THE THEORY OF ORGANIZATION

A team of research anthropologists once described a large, complex business composed of twenty four divisions evenly distributed through the United States and linked together by a nine member central governing body. Each of the twenty four and roles that regulates the power in the total business. The research team descibed this business as a “formal organization”, a social unit deliberately designed and to achieve specific goals. However, they did state that this business is similar to many business and government bureaucracies: “rationally designed and constructed formal organization with personnel arranged in a hierarchy which can be diagrammed and then changed by recasting the organization charts.

Without the references to crime, corruption, and other illicit goals and methods, the description could very easily apply to a national woman’s club, an international soacial fraternity, a large clothing manufacturer, a political party, or any other complexorganization with a specific purpose, large profits, and national communication network.

These three ways of examining organizational relationships represent the essence of the three major schools of organizational thought and theory:

1 The classical theory of organization asks:

· How is the work divided?

· How is the labor force divided?

· How many levels of authority and control are there?

2 The human relations school of thought asks:

· What roles do people assume in the organization?

· What are the moral and attitudes of the people?

· What social and psychological needs do the people have?

3 The third school of thought is concerned with social systems and emphasizes asks:

· What are the key parts of the organization?

· How do they relate interdependently to each other?

· What is the relationship between the organization and its environment?

The Classical School

The classical theory of organization is concerned almost entirely with the design and structure of organizations, not with people. Classical theory evolved from the scientific management movement in which described as a rational, economic being who can best motivated to work by such carrot and-stick techniques as piecework systems, bonus systems, time and and-motion studies, and cost-figuring systems.

The other example of scientific management in practice concerns the manager of an agency who requires all employees to time their interviews with clients, record the number of minutes involved in clerical work, and calculate the average time involved in written work.

Two foremost scholars of the classical school were Henri Fayol and Max Weber. Others were James Mooney and Alan Reiley, Luther Gulick, and Lyndall Urwick, and Chester Barnard.

Among the recommended principles of management, fayol included the following:

1. Division of work (specialization)
2. Authority and responsibility (power)
3. Discipline (obedience)
4. Unity of command (one boss)
5. Unity of direction (one plan)
6. Subordination of individual interest to general interest (concern for the organization first)
7. Remuneration of personnel (fair pay)
8. Centralization (consolidation)
9. Scalar chain (chain of command)
10. Order (everyone has a unique position)
11. Equity (firm but fair)
12. Stability of tenure of personnel (low turnover)
13. Initiative (thinking out a plan)
14. Esprit de corps (high morale)

According to Max Weber, a bureaucracy is an organization having the following characteristics:

1. Continuity dependent upon adherence to rules
2. Areas of competence in which workers share the work and work toward specific goals under predetermined leaders.
3. Scalar (hierarchical) principals
4. Rules that are either norms or technical principles
5. Separation of administrative staff and ownership of production devices
6. Separation of private belongings and the organization’s equipment
7. Resources free from outside control
8. Structure in which no administrator can monopolize personnel positions
9. All administrative acts, rules, policies, etc..stated in writing

Scott identifies four key components of classical organization theory:

1. Division of labor refers to how a given amount of work is dividedd among the available human resources. The division can be according to the nature of the various jobs or according to the amount of responsibility and authority each person assumes.
2. Scalar and functional processes express, respectively the vertical and the horizontal growth and sttructure of the organization. Scalar refers to the levels of the hierarchy (the chain of command) in the organization. Functional refers to the specific job duties of each employee in the organization. The scalar process at a university refers to how authority is allocated among the board of regents, the university president, the vice president, the deans, the department chairman, the faculty members, the administration staff, and the students. The functional process at a university refeers to how job responsibilities to faculty, clericcal, maintenance, and administrative personnel.
3. Structure refers to the network of relationships and roles throughout the organization. Structure enables the organization to meet its objectives effectively and in an orderly manner. Classical theory usually distinguishes two kinds of structure: Line and Staff.
4. Span of Control