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Compare And Contrast Max Weber And Fayol

Decent Essays

In this essay, I have chosen to discuss how Max Weber (1864-1920) and Henri Fayol (1841-1925) compare and contrast in their ideology and contributions to the field of management. Max Weber focused on how to structure an organisation to become successful. He developed six main elements to promote this success, which he considered would develop efficiency. He called it bureaucracy. Bureaucracy has its advantages and disadvantages, it was considered to be “both rational and efficient” (Tiernan, Morley, 2013, p. 17), but for example Weber’s rather strict division of labour also led to workers becoming bored and unmotivated. The six elements that he created were; Division of labour, Hierarchy, Selection, Career orientation, Formalisation and Impersonality. …show more content…

Now I would like to compare how Weber’s element of selection intrusted that ‘qualification certificates’ were instrumental with an employee’s place in the organisation, but it also was dependant on “the consent (‘election’) of the members of the official body.” (Gerth, H H, Mills, C. Wright, 1998, p.200). Fayol does not distinctively discuss the process of hiring staff in his fourteen principles. Here is one of the first signs of contrast between the two theorists. He outlines that the stability of tenure is highly important in an organisation. Rather than training in new employees which is a high cost ordeal he believes that ensuring staff are happy and having a low staff turnover rate is a lot more efficient (Rodrigues, 2001). A higher rate of pay may be the deciding factor for an employee to stay at an organisation, at the time this was an important principle in management. Unfortunately as Rodrigues (2001) wrote it is less relevant in some organisation in today’s world, such as McDonald’s, as they prefer to pay less wages to new staff rather higher wage to keep on the same employees, i.e. they prefer a higher employee turnover rate. The contrast in Weber and Fayol’s outlook does not imply that one element or …show more content…

The two have been compared and contrasted above throughout and from that we can deduce they exclude the concept of the external environment effecting an organisation, which is not the case. This is why there is no one theorist with the complete solution to success in an organisation, but both of these men have hugely affected the work place for everyone since their work has been recognised. They agree upon the importance of the division of labour, the idea of a hierarchy and rules within an organisation. In contrast to this they handle such matters as equity and impersonality, which are similar concepts, very differently as stated. Fayol was more personal than Weber; he embraced team work and initiative in employees. These points I have brought up show a clear comparison yet slight contrast between the theorists, and I have shown this throughout as to how they have contributed in the field of

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