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Classical Approach to Understanding Organizations
-Emphasized stable and clearly defined structures and processes.
-"One best way" approach to organization. -
Frederick Taylor Pioneers "Managerial Analysis"
-Establishes scientific management and division of labor.
-Aimed to promote manager control.
-Basic idea is that managers should develop processes and fit job descriptions into them, then train employees to perform tasks.
-Does not account for psychological and social influences on workers and their productivity. -
Max Weber and the Importance of the Bureaucracy
-Developed a formal distribution of authority in organizations.
-Hierarchical authority should be established formally within an organization.
-Need for well-trained and career officials as organizational managers.
-Because of these factors, Weber considers bureaucracy to be the most efficient organizational management form yet created. -
A New Paradigm: Importance of Social and Psychological Factors in Work Behavior
-Hawthorne Studies find that social and psychological factors influence behavior and productivity.
-Sharp contrast to Scientific Management and Principles of Administration.
-Chester Barnard (1938) concluded that people work for incentives outside of just money and that organizational culture is important.
-Herbert Simon (1946) attempted to develop a more analytical and empirical approach to decision making in an organization. People in organizations don't always act rationally- Constraints. -
Administrative Management School
-Sought to develop principles of administration to guide organizational managers in decision making.
-Luther Gulick and James Mooney.
-Gulick's 2 fundamental functions of management: Division of work and coordination of work.
-Emphasized specialization of labor and unity of command, including having only one single supervisor for each worker to be directly responsible to.
-Gulick's POSDCORB (Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, Budgeting). -
A New Focus on Group Dynamics and Human Relations
-Kurt Lewin asserts that individual characteristics AND environmental circumstances influence human actions; thus, must change environment to change behavior: 3 steps- Unfreezing, Freezing, Refreezing.
-Focus on participative management and increasing employee self-esteem.
-Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of human needs.
-Douglas McGregor's Theory X (employees are lazy, etc.) vs. Theory Y (employees are 'good').
-Criticism: Too narrow a focus, solely on the 'human dimension'. -
The Rise of the Contingency Approach: Context Matters
-Organizations are ongoing systems that seek to maintain equilibrium in response to disturbances.
-Key factors influencing how organizations adapt and reform: Technology, size, environment, strategic choice.
-Emery and Trist (1965) agreed that organizations are open systems facing the need to adapt to environmental variations.
-Daniel Katz and Robert Kahn (1966), Burns and Stalker (1961), Joan Woodward (1965), James Thompson (1967). -
Total Quality Management Programs and Distinction between Public and Private Organizations
-Organizational culture and diversity have grown in importance with new development in organizational environments.
-Most previously mentioned researchers haven't made strong distinction in the applicability of concepts between public vs. private organizations.
-Most focus in literature has been on internal and managerial dimensions of organizations, including organizational structure, tasks and technology, employee motivation, and leadership).
