The Ideas of the Classical Theorists, Particularly Those of Bureaucracy and Scientific Management, Are Generally Considered as Rather Old Fashion and Out of Date, and of Little Relevance to Work and Organization Today. Is This Really the Case?

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?"

George Ritzer is an American sociologist who invented the term “McDonaldization” which is following the process of rationalization. He divided the term "McDonaldization" into four dimensions and they are efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. The first one is efficiency means thrust upon people. The second one is calculability refers something is good even tough it has less quality. The third one is predictability in which everything goes with the routine and system. The last one is control which means maintain a better control of the employees. McDonald is the fast-food restaurant which follows these rules just like Weber’s theories of bureaucracy and Ritzer’s

If we would refer to the history of organizations, we can see the significant changes in structure, polices, employee relations, values, etc. The first interest in organizations appeared in the 19th century, which was driven by industrialization. Industrial revolution was caused by development of technologies, which completely changed the structure of most of the organizations, and lead to the transformation of society. The introduction of manufacturing process completely changed the employment relations. Discipline was the key feature of the new organization, as it helped to control and organize people more effectively – this lead to the process of bureaucratization. New industrialists were looking for the profitable production. In order to achieve it, they needed punctuality and uninterrupted work during fixed hours from their employees. These targets were achieved by bureaucratisation, which was central to the administrative revolution. These organizations were highly rational, they functioned in a discipline and unemotional manner, their activities were calculated, systematic and predictable. This approach helped the manufacturers maximize the return on their capital. This new manufacturing process was the beginning of the new era of employment relations. Bureaucracy is a systematic approach; all the workers had their duties and were paid respectively. But, as many other theories, this

Classical Organizational theory:- Popovich (2010) said that in this theory, the concentration mainly goes in how an organization can be structured in effective manner. These three are believed to be major contributors of organization theory, Henri Fayol, Lyndall Urwick & Max Weber. But they all given same form of structure which was Bureaucratic. Organizational behaviour plays an integral role in organization 's progress, economic growth,and productive results .

Max Weber used the bureaucracy to represent how the society changes over time whereas Ritzer sees fast food restaurants as a better way to describe how societies change and become more of a contemporary thought pattern. Ritzer understands McDonaldization as a process in which it is slowly taking over the world, he says it can be summarised by just one small quote “the principle of fast food restaurants are coming to dominate more and more sectors of the American society as well as the rest of the world” (Ritzer 2008). He states that the past, present and future of McDonalization has appeared from the iron cage to fast food restaurants which shows that rationalisation is still developing, the iron cage is a way to describe it in the past and McDonaldization helps to describe it in today’s society, rationalisation will continue to progress until other contemporary sociologist find different ways to define it. Although McDonaldization offers many advantages as it gives customers quick food at low prices it also has disadvantages just like the bureaucracy they both suffer from irrationality, like fast food restaurants a bureaucracy can be a ‘dehumanising’ place to work and be served by. Many things are developed by technical devises rather than the human hand (Wynyard 1998)

People working together in compatible ways by defining everyone’s roles within a hierarchy organizations is a definition of bureaucracy. In examination of bureaucracy the author will find the definition, the advantages and disadvantages and will use the Police Departments in America as an example of bureaucracy and will display its characteristics of bureaucracy. It can be argued that there’s more disadvantages then advantage to using bureaucracy. Research indicates that bureaucracy can lead to powerless, unsatisfied and unhappy employees.

In the beginning of the twenty century, classical management theory was proposed. This classical management theory maintains labours’ high level specialization, centralized decision making, as well as maximize profit. (www.businessdictioary.com ) The main two thoughts of classical theory are bureaucracy and scientific management. Nowadays some people argue that the classical management theory is no longer suitable for modern world and they are outmoded because of the business environment has changed. This management theory is not that feasible since it is inflexible and dehumanized which should be modified. However, there is another voice that classical management theory is the foundation of numerous modern management methods, so it is not out of date and it just need some improvement. The aim of this essay is to discuss two kinds of classical theory bureaucracy and scientific management theory and demonstrate that they are not out of date and they develop into the cornerstone of some modern management theories.

As claimed by George Ritzer in his article The McDonaldization of Society, “McDonald’s has succeeded because it offers consumers, workers, and managers efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control” (Ritzer, 12). These four dimensions are the major components of the model of McDonaldization, a term that Ritzer defines as “the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world” (Ritzer, 1). The first component, efficiency, is the “optimum method for getting from one point to another” (Ritzer, 12). Efficiency focuses on creating the optimum method where the food is not only quickly prepared, but also quickly consumed. Calculability is the second component of the model of McDonaldization, which places emphasis on the quantity

Bureaucracy was one of the most popular theories developed and is used in some modern organisations such as the NHS and the Police. Through the years bureaucracy has developed a bad reputation for de-humanizing jobs (Grey, 30) “In the ideal-type, people are no more than parts in a well-oiled machine –devoid of passion, prejudice and personality”, although some people prefer this structure (Handy, 22) “No one, it seems, approves of bureaucracy except, interestingly, lots of people in organisations who like to know where they stand.”

In sociological theories, bureaucracy denotes either a means of management, or a particular kind of organization. Such organizations tend to have homogenous characteristics, including regularized procedure, the existence of a discretionary budget, a tendency to expand their resources continuously and progressively, and impersonal relationships with much competition for political position within the organization. 'Bureau', is a French word meaning desk; thus, 'Bureaucracy' in literal sense is to manage through a desk or office, so a form of organization heavily involved with written documents or in these days their electronic equivalent. Most economic theories of bureaucracy

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

Classical theory is about the organization, any reference or concern about the employees from a business standpoint is more of an after thought. Classical focuses on the needs of the organization and how can those needs produce the goals most important to organizational activity. Classical focuses on specific components of organizational theory including managerial tasks, administrative duties, and raw data. Employee morale is an important aspect of any business however when dealing with a classical organizational style can easily be affected.

The McDonaldization theory defines the process of which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world (Ritzer 1). Within McDonaldization there are five different concepts embedded into this theory, which are efficiency, calculability, predictability, control and lastly irrationality of rationality. These concepts are not just used in fast-food restaurants, but are becoming more

Classical approach is the earliest school of thought during the industrial revolution which began around 1900 to 1920. Classical approach points out the general principles of management to attempt the economy efficiency. Classical approach helps to solve the problem of industrial management by increasing of the efficiency of organization, decreasing the cost of productivity and improving the quality. There are three theories under the classical approach which are scientific management, administrative principles and bureaucratic organisation.