Classical Organization Theories

Prof. Josefina B. Bitonio, DPA

FDM 201 Principles and Processes of Development Management

Major Contributors to the Classical Organizational Theory:

Scientific Management: Frederick Taylor Administrative Management:

Henri Fayol Luther Halsey Gulick Max Weber

Frederick Taylor
dubbed as the Father of Scientific Management, is best known for his one best way approach in accomplishing task. Classical organization theory evolved from this notion.
Scientific management focusing on the management of work and workers

Taylor, Generally considered the father of scientific management pioneered the development OF TIME AND MOTION STUDIES. He wrote and published the result of his studies in 1911 on the PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.

Ingenuity and Accomplishments

Creates systems to gain maximum efficiency from workers and machines in the factory. Focuses on time and motion studies to learn how to complete a task in the least amount of time. Becomes consulting engineer for many other companies

Revisiting Time and Motion Studies

The time studies performed by Taylor, which were later classified as time and motion studies, were characterized by timing a workers series of motions and determining the optimal way in which to perform their particular job. The goals of the study are as relevant today as they were back then - to increase the efficiency of a business process. Time and motion studies have been successful in various implementations enabling companies to move forward in providing logical frameworks for improving and leaning their operations.

One best Way

Taylor's scientific management consisted of four principles:

1. Replace rule-of-thumb work methods with methods based on a scientific study of the tasks. 2. Scientifically select, train, and develop each employee rather than passively leaving them to train themselves. 3. Provide "Detailed instruction and supervision of each worker in the performance of that worker's discrete task" (Montgomery 1997: 250). 4. Divide work nearly equally between managers and workers, so that the managers apply scientific management principles to planning the work and the workers actually perform the tasks.

Henri Fayol
Engineer and French industrialist In France works as a managing director in coalmining organization Recognizes to the management principles rather than personal traits While others shared this belief, Fayol was the first to identify management as a continuous process of evaluation.

Fayols 5 Management Functions

Fundamental roles performed by all managers: Planning Organizing Commanding Coordinating Controlling Additionally Fayol recognizes fourteen principles that should guide the management of organizations.

Fayols 14 Principles:
1. Division of Work improves efficiency through a reduction of waste, increased output, and simplification of job training 2. Authority and Responsibilityauthority: the right to give orders and the power to extract obedience responsibility: the obligation to carry out assigned duties 3. Disciplinerespect for the rules that govern the organization

4. Unity of Commandan employee should receive orders from one superior only 5. Unity of Directiongrouping of similar activities that are directed to a single goal under one manager 6. Subordination of Individual Interests to the General Interestinterests of individuals and groups should not take precedence over the interests of the organization as a whole. 7. Remuneration of Personnelpayment should be fair and satisfactory for employees and the organization 8. Centralizationmanagers retain final responsibility subordinates maintain enough responsibility to accomplish their tasks

9. Scalar Chain (Line of Authority)the chain of command from the ultimate authority to the lowest 10. Orderpeople and supplies should be in the right place at the right time 11. Equitymanagers should treat employees fairly and equally 12. Stability of Tenure of Personnelmanagerial practices that encourage long-term commitment from employees create a stable workforce and therefore a successful organization 13. Initiativeemployees should be encouraged to develop and carry out improvement plans 14. Esprit de Corpsmanagers should foster and maintain teamwork, team spirit, and a sense of unity among employees

Luther Halsey Gulick (1892-1992)

A specialist in municipal finance and administration Gulick works with the Institute of Public Administration, professor of municipal science and administration at Columbia, and serves on Franklin D. Roosevelts Committee of Government Administration Expands Fayols five management functions into seven functions:

1. Planning - developing an outline of the things that must be accomplished and the methods for accomplishing them 2. Organizing - establishes the formal structure of authority through which work subdivisions are arranged, defined, and coordinated to implement the plan 3. Staffing - selecting, training, and developing the staff and maintaining favorable working conditions 4. Directing - the continuous task of making decisions, communicating and implementing decisions, and evaluating subordinates properly

5. Coordinating - all activities and efforts needed to bind together the organization in order to achieve a common goal 6. Reporting - verifies progress through records, research, and inspection; ensures that things happen according to plan; takes any corrective action when necessary; and keeps those to whom the chief executive is responsible informed 7. Budgeting - all activities that accompany budgeting, including fiscal planning, accounting, and control

Max Weber (1864-1920)

German sociologist Weber first describes the concept of bureaucracy an ideal form of organizational structure He defines bureaucratic administration as the exercise of control on the basis of knowledge Weber states, Power is principally exemplified within organizations by the process of control

Weber uses and defines the terms authority and power as: Power: any relationship within which one person could impose his will, regardless of any resistance from the other. Authority: existed when there was a belief in the legitimacy of that power.

Weber classifies organizations according to the legitimacy of their power and uses three basic classifications:
Charismatic Authority: based on the sacred or outstanding characteristic of the individual. Traditional Authority: essentially a respect for customs. Rational Legal Authority: based on a code or set of rules.

Weber recognizes that rational legal authority is used in the most efficient form of organization because:
A legal code can be established which can claim obedience from members of the organization The law is a system of abstract rules which are applied to particular cases; and administration looks after the interests of the organization within the limits of that law.

 The manager or the authority additionally follows the impersonal order Membership is key to law obedience

Obedience is derived not from the person administering the law, but rather to the impersonal order that installed the persons authority

Weber outlined his ideal bureaucracy as defined by the following parameters:

A continuous system of authorized jobs maintained by regulations

Specialization: encompasses a defined sphere of competence, based on its divisions of labor A stated chain of command of offices: a consistent organization of supervision based on distinctive levels of authority

 Rules: an all encompassing system of directives which govern behavior: rules may require training to comprehend and manage
Impersonality: no partiality, either for or against, clients, workers, or administrators Free selection of appointed officials: equal opportunity based on education and professional qualification

 Full-time paid officials: only or major employment; paid on the basis of position
Career officials: promotion based on seniority and merit; designated by supervisors Private/Public split: separates business and private life The finances and interests of the two should be kept firmly apart: the resources of the organization are quite distinct from those of the members as private individuals.

(a) A tendency to a leveling of social classes by allowing a wide range of recruits with technical competence to be taken by any organization (b) Elite status because of the time required to achieve the necessary technical training (c) Greater degree of social equality due to the dominance of the spirit of impersonality or objectivity

Simon(1946) in his book, Administrative Behavior, created a distinction between theoretical and practical science. He introduced more common principles in the literature of administration administrative efficiency and specialization when he wrote the article, "The Proverbs of Administration. (Simon 1946 as cited in Shafffritz and Hyde 1997; Stillman 1991)

Proverbs of Administration Hebert A. Simon

Proverbs are useful but are not without defects. Simon works to expose these defects as well as offer some suggestions as to how the existing dilemma can be solved. Some Accepted Administrative Principles:

1. Administrative efficiency is increased by a specialization of the task among the group. 2. Administrative efficiency is increased by arranging the members of the group in a determinate hierarchy of authority. 3. Administrative efficiency is increased by limiting the span of control at any point in the hierarchy to a small number. 4.Administrative efficiency is increased by grouping the workers, for purposes of control, according to (a) purpose, (b) process, (c) clientele, or (d) place.

None of the four principles survive criticism very well. Administrative description suffers currently from superficiality, oversimplification, lack of realism. It is too concerned with allocation of authority and not with modes of influence or behavior. Until administrative description reaches a level of sophistication, there is little reason to hope that a rapid progress will be made toward the identification and verification of valid administrative principles.

 in 1945, Appleby, led a postwar attack on the concept of politicsadministration dichotomy by drafting a convincing case that public administration was not something apart from politics but rather at the center of political life. (Stillman 1991: 123)

 In 1948, Dwight Waldo tried to establish the direction and thrust of Public Administration as a field of study in his book, The Administrative State, which hit the gospel of efficiency that dominated the administrative thinking prior to Word War II. That same year, Sayre attacked public personnel administration as the triumph over purpose. (Shafritz and Hyde 1997: 74)

gospel of efficiency
Revisiting Waldo's Administrative State brings together a group of distinguished authors who critically explore public administration's big ideas and issues and question whether contemporary efforts to "reinvent government," promote privatization, and develop new public management approaches constitute a coherent political theory capable of meeting the complex challenges of governing in a democracy. Probing the material and ideological background of modern public administration, problems of political philosophy, and finally particular challenges inherent in contemporary administrative reform. It concludes with a look ahead to "wicked" policy problems -- such as terrorism, global warming, and ecological threats -- whose scope is so global and complex that they will defy any existing administrative structures and values

gospel of efficiency
Waldo warned that public administrative efficiency must be backed by a framework of consciously held democratic values. Calling for a return to conscious consideration of democratic accountability, fairness, justice, and transparency in government

In 1949, Selznick introduced the so-called cooptative mechanism where he defined cooptation as the process of absorbing new elements into the leadership or policy determining structure of an organization as a means of averting threats to its stability or existence. (Shafritz and Hyde 1997: 147)

Since administration is concerned will all patterns of cooperative behavior, it is obvious that any persons engaged in an activity is in COOPERATION with the other persons who is engaged in administration Everyone has cooperated with others throughout his life and he has some basic familiarity with administration and some of its problems.
(Simon, 1991)

A contemporary of Goodnow was William Willoughby (1918). Willoughby stressed the role of the trilogy covering all three branches of government but he was more known for his budgetary reforms. He discussed the movements for budgetary reforms in the US in view of the budget as an instrument for democracy, as an instrument for correlating legislative and executive action, and as an instrument for securing administrative efficiency and economy.

Mary Parker Follet (1926) also made some significant contribution to the discourse of Public Administration as one of the proponents of participatory management and the law of situation which can be attributed to the concept of contingency management. She illustrated the advantages of participatory management in her article, The Giving of Orders.

In the 1920s and early 1930s, Elton Mayo conducted the Hawthorne experiments on the theory of individuals within an organization which propelled the human relations school of management thought.

Hawthorne Experiments
The Human Relations Movement began with the Hawthorne Experiments. They were conducted at Western Electrical Works in USA, b/w 1924-1932

Part I - Illumination Experiments (1924-27)

These experiments were performed to find out the effect of different levels of illumination (lighting) on productivity of labor. The brightness of the light was increased and decreased to find out the effect on the productivity of the test group. Surprisingly, the productivity increased even when the level of illumination was decreased. It was concluded that factors other than light were also important

Part II - Relay Assembly Test Room Study (1927-1929)

Under these test two small groups of six female telephone relay assemblers were selected. Each group was kept in separate rooms. From time to time, changes were made in working hours, rest periods, lunch breaks, etc. They were allowed to choose their own rest periods and to give suggestions. Output increased in both the control rooms. It was concluded that social relationship among workers, participation in decision making etc. had a greater effect on productivity than working conditions.

Part III - Mass Interviewing Programme (1928-1930)

21,000 employees were interviewed over a period of three years to find out reasons for increased productivity. It was concluded that productivity can be increased if workers are allowed to talk freely about matters that are important to them.

Part IV - Bank Wiring Observation Room Experiment (1932)

A group of 14 male workers in the bank wiring room were placed under observation for six months. A worker's pay depended on the performance of the group as a whole. The researchers thought that the efficient workers would put pressure on the less efficient workers to complete the work. However, it was found that the group established its own standards of output, and social pressure

The conclusions derived from the Hawthorne Studies were as follows : The social and psychological factors are responsible for workers' productivity and job satisfaction. Only good physical working conditions are not enough to increase productivity. The informal relations among workers influence the workers' behavior and performance more than the formal relations in the organization. Employees will perform better if they are allowed to participate in decision-making affecting their interests.

 Employees will also work more efficiently, when they believe that the management is interested in their welfare. When employees are treated with respect and dignity, their performance will improve. Financial incentives alone cannot increase the performance. Social and Psychological needs must also be satisfied in order to increase productivity.

Chester Barnard (1938) presented a more comprehensive theory of organizational behavior when he wrote the functions of the executive. He argued that for the executive to become more effective, he should maintain an equilibrium between the needs of the employees and the organization.

His concepts were later explored and developed into more comprehensive theories and principles as advocated by other researches in organizational behavior and management, such as, Herzbergs motivation hygiene theory, Mc Gregors Theory X and Y, 11 Argyris personality versus organization and Likerts Systems 1 to 4, among others. (Shafritz and Hyde 1997)

Maslow (1943), on the other hand, focused on the hierarchical needs of the individual. His theory of human motivation, states that the human being has five sets of needs: physiological, safety, love or affiliation, esteem and ultimately, and selfactualization.

Public Administration is often characterized as a fragmented field one that is pulled in competing directions by different intellectual and disciplinary perspective as well as by the concerns of practice and theory, Nevertheless, it does have a common core of knowledge and coherent intellectual history

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Common Criticisms of Classical Organizational Theory

Classical principles of formal organization may lead to a work environment in which: Employees have minimal power over their jobs and working conditions Subordination, passivity and dependence are expected work to a short term perspective Employees are lead to mediocrity Working conditions produce to psychological failure as a result of the belief that they are lower class employees performing menial tasks

Reference:
Alex Brillantes, Jr. and Maricel Fernandez Is there a Philippine Public Administration or Better Still, for whom is Public Administration? UP NCPAG. June, 2008

Vincent Myers and Nina Presuto. Classical Organizational Theory www.tcnj.edu/~wright/classicalb.pp