The classical discipline of management was primarily concerned with developing such a theory to improve management effectiveness in organizations (Hartman, n.d.). Within the classical discipline there are the bureaucratic management, administrative management and scientific management perspectives. The classical theorists, such as, Weber, Taylor and Fayol expanded the view of management. Not only did they seek to develop a comprehensive theory of management, but they also focused on providing the tools a manager required for dealing with their organizational challenges.
Max Weber can be classified in the bureaucratic management perspective of the classical discipline. Weber's interest in organizations evolves from his view of the institutionalization of power and authority. He constructed a "rational-legal authority" model of an ideal type bureaucracy. This ideal type rested on a belief in the "legality" of patterns of normative rules and the right of those elevated to authority to issue commands (legal authority) (Hartman, n.d.). Weber suggested the rules and regulations of a bureaucracy serve to insulate its members against the possibility of personal preference. Furthermore, the application of Weber’s bureaucracy theory sought to articulate the components necessary to manage a well-structured government bureaucracy. Considering the theory emphasized the need for a hierarchical structure of power, rooted in five key elements: division of labor and functional
In today’s society, similar principles emerge in most of the areas of social world, including entities like religious bodies, administration units, business corporations and universities etc. There are organizations that are designed and operated in such a manner that their functioning can relate to the idea of bureaucracy as elucidated by the renowned sociologist, Max Weber. All large scale modern organizations, according to Weber, tend to be bureaucratic in nature. Weber was clear that bureaucratic organization was an important contributor to the continuing rationalization of society. Bureaucracy as Weber’s work has become virtually the foundation stone to manage the rational legal organizations. Certain organizations have become truly global in scale. George Ritzer replaced bureaucracy by ultimate example of the fast food restaurant chain and named the process as ‘McDonaldization’.
Classical organizational theory supports two views. Scientific management which focuses on managing work and employees and administrative management which addresses issues which
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.
Weber states that organizations regulations are formed by few people and this people are the boss, administration employee who tends to have representation powers (Roth and Wittich, 1968). Weber states that the state tends to use bureaucracy on its people in order to establish authority. Bureaucracy is present in various areas in the environment and once bureaucracy is produced then it becomes difficult to
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
Classical management theory was rigid and mechanistic, and overall focused heavily on structure, not the individual. The shortcomings of classical organization theory quickly became apparent during industrialization of companies. Its major deficiency was that it attempted to explain peoples' motivation to work strictly as a function of economic reward. Recognizing this, a need for human resources became important which initiated focus into neoclassical organization theory.
Weber saw that modern officialdom functioned according to six principles: (1) Fixed and official jurisdictional areas which are ordered by rules, that is laws and administrative regulations. (2) Hierarchy and levels of graded authority where the lower offices are supervised by the higher ones. (3) Management is based on official documents (the files). (4) The officials have
According to Weber all bureaucracies must have a clear chain of command. This means that there must be an understanding amongst the workers that there is a chain of appeal that they must go through within a bureaucracy to file a grievance or make a suggestion. Within a bureaucracy the areas of jurisdiction are delaminated, meaning that an agency only has authority over the agency they are managing. The institution also has power over not only the citizens and officials, but they also own the workers documents and means of production. There is also no volunteer work within Weber’s bureaucracy. All workers are expected to give their full working capacity to the organization, and are not allowed to be seeking alternate employment options. The officials of Weber’s bureaucracy are thoroughly trained and are expected to follow the set general rules. These rules have been learned through work related experience, and are set from multiple previous cases.
Furthermore, in addition to his examination of bureaucratization, Weber was also particularly interested in the effects the growth of bureaucratic organization would have on society. In terms of the possible influence of bureaucracies, Weber did recognize their “technical
The whole theory of Weber’s bureaucracy is rationally designed to achieve functional performance at all levels and every part of the bureaucracy should contribute to the whole institution. However the bureaucracy limits freedom and makes it difficult for individuals or workers to understand their activities in relation to the organization as a whole. Therefore bureaucracy applies to an organization that is rigid and formally structured with many characteristics needed in order to run
Management, is the art and science of getting things to be done, generally by others. (Mullins 2011), states is the way of organizing the things and to direct the duties of people in the setting of their jobs In many organizations, people are managed in the setting of their jobs because all employees have different abilities (Thompson, and McHugh, 2009). The different management perspectives evolved are classified into five perspectives, classical, humanistic, management science, recent historical trends and the innovative management. The classical theory includes three other perspective, scientific management, Bureaucratic organization, and Administrative approach. These are the historical theories of management. Based on the classical perspective
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
Max Weber was a sociologist from Germany. Based on Weber’s perspective, he idealised the structure of organization as the tasks and responsibilities of the workers are defined clearly and their behaviours are strictly controlled and organized by rules and regulations and procedures. Weber has several key principles of his idealisation of organizational structure. Weber’s main idea of bureaucracy is the rational type that is mainly about jobs or tasks being specialized and characterized according to employee’s capability, the authority of the hierarchical structure of an organization, operating solely by rules and regulations and in an impersonal manner. He proposed that organization management should be controlled by
The history of management includes multiple theories and understanding them can help individuals identify the ideas their organization is built upon. Classical organizational theory encompasses several major approaches to management that continue to be influential even today. The early to mid-twentieth century included the introduction of many concepts of management theory such as scientific management, bureaucratic and administrative theory. Most of these early approaches revolved around control of employees and processes in order to achieve more
Weber argues that bureaucracies as an organisational structure are technically greater than all other forms of organisations ,due to it being more rational and efficient; thus built on principles outlined by