internal structure. -
Charles Perrow: Organizational Technology and Contingency Theory
Perrow analyzed specific contingencies in order to extend the application of contingency theory. He found that routine tasks are both more predictable and analyzable. This is significant in that organizations operating many routine tasks will have more formal, centralized structure, and organizations with fewer routine tasks require more flexible structures. -
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TQM Management Method
W. Edwards Deming's Total Quality Management theory takes hold in organizational theory. Based on the collectivist culture embraced by the Japanese, this theory emerged, convincing many organizations to focus on group tasks and organizational culture. Therefore, in the 1980's, organization culture was a prominent aspect of organizational theory. -
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Diversity in Organizations
Beginning in the 1980's and extending in prominence since, diversity became a central tenant of organizational theory. The increasing presence of women and racial and ethnic groups in the workplace yielded a body of literature emphasizing diversity. -
Computer company decentralizes to innovate
A computer company in the 1990's found that the highly structured organization made the decision-making process too long. In order to respond to a changing environment, this organization sought to decentralize into smaller, more independent units. This began a trend to respond to markets and competitors.
