Bureaucratic Organization

• A sub-field of classical management perspective that emphasized management on an impersonal, rational basis through such elements as clearly defined authority and responsibility, formal record keeping and separation of management from ownership

• Max Weber’s belief – Rational authority will lead to efficiency– Rationality = employee selection and

advancement based on competence– Rules and written records for continuity

Elements of Bureaucratic Management

• Labour is divided with clear definitions of authority and responsibility that are legitimized as official duties

• Positions are organized in a hierarchy of authority, with each position under the authority of a higher one

• All personnel are selected and promoted based on technical qualifications which are assessed by examination or according to training and experience

Elements of Bureaucratic Management

• Administrative acts and decisions are recorded, in writing. Record keeping provides organizational memory and continuity

• Management is separate from the ownership of the organization

• Managers are subject to rules and procedures that will ensure reliable, predictable behavior.

• Rules are impersonal and uniformly applied to all employees

Contribution by Mary Parker Follett

• Importance of common super ordinate goal to reduce conflict

• More emphasis on importance of people than engineering techniques

• Address issues like ethics and how to lead in a way that encourages employees to give their best

• Empowerment • How to facilitate rather than control employees

Contribution by Chester Barnard

• President of New Jersey Bell• Informal organizations within formal

structures and the power of informal organization

• Acceptance theory of authority : people have free will and can chose whether to follow management’s orders. They follow as they gain.

Humanistic Perspective (1930 – 1990)

• A management perspective that emerged around the late 19th century that emphasized understanding human behaviour, needs and attitudes in the workplace

• Hawthorne Studies (Mayo)– A series of experiments on worker productivity

begun in 1924 at the Hawthorne plant of Western Electric Company in Illinois, attributed employees’ increased output to managers’ better treatment of them during the study

– Money was not the cause of increased output

Hawthorne Studies leading to Human Relations Movement

• Recent reanalysis of experiments • Impetus to human relations movement for

productivity improvement• Human relations movement

– A movement in management thinking and practice that emphasized satisfaction of employees’ basic needs as the key to increased worker productivity

Learning Organization• Leaning organization is a philosophy or an attitude.• Everyone is engaged is identifying and solving

problems,enabling the organization to continuously experiment,improve and increase its capability to grow, learn and achieve its purpose.

• Developing leaning organization means making changes in – Leadership– Team base structure– Employee empowerment– Open information– Participative strategy– Strong adaptive culture