Four Main Theorists Of The Classical Approach To Public Administration

Max Weber was a German sociologist who first described the concept of bureaucracy, an ideal form of organizational structure. He defines bureaucratic administration as the exercise of control on the

However, despite Max Weber’s theory that bureaucracies are like iron “iron cages” that are a efficient form of administration. Prior to modern government reform patronage, spoils, and bribery were just part of the political environment for Public Administrators. In today’s, modern government Public Administrators are hired based on the merit and technical qualifications that secure the individual can carry out the duties of the office. However, Public Administrators are forced to work in a hierarchical organization

The classical or traditional approach to management was generally concerned with the structure and the activities of formal organization. The utmost importance in the achievement of an effective organization were seen to be the issues such as the establishment of a hierarchy of authority, the division of work, and the span of control.

It was also Weber who began studies of bureaucracy, and whose works led to the popularization of this as a term. He developed theories of leadership, and how as society and organizational structure have changed over time, leadership techniques and organizational structures corporations adopt have adapted accordingly. Weber identifies three types of leader: the charismatic leader, who instills a sense of energy and eagerness among their team members. He is dedicated to his organization for the long run to produce adequate results. Secondly we have traditional authority, which is legitimated by the sanctity of tradition. The ability and right to rule is passed down, and is often often hereditary. But bureaucracies are typically led by the rational-legal leader, leading to a rise in this type of authority in recent times. This rational-legal will establish a clear structure within their organization, and follow procedures as they have been established, perfectly tying in with instrumental rationality. Bureaucratic leaders

Weber’s bureaucratic approach focuses on the importance of hierarchy by putting great emphasis on the use of rules, procedures and making impartial personnel decisions when managing. He put great emphasis on the jurisdiction, explaining that work should be “divided according to type and purpose” staying within the correct working unit just as the organization’s rules and laws would state (Milakovich, et. al., 2013, p. 146). A hierarchy would be established with a chain of command clearly identifying a system of super- and

Elton Mayo is best known for the Hawthorne effect. Mayo was well educated, studying at several different universities including engineering at the University of Glasgow. Mayo faced a lot of rejection during his career but his work greatly influenced our working environments today. He believed that industries were destroying communal harmony and that production would increase if the workers were better taken care of. He is quoted as saying that workers must rise above “indignation and frustration which the…new industrial society forced on workers” (Hoopes 130). These new managerial styles in addition to a capitalist leaning society created an unfriendly environment for the majority of workers. Despite his attempts, his theories and ideas often fell

In the political approach, political authority is divided between a central government and the provincial or state governments. This means that some provinces or states are accorded a substantial measure of constitutional or legal sovereignty, although they still remain subordinates of the central government in certain constitutional or legal respects. The political approach promotes the political values of military strength, economic development, union, and representation. In addition, it is characterized by three central features: state sovereignty, bicameralism, and multiple layers of representation.

Throughout the text was the comparison of Confucian philosophy to ethic of bureaucracy and Weber’s stand to the structure and behavior of bureaucracy. Another emphasis from the article is the belief of bureaucracy and public administration having the same meaning as governmental and professional administration of the public (Frederickson,

The purpose of this essay is to discuss the public interest and the administrative responsibility. Discuss some of the recent ethical obligations confronting public administrators in their day to day decision making. Also we will examine the recent trend in privatizing government functions. Finally, we will discuss if privatizing posses any type of dilemma’s for the attainment of public interest.

Luther Gulick was an expert on public administration, and one of the founders of the American Society for Public Administration. Gulick famously defined public administration as POSDCORB: planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting. He put it more simply, claiming that the global content of the field of public administration is set by the environment, not by logic; if government does it, it can be considered public administration (“Social Security History,” n.d.). Michele, the executive director of the Orange County Medical Association, realized that there was a lot of work to be done and that many of the association's priorities need to be set straight in order for the association to remain on the cutting edge and merge successfully into the 21st century. The prior executive director functioned primarily as an office manager and order taker for the president and executive committee. All seven staff members reported to her

Weber belongs to the classical school theorists whose aim was to develop an extensive management theory for organisation, but besides this they desired to provide tools which the managers can implement in order to avoid or cure organisational challenges. Weber developed the theory of bureaucratic management, which, in several points, are oppose to the principles of the matrix structure. In contrast to the both horizontal and vertical form of hierarchical linkages of matrix structure, in the bureaucratic management theory, Weber expounds, that organisations need to have a comprehensible, vertical hierarchy where the rules are clearly defined. The structure designed to clearly define the hierarchical relations and create a rather chain like vertical flow of

The last approach to classical management was bureaucracy. Bureaucracy was extremely popular in large organizations because it allows companies to perform many tasks while eliminating judgments of managers. Although bureaucracy works well with most organizations it may not be the best approach to organizations that require fast thinking and decision making.

In the following paragraphs, I will explain the dominant theory in public administration practice and elaborate on the major theoretical assumptions of the Old Public Administration. As stated in the question, the world has transformed through globalization, information technology, and devolution of authority since the latter part of the last century. The dominant theory in public administration has been replaced from the traditional rule-based, authority-driven processes of the Old Public Administration with market-based, competition-driven tactics in the New Public Management, beginning in the 1980s (Kettl, 2000, p. 3). This was an effort to privatize government and streamline public administration to maximize efficiency and productivity. Heavily relying on market mechanisms to guide public programs, public administrators in the New Public Management are encouraged to “steer, not row,” meaning they should not bear the burden of delivering services, but instead define programs that others will carry out, through contracting or other means (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2011, p. 13). Core values of the New Public Management include using private sector and business approaches to the public sector, squeezing as many services as possible from smaller revenues, market style incentives, providing customers more choices, and focusing on outputs and outcomes instead of mainly processes.

Explain and discuss which management philosophy would likely be most suited to the company, Alphabet: The Classical School of Management or the Behavioural School of management. (Pick only one and support your answer with examples from the article).

The classical approach were established and carried out in the early 1900centyry. Group of technician, manager and scientist came up with idea in order to reduce industrial dispute. They are Frederick Taylor-the theory of scientific management, Max Weber- theory of bureaucracy, and Henri Fayol – theory of classical management. Most of them theories were based on the principal for a comprehensive theory of management. Now I am going to discuss about perspective view of each theories. Frederick Taylor came up with the principal theory of scientific management. His theory put emphasis on how an organisation can increase or gain their productivity through strong management control and supervision on worker and planning and maintain structure of organisation. He believe in so called “Division of labour”-worker can do best and process can be run smoothly if worker assigned to a limited number of specific task. He argued best result will out come if the employee appointed for a specific task and monitor them closely. Taylor found out that lack of employee initiative in the work place was the major issue of inefficient work in the organisation. He believes that the organisation emphasis more on external job rather than focusing on internal process of the production line, giving less priority to the external process created negative impact on organisation such as waste of time, human effort and materials. The reasons behind that were at that time most of the organization used to