Administrative Thinkers- An Introduction

Administrative Thinkers

I will start with my notes on Administrative Thinkers. 

Every organization is associated with a phenomenon called administration. The state will become successful only when the administration is good. The goal of the state is society itself. Hence, administration assumes criticality in a state. State is considered to be a deliberately created institution in order to achieve the goals of the society.

The study relating to public administration has been taking place from quite some time. In the due course of time, there have come up a number of crystallized ideas. These ideas explain what, why and when of good government administration.

There have been hundreds of individual efforts in this subject. They can be divided into three broad categories.

1.      Classical- Classical group has tried to explain this phenomenon by focusing on 2- Ms (Machine and Method). They have focused on the non-living or inanimate aspect of the organization.

a.       Scientific Management- Taylor

b.      Administrative Management- Henry Fayol, Gulick & Urwick

c.       Weberian- Max Weber

2.      Humanistic- Bernard, Herbert Simon, McGregor, Chris Argyris, Likert- Humanist Group has tried to explain this phenomenon by focusing on “Man” i.e. the living or the animate aspect of the organization.

3.      Contemporary- Systems Approach and Contingency Approach- Contemporary group focuses on every aspect of the organization including the surroundings or the environment.

Other Theorists-

1.      Folett (This theorist is considered to be a link between classical and humanistic school of thought)

2.      Mayo (Initiated Humanistic Theory but somehow he is not considered to be in the humanistic school of thought)

Every organization has a number of individuals. They carry certain responsibilities and at the same time they also exercise power. But, all the individuals do not have same amount of responsibility or same amount of power. Responsibility and power are directly proportional to each other. This makes an organization, a layered organization or hierarchy.

In most of the organizations, we will find that at the lower level, more numbers of individuals are present. As we move to the higher layers, the numbers of individuals go on decreasing. Thus, organizations are normally in a pyramidal form.

Every organization comprises of 3-Ms.

1.      Machine- Structure of the organization (design or shape)

2.      Method- Process, procedure, tools or techniques through which the organization operates.

3.      Man- The organization operates through human beings.

Scientific Management Movement

Management is the art of getting things done.

There have been two important events in history which influenced the nature of the organizations and organizational management.

1.      Enlightenment (Renaissance- 16^th Century)- This was the era where there was restlessness and rejection pertaining to control of church, irrationality, superstitions, unscientific approaches, feudalism, monarchies etc. This era brought new concepts such as rule of law, sovereignty, democracy, citizenship, science, justice, equality, rationality etc. These developments had a deep impact on the nature of the state. Thereby, it affected and increased the size and operations of the state. The responsibilities of the state increased and acquired a positive character.

Democracy is a spiritual concept because it enshrines a society where people can live a life of dignity and choice.

2.      Industrial Revolution (17^th and 18^th Century)- It replaced the hands with machines. The production increased manifolds. They organizations became larger and more complex in nature. The style of management which were used pre- industrial revolution continued post- industrial revolution as well. This created incongruence between the nature of management and the requirements of the organizations. This led to failure, malfunctioning and inefficiency of the organizations. This worried a large number of management practitioners.

There was a concern regarding the failure of the organizations. They required a type of response which was not available at that point of time. This concern was more visible in the context of the functionaries or practitioners of the private industrial organizations. Few of the important names being

1.      Charles Babbage

2.      R.H. Towne

3.      Metcalfe

4.      Halsey

5.      Gantt

6.      Gilbreth

7.      Taylor

F.W. Taylor assumes importance in this regard. He is considered to be the father of scientific management. All of the above agreed that as far as organizational management is concerned, it should be based on the science of management. And this science of management should be replacing the “rule of thumb”.

Rule of Thumb- It refers to an approach towards work which is based on limited experience and limited memory being devoid of scientism, professionalism and rationalism.

Science of Management- It refers to a systematized study of the part of the reality in order to develop cause- consequence relationship of that reality. Management should be based on scientific approach and not memory and experience or ad-hocism. It refers towards a scientific approach to understand and explain management.

This idea became popular and acceptable to the extent that almost all the organizations (private and public) started emphasizing on science of management. It created an environment called as Scientific Management Movement. Scientcism in Management became popular.