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Frederick Taylor born; Philadelphia, PA
Frederick Taylor is often cited as pioneering managerial analysis. As a figure head in the school of scientific management, Taylor analyzed "every little act" of each task performed by workers. Source:
Rainey, Hal G. Understanding and Managing Public Organizations (4th Edition).: Jossey-Bass, p. 27. -
Karl Emil Maximilian Weber born; Erfurt, Germany
In the earliest years of the twentieth century, Weber became a main creator of modern social science. He assisted social science to become its own, distinct field. Source:
Kim, Sung Ho, "Max Weber", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), -
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Classical: Rational-Legal & Scientific Management Theory
The Classic Theories view a closed system of organizations where their internal processes remained steadfast during a changing environment. The emphasis was on stable, clearly defined structures and processes; managers sought to create efficient and repetitive procedures. Source:
Rainey, Hall G. pg. 26-27. -
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Classical: Administrative Management Theory
The Administrative Management Theory school sought to develop principles of administration to guide managers in planning, organizing, supervising, and exerting control. They stated their principles would provide for an effective organization.
Source:
Rainey, Hal G. pg. 30 -
Max Weber, Rational-Legal
Max Weber is considered the father of organizational sociology (analysis of complex organizations). Weber sought to specifiy characteristics of the bureaucratic form of organizations. Such characteristics include: each job within an organization contains fixed, official duties expected to be performed, hierarchy of authority, supervisors over workers
administrative positions require expert training, management of subunits follows numerous rules, management positions serve full-time. -
Max Weber, Rational-Legal
Weber viewed merit based officials over birthright or political favortism. Weber is in the Classical School due to emphasizing organizations with clear/concise rules, hierarch of authority, and role decriptions. Source:
Rainey, Hal G. -
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Redirections and New Insights: Human Relations and Psychological Theory Schools
Developments in the new field of industrial psychology emerged a new school of thought and started to reject the ideas of Taylor, Weber, and Gulick. Psychological factors in the workplace were now considered: fatigue, routine tasks, worker productivity. Source:
Rainey, Hal G pg. 34; 53 -
Frederick Taylor, Scientific Management
Taylor and others utilized time-motion studies that involved detailed measurement and analysis of physical characteristics of the workplace, including placement of machinery in relation to workers.Taylor always sought to find the best means to perform a task. He sought efficiency and effectiveness. Taylor stressed pay as a primary incentive for work. He stressed workers with specialized skillsets rather than a worker in a mindless process. Source:
Rainey, Hal G. -
The Hawthorne Studies
Beginning in 1924, a series of experiments occured at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company. Complex experiments were conducted over the course of several years to uncover social and psychological factors on work behavior. Lowered lighting and changes in breaks intially increased production. However, when removed, productivity remained. Although significant, critics state workers knew they were being observed and thus created biased data. Source:
Rainey, Hal G pg. 34. -
Brownlow Committee
Gulick participated in the Brownlow Committee in an effort to reorganize the federal government. The group sought to group federal agencies together by similar functions. They wanted to strengthen the hierarchial authority of the President and narrow his span of control. President Roosevelt submitted to Congress the 53 page "Administrative Management in the Government of the United States" report in January 1937. Source:
Rainey, Hal G. pg. 32
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4624660 -
Luther Gulick's "Notes on the Theory of Organization"
Gulick wrote "Notes on the Theory of Organization" and discussed 2 functions of management: the division of work (the need to create specializations to match worker skillsets) and coordination of work (group similar sub units together for a common purpose). He advocated managers only supervise between 6-10 workers. Each worker only reports to 1 manager. Gulick advocated POSDCORB (planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting). Rainey, Hal G. pg. 30-31 -
Chester Barnard's "The Functions of the Executive"
Barnard wrote "The Functions of the Executive" in 1938 and instantly became influential. He rejected Aministrative Management and Scientific Management Schools. Barnard coined "economy of incentives" where workers contribute to an orgainzation in exchange for organization-provided incentatives. The executive must keep the two in balance. Incentives include money, power, prestige, and ideals fulfillment. Barnard was the anti-classical as Taylor was the classical. Won Nobel.
Source: Rainey, Hal G. -
Kurt Lewin
Lewin develped a theory that sought to explain human actions as characterisitics of the individual and the surrounding environment of the individual. Lewin studied power, communication, influence and cohesion of the groups. "Quasi-stationary equilibrium" must be maintained by groups and individuals in attitudes and behaviors. Groups often affect/pressure the individual. To change a group involves 3 phases: unfreezing, changing, refreezing. Source:
Rainey, Hal G. pg. 39 -
Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow developed a theory that became a standard by social scientists. Individuals need fulfillment in the most basic of needs before the next level can be fulfilled. The physicological needs from the lowest up are saftey, love, self-esteem, and self-actualization. Source:
Rainey, Hal G. pg. 41 -
Herbert Simon's "The Proverbs of Administration"
Like Barnard, Simon was anti-classical. He criticized Adminitrative Management's school as being vague and contradictory. Simon called for more research between relationships of the administrative process concepts. Simon wanted additional studies on limits of the worker's abilities> He stated rationality is a major determinant of organizational processes. Source:
Rainey, Hal G pg. 36-37 -
Hoover Commission
Gulick participated on the Hoover Commission in 1947. Spearheaded by former President Hoover, the commission sought to reduce the number of federal government departments and increase efficiency in post war eras. Proposed efforts often hit political conflicts between the President and Congress.
Source:
Rainey, Hal G pg. 32
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/271415/Hoover-Commission -
Herbert Simon's "Administrative Behavior"
Simon followed up with a new writing that observed cognitive limits on rational decisions. Human cognitive capacity is too limited due to decision time and information constraints. Administrators should "satisfice" by choosing the best of a limited set of possibilities. Source:
Rainey, Hal G. pg. 37-38. -
Douglas McGregor's "The Human Side of Enterprise"
Lewin and Maslow's ideas and theories were influential on McGregor. He developed "Theory X" and "Theory Y" to describe two different types of human behavior in the workplace. "Theory X" stated employees are lazy, do not care about the organization, and management must intervene. "Theory Y" states the opposite in that employees are fully capable of self-direction and self-motivation and strive for the organization. "Y" rejects classical views of the organization. Source:
Rainey, Hal G. pg. 41 -
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Contingency Theory (and Open Approaches)
The Contingency Theory was the prevailing approach to management throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Experts in the field believed different forms of organization can be effective within certain contingencies of technology, size, structure, and environment. -
Emery and Trist's "The Causal Texture of Organizational Environments"
Emery and Trist's writing noted the increased uncertainty of politics, the economy, social upheavals, and technologies in the surrounding environements of which organizations exist. They saw organizations must adapt to an open philosophy in order to adapt to their shifting environments. Source:
Rainey, Hal G. pg. 44 -
Joan Woodward
In 1965 England, Woodward made strides by studying British industrial firms and finding firms lie in 3 catergories based on production or technology: small batch (i.e. airplane), large batch (i.e. mass production), and continous production (i.e. petroleum). She found that the successfull organizations all showed similar style management structures. Source:
Rainey, Hal G pg. 45 -
Katz and Kahn's "The Social Psychology of Organizations"
Katz and Kahn showed how the inputs, outputs, throughputs, and feedback are useful to organizations by analyzing system processes and adapting as needed. -
Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch
Lawrence and Lorsch studied U.S. based organizations in 3 distinct industries that faced varying degrees of uncertainty. They concluded that successful firms must have internal structures in place as complex and the exterior environments in which they operate. Source:
Rainey, Hal G pg. 46 -
James Thompson's "Organizations in Action"
Influenced by Herbert Simon, Thompson depicted organizations as reflecting their member's stive for rationality and consistency against pressures they face. Thompson achieved to provide a logic for contingency and open-system perspectives while borrowing from Simon's ideas. -
Total Quality Management
In the last several decades, TQM has swept the United States within private corporations and public governments alike. The goal of TQM is to improve the quality of products and services received by consumers. Changes in technologies, information systems, and communications have created new challenges managers must face. Additionally, the presence of more women and different racial groups in the workplace has created the need and want for diversity. Source:
Rainey, Hal G pg. 49 -
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Organizational Process streamlining
In the 1990s, organizations began streamlining their structures after the realization that too many internal levels slowed down the processes of innovation. Corporations lag behind as innovation concept to on the market took to great of time. By the time a new product hit the shelves, the company was already behind others. Executives sought to push down authority within the organization to allow decisions to be made more rapidly.
