Management Thought and Theoretical Foundations
The classical school
Scientific management (Taylor, 1911) sought 'the one best way' through time and motion study, scientific selection and training, a differential piece-rate system and functional foremanship, underpinned by a 'mental revolution' in labour–management relations. Administrative theory (Fayol, 1916) addressed the whole organisation, identifying five functions - plan, organise, command, coordinate, control - and fourteen principles including unity of command, unity of direction, scalar chain, equity, order and esprit de corps. Weber's bureaucracy added the ideal-type features: hierarchy, written rules, impersonal application, career appointment and recorded administration.
Behavioural and later schools
The Hawthorne studies (Mayo, 1924–32) showed that social factors and informal groups shape output, and that attention itself changes behaviour. This fed Maslow's needs hierarchy, McGregor's Theory X and Y, Herzberg's two-factor theory and Likert's participative systems. The quantitative school applied operations research and statistics. Systems theory viewed the firm as an open system of inputs, transformation, outputs and feedback, contributing synergy and equifinality. Contingency theory holds that structure and style must fit environment, technology and size.
Worked example
A bank's data-entry unit has high error rates and 40% annual turnover. Taylor's lens: redesign the task, set output standards, pay by results. Behavioural lens: the repetitive job meets no social or esteem need - introduce teams, rotation and recognition. Contingency lens: for routine, high-volume, low-discretion work, standardisation plus modest incentives fits; reserve participative design for the non-routine claims team. Reasoning: the schools are diagnostic lenses whose fit depends on the nature of the work, not rival doctrines to adopt once.
Traps
- Attributing the fourteen principles to Taylor rather than Fayol.
- Concluding from Hawthorne that pay is irrelevant.
- Reading contingency theory as 'there are no principles' - it says principles are conditional.
- Crediting Weber with motivation theory; his contribution is structural.