The Classical
Theory Approach is also known as the Administrative
Management approach and Structural theory approach as it deals with
advocating management or business practices and formal organization’s structure. Its
important proponents are Henry Fayol, Luther Gulick, L.F. Urwick, J.D Mooney, A.C. Reilly, M.P. Follett and R. Shelton.
Each of them provided their own principles and improvised on each other’s works
but belonged to the same school of thought and thus differed very slightly.
1.
Scalar principle
2. Principle of Coordination
3. Principle of organizational goals and objectives
4. Principle of Span of control
5. Principle of correspondence
6. Principle of specialization
7. Principle of responsibility
8. Principle of definition
Mooney and Reiley’s principles:
1. Coordinative principle
2. Scalar principle
3. Functional principle
4. Staff/line principle
All these principles or guiding rules are supposed to help managers manage their organizations in the best possible manner and increase efficiency and economy.
This approach was mainly concerned about
developing certain universal principles of organization since it believed that
there were certain fundamental principles on the basis of which an organization
can be established to achieve its specific objectives leading to maximum organizational
efficiency and economy. This approach treats an organization as uninfluenced by
outside influences like society and personal problems etc, that’s why it is
also termed as ‘closed organization
theory’ and ‘Mechanical organization
theory’. It didn’t take much to the human factor and importance of
motivation. As Taylor was concerned with workers and emphasized on floor
activities, this approach focuses more on the top management instead of
workers.
Henry Fayol is regarded
as the founder of this managerial approach that stressed on a structure of an organization
whose management worked by being guided by universally and scientifically valid
principles of management to get the most out of the workers and achieve the organization’s
objectives. Fayol was a reputed businessman who started off as an Engineer in a
mining company and rose to take over it when it was officially on the verge of
bankruptcy but his style and method of administration there pulled it out of
despair and made it the most successful company of its times. Thus, he penned
down his practices after being requested by many in book called “General and Industrial management” and
later he also contributed to the theory of Public administration in his book “The theory of Administration in the State”.
Fayol stated that there were six groups of work
that every organization’s activities consisted of - technical functions, commercial
functions, financial functions, security functions, accounting and administrative
functions. And managerial functions according to him consisted of - planning,
organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling.
Fayol’s fourteen principles of organization were his major
contribution to the field of administration. The principles were:
1.
Division of work- Work should
be divided equally.
2.
Authority -Authority should be invested in a
position so that it can carry out its responsibilities attached to it.
3.
Discipline- Discipline has to be maintained all
the time.
4.
Scalar Chain- Hierarchy is to be clearly outlined so
that there is no confusion from top to bottom and vice versa.
5.
Unity of Command- One
supervisor for one worker.
6. Centralization
and Decentralization- All important decisions to be taken at the
top and routine tasks to be disseminated at lower management level.
7.
Unity of direction- The system
of communication is to be in one direction that is top to bottom.
8.
Subordination of individual interest to general
interest-
Workers are to think of organizational good first before themselves
individually.
9.
Remuneration- Proper & consistent remuneration
to be provided so that no one is dissatisfied
10.
Order- Order to be maintained at all times.
11.
Equity- Justice is to be prevailed at all
costs and all are to be treated fairly and equally.
12.
Stability of tenure- A stable
tenure for security of job and peace of mind of worker so that he is content to
do his job.
13.
Initiative- All initiatives that contribute to the
good of the organization are to be encouraged and considered.
14. Esprit de
corps-
A feeling of team work, loyalty and integrity between employees towards
themselves and the organization as a whole at all times and all means to be
employed to promote the same.
Though these principles are ambiguous and
limited in nature, it provided the basis for the development of principles of
administration by later thinkers.
Gullick and Urwick, both had
rich experience working in the civil services and military as well as
industrial organizations thus in their writings you can sense a combination of
both public and business administration.
Gullick also contributed on the basis of his
analysis certain principles of organization as Fayol –
1.
Division of work on specialization
2.
Based on departmental
organization - Work to be divided into smaller units for more efficiency called
departments of the organization.
3.
Coordination through
hierarchy - Clearly outlined hierarchy helps in avoiding confusions and
facilitating coordination among workers.
4.
Coordination through committers
5.
Delegation
6.
Deliberate
coordination - Coordination achieved deliberately through planning.
7.
Decentralization
8.
unity of command
9.
Line and Staff - Line
agencies are field work agencies who will be supported by staff agencies who
are specialists in the field.
10.
Span of control -
Each supervisor to control a certain amount of employees performing the same
task or similar tasks. Number of employees not mentioned, depends from organization
to organization and tasks.
And of course who can forget how he summed
these all up in his famous abbreviation of POSDCORB i.e. Planning (What needs to be done and how it will be done), Organization (establishing a formal structure of authority to divide, arrange, define
and coordinate work), Staffing (Recruiting and training of personnel and
their conditions of work), Directing
(making decisions and issuing orders and
instructions), Coordinating (interrelating various divisions and parts
of the organization for smooth execution of tasks to achieve organization
objectives), Reporting (informing the agency to whom executive is
responsible about what is going on) and Budgeting (fixed planning, control
and accounting and auditing).
Urwick had his own set of principles, though not
much apart from his colleagues of the same school. They are:
2. Principle of Coordination
3. Principle of organizational goals and objectives
4. Principle of Span of control
5. Principle of correspondence
6. Principle of specialization
7. Principle of responsibility
8. Principle of definition
Mooney and Reiley’s principles:
1. Coordinative principle
2. Scalar principle
3. Functional principle
4. Staff/line principle
All these principles or guiding rules are supposed to help managers manage their organizations in the best possible manner and increase efficiency and economy.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF ADMINISTRATION
Let’s discuss some of the important principles
listed above in detail.
The theory of departmentalization (by Gullick):
He
advocated that work in an organization can be divided and given to newly
created departments for the same. Now the basis on which departments are
created are:
1) Function or purpose: For a major
function or purpose of the organization departments are created, for example, to regulate trade and
commerce in the country there is a department of commerce. To look after the
welfare of people there is a department called Welfare department. Universally,
this principle is applied mostly in governmental organizations. A department is
a part of the government. There can be departments under ministries or
autonomous departments like the Department of Atomic Energy that is not under
any ministry but under the prime minister himself.
Advantages of departments are that it ensures
better discipline and eliminates time wastage and energy, they are self contained
and low coordination costs are involved in running them. They are much more
successful in attaining goals. However its disadvantages are failure to use
updated technology, lack of possibility of work division and not enough
specialists for guidance.
2) Departments made on the basis of Process or
Skills:
It means that a department is created for a specialized technique to be applied
for a particular job like engineering, accounting, stenography, legal advice, etc.
Thus there are Department of Law, Department of Engineering, Department of
account and auditing etc. advantages are that these departments are up to date
with technical skills and specialization. Is uniform and coordinates all
engineering services under one department. Disadvantages are that it is very
mechanical and creates interdepartmental conflicts and is not much concerned
with welfare. Further failure of one department effects the whole enterprise.
3) Departmentalization on the basis of Persons
or Clientele: For example, the ‘old age department’ serves the old people
needing special attention. Disadvantages of this kind of department are that
coordination becomes difficult on account of overlapping and duplication many a
times.
4) Departmentalization on the basis of Place or
Territory: Examples
are ‘District administration department’ or ‘tribal area department’ where
functions performed in a particular area are clubbed together and one
department is formed. It helps in intensive development of an area. But such
department can suffer from lack of functional specialization and growth many a
times.
Some departments can be seen overlapping each
other too like the Department of medicine can also be considered as a process
based department as it involves skills and can also be considered as purpose
based department as there is a purpose behind its existence and that is standardization
of medicine and its development. Therefore one has to be careful in segregating
them and their workings.
Post a Comment