main organizational thought

Chapter 3Mainstreams of Organizational Thought This Multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:Any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network;Preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images;Any rental, lease, or lending of the program.

Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007

Copyright (c) Allyn & Bacon 2007

Organizational BehaviorOrganizational Behavior (OB) is the study of human behavior in the context of an organization.OB is both a field of scientific inquiry and a field of applied practice.Origins of scientific inquiry come from social science disciplines:Cultural anthropology, sociology, social psychology, political science, and economics.Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


Kurt Lewinfather of social psychology

Margaret Meadcultural anthropologist

Pioneers in the discovery of the group decision making processa central concept of OB.Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


Why Study Organizational Behavior and its History?Leadership and administration means working with and through other people to achieve organizational goals. A major cause of failure by principals is not having a theory of practice. Only by knowing the contributions of those who came before us, can we prepare ourselves for making strategic and tactical decisions to undergrid our leadership.Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


Public Administration as a BeginningWoodrow Wilson wrote a now-famous essay The Study of Administration in 1887.He argued for the study of administration as a subject fit for serious treatment by universities. Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


Impact of the Industrial RevolutionFrederick W. Taylorfather of Scientific Management was influenced by Wilsons essay.Scientific management principles:Eliminate the guesswork of rule-of-thumb approaches to deciding how each worker is to do a job by adopting scientific measurements to break the job down into a series of small, related tasks. Use more scientific, systematic methods for selecting workers and training them for specific jobs. Establish a clear division of responsibility between management and workers, with management doing the goal setting, planning, and supervising and workers executing the required tasks. Establish the discipline whereby management sets the objectives and the workers cooperate in achieving them. Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


Impact of the Industrial Revolution (continued)Frank B. Gilbreth, one of Taylors close colleagues, studied time and motion in performing routine tasks.led to a best-selling book and motion picture Cheaper by the Dozen.Scientific Management led to:Time and motion studiesRigid discipline on the job.Concentration on tasks with minimal interpersonal contact.Strict application of incentive pay.Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


The Beginning of Modern Organizational TheoryHenri Fayol, a French industrialist, published General Industrial Management in 1916. Unlike Taylor, who tended to view workers as extensions of factory machinery, Fayol focused his attention on the manager rather than on the worker. He clearly separated the processes of administration from other operations in the organization, such as production. He emphasized the common elements of the process of administration in different organizations. Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


Henri Fayols ContributionsFayol defined administration in terms of five functions:PlanningOrganizingCommanding (interpreted as Leading)CoordinatingControlling (interpreted as evaluating)Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


Henri Fayols Contributions (continued)Fayol identified 14 principles among which were:Unity of command: Each employee has one and only one boss. Authority: The right to give orders and the power to exact obedience. Initiative: Thinking out a plan and do what it takes to make it happen. Esprit de corps/morale: Harmony, cohesion among personnel. Fayol emphasized flexibility in applying these principles to particular situations.Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


Emergence of Bureaucratic Organizational TheoryMax Weber defined bureaucracy.A division of labor based on functional specialization. A well-defined hierarchy of authority. A system of rules covering the rights and duties of employees. A system of procedures for dealing with work situations. Impersonality of interpersonal relations. Selection and promotion based only on technical competence. Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


The Rise of Classical Organizational TheoryRaymond Callahan in Education and the Cult of Efficiency, described how superintendents rushed to apply scientific management principles.Ellwood Cubberley, a leading scholar in education, wrote a landmark book in 1916.Schools were factories in which the raw materials are to be shaped and fashioned into products to meet the various demands of life.Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


The Rise of Classical Organizational Theory (continued)Fred Ayerstudied superintendents work in 1926-27. University programs in preparing administrators focused on management tasks.Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick synthesized classical organizational principles. Noted for their contribution of:Formal Organizational Charts--elements of organization could be grouped by function.Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


Organizational Concepts of Classical Theory

Scalar Principle (line and staff).Unity of Command.Exception Principle.Span of Control.



The Ideas of Mary Parker FollettInfluenced by the Stock Market crash of 1939 and her views of the corporate world, led to modifying classical management theory. Her four principles of administration:coordination by direct contact of the responsible people concerned.coordination in the early stages.coordination as the reciprocal relating of all the factors in the situation (law of the situation).coordination as a continuing process.Her ideas provided a bridge from classical management theory to Human Relations Movement.



The Human Relations MovementWestern Electrics Hawthorne Plant Studies.Elton Mayo is best known researcher.Hypothesis: increased illumination would cause higher levels of production.Found that increased or decreased illumination increased productivity.Led to series of studies.



Western Electric StudiesThese studies in the late 1920s led to new concepts and laid foundation for Human Relations Movement.Morale.Group dynamics.Democratic supervision.Personnel relations.Motivation.Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


SociometyJacob Morenodeveloped sociometric analysis.

Using data gathered from organizational members, sociograms showed the informal social structures.Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


Behavior Patterns of GroupsRobert Bales developed techniques for analyzing patterns of interaction.First to document that successful groups have people who play two key roles:Someone to focus the group on accomplishing its task (Task orientation/Initiating structure).Someone who focuses on maintaining productive human relations in the group (Relationship orientation/Concern for people).



Leadership as a Group Function & the Paradox of Organizational Structure

Prior to 1980s, Human Relations Movement had little affect on superintendents as opposed to supervisors.Different focus on literature from AASA and ASCD.The paradox is that organizations are not real tangible, concrete objects. They are what we and others think they are, nothing more.Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


The Organizational Theory MovementThree landmarks works from 1937 to 1942Chester Barnards The Functions of the Executive.Felix Roethlisberger & William Dicksons Management and the Worker.Herbert Simons Administrative Behavior.Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


Human Relations and Organizational BehaviorOrganizational Behavior is more narrow than Human Relations.OB as a discipline seeks to describe, understand, and predict human behavior in a formal organization. From roughly 1955-1970, research in educational administration moved from a focus on formal structures to both formal and informal.e.g., Daniel Griffiths landmark work on decision making.University preparation programs contained newer ideas such as leadership, motivation, decision making, climate, conflict management, and change.Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007


main organizational thought

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