The Ideas of the Classical Theorists, Particularly Those of Bureaucracy and Scientific Management, Are Generally Considered as Rather Old Fashioned and Out of Date, and of Little Relevance to Work and Organisation Today.

Chapter 2: The classical approaches (scientific management, administrative principles, and bureaucratic organization) share a common assumption: people at work act in a rational manner that is primarily driven by economic concerns. Scientific Management: in 1911, Fredrick W. Taylor published The Principles of Scientific Management, in which he made the following statement: “The principle object of management should be to secure maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for the employee. He noticed that many workers did their jobs their own ways and without clear and uniform specifications. He believed this caused them to lose efficiency and underperform. He believed the problem would be fixed by scientific

"Classical Organizational Theory deals with the 'systematic processes necessary to make bureaucracy more efficient and effective.' Name three scholars that are credited with the development of classical organization thought that most correctly fit into this definition of Classical Organizational Theory. What were the basic arguments articulated by each in their contributions to the development of Classical Organizational Theory?"

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.

The classical approach to public administration was focused on finding the best way to perform and manage tasks. This classical approach to Public Administration is often associated with Weber, Wilson, Taylor, and Gulick. Under the classical approach was four areas of focus which was the Bureaucratic, Scientific, Administrative, and Managerial approach. Each area represented the four main theorists that the classical approach was associated with. Max Weber's bureaucratic approach focused on the rational-legal model which viewed bureaucracy from a rational view and argued that bureaucracy is the most efficient and rational way in which one can organize the human activity and that hierarchies are necessary to maintain

The theories well before Organisational behaviour concerned on increasing productivity and efficiency by introducing machinery and optimising time spent on tasks. Taylorisum continually appalled by workers inefficiencies, and the workers tendency to “take it easy “on the job. The Taylorisum was criticised by many arguing that the fundamentals of scientific management were to abuse workers rather than to benefit them (Mullins, 2005). Prior to Hawthorne studies

Frederick W. Taylor (1856-1915), who was a mechanical engineer, pioneered scientific management in the early 1900’s. Taylor believed that it was the management’s duty to designate jobs for workers and motivate them to achieve the task they’re assigned. He introduced five principles that make up the structure of scientific management, four are universal and one is contingent. “Taylor labeled the first principle, ‘A Large Daily Task.’ The idea was that each member of the organization, from top to bottom, should have a "clearly defined task" assigned each day.” The second principle “labeled ‘Standard Conditions,’ specified that: (a) each worker 's task should ‘call for a full day 's work,’ and (b) each worker should be given ‘such standardized conditions and appliances as will enable him to accomplish his task with certainty.’” Again, Taylor clearly believed in assigning accomplishable tasks to workers.

The classical management theory could be defined as the theory that relies on the management principals of balancing authority and responsibility, the separation of labor, and the interactions between managers and subordinates. The classical management theory, was established during the Industrial Revolution around the time from 1900 's to the mid-1930. Throughout this period, the classical theories of organization started to materialize. This theory believes that employees have simply economical and physical needs, and their social needs and job-satisfaction moreover do not exist or are

The definition of “Classical management” states that it is “a result of the early attempts to formalize principles for a growing number of professional managers (Jeliniek, 2005)”. Mariann Jeliniek, Henri Fayol, and Frederick Winslow Taylor are all seen as the forefathers of classical management (Parker and Ritson, 2005). Classical theory sought rationality and order in the workplace, and worked through what they had called “the one best way,” which is what they had thought was the most logical division of labor, appropriate structure to relate the activities, the correct amount of control for directing activities, and as well the proper allocation of responsibility designated to a proper authority. These three classical theorists asserted their insights and became universally applicable to all organizations. To help ensure there was efficiency in the workplace there had to be specialized labor, proper direction and coordination, and effective planning in an organization.

Taylor imagined that workers would be able to make out the relationship between completion of more work in units and the economic rewards been increased. Taylors work as described by (Buchanan and Huczynski, 2004) depicts how theories were to take place at shop floor levels, then how facts were substituted for opinion and guess work. Henri Fayol, his fellow classical writer had a different perception which looked at organisation from top to bottom. The pace setters of classical theories had engineering background hence derived theories with scientific approach. (Buchanan and Huczunski, 2004). (Cole, 2004) talks about how the production environment under the classical theory in America had created difficulties, where labour force were skint, uneducated, and in quest of making economic fortunes. (Lemak, 2004) point out how the classical management has had

The evolution of the society, social relationships, improvement in education… has influenced organizational structures and management principles. For example, the balance of power between managers and workers has changed. In the 19th century, the power was essentially in the employer side whereas today, particularly with the emergence of unions, it is quite balanced. The rise in workforce’s education and standard of living has resulted in much more demanding employees (C. Grönroos, 1994). Historical scientific management is therefore not appropriate anymore, either for its aims or for its principles.

However, Tom Peters (1989) said that “‘I beg each and every one of you to develop a passionate and public hatred of bureaucracy”. This statement urges us to examine whether the bureaucracy is replaced or not. Consequently, this report strives to examine the strengths, weaknesses of the bureaucracy organization as well as changes impacting to this model in order to answer the question whether the bureaucracy is altered or not.

Collectively they set the basis for modern management techniques, such as management by objectives (MBO); planning, programming, budgeting, systems (PPBS), and other theories stressing rational planning and control. They were firm supporters of bureaucratization and devoted their energies in identifying detailed principles and methods through which this kind of organization can be achieved. The classical management theorists focused on the design of the total organization. The classical theorists believed that when commands were issued from the top to bottom of the hierarchy, they would travel throughout the organization in a precisely determined way to create precisely determined effect. The whole thrust of classical management theory and its modern application is to suggest that organizations can or should be rational systems that operate in as efficient manner as possible. The classical theorist gave little attention to the human aspects of the organization and considered organization to be a technical problem. The classical theorists recognized that it was important to achieve a balance between the human and technical aspects of organization through appropriate selection and training procedures, but their main orientation was to make humans fit the requirements of mechanical organization .

There has been tremendous development of organizations and corporations in the past two centuries, which has resulted in academic as well as practical development of concepts related to organizational behaviour, revolutionizing the current landscape. From the studies conducted by Adam Smith in the 18th century to Peter Ferdinand Drucker in the 21st century a range of ideas and concepts have originated with respect to organizational behaviour and associated practices. While Adam Smith 's contribution was in the area of division of labour, which even though proposed as early as the 18th century is still finding relevance in modern-day organizations. The scientific management principles of Frederick Winslow Taylor can be considered to be the modern proponent of organizational behaviour by concentrating on maximizing benefits to the staff, managers and society through a system of supervision, uniformity and standardization. These earliest theoretical concepts, particularly the one by Taylor and Webber 's ideas related to bureaucracy are considered as the foundations for Modernist thought process.

Taylorism went beyond simple time studies and standardized procedures, he brought new management techniques, giving people greater control of human and physical resources as this time demanded. As technology advanced and the scale and scope of production increased, so did the fear of a disorganized and undisciplined workforce. Scientific management provided methods to bring about the organization and disipline that was required. (Bendix, 1974:25-27)

Frederick W.Taylor was known to be the father of scientific management. He was the published of “The Principles of Scientific Management” in 1909. In this he proposed that by simplifying jobs, productivity would be increased. He also encouraged the idea that workers and managers needed to cooperate with each other. This was very different in which the way work was done previously to this.