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Frederick Taylor
Through his theory on scientific management, Frederick Taylor suggests there should be a division of responsibility between managers and workers. Managers should gather information, analyze it and establish guidelines for well-trained workers to follow. -
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Closed System Era (Classical Theory)
During this time, organizational theorists focused their research mainly on structure, organization and management. Theorists suggested that an organization's internal processes were unaffected by factors outside the organization. -
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Scientific Management School
The scientific management school believed that each individual task that a worker conducted should be analyzed and modified for efficiencies. -
Max Weber publishes Economy and Society
Weber defines several characteristics of a fully developed bureaucracy:
- Fixed jurisdictional areas
- Hierarchy of authority
- Administrative positions require expert traning
- Management of subunits follows rules
- Management is a full-time vocation -
Mary Parker Follett writes about the giving of orders
Mary Parker Follett advocated a more participatory decision-making process wherein managers and workers developed a framework for achieving a goal. -
Hawthorne Studies
A series of studies at a Western Electric Company facility that studies the psychology of the workers, i.e. their sense of importance of their work, their place in a group, concern of supervisor, etc. The studies were groundbreaking in organizational theory circles because it was the first time that psychology had been a factor. -
James Mooney publishes The Scalar Principle
Mooney's scalar principle suggests an organization be balanced as a scale with clear, graded levels of authority, narrow span of control and unity of command. -
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Administrative Management School
The administrative management school of thought is characterized by the belief that there is one proper way to structure an organization. -
Luther Gulick publishes Notes on the Theory of Organization
Luther Gulick, one of the leaders of the administrative management school of thought, espoused the need for specialization of work. Specialization allowed managers to match workers skills with tasks and gave workers a clear understanding of what it is they were supposed to do. Gulick also went on to define the role of management using the acronym POSDCORB - planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting. -
Brownlow Committee
Luther Gulick and others serve on the President's Committee on Administrative Management which was tasked with reforming the manner in which the executive branch of the federal government was organized. -
Chester Barnard writes The Functions of the Executive
Barnard was a company executive who wrote about public administration issues. Specifically, Barnard emphasized the role of communications in inducing workers to produce at a higher level. Barnard suggested that workers could be motivated not just by money but by other things such as power and prestige. He believed it was incumbent upon the executive to communicate and sell these incentives to the workers. -
Research Center for Group Dynamics established at MIT
The Research Center for Group Dynamics was established by Kurt Lewin and others. -
Herbert Simon publishes The Proverbs of Administration
Simon was critical of the administrative management school of thought. Simon proposed there was a difference between formal organization and informal organization. The informal organization - a group of co-workers, perhaps - established its own system of values and standards independent of the formal organization. -
Hoover Commission
Luther Gulick and others served on the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of Government. -
Kurt Lewin studies group dynamics
Lewin's research into group dynamics was groundbreaking. He showed the influence of a group setting on individual thinking. Lewin suggested that in order to change the way an individual thinks, you must change the group dynamics. -
Abraham Maslow introduces hierarchy of needs
Maslow was a strong influence on the human relations school of thought. His hierarchy of needs suggested that human needs could be categorized into a hierarchy. At the most basic level were physical needs, then safety, love, self-esteem and finally self-actualization. By understanding the hierarchy, an organization understood what motivated a worker. -
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Human Relations School
The human relations school of thought held that social and psychological factors played a major role in the structure and management of an organization -
Herbert Simon publishes Administrative Behavior
Simon expands on Barnard's theory that workers are motivated by more than just money. Simon suggested that inducements should be extended to those outside the organization. He took exception to the theory that individuals decision's are motivated by maximizing profits and instead suggested that an individual does not have the cognitive ability to take in all the complex information and make a rational decision. -
Trist and Bamforth study technical changes
Trist and Bamforth's research showed that organizations change and adapt based on external stimuli such as economic and social situations. The research was conducted on behalf of the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations and ushered in the era of open-systems approach to organizational theory. -
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Open System Era
Organizational theorists beginning in 1951 began to cite evidence of organizations adapting their processes, structure and management to external influences. -
Chris Argyris critique of classical principles of administration
Argyris suggests that when management is done in a rigid, inflexible manner, as advocated by classical theorists, workers respond with frustration and conflict. -
Douglas McGregor publishes The Human Side of Enterprise
McGregor establishes Theory X and Theory Y. Theory X holds that management must take an authoritative approach to controlling the organization. Theory Y suggests that employees are capable of self-direction and self-motivation. -
Burns and Stalker publish The Management of Innovation
Burns and Stalker supported the open-systems approach through their research into organic and mechanistic organizations. Organic organizations, according to Burns and Stalker, were ones that de-emphasized the typical vertical chain-of-command. They focused rather on horizontal collaboration. Organic organizations typically did well in a fast-paced industry like electronics. Mechanistic organizations were ones that emphasized the vertical chain of command and did well in stable environments. -
Emery and Trist publish The Causal Texture of Organizational Environments
Emery and Trist continued the open-systems approach with their research into the political, social and economic climates in which organizations operate. -
Joan Woodward researches industry
Joan Woodward researched British industrial firms and was able to categorize them into three categories based on their production process. Across the three categories, Woodward found that the successful firms showed similar management structures. -
Lawrence and Lorsch study U.S. firms
Lawrence and Lorsch determine that organizations that were operating successfully in an uncertain, complex environment had very different organizational structures. -
James Thompson publishes Organizations in Action
Thompson's research showed organizations tried to group subunits based on technology and their need to exchange information. -
Hage and Aiken add to contingency theory
Hage and Aiken suggest routineness of tasks and joint programs were among the factors that contribute to organizational structure. -
Blau and Schoenherr link size to structure
Peter Blau and Richard Schoenherr's research continued the contingency theories by adding the relationship between size and structure to the list of many factors affecting organizations. -
Child studies managers' strategic choices
Research by John Child suggests that managers' strategic choices plays a role in the manner in which organizations are structured. -
Perrow studies organizational technology
Charles Perrow's research shows that organizations with very routine task have a more formal structure while other organizations with less routine tasks have more flexible structures.
