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Scientific Management School - "One Best Way"; "Taylorism"
The Scientific Management School was an early 20th century theory of management and concerned primarily with the efficiency of an individual worker. Pioneered by Frederick Taylor in his 1911 book The Principles of Scientific Management, Taylor emphasized key management concepts such as rationalization, division of labor, time and motion studies, and standardization of work. Taylor focuses on the individual worker to find the most efficient way to perform the required task. (Pp. 27). -
Hawthorne Studies: Discovery of Human Beings in the Workplace
The Hawthorne Studies in the mid-1920s introduced psychology into the workplace involving a complex series of experiments involving levels of light. Productivity increased by lowering the level of illumination in the workplace. Output remained high by altering the conditions of the social conditions of the workplace. Today, the Hawthorne experiments remain the most significant demonstration of the importance of social and psychological factors in the workplace. -
The Administration Management School: Principles of Administration
This school sought to develop principles of administration to guide managers into planning, organizing, supervising, controlling, and delegating authority. Spearheaded by Luther Gulick and James Mooney, Gulick discussed the fundamental functions of management: the division of work and the coordination of work. Concepts such as “specialization” arise from the work in Notes on the Theory of Organization (1937). Their principles would provide effective organization. (30) -
The Inducements-Contributions Equilibrium and the Limits of Rationality
Writing in the late 1930s and into the 40s, Herbert Simon and Chester Banard moved research in new directions. Their contributions added much to the attention that organization theorists paid to organizational processes in regards to decision-making, people, environments, leadership, goals and values (35). Banard characterized an organization as an “economy of incentives.” (35) Both attacked the administrative management school. -
Bureaucratic Structures and Member Personalities – Robert Merton 1940
Using work from Weber, Merton observed that specialization, elaborate rules, and an emphasis on adhering to the rules can lead to “train incapacity”, where individuals have trouble with problems that do not fit within the rules of their specialization (56). Behaviors may conflict with the goals of the organization, and people in different departments within the organization may pursue their departmental goals rather than those the overall organization (56). -
Social Psychology, Group Dynamics, Human Relationships 1930/40s
One of the most influential social scientists of the century, Kurt Lewin developed field theory and topological psychology beginning in the 1930s, which sought to explain human actions as functions of both the characteristics of the individual and the conditions impinging on the individual at the time (39). Groups maintain a “quasi-stationary equilibrium” in their attitudes and behaviors. To change people, you must change these forces. -
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
One of my all-time favorite organizational theories, Abraham Maslow in the early 1940s represented a hierarchy of needs of an individual into a pyramid with basic needs at the bottom, called “physiological” needs such as food, water, sex, sleep, followed by safety, then love/belonging, esteem, and at the top, self-actualization (fulfilling one’s full potential). His work parallels developmental psychology in organizations and the workplace. -
Total Quality Management (TQM) – Dr. W. Edward Demings
(from previous class notes, and expanding on the reading,) The movement began post-WWII in Japan and possessed core features such as customer focus, quality control, process related to product, continuous improvement, and participatory management in the organization. Demings stated that you should focus on the CUSTOMER base, NOT on other members of the organization. Always remember that there is room for improvement and that ensure the customer’s wants are met. See photogrpah! -
Bureaucracy (Legal-Rational Authority) - Max Weber
Considered to be the founder of organizational sociology, Weber pioneered bureaucracy as an ideal construct (28). Toward the middle of the century, organizations moved toward a more legal and rational forms of authority and away from past traditions such as monarchical or charisma. Weber saw technical advantages in his bureaucratic form of organization and soon became the ideal form of organization. -
Theories X and Y - Douglas McGregor
Drawing upon Maslow’s theory, McGregor wrote that management in industry was guided by “Theory X”, a theory that described workers as passive and without motivation. McGregor believed that workers needed to be motivated, rejected the emphasis on specialization, task simplification, and hierarchical authority in the scientific and administrative management movements stated earlier. Perhaps create incentives for workers? See photo for Theory Y! -
Organization’s Environment - Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch
Lawrence and Lorsch studied U.S. firms that confronted varying degrees of uncertainty, complexity and change. They concluded that firms that were successfully operating in uncertain, complex, changing environments had more highly differentiated internal structures (46). Essentially, their subunits differed in great deal among themselves, goals, timeframes, and internal work climates. Concluding, successful firms must have internal structures as complex as the environment in which they operate. -
The Contingency Perspective – James Thompson
Published in 1967 in Organizations in Action, Thompson developed the contingency perspective drawing on Simon’s ideas about bounded rationality and satisficing. Thompson depicted organizations as reflecting their members’ striving for rationality and consistency in the face of pressures. Thompson advanced numerous propositions about HOW organizations use hierarchy and structure (47). An important achievement was providing a driving logic for contingency by drawing on Simon. -
Aston Studies (Pugh, Hickson, Hinings)
A team of researchers from England found the Aston Studies – an effort at empirical measurement of organizations in which they developed an empirical taxonomy, grouping organizations into types based on the measured characteristics. All three interpreted differences in their taxonomic categories as a result of differences in age, size, technology, and control (48). They tested the notion that organizational structure must in some way fit its operational context. -
Routine Tasks – Charles Perrow
Charles Perrow spearheaded the idea that organizations with routine tasks have more formal centralized structures. He published two basic dimensions for the concepts of technology: the predictability of the task (number of exceptions and variations) and the analyzability of the problems encountered. Perrow said routine tasks are more predictable and therefore are fewer exceptions or variations, and more analyzable can be resolved through an established program or procedures (46).
