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Progressive Era
This was an era of reforms pushed by the "Progressive Movement" which aimed to reduce public corruption and increase professionalization in government. The ideas of early public administration thinkers, like Woodrow Wilson, would catch-on, such as the idea of creating a city manager position that was separate from the politics of the mayor's office. -
Scientific Management Formally Introduced
Frederick Taylor perfected his Scientific Management Theory for organizational behavior from the 1880s until his death in 1915. 1911 is when he published his papers on the topic. This managemnt theory says that there was one best way to do perform a task, discovered through systematic analysis. Management was responsible for looking at work processes, analyzing them, and setting rules for them in order to ensure the most efficient organization possible. Workers were specialized by these rules. -
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Classical School
These were the first organizational theorists that would impact public administration -
Weber and Bureaucracy
German Sociologist Max Weber published Economy and Society, specifying bureaucracy as the ideal type of administrative structure for public administration. For him, bureaucracy was 1) fixed in jurisdiction by a set of rules 2) includes a hierarchy of authority 3) expert and specialized training 4) managemet follows a set of stable rules 5) management is a full time position. The emphasis on quality career officials was an ideal fit for a civil service system. -
Hawthorne Effect
Based on studies conducted between 1927-1932, the Hawthorne Effect describes how workers will modify their behavior because they are being observed. This was an important work that showed the psychological side of the workplace. -
Notes on the Theory of Organization
This work, written by Luther Gulick and James Mooney, discussed the division of work and coordination of work as important for organizations, particularly larger ones. Specialization, they said, was important, but had its limitations. Span of work, they said, should be kept narrow in order for effective management to occur. POSDCORB: Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, and Budgeting, was introduced as the main job of the executive. -
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Administrative Management School
This school emphasized more concrete and practical ideas that built on the classical writers. -
Brownlow Committee
Wikipedia Recommended sweeping changes to the executive branch of US government. This resulted in the creation of the Executive Office of the President. -
The Functions of the Executive
Written by Chester Barnard, his work emphasized the role of leaders inducing and coordinating fundamental organizational activities. He used the term "economy of incentives" to describe an organization, revealing that he viewed incentives as absolutely necessary for efficient management. -
The Proverbs of Administration
Written by Herbert Simon, this work criticised the Administrative Management school, saying that its principles were vague, sometimes contradictory, and unscientific. He called for a more systematic look at administrative practices, based on careful study, rather than "proverbs." -
Hoover Commission
Wikipedia Another commission, headed this time by former President Herbert Hoover, proposed changes to the federal government based on the Administrative Management School. -
Kurt Lewin
Kurt Lewin was a sociologist who studied groups, coining the term "quasi-stationary equilibrium" to describe attitudes and behaviors. Generally, he found that a person's behavior was influenced by the group; if that person was removed from the group, convinced to change his behavior, returned to the group, the change would not last. This was important for understanding behavior in the workplace. -
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Human Relations School
An emphasis on looking as human behavior and needs in the workplace. -
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Open Systems and Contingency Theory
Rather than there being an "ideal type" of organization or a best way to do things as Weber and Taylor would say, this movement said that there was no one best way to do things an the best organizational structure could be determined on a case by case basis (contingent on several factors). -
Demming and Juran Begin What Becomes TQM
Demming and Juran begin writing about Total Quality Management (named later in the century). -
Abraham Maslow
Maslow introduced the concept of a hierarchy of needs in which everyone strives for "self actualization." By distinguishing between lower and higher order needs, his work had some influence on the treatment of workers in organizations. -
Organizational Sociology and Bureacracy
This series of thinkers, including Merton, Thompson, and Selznick focused on the behavior and impact of organizations on external forces, rather than simply the workers within the organizations. This also laid the groundwork for the organizational culture movement to begin. -
Theory X and Theory Y
In his book, The Human Side of Enterprise, David McGregor identified two major theories of management: Theory X and Y. Theory X held that employees were naturally lazy, passive, and did not wish to do their jobs; theory Y held the opposite. Thus, these two points of view would lead to dramatically different ways of manageing employees -
Open Systems Thinkers Criticize Machine-like Orthodoxy
These thinkers include British researchers Burns and Stalker (1961) and Woodward (1965), as well as Americans Katz and Kahn (1967) and Thompson (1967). They emphasized a more dynamic organization - organizations are not closed systems, they are effected by the outside world. -
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Organzational Culture
A focus on the "culture" of the organization and how it impacts workers and productivity. -
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Total Quality Management
An emphasis on making the customer as happy as possible by making the most of all the resources the organization has available to it. In these decades, this type of thought had a greater influence on the public sector. It came from the ideas of Demming and Juran.
