Evolution of Management – The Classical period
The purpose of a management in an organization is to provide leadership or to get the employees together under a commonly shared goal or objective, using the available recourses of human, financial and material. This series of articles refer to the evolution of the management through several periods after the industrial revolution.
With the beginning of the industrialization the society was introduced to a new system of large scale manufacturing. To maintain the system and its productivity industries had to employee a lager work force and to maintain this workforce a proper management was needed. But a regulated method of industrial management did not occur until the latter part of the 19th century. The work of F.W. Taylor, H.L. Gantt, Emerson, Frank, Lillian Gilberth and several others challenged the traditional methods and laid the foundation for scientific management, which is one of the oldest theories found in classical approaches of management.
Management during the Classical period
Classical approach is the oldest formal school of thought which began around 1900 and continued till 1920. Management theories during this period targeted the management practises and were focused on increasing the efficiency of both the employees and the organisation. This approach is based on the contribution of number of sources including Scientific management, Bureaucratic management and Administrative management.
Scientific management – “one best way to do a job”
Pioneered by Frederick Taylor, Scientific Management is focused on employee and machine relationships. During his research Taylor identified some factors which created inefficiency within the system of an organisation such as, lack of standard tools and techniques, no match between skill and the job and also lack motivation from the management.
By applying scientific method in management, it selects, train and develop the employees according to a standard method. Adding more, Taylor highlighted that the employees should also be provided with wage incentives for increased outputs and need to be provided with a developed, standard method for performing each job.
Despite its applicability, the Scientific method has some drawbacks. For example the method was criticised as it did not appreciated the social context of work and the higher needs of the workers. Also this method did not take the diversity among the employees in to consideration as well as their ideas and suggestions for improvement.
BUREAUCRATIC MANAGEMENT
Max Weber who was a German sociologist introduced this model. Bureaucratic Management was based on a hierarchy of authority. This included a division of labour based on their technical competence not on social contacts. In this method the position duties are clearly identified therefore employees are aware of their duties and the fact that they are accountable for their actions. Authorities are clearly identified so the employees could know who they should report to.
As emphasised by Weber, Bureaucratic Management should also have written rules, fair evaluation and rewards, and a system of task relationships. Though this method provides legal authority and power to employees this is more suitable for organisations where change is not anticipated or where change can be predicted.
As the Bureaucratic Management is a rigid management system it tends to add a lot of pressure on the employees and creates dependence on the company supervisor. It also creates a tendency to forget the ultimate goals of the company. Because of these reasons Bureaucratic Management is more applicable to large business organisations or government departments.
ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT
Introduced by the father of the modern management; Henri Fayol, Administrative Management focus on coordinating the internal activities of an organisation. This method targets to develop division of work, authority and responsibility, discipline and several other areas.
Henri Fayol divided Administrative Management in to six categories. This includes Technical activities (production and manufacture), commercial activities (buying, selling and exchange), financial activities (opium use of capital), security (protection of property and persons), accounting (stock taking, coating, statistics etc.) and managerial (planning, organizing, coordination and controlling). In order to perform successfully, an organisation has to perform these six functions successfully and methodically.
According to Fayol, out of the six, ability to manage was the most important for managers in upper levels. With the efforts of Henri Fayol, he identified management as a cyclic process involving planning, organizing, directing, co-ordination, and controlling. As a result, management process has general recognition even today.